Category Archives: EC470

Intrinsic Motivation and Health Care

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Ken

When do extrinsic and intrinsic motivation conflict? Health care seems like a natural spot to look for – though it may be reasonable to think about this as image motivation having a larger effect than extrinsic motivation. “Information and Quality … Continue reading →

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Taxation and Development

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Ken

A new paper by Besley and Persson illuminating the relationship between development and patterns of taxation. A quick summary from the conclusion of the paper: “As a state moves from collecting a low level of public revenue of around 10% … Continue reading →

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Assessing Trustworthiness

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Ken

Why are some people more trusting than others? From a new CEPR paper by Jeff Butler, Paola Giuliano and Luigi Guiso: “we show that individuals extrapolate from their own type when forming trust beliefs about the same pool of potential … Continue reading →

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Insuring Against the Weather

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Ken

Possibly of interest to students in both micro theory (insurance) and the MIPP program (food security), this short brief from IFPRI looks at the effects of micro-insurance in Ethiopia.

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Information Asymmetry and Corporate Finance

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Ken

This week in micro theory we are focused on adverse selection. A current article in VoxEU looks at the issue of information asymmetry in capital markets, and finds the evidence one might expect – information asymmetries increase the cost of … Continue reading →

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Credence Goods, CSR, NGO’s

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Ken

The quality of manufactured goods, both directly, and in terms of perceived environmental or social costs involved in manufacturing are interesting issues of incomplete information. Two related papers that might be of interest to EC470 students thinking about paper topics: … Continue reading →

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Non-Cognitive Ability, Test Scores and Teacher Quality

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Ken

A primarily empirical paper about the multi-task principal problem that we will be looking at in a theoretical context in EC470. A key message of the paper: “In sum, the results indicate that a teacher’s effect on test scores and … Continue reading →

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30 Years of Prospect Theory

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Ken

Students interested in behavioural economics may find this review of prospect theory interesting. Abstract Prospect theory, first described in a 1979 paper by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, is widely viewed as the best available description of how people evaluate … Continue reading →

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Misconduct in Credence Good Markets

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Ken

Some students in my EC470 class may be interested in this paper. Abstract We study how monitoring, expert skill and consumer awareness affect the level of misconduct in markets with asymmetric information and price-taking experts. Theoretical predictions show that experts … Continue reading →

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Conflict, Trust and Ethnicity – Some unsurprising results?

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Ken

A new paper by Rohner, Thoenig and Zilibotti with results that are probably not surprising – conflict reduces generalized trust, and increases the relevance that people place in ethnic identity. Abstract We study the effect of civil conflict on social … Continue reading →

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