In addition to supervision costs, the labor cost of an enterprise (plantation) in the system of slavery consists of the cost of acquiring the slaves and the subsistence compensation given out to the slaves. In this paper, we leave aside the issue of supervision costs previously taken up in the...

Using unpublished data contained in samples from the manuscripts of the 1870 and 1880 censuses of manufactures¾the earliest comprehensive estimates available¾ this study examines the extent and correlates of part-year manufacturing during the late 19th century. While the typical manufacturing...

The existence of cooperation and social order among genetically unrelated individuals is a fundamental problem in the behavioural sciences. The prevailing approaches in biology and economics view cooperation exclusively as self-interested behaviour— unrelated individuals cooperate only if they...

Tipping is a phenomenon that illustrates the importance of social norms and psychological reasons in motivating economic behavior. People tip because this is the social norm and disobeying norms results in psychological disutility. Tipping is also economically important: in the United States...

The social consequences of restructuring can largely be understood in terms of the net employment impact and the imapct on government expenditures and revenues. When restructuring entails unemployment, government expenditure can mitigate the financial costs faced by those losing jobs at the...

This report examines the employment structure and structural change (1986-1999) of Vietnam, discusses Vietnam's labour market regulations and examines how Vietnam's labour markets could become more efficient. Vietnam’s labour policies remain focused on control of state enterprises: who they...

Human cooperation is an evolutionary puzzle. Unlike other creatures, people frequently cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers, often in large groups, with people they will never meet again, and when reputation gains are small or absent. These patterns of cooperation cannot be explained...

This paper provides strong evidence challenging the self-interest assumption that dominates the behavioral sciences and much evolutionary thinking. The evidence indicates that many people have a tendency to voluntarily cooperate, if treated fairly, and to punish non-cooperators. We call this...