Showing 1 - 10 of 2,550
We argue that the intrinsic inefficiency of proprietary software has historically created a space for alternative institutions that provide software as a public good. We discuss several sources of such inefficiency, focusing on one that has not been described in the literature: the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012463702
Can rational choice modeling explain why Hamas, Taliban, Hezbollah and other radical religious rebels are so lethal? The literature rejects theological explanations. We propose a club framework, which emphasizes the function of voluntary religious organizations as efficient providers of local...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012464922
In this paper, we consider a number of issues regarding crime prevention and criminal justice. We begin by considering how crime is measured and present both general and specific evidence on the level of crime in a variety of countries. Crime is pervasive and varies substantially across...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012470520
We try to demonstrate how economists may engage in research on comparative politics, relating the size and composition of government spending to the political system. A Downsian model of electoral competition and forward-looking voting indicates that majoritarian -- as opposed to proportional --...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012471964
This paper shows that smaller countries have larger public sectors as a share of GDP, and are also more open to trade. These empirical observations are consistent with recent theoretical models explaining country formation and break up
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012472793
This paper analyzes the importance of local interaction between individuals of different linguistic groups for the provision of public goods at the national level. The micro-founded conceptual framework we develop predicts that a country's public goods (i) decrease in its overall linguistic...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012453026
expected. International public goods are particularly challenging because of the strong asymmetries among nations. We identify … critical international public good. Having examined the Nordhaus Climate Club proposal, we test the Alliance/Nash Equilibrium …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012456435
Feeding the world's growing population is one of the most critical policy challenges for the 21st century. With … promising path meet the nutrient needs for future generations. At the same time, the increasing variability in the world …, there is an active discussion on the returns to public and private spending in agricultural R&D, and many of the world …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012481664
This paper seeks to better understand the historical origins of current differences in norms and beliefs about the appropriate role of women in society. We test the hypothesis that traditional agricultural practices influenced the historical gender division of labor and the evolution and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012461559
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013395322