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    Bordalo, Pedro, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. 2015. “Salience Theory of Judicial Decisions.” Journal of Legal Studies 44 (S1): S7-S33. Publisher's Version Abstract

    We present a model of judicial decision making in which the judge overweights the salient facts of the case. The context of the judicial decision, which is comparative by nature, shapes which aspects of the case stand out and draw the judge's attention. By focusing judicial attention on such salient aspects of the case, legally irrelevant information can aect judicial decisions. Our model accounts for a range of recent experimental evidence bearing on the psychology of judicial decisions, including anchoring eects in the setting of damages, decoy eects in choice of legal remedies, and framing eects in the decision to litigate. The model also oers a new approach to positive analysis of damage awards in torts.

    Barberis, Nicholas, Robin Greenwood, Lawrence Jin, and Andrei Shleifer. 2015. “X-CAPM: An Extrapolative Capital Asset Pricing Model.” Journal of Financial Economics 115 (1): 1-24. Publisher's Version Abstract

    Survey evidence suggests that many investors form beliefs about future stock market returns by extrapolating past returns. Such beliefs are hard to reconcile with existing models of the aggregate stock market. We study a consumption-based asset pricing model in which some investors form beliefs about future price changes in the stock market by extrapolating past price changes, while other investors hold fully rational beliefs. We find that the model captures many features of actual prices and returns; importantly, however, it is also consistent with the survey evidence on investor expectations.

    Greenwood, Robin, and Andrei Shleifer. 2014. “Expectations of Returns and Expected Returns.” Review of Financial Studies 27 (3): 714-746. Abstract

    We analyze time series of investor expectations of future stock market returns from six data sources between 1963 and 2011. The six measures of expectations are highly positively correlated with each other, as well as with past stock returns and with the level of the stock market. However, investor expectations are strongly negatively correlated with model-based expected returns. The evidence is not consistent with rational expectations representative investor models of returns.

    Gennaioli, Nicola, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny. 2014. “Finance and the Preservation of Wealth.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (3): 1221-1254. Publisher's Version Abstract

    We introduce the model of asset management developed in Gennaioli, Shleifer, and Vishny (GSV, 2014) into a Solow-style neoclassical growth model with diminishing returns to capital. Savers rely on trusted intermediaries to manage their wealth (claims on capital stock), who can charge fees above costs to trusting investors. In this model, the ratio of financial income to GDP increases with the ratio of aggregate wealth to GDP. Both rise along the convergence path to steady state growth. We examine several further implications of the model for management fees, unit costs of finance, and the consequences of shocks to trust and to the capital stock.

    Gennaioli, Nicola, Rafael LaPorta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. 2014. “Growth in Regions.” Journal of Economic Growth 19 (3): 259-309. Publisher's Version Abstract

    We use a newly assembled sample of 1,528 regions from 83 countries to compare the speed of per capita income convergence within and across countries.  Regional growth is shaped by similar factors as national growth, such as geography and human capital.  Regional convergence rate is about 2% per year, comparable to that between countries.   Regional convergence is faster in richer countries, and countries with better capital markets.  A calibration of a neoclassical growth model suggests that significant barriers to factor mobility within countries are needed to account for the evidence. 

    Bordalo, Pedro, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. 2013. “Salience and Asset Prices.” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 103 (3): 623-628.
    Botero, Juan, Alejandro Ponce, and Andrei Shleifer. 2013. “Education, Complaints, and Accountability.” Journal of Law and Economics 56 (4): 959-996. Abstract
    Better-educated countries have better governments, an empirical regularity that holds in both dictatorships and democracies. Possible reasons for this fact are that educated people are more likely to complain about misconduct by government officials and that more frequent complaints encourage better behavior from officials. Newly assembled individual-level survey data from the World Justice Project show that, within countries, better-educated people are more likely to report official misconduct. The results are confirmed using other survey data on reporting crime and corruption. Citizens’ complaints might thus be an operative mechanism that explains the link between education and the quality of government.
    Bordalo, Pedro, Nicola Gennaioli, and Andrei Shleifer. 2013. “Salience and Consumer Choice.” Journal of Political Economy 121 (5): 803-843. Abstract
    We present a theory of context-dependent choice in which a consumer’s attention is drawn to salient attributes of goods, such as quality or price. An attribute is salient for a good when it stands out among the good’s attributes relative to that attribute’s average level in the choice set ðor, more broadly, the choice contextÞ. Consumers attach disproportionately high weight to salient attributes, and their choices are tilted toward goods with higher quality/price ratios. The model accounts for a variety of disparate evidence, including decoy effects and contextdependent willingness to pay. It also suggests a novel theory of misleading sales.