Interdisciplinary Seminar

We exploit a setting where lawyers are selected before the assignment of a judge and find that large Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings resolve 17%--25% faster when at least one lead counsel lawyer for the debtor has a connection to the judge. The most effective connections arise through previous in-court interactions. Connected cases are more likely to emerge ... Read More

Building on the search-based view of innovation, we develop a framework regarding how Google guides innovative search behavior. We exploit an exogenous shock, China's unexpected blockade of Google in 2014, and adopt a difference-in-differences approach with a matched sample of patents from China and nearby regions to test our predictions. Our analyses show ... Read More

We use a randomized field experiment to estimate a causal effect of part-time recruitment on labor productivity by identifying worker selection as a mechanism and using worker-level productivity data. In recruiting for data entry work in Ethiopia, we identify 6,236 eligible women and randomly assign them to part-time or full-time job opportunities. We find ... Read More

We develop a flexible content-based search model that links the content preferences of search engine users to query search volume and click-through rates. Content preferences are defined over latent topics that describe the content of search queries and search result descriptions. Moreover, our model allows content preferences to vary systematically based on ... Read More