I study a dynamic one-sided-offer bargaining model between a seller and a buyer under incomplete information. The seller knows the quality of his product while the buyer does not. During bargaining, the seller randomly receives an outside option, the value of which depends on the hidden quality....

In this article we study the corporate tax effects on credit market equilibria. In particular, we develop a model that accounts for five pieces of evidence: i) the existence of a tax incentive to borrow, ii) the negative relationship between leverage and profitability, iii) the existence of...

Severe budget cuts in the cultural sectors of many countries have spurred disparate suggestions for alternative sources available to public institutions. Deaccessioning may contribute to guarantee the survival of cultural institutions without serious negative impacts on the fruition of cultural...

This paper analyzes optimal differential commodity taxation, together with optimal nonlinear income taxation, in order to deal with positional preferences. It also derives the optimal public provision of private goods both when differential commodity taxation is feasible and when it is not. It...

The market for public firms issuing private equity, debt, and convertible securities is large. Of the over 13,000 issues we examine, more than half are in the private market. Our results show asymmetric information plays a major role in the choice of security type within public and private...

Most theoretical studies explain tuition discounting for high ability students through competition between colleges. This paper highlights an important and previously unrecognized avenue for tuition discounting Ð asymmetric information about student attributes, such as academic ability and...

Two very large companies, Moody's and Standard & Poor's, dominate the credit-rating industry. These two companies own around 80 per cent of the market. No other significant major competitors exist, though there are companies that rate local securities in places like China and India. In India,...

The quantity and quality of information generated through the development of lending relationships influences the bank's decision concerning granting of credit. Indeed, the need for a strong guarantee and the setting up of an adequate interest rate are not the only means that allow creditors to...

Within the last two decades, the world has seen many financial crises which have spread around the globe and affected both developing and developed countries. Although each had its own particularities, there are some similar patters that stand out, most being related to an over evaluated asset...

We study how asymmetric information affects the set of rationalizable solutions in a linear setup where the outcome is determined by forecasts about this same outcome. The unique rational expectations equilibrium is also the unique rationalizable solution when the sensitivity of the outcome to...