We develop a generalized theory of religious markets and apply its insights to archaic Greece, ancient Israel, and modern America. Our starting point is a simple game-theoretic model in which secular leaders enhance their power by influencing the location of sacred places. The model includes...

Purpose: Subsequent to the First World War, the French Government regulated the Champagne industry, and locked the status of protected (and excluded) grapes into the newAppellation d’Origine Contrôléesystem, forever altering the incentives and output of wine producers. The paper aims to...

An incentive-compatibility framework for regulating a monopolist with unknown costs is applied to the sponsor's problem of monitoring a bureau. Following Mueller, the bureau does not make take-it-or-leave-it budget proposals to the sponsor. Rather, the bureau must announce a marginal cost per...

Students often become frustrated with learning economics not because the economics is too hard, but because they try to grasp the economic device, model, or tool being used at the same time they try to understand the economic theory the device is designed to illuminate. As a result, the tool...

Our article empirically considers two general hypotheses related to the literature of behavioural economics. First, we test the null hypothesis that individuals behave, on average, in a manner more consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis than with the idea of self-control in the...

Purpose: Creativity and innovation are interrelated, and indeed often conflated, concepts. A corollary to this distinction is two different perspectives or types of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the distinction between creativity and innovation on...

1. Introduction: Work Hard and Play by the Rules -- 2. From Socrates to Smith: The Moral and Cultural Foundations of Economics -- 3. Just the Facts, Mammon: Modern Aspirations to Moral and Cultural Neutrality -- 4. Keynes' Revolutionary Vision: Consumer Satisfaction as Moral Crusade -- 5....