In a recent article Davidson, Lawrence and Wilson propose a model showing that, in the presence of distortionary taxations and goods of different quality, tax evasion can be an optimal device. Here, we show that this result, although quite interesting, cannot be generalised to a framework where...

This paper examines the effects that tax evasion has on the cost to produce goods and service in an environment where input prices are homogenously taxes, but evasion is intersectorially differentiated. Tax evasion raises the relative cost of producing goods and services in the sectors where...

We use a unique dataset to estimate the hedonic price function for the Italian red wine sold on the Italian market in the period 2006-2008.

The literature on public goods provision has experienced a significant increase since Samuelson's (1954) paper. The common goal is to make the model more suitable to describe a more general class of non-rival goods. However, there does not seem to be a consensus in the literature on the form of...

In this note we explore the welfare properties of the cost effectiveness criterion as an instrument to improve the appropriateness of health care. We show that such instrument is optimal only under specific assumptions relating to the shape of the welfare function and the utility of health care.

In some countries reforms of public service provision have been accompanied by a parallel process of devolution. However, the application of fiscal federalism has not always produced the desired effects. We argue that this result may depend on two factors: a) a lack of coordination causing a...

In this paper, the use of delay as a tool to improve income redistribution is examined. We assume that people with the highest opportunity cost of waiting address their demand to the private market; if these, as we assume, are the ones at the higher end of the income distribution, they...

In the recent past some forms of risk sharing agreements have been used in some countries in drug pricing. In this note we present a specific risk sharing agreement on effectiveness and show how such mechanism is going to affect the market in the long run. In particular, we will show how the...

Public service provision has undergone a significant process of reform through the reduction of vertical integration in its supply and the introduction of competition. The aim of these reforms is to increase efficiency and ultimately to improve welfare, but these goals can be reached only if the...

The traditional theory for fiscal federalism assumes that the lower tier is more efficient in producing local public goods because of information asymmetry, while on the finance side Central Government might be more efficient in raising resources that can be redistributed through grants-in-aid....