In a haystack-type representation of a heterogeneous population that is evolving according to a payoff structure of a prisoner’s dilemma game, migration is modeled as a process of “swapping” individuals between heterogeneous ...

We model an environment in which individuals prefer to be in a space in which their rank is higher, be it a social space, a geographical space, a work environment, or any other comparison sphere which we refer to in this ...

Assuming that an individual’s rank in the wealth distribution is the only factor determining the individual’s wellbeing, we analyze the individual’s risk preferences in relation to gaining or losing rank, rather than the ...

In many countries, schools have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by splitting up classes. While the purpose of dividing classes is clearly health-related, the process of doing so poses an interesting question: what is ...

We study a policy response to an increase in post-merger social stress. If a merger of groups of people is viewed as a revision of their social space, then the merger alters people’s comparators and increases social stress: ...

While the economic performance of migrants in the receiving country undoubtedly depends on qualifications, it is also affected by inclinations. Given the probability of return migration, we establish a behavioral link ...

A transfer from a richer individual to a poorer one seems to be the most intuitive and straightforward way of reducing income inequality in a society. However, can such a transfer reduce the welfare of the society? We show ...

Following Sen’s (1973) characterization of the Gini coefficient as a ratio between a measure of aggregate income-based stress (“depression” in Sen’s terminology) and aggregate income, we transform the Gini coefficient into ...

This paper synthesizes and extends recent research on “The New Economics of the Brain Drain.” In a unified framework, the paper shows that while recently identified adverse repercussions of the brain drain exacerbate the ...

This paper develops a one sector, two-input model with endogenous human capital formation. The two inputs are two types of skilled labor: “engineering,” which exerts a positive externality on total factor productivity, and ...