Although much has been written about the implications of monopoly power for the rate of extraction of natural resources, the specific case in which the resource can be sold in two markets with different elasticities of demand has escaped notice. We find that a monopolist facing two markets with...

The increasing resistance of harmful biological organisms (bacteria, parasites, and pests) to selection pressure from the widespread use of control agents such as antibiotics, antimalarials, and pesticides is a serious problem in both medicine and agriculture. Modeling resistance —or,...

Health improvements in India, while significant, have not kept up with rapid economic growth rates. The poor in India face high out-of-pocket payments for health care, a significant burden of infectious diseases, and a rapidly increasing burden of non-communicable diseases. Against this...

We use analytical and numerical models to explain and quantify the welfare effects of subsidies for artemisinin combination treatments (ACTs), a valuable new class of antimalarial drugs. There are two (second-best) efficiency rationales for such subsidies: by expanding drug use, they reduce...

Living in malaria-endemic regions places an economic burden on households even if they do not actually suffer an episode of malaria. Households living with endemic malaria are less likely to have access to economic opportunities and may have to modify agricultural practices and other household...

In the past, malaria control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa have relied on a combination of vector control and effective treatment using chloroquine. With increasing resistance to chloroquine, attention has now turned to alternative treatment strategies to replace this failing drug. Although...

The process of acquiring an infection has two components: first, exposure through proximity to another infected individual, and second, transmission of the disease. Earlier studies of the socioeconomic factors that affect the probability of acquiring an illness assume uniform exposure to...

We consider a health authority seeking to allocate annual budgets optimally over time to minimize the discounted social cost of infection(s) evolving in a finite set of "R greater than or equal to 2" groups. This optimization problem is challenging, since as is well known, the standard...

This paper develops and implements an analytical framework for estimating the optimal levels and welfare effects of alcohol taxes and drunk-driver penalties, accounting for externalities and how policies interact with the broader fiscal system. We find that the fiscal component of the optimal...

When the application of pesticides places selective evolutionary pressure on pest populations, it can be useful to plant refuge areas—crop areas intended to encourage the breeding of pests that are susceptible to the pesticide. Renewed interest in refuge areas has arisen with recent advances...