In this paper we present a new approach to measure the effect of infrastructures on firms’ location. We use fixed size rectangles around the roads as the unit of analysis instead of the traditional approach based on regions or municipalities. We apply this approach to Spain, which is an...

This paper analyzes the problem that an incumbent faces during the legislature when deciding how to react to popular initiatives or policy proposals coming from different sources. We argue that this potential source of electoral disadvantage that the incumbent obtains after being elected can...

This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and the size of government, both theoretically and empirically. We show that openness can increase the size of governments through two channels: (1) a terms of trade externality, whereby trade lowers the domestic cost of taxation...

Over recent years, both governments and international aid organizations have been devoting large amounts of resources to simplifying the procedures for setting up and formalizing firms. Many of these actions have focused on reducing the initial costs of setting up the firm, disregarding the more...

Registering originative business contracts allows entrepreneurs and creditors to choose, and courts to enforce market-friendly contract rules that protect innocent third parties when adjudicating disputes on subsequent contracts. This reduces information asymmetry for third parties, which...

Most economic interactions happen in a context of sequential exchange in which innocent third parties suffer information asymmetry with respect to previous originative contracts. The law reduces transaction costs by protecting these third parties but preserves some element of consent by property...

In this paper, we study how access pricing affects network competition when subscription demand is elastic and each network uses non-linear prices and can apply termination-based price discrimination. In the case of a fixed per minute termination charge, we find that a reduction of the...

We re-examine the literature on mobile termination in the presence of network externalities. Externalities arise when firms discriminate between on- and off-net calls or when subscription demand is elastic. This literature predicts that profit decreases and consumer surplus increases in...