Research Papers

We examined the impact of pension plan type on employee mobility by leveraging a natural experiment where an employer transitioned from a defined benefit (DB) plan to a defined contribution (DC) plan, influenced by default rules.

We aimed to determine if the observed relationship between plan type and employee mobility is due to selection, where employees with higher mobility tendencies may self-select into DC plans.

Our findings reveal that employees with higher mobility tendencies indeed self-select into DC plans, providing important insights for employers and policymakers about the role of pension plan types in workforce dynamics and mobility.

We critically examined Thomas Piketty’s book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” and its arguments about rising wealth inequality.

We wanted to provide an alternative perspective on wealth inequality and assess the validity of Piketty’s claims and policy prescriptions.

We offer a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate about wealth inequality and challenges some of Piketty’s central arguments.

We explored the presence of nonlinearities in economic growth and their implications for policy, considering how different growth regimes may require different policy responses.

We aimed to provide insights into the effectiveness of policy interventions by acknowledging and understanding the nonlinearities in economic growth processes.

Our recognition of nonlinearities in economic growth help policymakers tailor interventions to specific growth contexts, enhancing the precision and effectiveness of economic policies.

We explored the concept of poverty traps with a focus on the Appalachian region, examining factors contributing to persistent poverty.

We aimed to provide a nuanced understanding of poverty traps in a specific geographic context, offering insights that could inform targeted anti-poverty policies.

We contribute to the literature on poverty traps, providing region-specific insights that can guide policymakers in designing effective interventions to break the cycle of poverty.

We reexamined the relationship between religion and economic growth, considering the impact of specific religious beliefs and practices on growth rates.

We aimed to provide a nuanced analysis of the role of religion in economic growth by investigating the detailed aspects of religious beliefs and practices, which previous research may have overlooked.

We contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between religion and economic growth, emphasizing the importance of considering specific aspects of religious influence for more accurate policy implications.

We survey the modern economics literature on the role of neighborhoods in influencing socioeconomic outcomes, covering a range of theoretical, econometric, and empirical topics.

Studies argue that geographic neighborhood influences are crucial for understanding inner city poverty. Methodological advances in economic theory now incorporate spillover effects into microeconomic models, similar to those in growth contexts. Additionally, analyzing neighborhood effects in game theory has become a significant research area.

Neighborhood effects have been analyzed in a range of theoretical and applied contexts and have proven to be of interest in understanding questions ranging from the asymptotic properties of various evolutionary games to explaining the persistence of poverty in inner cities.

We developed general conditions under which complementarities between individual agents imply that assortative matching is efficient. Our analysis covered equal-sized groups, varying group sizes, sequences of replications, and the effects of feedback from group composition on efficient allocations.

We aimed to understand the efficiency of assortative matching in the presence of agent complementarities. By examining different scenarios and conditions, we sought to identify when and why assortative matching leads to efficient outcomes.

Our findings highlight the complexities in achieving efficient assortative matching in an economy. Understanding these complexities and the conditions for efficiency is crucial for designing policies and mechanisms that promote optimal allocation of resources and improve economic outcomes.