Scroll down for links to my working papers and publications. For descriptions of some of my major ongoing research projects, please click here.
Submissions, revisions & working papers
Affirmative action and human capital investment: Evidence from a randomized field experiment, with Brent Hickman and Joseph Price, NBER Working Paper w20397 R&R Journal of Labor Economics
–press: Quartz, FiveThirtyEight and Chronicle of Higher Education
Productivity Versus Motivation: Using Field Experiments and Structural Analysis to Understand Youth Human Capital Investments with Brent Hickman, John List and Joseph Price
Disincentive effects of evaluation with Raphael Boleslavsky and Bruce Carlin
Polarized Education Levels and Civil Unrest with G. Canavire-Bacarreza, M. Jetter, and A. Montoya Agudelo
Competing for Capital: Auditing and Credibility in Financial Reporting, with Raphael Boleslavsky and Bruce Carlin, NBER working paper w23273
The impact of droughts on the education of at-risk youth in Zimbabwe with Ardyn Nordstrom
An encouraging word: Providing information about the importance of girls’ education improves math performance with Jordan Nanowski, Ardyn Nordstrom and Eric Richter
The importance of health provider training for the success of a prenatal supplement program in Bangladesh with Zuzanna Kurzawa, Natasha Mazurkewich, Allison Verney, Jennifer Busch-Hallen, and Bahman Kashi
Impact of high school employability and entrepreneurship training on the pursuit of higher education with Zuzanna Kurzawa and Frederic Tremblay
Published & accepted articles
M. Agranov, C. Cotton and C. Tergiman, Persistence of Power: Repeated multilateral bargaining with endogenous agenda setting authority, forthcoming at Journal of Public Economics
L. Corazzini, C. Cotton and T. Reggiani, Delegation and coordination with multiple threshold public goods: experimental evidence, forthcoming at Experimental Economics
C. Cotton, F. McIntyre, A. Nordstrom and J. Price, Correcting for bias in hot-hand analysis: An application to youth golf, Journal of Economic Psychology, 75b: 1-10, 2019.
C. Cotton and C. Li, Clueless Politicians: On Policymaker Incentives for Information Acquisition in a Model of Lobbying, Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, 34: 425–456, 2018.
R. Boleslavsky and C. Cotton, Limited capacity in project selection: Competition through evidence production, Economic Theory, 65: 385-421, 2018.
R. Boleslavsky, C. Cotton and H. Gurnani, Demonstrations and price competition in new product release, Management Science, 63: 2016-2026, 2017.
C. Cotton and A. Dellis, Informational lobbying and agenda distortion, Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, 32: 762-793, 2016
–summary at Economics and Policy
C. Cotton, Competing for attention: Lobbying time-constrained politicians, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 18: 642–665, 2016
L. Corazzini, C. Cotton and P. Valbonesi, Donor coordination in project funding: Evidence from a threshold public goods experiment, Journal of Public Economics, 128: 16-29, 2015
R. Boleslavsky and C. Cotton, Grading standards and education quality, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 7: 248-279, 2015
–press: AEA Research Highlight, VoxEU
R. Boleslavsky and C. Cotton, Information and extremism in elections, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 7:165-207, 2015
–press: Washington Post, International Business Times, Inverse, PsychCentral, Milenio, Discovery News
C. Cotton, C. Li, F. McIntyre and J. Price, Which explanations for gender differences in competition are consistent with a simple theoretical model?, Journal of Behavioral & Experimental Economics, 59: 56-67, 2015
S. Campos, C. Cotton and C. Li, Deterrence effects under Twombly: On the costs of increasing pleading standards in litigation, International Review of Law and Economics, 44: 61-71, 2015
C. Cotton and C. Li, Profiling, screening and criminal recruitment, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 17: 964-985, 2015
C. Cotton, Submission fees and response times in academic publishing, American Economic Review, 103(1): 501-09, 2013
C. Cotton, F. McIntyre and J. Price, Gender differences in repeated competition: Evidence from school math contests, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 86: 52-66, 2013
–press: VoxEU, Forbes, Huffington Post
C. Cotton, Pay to play politics: Informational lobbying and contribution limits when money buys access, Journal of Public Economics, 96: 369-386, 2012
C. Cotton and C. Liu, 100 horsemen and the empty city: A game theoretic exploration of deception in Chinese military legend, Journal of Peace Research, 48(2): 217-223, 2011
–press: U.S. News & World Report
C. Cotton, Should we tax or cap political contributions? A lobbying model with policy favors and access, Journal of Public Economics, 93: 831-842, 2009 (lead article)
C. Cotton, Multiple bidding in auctions as bidders become confident of their private valuations, Economics Letters, 104(3): 148-150, 2009
