Information and Communication in Organizations

By Inga Deimen and Dezsö Szalay

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2019

We study a constrained information design problem in an organization. A designer chooses the information structure. A sender with preferences different from the decision-maker observes and processes the information before he communicates with the decision...

Institutions and Emissions Trading in China

By Valerie Jean Karplus

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

Variation in the extent of state control in industry may affect China's efforts to establish a national emissions trading system (ETS) capable of supporting the implementation of the country's CO2 intensity reduction goals through 2030. This pa...

Front Matter

American Economic Review: Insights, December 2019

There Is No Free House: Ethnic Patronage in a Kenyan Slum

By Benjamin Marx, Thomas M. Stoker, and Tavneet Suri

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2019

Using unique data from one of Africa's largest informal settlements, the Kibera slum in Nairobi, we provide evidence of ethnic patronage in the determination of rental prices and investments. Slum residents pay higher rents and live in lower quality housi...

JEL Classification System

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2018

Monetary Policy Frameworks and the Effective Lower Bound on Interest Rates

By Thomas M. Mertens and John C. Williams

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2019

This paper applies a New Keynesian model to analyze monetary policy in the presence of a low natural rate of interest and a lower bound on interest rates. Under standard inflation-targeting, inflation expectations will be anchored at a level below the inf...

A New Look at Lake Wobegone: Who's in Your Canoe?

By Chris Bollinger, Tisha L. N. Emerson, Linda English, and Gail M. Hoyt

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

We re-examine the Lake Wobegon effect for reported GPA using data from students enrolled in principles of economics courses. Students are well known to over-report their GPA on surveys. In addition to standard measures of the mean difference, we extend th...

Gender Peer Effects in a Predominantly Male Environment: Evidence from West Point

By Nick Huntington-Klein and Elaina Rose

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

There is considerable interest in the success of women in overwhelmingly male environments. One hypothesized determinant of success is the increased presence of other women. However, the theoretical direction of this effect is uncertain. Previous studies ...

Training and Effort Dynamics in Apprenticeship

By Drew Fudenberg and Luis Rayo

American Economic Review, November 2019

A principal specifies time paths of effort provision, task allocation, and knowledge transfer for a cash-constrained apprentice, who is free to walk away at any time. In the optimal contract the apprentice pays for training by working for low or no wages ...

Report of the Secretary

By Peter L. Rousseau

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2019

Algorithmic Fairness

By Jon Kleinberg, Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Ashesh Rambachan

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

Concerns that algorithms may discriminate against certain groups have led to numerous efforts to 'blind' the algorithm to race. We argue that this intuitive perspective is misleading and may do harm. Our primary result is exceedingly simple, yet often ove...

Annotated Listing of New Books

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2018

The Identification Zoo: Meanings of Identification in Econometrics

By Arthur Lewbel

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2019

Over two dozen different terms for identification appear in the econometrics literature, including set identification, causal identification, local identification, generic identification, weak identification, identification at infinity, and many more. Thi...

Two-Sided Matching with (Almost) One-Sided Preferences

By Guillaume Haeringer and Vincent Iehlé

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, August 2019

In a two-sided matching context we show how we can predict stable matchings by considering only one side's preferences and the mutually acceptable pairs of agents. Our methodology consists of identifying impossible matches, i.e., pairs of agents that can ...

Rationalizations and Mistakes: Optimal Policy with Normative Ambiguity

By Jacob Goldin and Daniel Reck

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

Behavior that appears to violate neoclassical assumptions can often be rationalized by incorporating an optimization cost into decision-makers' utility functions. Depending on the setting, these costs may reflect either an actual welfare loss for the deci...

Local Violence, Academic Performance, and School Accountability

By Marcus Casey, Jeffrey C. Schiman, and Maciej Wachala

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

Standardized test scores and value-added measures largely determine "grades" assigned to teachers and schools. Poor evaluations have severe implications: in some cases, entire schools may be closed or replaced by a charter. Although evaluation depends on ...

The Potential of Digital Credit to Bank the Poor

By Daniel Björkegren and Darrell Grissen

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

Many households in developing countries lack access to credit: physically providing small loans to poor and remote populations is costly. However, the digitization of developing countries enables a new model: digital credit delivered directly via mobile p...

Trade Invoicing, Bank Funding, and Central Bank Reserve Holdings

By Gita Gopinath and Jeremy C. Stein

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

We develop a model that shows how the currency denomination of a country's imports influences the funding structure of its banking system, and in turn, the currency composition of its central bank's reserve holdings. The link between the dollar's role in ...

Cousin Marriage Is Not Choice: Muslim Marriage and Underdevelopment

By Lena Edlund

AEA Papers and Proceedings, May 2018

According to classical Muslim marriage law, a woman needs her guardian's (viz. father's) consent to marry. However, the resulting marriage payment, the mahr, is hers. This split bill may lie behind the high rates of consanguineous marriage in the Muslim w...

Review of Global Tax Fairness, Thomas Pogge and Krishen Mehta, Editors

By Matthew Weinzierl

Journal of Economic Literature, June 2018

This timely volume (Global Tax Fairness, edited by Thomas Pogge and Krishen Mehta) on the proper taxation of multinational enterprises argues that several feasible, near-term reforms could substantially narrow the scope for tax avoidance by closi...