I analyze a survey that mimics the Displaced Workers Supplement (DWS) of the CPS. Laid off workers accurately recall several features of lost jobs. However, workers provide ambiguous explanations for job loss and, on average, slightly overstate pre-layoff earnings. JEL Codes: J63, J65

This paper employs Roback’s locational-equilibrium model of public-goods pricing, crosssectional data from the Census of Population and Housing, and SMSA-level estimates of public capital stocks in order to examine the productive contribution of public capital. I find that public capital has a small positive impact on private output. JEL classification codes: E62, R53

Wage dispersion is generated in a sequential search environment through heterogeneity in firm productivity along with an individual wage-effort tradeoff. For a given degree of TFP dispersion, the framework can generate any amount of wage dispersion. Calibrated to generate realistic gains from trade, it is able to generate the kind of wage dispersion observed in data. JEL codes: E24, J64

Using a panel of international student test scores, 1980 – 2000, panel fixed effects estimates suggest that government spending decentralization is conducive to student performance. The effect does not appear to be mediated through levels of, or decentralization in, educational spending. JEL codes: C33; H2; I2, H40

Two agents sequentially contracts with different principals under moral hazard. If agents care for one another, the second principal gains by insuring them over first wages. Even with independent tasks, the first principal must offer riskier payments to induce effort. JEL Codes: D10, D64, D82.

Suppose bidders may publicly choose not to learn their values prior to a second-price auction with costly bidding. All equilibria with truthful bidding exhibit bidder ignorance when bidders are sufficiently few. Ignorance considerations also affect the optimal reserve price. JEL Codes: D44.

Wal-Mart is the largest company in the world, yet little is known about its economic impact. This essay discusses what is known about Wal-Mart’s competitive advantage and its economic impact on local communities, as well as the national and global economy, and highlights the open questions to be addressed by future research. JEL Codes: L11, L25, L81

JEL classification codes: C51 Model construction and estimation C62 Existence and stability conditions of equilibrium D84 Expectations Speculations This paper proposes the Potluck Problem as a model for the behavior of independent producers and consumers under standardeconomicassumptions, as a problemof resourceallocation inamulti-agent system inwhich there is no explicit communication among th...

We show how to minimize the probability of misclassifying individuals as being poor or not poor when data on some of their relevant attributes are missing, but an estimate of the population distribution of attributes is available. JEL Classification Codes: D63, I32

In this paper, I derive an expression for the asymptotic bias in the OLS estimator of the partial effect of a regressor on the dependent variable when there is reverse causality and all variables in the model are covariance stationary. I show that the sign of the asymptotic bias depends only on the signs of the bi-directional causal effects. JEL Codes: C10, C30.