The management of interference has been, and still is, the main concern in spectrum policy. Historically, interference has been dealt with by heavy regulation under an administrative control regime. Over the last decades, a new approach has been put forward based on users' “property rights,”...

We investigate the conditions for the desirability of exclusive intellectual property rights for innovators, as opposed to weak rights allowing for some degree of imitation and ex-post competition. The comparison between the two alternatives reduces to a specific "ratio test," which suggests...

Over the last 40 years, much attention has been paid to tax compliance, both theoretically and empirically. In treating this very broad field of research, the present survey focuses on enforcement policy

This paper develops an original mean-variance model able to capture the disposition of the parties towards both standard risk and ambiguity. Ambiguity arises when the causal link between conduct and harm is not univocal, as is frequently the case with toxic torts. Risk aversion and ambiguity...

The paper investigates the optimal scope of trade secrets law. In the model, one innovative firm invests resources first to produce knowledge, and then to protect it from unwanted disclosure. A rival firm invests to ferret out this knowledge. Trade secrets law affects this "secrecy contest" by...

This paper investigates cases in which harms are statistically correlated. When parties are risk averse, correlation plays an important role in the choice between liability rules. Specifically, positively correlated harms favor a liability rule that spreads the risk over a multitude of parties,...

This paper investigates the case in which the benefits and the costs of prevention are subject to uncertainty. Prevention measures are taken after uncertainty has unraveled. The conventional policy prescribes that prevention measures are taken up to the point in which the realized marginal cost...

The standardisation of trade secret protection was one of the goals of the TRIPs Agreement of 1998. Nevertheless, substantial differences in this protection remain across jurisdictions. When defining the optimal scope of trade secrets law, lawmakers should be aware that strong trade secret...

This paper extends the literature on tax amnesties by considering two special grace programmes. The first is an offer by the government not to investigate taxpayers' accounts, the second not to prosecute indicted evaders. I analyse the impact of both measures on the taxpayers' optimal behavior...

This essay offers an overview of the theoretical and empirical research on tax evasion, delineating the variety of factors affecting noncompliance and examining possible remedies. Particular emphasis is placed on the institutional and procedural rules governing the tax enforcement policy.Revised...