We estimate auto accident externalities (more specifically insurance externalities) using panel data on state-average insurance premiums and loss costs. Externalities appear to be substantial in traffic dense states: in California, for example, we find that a typical additional driver increases...

Presents a complete and detailed constitutional framework applying the rational self-interest model and market mechanisms to intra and inter- governmental behaviour and collective decisions. In particular, the paper presents an enabling mechanism for the creation, adjustment and dissolution of...

In an endogenous-growth model, we consider alternative ways of providing public capital using distortionary taxes. We show that if the government provides the good, the resulting growth rate and welfare may or may not be higher than under laissez-faire. By contrast, if the government subsidizes...

The setting of user prices for enterprises with large fixed costs and marginal costs below average costs – “natural monopolies” – raises important policy questions regarding both efficiency and equity. It has become well accepted among economists that, in a variety of settings, welfare...

This paper uses panel data from 1989 to 1995 on blue-collar workers in Finnish manufacturing industries and their establishments to assess the extent to which hours of work are affected by individual or establishment characteristics - observed as well as unobserved. We argue that recent research...

This paper looks at the history of money and its modern form from a scientific and mathematical point of view. The approach here is to emphasize simplicity. A straightforward model and algebraic formula for a large economy analogous to the ideal gas law of thermodynamics is proposed. It may be...

This paper examines why some transitions are more successful than others by focusing attention on the role of productive, protective and predatory behaviors from the perspective of the new institutional economics. Many transition economies are characterized by a fundamental inconsistency between...

There is a general misconception on the impact of marginal tax rates. Following the hypothesis of optimising economic agents, it is proper that marginal rates enter the discussion. The only issue is that the margin mu= st be computed correctly. In dynamics, one must take account of the fact tha=...

The tax wedge makes for a higher gross minimum wage, and a wedge comes about more likely when tax exemption is adjusted for inflation only. Due to curvature, the wedge comes closer to its limit value for already low levels of productivity growth. Thus, the negative effects of the wedge occur...

In high income countries, the agricultural sector, like the telecommunications sector, includes well established interests and complex government subsidy and credit policies. Reform in the telecommunications sector greatly affects the leading edge of the economy, and thus job creation, income...