The value of patent rents is an important quantity for policy analysis. However, estimates in the literature based on patent renewals might be understated. Market value regressions could provide validation, but they have not had clear theoretical foundations for estimating patent rents. I develop a simple model to make upper bound estimates of patent rents using regressions on Tobin’s Q. I test...

We develop a model where dividend payout, investment and financing decisions are made by managers who attempt to maximize the rents they take from the firm. But the threat of intervention by outside shareholders constrains rents and forces rents and dividends to move in lockstep. Managers are risk-averse, and their utility function allows for habit formation. We show that dividends follow Lintn...

We study ex post information rents in sequential screening models where the agent receives private ex ante and ex post information. The principal has to pay ex post information rents for preventing the agent to coordinate lies about his ex ante and ex post information. When the agent’s ex ante information is discrete, these rents are positive, whereas they are zero in continuous models. Consequ...

Immigration and Housing Rents in American Cities Is there a local economic impact of immigration? Immigration pushes up rents and housing values in US destination cities. The positive association of rent growth and immigrant inflows is pervasive in time series for all metropolitan areas. I use instrumental variables based on a “shift-share” of national levels of immigration into metropolitan ar...

In this paper, we continue to analyze optimal dispatch of generation and transmission topology to meet load as a mixed integer program (MIP) with binary variables representing the state of the transmission element (line or transformer). Previous research showed a 25% savings by dispatching the IEEE 118-bus test case. This paper is an extension of that work. It presents how changing the topology...

This essay introduces a new featured section, to be published in Small Axe annually, that explores the critical vocabulary of field Caribbean studies.

Two predominant network forms, Burt and Coleman, are delineated to identify the underlying structure and dynamics of electronic intermediation models. Basic differentiating characteristics between the two network types, including nodes, structures, products, transactions, market maturity, and technology improvement, are identified. Two comparative cases are analyzed to illustrate the utility of...