Idea Diffusion and Property Rights
We study the innovation and diffusion of technology at the industry level. We derive the full dynamic paths of an industry's evolution, from birth to its maturity, and we characterize [...]
Innovation and Human Capital Policy
If innovation is to be subsidized, a natural place to start is to increase the quantity and quality of human capital. Innovation, after all, begins with people. Simply stimulating the [...]
Moral Hazard During the Housing Boom: Evidence from Private Mortgage Insurance
Was the mortgage boom fueled by optimism around house prices, or did misaligned incentives in the mortgage industry also play a role? In this paper, we provide novel evidence of [...]
The Optimal distribution of population across cities
We develop an urban model that incorporates: (1) heterogeneous sites; (2) fiscal and urban externalities; and (3) an endogenous number of cities, i.e., the extensive margin of urban development. Within- [...]
Burnout and Scope of Practice in New Family Physicians
Family physicians report some of the highest levels of burnout, but no published work has considered whether burnout is correlated with the broad scope of care that family physicians may [...]
Do financial crises cleanse the banking industry? Evidence from US commercial bank exits
We examine the cleansing effect of financial crises via their contribution to the exit of inefficient US commercial banks from 1984 to 2013. We find a larger increase in the [...]
What Happened to U.S. Business Dynamism?
In the past several decades, the U.S. economy has witnessed a number of striking trends that indicate a rising market concentration and a slowdown in business dynamism. In this paper, [...]
The Transmission of Shocks in Endogenous Financial Networks: A Structural Approach
The paper uses bank- and instrument-level data on asset holdings and liabilities to identify and estimate a general equilibrium model of trade in financial instruments. Bilateral ties are formed as [...]
The Way Forward for Intellectual Property Internationally
IP rights have come under attack from a loose coalition of academics, nongovernmental organizations, multilateral groups, and others whose opposition threatens to undermine innovation, growth, and progress on key global [...]
The Information View of Financial Crises
Short-term debt that can serve as a medium of exchange is designed to be information insensitive. No one should be tempted to acquire private information to gain an informational advantage [...]