"Will China Escape the Middle-income Trap? A Politico-economic Theory of Growth and State Capitalism" abstract Is China's rapid growth sustainable if the labor and capital market distortions persist? Will democratization occur given that Chinese middle-class are supportive of the regime? To answer the above questions, this paper proposes a politico-economic theory, as follows. In oligarchy,…

"Immigration and Wage Dynamics: Evidence from the Mexican Peso Crisis"

"Building (and Milking) Trust: Reputation as a Moral Hazard Phenomenon"

"The Price of Development"

"Are Workers Better Matched in Large Labor Markets?"

"Time Inconsistency and Alcohol Sales Restrictions" Download the paper here

"Optimal Hiring and Retention Policies for Heterogeneous Workers who Learn"

"Reference Dependence, Risky Projects and Credible Information Transmission" abstract We consider the interaction between an informed agent (A) who can make announcements concerning the information she has and an uninformed agent (B) who has to decide whether to start a project or not. We study the role that reference dependence and loss aversion may play…

"Racial Fragmentation, Income Inequality and Social Capital Formation: New Evidence from the US" abstract Existing studies of social capital formation in US metropolitan areas have found that social capital is lower when there is more income inequality and greater racial fragmentation. I add to this literature by examining the role of income inequality between racial…