No abstract

Spousal education is correlated with earnings for two reasons: crossproductivity between couples and assortative mating. This article empirically disentangles the two effects by using Chinese twins data. We have two innovations: using twins data to control for the unobserved mating effect in our estimations and estimating both current and wedding-time earnings equations. We find that both crossproductivity and mating are important in explaining the current earnings. Although the mating effect exists for both husbands and wives, the cross-productivity effect mainly runs from Chinese husbands to wives. Our findings shed light on the theories of human capital, marriage, and the family.

We analyze a coordination game of regime change where the policy maker, who tries to increase the probability of the survival of the regime, commits ex ante to abandon the regime automatically when its fundamentals are below a certain threshold. This policy acts as an information transmission mechanism: agents, who decide whether to attack the regime or not, update positively about the fundamentals of the regime when they see that it has not been abandoned, and so they are less likely to attack. Using the commitment ability, the policy maker can thus increase the overall survival probability of the regime.

We analyze credit rating effects on firm investments in a rational bond financing game that features a feedback loop. The credit rating agency (CRA) inflates the rating, providing a biased but informative signal to creditors. Creditors' response to the rating affects the firm's investment decision and thus its credit quality, which is reflected in the rating. The CRA might reduce ex ante economic efficiency, which results solely from its strategic effect: the CRA assigns more firms high ratings and allows them to gamble for resurrection. We derive empirical predictions on the determinants of rating standards and inflation and discuss policy implications.