Alphabetic name ordering on multi-authored academic papers, which is the convention in the economics discipline and various other disciplines, is to the advantage of people whose last name initials are placed early in the alphabet. As it turns out, Professor A, who has been a first author more often than Professor Z, will have published more articles and experienced a faster growth rate over th...

We present an empirical analysis of the effects of labour market institutions on the employment dynamics over the cycle. In the first part of the paper, a theoretical framework is provided with particular emphasis on working time regulations. The conclusions of the theory are tested in the second part on a sample of 20 OECD countries observed over the period 1975–1997. The empirical analysis is...

There has long been a minority view that providing people with cash is an effective way of combating poverty and economic insecurity while promoting livelihoods and work. The mainstream view has been that giving people money, without conditions or obligations, promotes idleness and dependency, while being unnecessarily costly. Better, they contend, would be to allocate the available money to sc...

We investigate the dynamic general equilibrium effects of introducing a social assistance program to elderly informal sector workers in developing countries. We find that the extension of such “retirement benefits” in environments with lacking private sector risksharing mechanisms results in welfare increases and relatively minor efficiency losses. Our results suggest that welfare gains attribu...

This paper analyses the political constraints of intergenerational risk sharing. The …rst result is that the political process generally does not lead to ex ante optimal insurance. The second result is that in a second best political setting PAYG still contributes to intergenerational risk sharing. The third result is that aging increases the discrepancy between …rst-best and second-best transf...

This study examines the work capacity of older adults in Japan. First, we estimate the relationship between a variety of health indicators and work status. Work status is divided into full-time work, part-time work, and retired for those in their 50s who are not yet age-eligible for public pension benefits. Then, we simulate work capacity for those in their pension-eligible 60s and the first ha...

This paper studies public sector pension obligations, the biggest fiscal challenge currently facing many US cities. Employing a regression discontinuity design around close elections, benefit payments out of city’s pensions are shown to grow faster under Democratic party mayors, while contributions into do not. Previous research showed that parties not matter for wide range cities’ expenditures...

US federal transfers to individuals are large, countercyclical, vary geographically, and often credited with helping stabilize regional economies. This paper estimates the short-run effects of these using plausibly exogenous variation in temporary stimulus payments permanent Social Security benefit increases. States that received larger tended grow faster contemporaneously, a multiplier around ...

Abstract I find that approximately 30% of price fluctuations in the Fama-French size and value factors are nonfundamental pressures driven by correlated fund flows, which generate movements revert over time. Is this really demand-based pressure? show effects happen exclusively periods when mutual funds place trades, a fact is difficult to explain using traditional mechanisms such as unobserved ...

This paper studies an overlapping generations model with selfish agents, natural resources and human capital externalities. The initial result is to quantify the economic effects of intergenerational transfers by comparing a complete markets allocation with transfers to an allocation without transfers due to incomplete markets. The core contribution is then to show that a higher resource regene...