This paper explores the role of testing in models of asymmetric information. The authors demonstrate conditions under which testing for underlying characteristics can overcome adverse selection problems and lead to a full-information competitive equilibrium. This paper provides a more general...

In March 2004, following a five-year investigation, the European Commission found Microsoft liable for illegally tying the Windows Media Player to the Windows operating system. This Column evaluates the antitrust issues and the proposed remedy. What is remarkable is that the remedy eliminates...

A celebrated result of D. Black (1948) demonstrates the existence of a simple-majority winner when preferences are single-peaked. This paper provides a multidimensional analog of Black's median voter result. The authors provide conditions under which the mean voter's most preferred outcome is...

Pensions influence retirement decisions. The analysis provides a framework for assessing the phenomenon. The qualitative features of most defined benefit pension plans in the United States, as the first section demonstrates, can be used to induce optimal retirement choices. Pensions are viewed...

We present a model of the labor market with asymmetric information in which the equilibrium of the' market generates unemployment and job queues so that wages may serve as an effective screening device. This happens because more productive workers -- within any group of individuals with a given...

I will focus my attention on one aspect of Einer Elhauge's presentation, namely the effect of price discrimination via metering and tying on consumer welfare and total welfare

In this paper we look at the case for bundling in an oligopolistic environment. We show that bundling is a particularly effective entry-deterrent strategy. A company that has market power in two goods, A and B , can, by bundling them together, make it harder for a rival with only one of these...