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Chapter 2 analyzes a simple evolutionary model of residential segregation based on decentralized racism which extends Schelling's (1972) well-known tipping model by allowing for local interaction among residents. The richer ...

In 1999 the Federal Communications Commission decided to relax its prohibition against one firm owning two television stations in the same market. Although joint ownership was prohibited prior to 1999, evidence on the ...

This thesis is a collection of three essays on exchange rate policies and international capital flows in emerging markets. The first chapter examines the theoretical foundations of the "fear of floating" that has been ...

This dissertation is a collection of three independent essays in theoretical and applied econometrics, organized in the form of three chapters. In the first two chapters, I investigate the properties of parametric and ...

This thesis exploits a major overhaul in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care system to answer various questions about publicly-provided health care. The VA restructuring involved the adoption of a capitated ...

This thesis is a collection of three theoretical essays on institutions and economic growth. Chapter 1 considers a particular institution: ethnicity. Ethnic, religious and tribal divisions are empirically associated with ...

This dissertation consists of three essays in microeconomic theory. The first two concern methods of modeling bounded rationality and unawareness, while the third applies a model of jointly determined reputation to incentive ...

This dissertation consists of three chapters on the interaction of political institutions and macroeconomic activity in dynamic environments. Chapter 1 studies the optimal management of taxes and debt in a framework which ...

The first essay finds that the market betas of value and small stocks have decreased by about 75% in the second half of the twentieth century. The decline in beta can be related to a long-term improvement in economic ...

This thesis is the collection of three independent studies that analyze the interplay between institutions and economic development. In Chapter 1, I examine the relationship between wealth inequality and institutions. I ...