Real-world decision-makers are forced to be locally constructive, in the sense that their actions are constrained by the interaction networks, limited information, and computational capabilities at their disposal.  This study poses the following question:  Suppose utility-seeking consumers and...

This paper shows how policies aimed at insuring health risks and those intended to improve the environment are (and should be) deeply intertwined. In the model economy, inspired by recent Chinese experience, pollution raises the likelihood of poor health in the future prompting agents to self...

In this paper, we assume away standard distributional and static-efficiency arguments for public health, and instead, seek a dynamic efficiency rationale. We study a lifecycle model wherein young agents make health investments to reduce mortality risk. We identify a welfare rationale for public...

We study a variant of the conventional keeping-up-with-the-Joneses setup in which heterogeneous-ability agents care both about consumption and leisure and receive an utility premium if their consumption exceeds that of the Joneses'. Unlike the conventional setup in which all agents are assumed...

Abstract not available

Abstract not available.

"Active Intermediation in a Monetary Overlapping Generations Economy" ( ps,297K) ( pdf,600K ), (with M. Pingle), Economic Report No. 42, Iowa State University, April 1997. Final version appears in Macroeconomic Dynamics 2 (1998), pp. 183--212. Abstract: This study demonstrates that the reason...

This paper establishes that the pro�t-seeking activities of private intermediaries can ensure Pareto e�ciency in the standard pure-exchange monetary overlapping generations economy without the need for government monetary or �scal policy intervention. Moreover, these...

This paper reports on computational experiments for an agent-based computational economics (ACE) model of a labor market with choice and refusal of contractual partners and endogenously evolving work-site behaviors. Three types of labor market structures are examined: two-sided markets...