Jonathan Peterson Email & Phone Number

My research can be loosely categorized as applied microeconomic theory relating to the firm. I enjoy working primarily but not exclusively in the fields of Industrial Organization and Organizational Economics. I have two distinct strands of research. The first strand examines the relationship between employee turnover and the firm’s personnel management decisions. I have developed a framework of worker turnover based on private utility seen and experienced only by the worker. In one paper, I have used this framework to study the firm’s promotion timing decision. In another paper I have shown a need for the firm to restrict its own discretion concerning compensation. Both of these papers generate predictions that are consistent with empirical findings. In later work I will extend this framework to discuss how firm sponsored general skills training can improve efficiency through turnover reduction. I also have plans to model the firm’s firing and wage reduction decision in response to business cycles. The other more loosely defined strand of research focuses on developing context specific models of competing economic theories. One such paper (co authored with Michael Waldman) looks at planned obsolescence vs. optimal durability in the text book market. In other projects I work with co-authors to generate and test the predictions of context specific economic models. Examples of these projects include, testing for and estimating the effect of moral hazard in the driving patterns of NYC Taxi drivers who lease(with Henry Schnieder) and looking for evidence of adverse selection in the market for used car repairs (with Henry Schnieder).Specialties: Organizational Economics, Industrial Organization, Applied Micro Theory

Listed skills include Applied Microeconomic Theory and Game Theory.