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Flexible majority rules
Erlenmaier, Ulrich; Gersbach, Hans - 2001
In this paper we introduce flexible majority decision rules where the size of the majority depends on the proposal made by the agenda setter. Flexible majority rules can mitigate the disadvantages of democracies in the provision of public projects. In many cases, the combination of the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011398428
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Tax policy and labor market performance
Bovenberg, Ary Lans - 2003
In exploring the impact of tax policy on labor-market performance, the paper first investigates how tax reform impacts labor supply and equilibrium unemployment in representative agent models. The impact of tax policy on labor market performance depends importantly on various other labor-market...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011509463
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Democratic provision of divisible public goods
Gersbach, Hans - 2010
In this paper we examine the potential of democratic constitutions for the provision of divisible public goods in a large economy. Our main insights are as follows: When aggregate shocks are absent, the combination of the following rules yields first-best allocations: a supermajority rule, equal...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10003937264
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Fiscal constitutions
Gersbach, Hans - 1999
In this paper we examine how individuals should be treated with respect to taxes, subsidies and agenda setting in constitutions in order to obtain efficient allocations of public goods and to limit tax distortions. We show that if public goods are socially desirable, the simple majority rule as...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009781718
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Soft paternalism, merit goods, and normative individualism
Kirchgässner, Gebhard - 2014
Paternalism is an attempt to influence individuals' decisions for their own benefit, even if there are no third parties involved. This seems to contradict normative individualism, which provides the general orientation to our modern democracies. Soft or libertarian paternalism accepts the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010256131
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When is voting optimal?
Ben-Yashar, Ruth; Danziger, Leif - 2014
We consider a framework where the optimal decision rule determining the collective choice depends in a simple way on the decision makers’ posterior probabilities of a particular state of nature. Nevertheless, voting is generally an inefficient way to make collective choices and this paper...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010462767
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The political economy of intergenerational cooperation
Cigno, Alessandro (contributor) - 2005
redistribution might be supported by either a constitution, or some kind of voting equilibrium. …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10003299364
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Political yardstick competition, economic integration, and constitutional choice in a federation
Bodenstein, Martin; Ursprung, Heinrich W. - 2001
This paper investigates the behavior of rent-seeking politicians in an environment of increasing economic integration. The focus of the paper is on the implications of globalization-induced political yardstick competition for constitutional design with a view to the current discussion in the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011398918
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Strategic choices for redistribution and the veil of ignorance : theory and experimental evidence
Gerber, Anke; Nicklisch, Andreas; Voigt, Stefan - 2013
We provide experimental evidence on the emergence of redistributive societies. Individuals first vote on redistribution … the time when they choose a distribution rule and find that there is more redistribution behind a veil of ignorance than … under full information. However, the scope of redistribution is less sensitive towards the degree of uncertainty than …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010192077
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Symmetric and asymmetric committees
Ben-Yashar, Ruth; Danziger, Leif - 2011
This paper studies the assignment of decision makers to two committees that make decisions by a simple majority rule. There is an even number of decision makers at each of various skill levels and each committee has an odd number of members. Surprisingly, even with the symmetric assumptions in...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009162101