Most opportunistic-type models of political business cycles tend to posit a given objective for incumbents: maximisation of re-election chances. Though taking an opportunistic view too, we suggest a new explanation for a fiscal policy cycle: the incumbent’s concern with her own welfare in...

Using an urban land use model in which jobs and residences are spatially dispersed and mixed, we treat the general equilibrium of land, labor and product markets and the trade-off between labor supply, commuting and discretionary travel. We show that the decentralization of population and of...

Housing costs comprise a major part of most household budgets. Larger households require greater space than do smaller households but do not necessarily have larger incomes. The cost of extra housing space (e.g. the cost of an extra bedroom) may vary across different locations, both absolutely...

Recent empirical evidence, from countries in the European Union in particular, are much more ambiguous on the costs savings from private production of local public services than previous literature used to be. In this paper, an explanatory model of factors driving costs in solid waste collection...

In this paper we analyse whether collusion exists in the Dutch waste collection market, which shows a high degree of concentration. Although scale effects might be in accordance with this market outcome, the question is whether this concentration is in fact a result of fair competition. Using...

IT SEEMS APPROPRIATE TO ASK WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT INFORMATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BEFORE ONE SETS OUT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION OF HOW INVESTMENTS IN INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE SHOULD BE VALUED AND REGULATED.THIS PROJECT THEREFORE DISCUSSES THE THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONCEPTS UNDERLYING...

The richer a country, the higher its expenditure on health care. The increase in health spending which compared to the overall growth had taken place at a rather rapid pace experienced a worldwide slow-down during the 90s. In relation to overall economic growth and the expansion of other...

There are both positive and negative aspects to liberalisation policies.Liberalisation policies are no less important than any other kind of economic policies, and so it can only be healthy that what was formerly an obscure and technocratic process has moved to centre-stage politically. What’s...

The central purpose of this paper is to examine vertical integration as an equilibrium phenomenon. We model it as integration between Cournot oligopolists in both the upstream and the downstream stages. We consider the issue of private profitability versus collective profitability and show that...

On the basis of models I developed to simulate mathematical relationships between external debt and fiscal and balance of payments variables my thesis evaluates whether debt cancellation will overcome the debt overhang and crowding out effects of external debt and allow Severely Indebted Low...