Working Papers
Working papers authored by Tuck professors may be found via the Tuck faculty directory, personal faculty websites, or the Social Science Research Network. All working papers are copyrighted by the authors. For permission to reproduce or to request a copy of a paper, please contact the author directly.
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Social Science Research Network
Social Science Research Network: Tuck School Research Paper Series
Highlights
Emily Blanchard & Shushanik Hakobyan:
The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences In Principle and Practice, November 2012
In principle, the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) offers uniform market access to exports from eligible developing countries for a broad set of GSP-eligible products. In prac- tice, realized GSP tariff-exemptions demonstrate marked variation across countries, industries, and years. In this paper, we identify the sources of discretionary and non-discretionary GSP exclusions, and quantify the extent to which competitive needs limitations (CNLs), waivers, and additional annual product, country, and country-product exclusions drive a wedge between the ‘generalized’ principle of GSP and its implementation in practice.
Kenneth R. French with the Squam Lake Group:
Reforming Money Market Funds, February 2012
Abstract: The current stable-NAV model for prime money market funds exposes fund investors and systemically important borrowers to runs like those that occurred after the failure of Lehman in September 2008. This working paper, by the Squam Lake Group, argues that, to reduce this risk, funds should have either floating NAVs or buffers provided by their sponsors that can absorb losses up to a level to be set by regulators. We suggest alternative designs for such a buffer, as well as considerations that should be taken into account when determining its required size.
Jonathan Lewellen, Katharina Lewellen:
Investment and Cashflow, June 2010
Abstract: We provide new estimates of investment-cashflow sensitivities for a large cross section of U.S. firms from 1971-2006. Our tests extend the literature in several key ways and provide strong evidence that cashflow matters beyond its correlation with investment opportunities. Controlling only for M/B, a dollar of current- and prior-year cashflow is associated with an additional $0.59 of investment for firms that are the least likely to be constrained and $0.75 for firms that are the most likely to be constrained. Investment-cashflow sensitivities for the two groups drop to a conservatively estimated but still significant 0.32 and 0.67, respectively, after correcting for measurement error in M/B (our proxy for Q). The results suggest that financing constraints and, perhaps, free cashflow problems are important for investment decisions.
Xiaobo Lu, Kenneth Scheve, Matthew J. Slaughter:
Envy, Altruism and the International Distribution of Trade Protection, January 2010
Abstract: One important puzzle in international political economy is why lower-earning and less-skilled intensive industries tend to receive relatively high levels of trade protection. This pattern of protection holds even in low-income countries in which less-skilled labor is likely to be the relatively abundant factor of production and therefore would be expected in many standard political-economy frameworks to receive relatively low, not high, levels of protection. We propose and model one possible explanation: that individual aversion to inequality - both envy and altruism - lead to systematic differences in support for trade protection across industries, with sectors employing lower-earning workers more intensively being relatively preferred recipients for trade protection. We conduct original survey experiments in China and the United States and provide strong evidence that individual policy opinions about sector-specific trade protection depend on the earnings of workers in the sector. We also present structural estimates of the influence of envy and altruism on sector-specific trade policy preferences. Our estimates indicate that both envy and altruism influence support for trade protection in the United States and that altruism influences policy opinions in China.