Why don't all countries converge rapidly to the use of most efficient or best practice technologies? Micro level studies suggest managerial skills play a key role in the adoption of modern technologies. In this paper we model the interactive process between on-the-job managerial skill acquisition and the adoption of modern technology. We use the model to illustrate why some countries develop managerial skills quickly and adopt best practice technologies, while others stay backwards. The model also explains why managers will not migrate from rich countries to poor countries, as would be needed to generate convergence. Finally we show why standard growth accounting exercises will incorrectly attribute a large proportion of managerial skills' contribution to total factor productivity and we quantify the importance of this bias.

In this paper, the authors address the question of whether wages are affected by labor-market conditions in a manner more consistent with a contract approach than with a standard spot market model. From a simple implicit contract model, they derive implications about the links between wages and past labor market conditions. Using individual data from the Current Population Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the authors find that an implicit contract model with costless mobility describes these links better than either a simple spot market model or an implicit contract model with costly mobility. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.

In this paper we address the question of whether wages are affected by labor market conditions in a manner more consistent with a contract approach than with a standard spot market model. From a simple implicit contract model, we derive implications about the links between wages and past labor market conditions. Using individual data from the Current Population Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that an implicit contract model with costless mobility describes these links better than either a simple spot market model or an implicit contract model with costly mobility.

There is a widespread belief that changes in expectations may be an important independent driver of economic fluctuations. The news view of business cycles offers a formalization of this perspective. In this paper we discuss mechanisms by which changes in agents' information, due to the arrival of news, can cause business cycle fluctuations driven by expectational change, and we review the empirical evidence aimed at evaluating their relevance. In particular, we highlight how the literature on news and business cycles offers a coherent way of thinking about aggregate fluctuations, while at the same time we emphasize the many challenges that must be addressed before a proper assessment of the role of news in business cycles can be established. (JEL D83, D84, E13, E32, O33)

This paper explores how to optimally set taxes and transfers when taxation authorities are uninformed about individuals' value of time in both market and nonmarket activities; and can observe both market-income and time allocated to market employment. We show that optimal redistribution in this environment involves a cutoff wage whereby workers above the cutoff are taxed as they increase their income, while workers earning a wage below the cutoff receive an income supplement as they increase their income. Finally, we show that the optimal program transfers zero income to individuals who choose not to work. (JEL D31, H21, H23, H24)

Monetary Instability, the Predictability of Prices, and the Allocation of Investment: An Empirical Investigation Using U.K. Panel Data by Paul Beaudry, Mustafa Caglayan and Fabio Schiantarelli. Published in volume 91, issue 3, pages 648-662 of American Economic Review, June 2001

This article examines the determinants of changes in the U.S. wage structure from 1976 to 2000. Our main empirical observation is that changes in both the level of wages and the returns to skill over this period were primarily driven by changes in the ratio of human capital to physical capital. We show that this pattern conforms extremely well to a simple model of technological adoption following a major change in technological opportunities. In contrast, we do not find much empirical support for the view that ongoing (factor‐augmenting) skill‐biased technological progress has been an important driving force over this period.

This paper examines how the possibility of recontracting affects the financing of projects when an entrepreneur is privately informed about the distribution of returns. An entrepreneur solicits initial financing for a project from competing uninformed financiers. Once the project is undertaken, but before its returns are realized, the entrepreneur can solicit additional financial contracts from competing financiers. It is assumed that these financiers can observe all previously signed contracts and that the seniority of claims is respected in the case of bankruptcy; however, the entrepreneur is never committed not to sell junior claims to competing financiers. Copyright 1995 by The Review of Economic Studies Limited.

This paper examines how the possibility of renegotiation affects contractual outcomes in signaling games when an infinite number of rounds of renegotiations are allowed before contracts are executed. The main results of the paper are (1) contracts may still contain distortions, (2) the popular 'efficient' separating-equilibrium outcome is never an equilibrium outcome with renegotiation, (3) incentive-compatibility constraints can be generalized to incorporate renegotiation, (4) equilibrium outcomes can be separating and nevertheless depend on the uninformed player's prior, and (5) renegotiation in signaling games may lead to outcomes similar to equilibrium outcomes of screening games in which multiple contract purchases are allowed. Copyright 1993 by The Econometric Society.

We show that the joint behavior of stock prices and TFP favors a view of business cycles driven largely by a shock that does not affect productivity in the short run – and therefore does not look like a standard technology shock – but affects productivity with substantial delay – and therefore does not look like a monetary shock. One structural interpretation for this shock is that it represents news about future technological opportunities which is first captured in stock prices. This shock causes a boom in consumption, investment, and hours worked that precedes productivity growth by a few years, and explains about 50 percent of business cycle fluctuations.