Uncertainties and risks in the decision making process are abundant in the area of environmental economics, irrespective of whether the problems being discussed are local or global. This paper uses laboratory evidence from public goods games to examine how in payoff equivalent situations,...

This paper examines the choice of government expenditure on public goods and transfer payments (in the form of pension) under majority voting in an overlapping generations model, in which government expenditure is tax-?nanced on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis. The condition required for majority...

Punishing free riders might promote cooperation, but it can also lead to feuds. We use a public good game with punishment opportunities to investigate whether the threat of feuds is e¢ ciency enhancing. Treatments di¤er with respect to whether a punish- ment can trigger a feud. In the main...

We extend the simple model of voluntary public good provision to allow for two or more public goods, and explore the new possibilities that arise in this setting. We show that, when there are many public goods, voluntary contribution equilibrium typically generates, not only too low a level of...

This paper examines take-up rates in a simple model in which there is a single means-tested benefit involving a 'taper rate' at which benefits are withdrawn as earnings increase. There is a fixed cost of applying for benefits. The model involves a joint decision regarding both labour supply and...

This paper considers the question whether it is possible, using information about only the distribution of earnings, to identify some of the labour supply incentive effects of a tax and transfer system.

A number of recent papers have employed the BDS test as a general test for mis-specification for linear and nonlinear models. We show that for a particular class of conditionally heteroscedastic models, the BDS test is unable to detect a common mis-specification. Our results also demonstrate...

Evidence from most developing countries suggest that parents have a preference for sons over daughters. This is know as son preference. This paper uses individual level unit record data to test the son preference hypothesis in South Africa. We use an accelerated hazard model to estimate the...