Ng & Ng (2003) provide a qualified support for Buchanan's (1991, 1994) hypothesis on work ethics by showing that a decrease in preference for leisure (a higher work ethics) by an individual benefits her trading partners by improving the terms of trade of the latter. Moreover, the higher the...

A perfect-competition model is developed to analyze duality in specialization and technology such as in the men¡¯s clothing industry, an industry with highly seasonal nature of the business cycle. We show that when the market fluctuation is large enough, some firms will specialize in one...

It is well-known that if the required number of military personnel is large, paying the soldiers their hire may involve very high taxes. While conscription involves the inefficiency and unfairness of violating free choice, it may save significant distortionary costs of taxation. It is not...

In an imperfectly competitive economy, a continuum of equilibria at the firm level exists under certain analytical conditions (Ng 1986). Extending the earlier analysis of a representative firm, this paper shows that even if the condition for a continuum of equilibria is not exactly satisfied,...

This paper investigates the relationship between economic reforms and constitutional transition, which has been neglected by many transition economists. It is argued that assessment of reform performance might be very misleading if it is not recognized that economic reforms are just a small part...

This paper develops a general equilibrium model with transaction costs and endogenous and exogenous comparative advantages. The governments are allowed to choose between tariff war, tariff negotiation, and a {\it laissez faire} regime. It shows that the level of the division of labor and trade...