We characterize the incentive compatible allocation that maximizes the expected social surplus in a single-unit sale when the efficient allocation is not implementable. This allocation may involve no selling when it is efficient to sell. We then show that the English auction always implements...

In this paper, we characterize situations where licensing an innovation to a rival firm using two-part tariff contracts (a fixed fee plus a linear per unit of output royalty) reduces social welfare. We show that it occurs if and only if i) the goods are close enough substitutes, ii) the...

This paper theoretically and experimentally explores a fixed price mechanism inwhich, if aggregate demand exceeds supply, bidders are proportionally rationed. Ifdemand is uncertain, in equilibrium bidders overstate their true demand in order toalleviate the effects of being rationed. This effect...

We analyze the problem of selling shares of a divisible good to a large number of buyers when demand is uncertain. We characterize equilibria of two popular mechanisms, a fixed price mechanism and a uniform price auction, and compare the revenues. While in the auction truthful bidding is a...

In this paper, we endogenize the decision of a research laboratory that owns a patented process innovation on whether to remain independent as an external patentee or to merge with a manufacturing firm, becoming an internal to the industry patentee. We show that a merger is profitable only for...

Public services provision depends on tax proceeds. The tax rate to finance public school is chosen through majority voting. Under the monotonicity condition implying that the preferred tax rate is decreasing in income, the literature predicts that the median voter is decisive and poor agents...

This paper addresses the incorporation of in-kind public transfers in the studies on income and welfare distribution. More precisely, we focus on the analysis of the effect the inclusion of public education has on income distribution. Therefore, we've added the estimated value of public...

The literature on vouchers often concludes that a voucher-based system cannot be the outcome of a majority vote. This paper shows that it is possible to propose selective vouchers (of exogenous value) such that the majority of voters are in favour of selective vouchers. As long as the...

The stationary sunspot equilibria of a simple OLG economy with heterogeneous agents areconsidered. These equilibria are known to be suboptimal. The focus of the paper is on the efficacy,based on welfare economic considerations and informational requirements, of government policy insuch an...

We consider allocation problems with indivisible goods when agents’ preferences are single-peaked. Two natural procedures (up methods and temporary satisfaction methods) are proposed to solve these problems. They are constructed by using priority methods on the cartesian product of agents and...