It is well-known that subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium does not eliminate incentives for joint-deviations or renegotiations. This paper presents a systematic framework for studying non-cooperative games with group incentives, and offers a notion of equilibrium that refines the Nash theory in a...

The paper studies the equilibrium size of countries. Individuals in small countries have greater influence over the nature of political decision making while individuals in large countries have the advantage of more public goods and lower tax rates. The model implies that (i) there exists...

The quality of subjective performance evaluation is dependent on the incentive structures faced by evaluators, in particular on how they are monitored and themselves evaluated. Figure skating competitions provide a unique opportunity to study subjective evaluation. This paper develops a simple...

Researchers and state policymakers have hypothesized that the elderly may move to another state to avoid paying “death” (i.e., inheritance, estate, gift) taxes. This belief may be responsible for the recent revolution in state “death” tax policy whereby 30 states have eliminated their...

A firm can merge with one of n potential partners. The owner of each firm has private information about both his firm's stand-alone value and a component of the synergies that would be realized by the merger involving his firm. We characterize incentive-efficient mechanisms in two cases. First,...

The paper analyzes calling party pays access pricing policies in a General Equilibrium two ways access charge model with consumers that choose between different telecommunication providers, and benefit from making calls to other consumers and from the calls that they receive. We obtain that...

This paper examines firms' incentive to make irreversible investments under an open access policy with stochastically growing demand. Using a simple model, we derive an access-to-bypass equilibrium. Analysis of the equilibrium confirms that the introduction of competition in network industries...

Congress enacted The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 over the protests of small business advocates who claimed that the ADA would trigger a wave of bankruptcies. Although the profitability of firms may suffer from the costs of ADA compliance, no systematic evidence is available on the...

Pharmaceutical price control has achieved attentions of policy makers in the world. Japanese pharmaceutical market provides a good case study for price control. First, the Japanese pharmaceutical market has been tightly regulated by price control. Second, the difference between the official...

This article lays down economic principles that should govern electricity transmission pricing when peak-load pricing is used to set tariffs. Transmission systems perform three different functions: to transport energy, to substitute for generation capacity, and to increase competition in the...