The Russian transition economy is best understood as a system that decriminalizes all power-seeking behaviors proscribed by textbook general competition. It is failing because the government sanctions oligopoly, monopoly, asset-grabbing, rent-seeking, elite misappropriation of state funds, the...

Most research on common property has focused upon the implications of property rights for the maximization of social product. Paul Samuelson and Martin Weitzman looked at distribution and concluded that converting common property will reduce the product received by former users of common...

The privatization process in Russia necessitates a reexamination of one of economics' most sacred tenets. Under the wrong circumstances, private property rights can become a destructive force, not the constructive force for economics growth and political stability that economists have always...

Privatization outside Eastern Europe has encountered more difficulties than are generally recognized. The firms sold by government are often endowed with market power in part because when nationalized they had been protected from competition. Consequently they are often subjected to tight...

To qualify for full membership in the Economic and Monetary Union, member states had to meet strict budget deficit and government debt convergence criteria. This study analyzes whether deficits and indebtedness in the 1990s in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece were associated with a shift from...

The higher prices on the Garden State Parkway, the Atlantic City Expressway, and the New Jersey Turnpike found in this study demonstrate that consumers face increased prices when there is a government-created monopoly for service providers at rest areas instead of vigorous competition. Prices...

The historical experience of the successful postwar reconstruction of Western Europe, which was based upon Keynesian principles, totally contradicts the policies implemented in transition economies. Those countries that opted for price level adjustments during postwar reconstruction faced major...

This paper argues that the inception of the euro itself, with its restrictive monetarist institutional structures, to an area which is in a divergent state, which has recently been widened by a process of divergence, is ample reason for long term investors, and, indeed, post-"euphoric", short...

This paper develops a model of the impact of monetary policy on the price level under a gold standard. The model is more consistent with the historical record than are previous models developed by Barro (1979) and McCallum (1989). In particular, it will be demonstrated that under a gold...