Work in Progress

Using millions of task assignments from salon management software, I find significant establishment-level dispersion in labor productivity and internal task specialization and a strong association between the two that is unexplained by establishment size.

Asset forfeiture is the seizure of property that is believed to be connected to criminal activity, typically the sale of illicit drugs. Despite the dismantling of the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the legalization of marijuana, and legislative reform the value of assets seized in California has not decreased.

Firms increasingly rely on recruiters to find talent. Recruiters are typically paid using refund contracts, which specify a payment upon a successful candidate suggestion and hire, and a refund if a candidate is hired but leaves for any reason during an initial period of employment.

This paper’s contribution is to explicitly model how finite sequences of tasks are assigned to a finite set of workers by a manager who must take into account internal communication. In most task-based models, it is assumed that time can be allocated smoothly.

Pricing decisions are crucial for managing a firm’s reputation and maximizing profits. Consumer reviews reflect both the product quality and its price, with more favorable reviews being left when a product is priced lower.

In this paper, I study how voluntary labor supply decisions within an organization impact workplace injury using novel data on the payroll and workers’ compensation claims of Los Angeles traffic officers.

In this paper we demonstrate tips are sensitive to service quality even when future interaction is unlikely. Using a novel data set covering 150,000 hair salon appointments where customers can be observed over time, we are able to exploit variation in service quality and exogenous separation rates.