This paper argues that localized price spikes should be a regular feature of competitive commodity markets. It develops a rational expectations model of physical arbitrage in which trade takes time, and shows that inventory management plays a crucial role in the way regional prices are determined. In equilibrium, arbitrageurs choose export quantities to ensure inventories in the importing center regularly fall to 0. They earn enough profits from high prices on these occasions to offset small losses at other times. An analysis of detailed data from Chicago and New York corn markets provides empirical support for the model. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

We study experimental markets in which participants face incentives modeled upon those prevailing in markets for managed funds. Each participant's portfolio is periodically evaluated at market value and ranked by relative performance as measured by short‐term paper returns. Those who rank highly attract a larger share of new fund inflows. In an environment in which prices are typically close to intrinsic value, the effect of these incentives is mild. However, in an environment in which markets are prone to bubble, mispricing is greatly exacerbated by relative performance incentives and becomes even more pronounced with experience.

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This article solves a high-frequency model of price arbitrage incorporating storage and trade when the amount of trade is limited by transport capacity constraints. In equilibrium there is considerable variation in transport prices because transport prices rise when the demand to ship goods exceeds the capacity limit. This variation is necessary to attract shipping capacity into the industry. In turn, prices in different locations differ by a time varying amount. Thus while the law of one price holds, it holds because of endogenous variation in transport prices. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.

This paper develops a model of the housing market to examine the long-term consequences of different types of capital gains taxes. The model, which uses an overlapping generations framework to model the housing demands of agents who differ by age, income, and wealth, incorporates rental and owner-occupancy options, credit constraints, detailed tax regulations, and a construction sector. It suggests capital gains taxes will raise rents, increase homeownership rates, promote smaller houses, and increase the net foreign asset position. The welfare implications are less clear, particularly for young low income households that will face higher rents.inflation, credit constraints, capital income taxes, housing markets, home-ownership rates, monetary policy,