Accepted Papers

The Review of Economic Studies is one of the most highly respected academic journals in the field of economics. It is known for publishing leading research in all areas of economics, from microeconomics to macroeconomics. The journal is published by the Oxford University Press.

View published articles on Oxford University Press

New

Contract Terms, Employment Shocks, and Default in Credit Cards

Sara G. Castellanos, Diego Jiménez-Hernández, Aprajit Mahajan, Eduardo Alcaraz Prous, and Enrique Seira

Regulatory concerns over a tension between expanding financial access and limiting default have led to significant restrictions on contract terms in a number of countries, despite limited evidence on their effectiveness. We use a large nation-wide RCT to examine new borrower responses to changes in interest rates and minimum payments for a credit card that accounted for 15% of all first-time formal loans in Mexico. Default rates were 19% over the 26 month experiment and a 30 pp decrease in interest rates decreased default by 2.5 pp with no effects on the newest borrowers.

New

On the optimal design of a Financial Stability Fund

Árpád Ábraham, Eva Carceles-Poveda, Yan Liu, and Ramon Marimon

We develop a model of a Financial Stability Fund (the ‘Fund’ henceforth) for a union of sovereign countries. By design, the contract prevents country defaults, as well as undesired expected losses, which in a union translate into excessive risk mutualizations. A participant country has greater ability to borrow and share risks than using sovereign debt financing. The Fund contract also provides better incentives for the country to reduce endogenous risks. These efficiency gains arise from the ability of the Fund to offer long-term contingent financial contracts, subject to limited enforcement (LE) and moral hazard (MH) constraints.

New

Globalization and the Ladder of Development: Pushed to the Top or Held at the Bottom?

David Atkin, Arnaud Costinot, and Masao Fukui

We study the relationship between international trade and development in a model where countries differ in their capability, goods differ in their complexity, and capability growth is a function of a country’s pattern of specialization. Theoretically, we show that it is possible for international trade to increase capability growth in all countries and, in turn, to push all countries up the development ladder. This occurs if (i) shifting employment towards more complex sectors raises capability growth and if (ii) foreign competition is tougher in less complex sectors for all countries.

New

A Dynamic Theory of Random Price Discounts

Francesc Dilmé and Daniel F. Garrett

A seller with commitment power sets prices over time. Risk-averse buyers arrive to the market and decide when to purchase. We show that it is optimal for the seller to choose a constant high price punctuated by occasional episodes of sequential discounts that occur at random times. This optimal price path has the property that the price a buyer ends up paying is independent of his arrival and purchase times, and only depends on his valuation.

New

Brokering Votes with Information Spread Via Social Networks

Raul Duarte, Frederico Finan, Horacio Larreguy, and Laura Schechter

Politicians rely on political brokers to buy votes throughout much of the developing world. We investigate how social networks facilitate these vote-buying exchanges. Our conceptual framework suggests brokers should be particularly well-placed within the network to learn about non-copartisans’ reciprocity in order to target transfers effectively. As a result, parties should recruit brokers who are central among non-copartisans.

New

The impact of EITC on education, labor market trajectories, and inequalities

Albertini Julien, Arthur Poirier, and Anthony Terriau

As a complement to the federal earned income tax credit (EITC), some states offer their own EITC, typically calculated as a percentage of the federal EITC. In this paper, we analyze the effect of state EITC on education using policy discontinuities at US state borders. Our estimates reveal that an increase in the state EITC leads to a statistically significant increase in the high school dropout rate.

New

A Walrasian Mechanism with Markups for Nonconvex Markets

Paul Milgrom and Mitchell Watt

We introduce markup equilibrium—an extension of Walrasian equilibrium in which consumers pay a fixed percentage markup over producer prices. In quasilinear markets, markup equilibria exist despite non-convexities. They are resource-feasible and envy-free, incur no budget deficit, and require little more communication and computation than ordinary Walrasian equilibrium. The associated markup mechanism is asymptotically incentive-compatible.

New

The Effect of Provider Diversity on Racial Health Disparities: Evidence from the Military

Michael Frakes and Jonathan Gruber

We assess the relationship between the racial diversity of medical providers and racial health disparities in the use of preventive care and in patient outcomes. We use unique data from the Military Health System, where we observe providers as patients so that we can identify their race, and where moves across bases change exposure to provider race in a plausibly exogenous fashion.

Follow us

The Review of Economic Studies Follow

The official account of the Review of Economic Studies, one of the world's top economics journals.

RevEconStudies

Recently accepted to #REStud, "Normalizations and misspecification in skill formation models," from Joachim Freyberger:

https://www.restud.com/normalizations-and-misspecification-in-skill-formation-models/

Reply on Twitter 1966215956834693494 Retweet on Twitter 1966215956834693494 3 Like on Twitter 1966215956834693494 21 Twitter 1966215956834693494

"In a large RCT on a credit card in Mexico, cutting rates and raising minimums barely reduced default. Job loss—more disruptive to cash flow—had far greater impact."

New paper from Castellanos, @d_jimenez, @aprajitmahajan, Prous & @SeiraEnrique:

https://www.restud.com/contract-terms-employment-shocks-and-default-in-credit-cards/

#REStud

Reply on Twitter 1966208088677155243 Retweet on Twitter 1966208088677155243 8 Like on Twitter 1966208088677155243 25 Twitter 1966208088677155243

Recently accepted to #REStud, "On the optimal design of a Financial Stability Fund," from Ábraham, Carceles-Poveda, Liu and Marimon:

https://www.restud.com/on-the-optimal-design-of-a-financial-stability-fund/

#econtwitter

Reply on Twitter 1966205885287637462 Retweet on Twitter 1966205885287637462 6 Like on Twitter 1966205885287637462 32 Twitter 1966205885287637462
Retweet on Twitter The Review of Economic Studies Retweeted

I'm glad this is finally out after several years in the works! I’m also on the academic job market this year and happy to connect with anyone to discuss potential opportunities

Reply on Twitter 1959676420566986835 Retweet on Twitter 1959676420566986835 25 Like on Twitter 1959676420566986835 173 Twitter 1959676420566986835
Load More