When productivity is fostered by an individual's own human capital as well as by the economy-wide average level of human capital, individuals under-invest in human capital. The provision of subsidies for the formation of human capital, conditional on the subsidy being self-financed by tax...

We calculate the equilibrium fraction of cooperators in a population in which payoffs accrue from playing a single-shot prisoner's dilemma game. Individuals who are hardwired as cooperators or defectors are randomly matched into pairs, and cooperators are able to perfectly find out the type of a...

Bivariate time series data often show strong relationships between the two components, while both individual variables can be approximated by random walks in the short run and are obviously bounded in the long run. Three model classes are considered for a time-series model selection problem:...

In systems of variables with a specified or already identified cointegrating rank, stationarity of component variates can be tested by a simple restriction test. The implied decision is often in conflict with the outcome of unit root tests on the same variables. Using a framework of Bayes...

Quite often established migrants offer assistance and support that facilitate the arrival of new migrants. Why would migrants want other migrants to join them - so much so as to be willing to pay for them to come? We suggest a rationale. Our modeling framework is capable of explaining several...

Our main message is that it is optimal to use less coal and more oil once one takes account of coal being a backstop which emits much more CO2 than oil. The way of achieving this is to have a steeply rising carbon tax during the initial oil-only phase, a less-steeply rising carbon tax during the...

Democratic societies are challenged by various violent and organized groups, be they terrorists, gangs or organized hooligans. In exchange for offering an identity, leaders in such groups typically require members to be violent. We introduce a simple model to capture these stylized facts, and...

Katz and Rapoport (2005) conclude that with linear production technology and the possibility of unilateral migration, region-specific shocks may increase the average level of education. Previously, Poutvaara (2000) derived a corresponding result with Cobb-Douglas technology and migration which...

We argue that anticorruption laws may provide an efficiency rationale for why political parties should meddle in the distribution of political nominations and government contracts. Anticorruption laws forbid trade in spoils that politicians distribute. However, citizens may pay for gaining...