We consider a model that provides insight into the well-known Folk theorem in economics that when the discount factor beta is sufficiently close to 1, expropriation will never occur. Although this Folk theorem is true in our model, our perspective is different. The discount factor beta often is...

Once an integral component of company-sponsored compensation schemes in many Western economies, private defined benefit (DB) pensions are in decline. For many, DB schemes (and their related healthcare liabilities, depending on the jurisdiction) have hobbled the financial wellbeing of plan...

Abstract Genericity analysis is widely used to show that desirable properties that fail in certain "knife-edge" economic situations nonetheless obtain in "typical" situations. For finite-dimensional spaces of parameters, the usual notion of genericity is full Lebesgue measure. For infinite...

Fifteen years ago, I found it easy to be in favor of international capital mobility — the free flow of investment financing from one country to another. Then it was easy to preach for an end to all systems of controls on capital that hindered this flow. Now it is harder.

Crowding-out during the British Industrial Revolution has long been one of the leading explanations for slow growth during the Industrial Revolution, but little empirical evidence exists to support it. We argue that examinations of interest rates are fundamentally misguided, and that the...

The build-operate-transfer (BOT) approach for developing infrastructure projects is a technique that allows fast realization of public works in cases of a shortage of public funds. This process is full of risks, due mainly to the complexity and extend of the disciplines, public agencies and...