We study trade in dynamic decentralized markets with adverse selection. Differently from the literature on the topic so far, we assume that the informed sellers make the offers, so that signaling through prices is possible. We establish basic properties of equilibria, provide necessary and...

Does physical capital anchor the spatial distribution of economic activity? If so, how does capital destruction affect local economic activity in the short and the long term? I investigate these questions by examining the 1975 frost that damaged coffee trees in the Brazilian state of Paraná. I...

To what extent features of pre-colonial societies determine the geographical distribution of economic activity in the Americas? This paper provides evidence that modern cities in southern Brazil concentrate around a pre-Columbian road. Historical accounts suggest that the Peabiru, as this road...

We investigate the efficiency of dynamic random matching and bilateral bargaining markets with adverse selection. We take a detail-free approach to the bargaining game, assuming only that: (a) each agent's actions are optimal given the equilibrium market conditions and the equilibrium strategy...

The completion of transportation infrastructure frequently takes many years and occurs gradually. How does the gradual construction of transportation infrastructure affect the distribution of economic activity across the sites it serves? I examine the long-run effects of the timing of railroad...

This paper studies the long-run relationship between historical indigenous presence and modern tropical deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. We georeference information on the historical location of indigenous groups, which groups went extinct, and the likely underlying extinction causes. We...

This paper estimates the effects of a temporary interruption of transit on the spatial distribution of employment. We use a difference-in-differences approach, exploiting a plausibly exogenous six-month interruption of service in a line of the São Paulo metropolitan rail network. We find that...