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Law and Economics Seminar

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Friday, February 15, 2019

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

  • Law and Economics Seminar: Paige Skiba
    4:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Tanenbaum 320

    Paige Skiba , Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School

    Time to Repay or Time to Delay? The Effect of Having More Time Before a Payday Loan is Due 
    Abstract: Payday-loan borrowers pay sizable fees for short-duration loans and often borrow repeatedly. We explore the effects of longer loans, exploiting regulations that give some borrowers an additional pay cycle to repay their initial loan without increased interest charges. We show theoretically that while an exponential discounter would use this “grace period” to save and smooth consumption, naïve borrowers with sufficient present-biased would not because they procrastinate on making consumption sacrifices when due dates are distant. Consistent with predictions under naïve present bias, borrowers with longer loans did not make larger initial loan payments and had similar repeat borrowing patterns.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

  • Law and Economics Seminar: Dr. Amanda Agan
    4:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Tanenbaum 320

    Dr. Amanda Agan , Affiliated Professor, Program in Criminal Justice, Assistant Professor of Economics, Rutgers University

    Salary Disclosure and Hiring: Field Experimental Evidence from a Two-Sided Audit Study


    How does banning employers from seeking applicants’ wage histories affect employment and salary offers? We implement a field experimental design we call a two-sided audit study, in which recruiters evaluate job applications with randomized characteristics under randomly assigned salary disclosure conditions. The experiment mimics laws passed in Massachusetts, California, New York City, and Chicago banning these questions. When disclosure is banned, recruiters in our experiment extend candidates lower overall salary offers. We find mixed results about the effect of disclosures on the gender wage gap. Disclosure increases male salaries more than female salaries, although this may only affect workers who are hired. Disclosure also improves female callback rates, without affecting men’s. The overall effect of bans on the gender wage gap hinges on how we assess greater female representation. Amanda Agan joined the Department of Economics in Fall 2016. Her research focuses on the economics of crime and labor economics. In Amanda’s research she has analyzed the unintended consequences of policies such as sex offender registration and ban the box laws. She has published studies in the Journal of Law and Economics and the Journal of Empirical and Legal Studies. Prior to joining Rutgers University she was a post-doctoral research associate in the Economics Department and the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. Economics from the University of Chicago in 2013 and holds a B.A. in Economics from George Mason University.