The Visible Hand

By Jordi Blanes i VidalEducation

The Visible Hand episodes

July 14, 2021 Episode 18: Namrata Kala on Management and Shocks to Worker Productivity
The paper discussed in this episode is Management and Shocks to Worker Productivity, by Achyuta Adhvaryu, Namrata Kala, and Anant Nyshadham.
46 min
July 01, 2021 Episode 17: Vicente Cuñat on the Effect of Anti-Takeover Provisions on Shareholder Value and the Likelihood that the Firm is Acquired
The papers discussed in this episode are: “The Vote is Cast: The Effect of Corporate Governance on Shareholder Value”, and “Price and Probability: Decomposing the Takeover Effects of Anti-Takeover Provisions”, by Vicente Cuñat, Mireia Giné, and Maria Guadalupe. Other papers discussed in this episode are:
Angrist, J. D., & Rokkanen, M. (2015). Wanna get away? Regression discontinuity estimation of exam school effects away from the cutoff. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 110(512), 1331-1344.
Gompers, P., Ishii, J., & Metrick, A. (2003). Corporate Governance and Equity Prices. The Quarterly Journal of Cconomics, 118(1), 107-156.
Lee, D. S. (2009). Training, wages, and sample selection: Estimating sharp bounds on treatment effects. The Review of Economic Studies, 76(3), 1071-1102.
48 min
June 24, 2021 Episode 16: Mounu Prem on Patronage and the Quality of Public Sector Employees
The paper discussed in this episode is: “Patronage and Selection in Public Sector Organizations”, by Emanuele Colonnelli, Mounu Prem, and Edoardo Teso. Other papers discussed in this episode are:
Akhtari, Mitra, Diana Moreira, and Laura Trucco. 2017. “Political Turnover, Bureaucratic Turnover,
and the Quality of Public Services.” forthcoming, American Economic Review
40 min
June 15, 2021 Episode 15: Morten Bennedsen on the Effects of CEOs on Firm Profitability
The paper discussed in this episode is: “Do CEOs Matter? Evidence from Hospitalization Events”, by Morten Bennedsen, Francisco Pérez-González, and Daniel Wolfenzon.
Other papers discussed in this episode are:
Bertrand, M., & Schoar, A. (2003). Managing with style: The effect of managers on firm policies. The Quarterly journal of economics, 118(4), 1169-1208.
Johnson, W. B., Magee, R. P., Nagarajan, N. J., & Newman, H. A. (1985). An analysis of the stock price reaction to sudden executive deaths: Implications for the managerial labor market. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 7(1-3), 151-174.
40 min
June 08, 2021 Episode 14: David McKenzie on Improving Management Practices through Consulting
The paper discussed in this episode is: “Improving Management with Individual and Group-Based Consulting: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Colombia”, by Leonardo Iacovone, William Maloney, and David McKenzie.
Other papers discussed in this episode are:
Bloom, Nicholas, and John Van Reenen (2007). "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices across Firms and Countries" Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(4), 1341- 1408.
Bloom, Nicholas, Benn Eifert, Aprajit Mahajan, David McKenzie, and John Roberts (2013). "Does Management Matter? Evidence from India" Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(1), 1-51
McKenzie, David and Christopher Woodruff (2014) “What are we learning from business training evaluations around the developing world?”, World Bank Research Observer, 29(1): 48-82
49 min
May 30, 2021 Episode 13: Isabela Manelici on Productivity and Multinationals
The paper discussed in this episode is: “The Effects of Joining Multinational Supply Chains: New Evidence from Firm-to-Firm Linkages”, by Alonso Alfaro-Ureña, Isabela Manelici, and Jose Pablo Vasquez Carvajal.
Other papers discussed in this episode are:
Bernard, A. B., Dhyne, E., Magerman, G., Manova, K., & Moxnes, A. (2019). The origins of firm heterogeneity: A production network approach (No. w25441). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Smarzynska Javorcik, B. (2004). Does foreign direct investment increase the productivity of domestic firms? In search of spillovers through backward linkages. American economic review, 94(3), 605-627.
Woodruff, C. (2018). Addressing constraints to small and growing businesses. International Growth Centre, London.
47 min
May 20, 2021 Episode 12: Claudia Robles-Garcia on the Trade-off between Competition and Incentives in Mortgage Markets
The paper discussed in this episode is: “Competition and Incentives in Mortgage Markets: The Role of Brokers”, by Claudia Robles-Garcia.
53 min
May 12, 2021 Episode 11: Florian Englmaier on Incentives and Non-Routine Analytical Tasks
The paper discussed in this episode is: “The Effect of Incentives in Non-Routine Analytical Team Tasks - Evidence from a Field Experiment”, by Florian Englmaier, Stefan Grimm, David Schindler, and Simeon Schudy.
Other papers referenced in this episode are:
Autor, D. H., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). The skill content of recent technological change: An empirical exploration. The Quarterly journal of economics, 118(4), 1279-1333.
Bandiera, O., Barankay, I., & Rasul, I. (2005). Social preferences and the response to incentives: Evidence from personnel data. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(3), 917-962.
Duncker, K., & Lees, L. S. (1945). On problem-solving. Psychological monographs, 58(5), i.
Lazear, E. P. (2000). Performance pay and productivity. American Economic Review, 90(5), 1346-1361.
List, J. A., Shaikh, A. M., & Xu, Y. (2019). Multiple hypothesis testing in experimental economics. Experimental Economics, 22(4), 773-793.
Pink, D. H. (2011). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Riverhead Books, New York
Shearer, B. (2004). Piece rates, fixed wages and incentives: Evidence from a field experiment. The Review of Economic Studies, 71(2), 513-534.
54 min
May 05, 2021 Episode 10: Zoë Cullen on Socialisation and the Gender Gap
The paper discussed in this episode is: “The Old Boys’ Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap”, by Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia.
Other papers referenced in this episode are:
Bronson, M. A. and P. S. Thoursie (2019). The Wage Growth and Within-Firm Mobility of Men and Women: New Evidence and Theory. Working Paper.
Kleven, H., Landais, C., & Søgaard, J. E. (2019). Children and gender inequality: Evidence from Denmark. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(4), 181-209.
38 min
March 23, 2021 Episode 9: Raffaella Sadun on Communication in Organisations
The papers discussed in this episode are: “Measuring Collaboration in Modern Organizations” and "Communication within Firms: Evidence from CEO Turnovers”, by Stephen Michael Impink, Andrea Prat, and Raffaella Sadun.
Other papers referenced in this episode are:
Alonso, R., Dessein, W., & Matouschek, N. (2008). When does coordination require centralization?. American Economic Review, 98(1), 145-79.
Alonso, R., Dessein, W., & Matouschek, N. (2015). Organizing to adapt and compete. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 7(2), 158-87.
Arrow, K. J. (1974). The limits of organization. WW Norton & Company.
Bandiera, O., Prat, A., Hansen, S., & Sadun, R. (2020). CEO behavior and firm performance. Journal of Political Economy, 128(4), 1325-1369.
Cremer, J., Garicano, L., & Prat, A. (2007). Language and the Theory of the Firm. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(1), 373-407.
Hoffman, M., & Tadelis, S. (2021). People management skills, employee attrition, and manager rewards: An empirical analysis
Lazear, E. P., Shaw, K. L., & Stanton, C. T. (2015). The value of bosses. Journal of Labor Economics, 33(4), 823-861.
Radner, R. (1993). The organization of decentralized information processing. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 1109-1146.
45 min