Using a household production model of educational choices, we characterise a free market situation in which some agents ("high-wagers") educate their children full-time and spend a sizable amount of resources on them, while others ("low-wagers") educate them only partially. The free-market...

We analyse how state university competition to collect resources may a¤ect both the quality of teaching and research. By considering a set-up where two state universities behave strategically, we model their interaction with potential students as a sequential noncooperative game. We show that...

This paper deals with the earmarked taxation employed by local governments for fi…nancing public investments projects carried on with some Public-Private Partnerships con…figurations. First, we analyse the theoretical pro…files of earmarked taxation by using the tax-benefi…t approach, and...

L'obiettivo di questo articolo è quello di analizzare come la letteratura economica ha studiato le relazioni che possono instaurarsi tra istruzione, democrazia e crescita economica. La prima parte del lavoro propone una sintetica rassegna di tre filoni di ricerca che hanno esaminato...

We analyse voting on devolution of responsibilities for the provision of public goods to local governments in a federal country, with a bicameral national legislature. We suppose that devolution is a …scal reform which reduces federal public expenditure on a national public good, and...

We analyse horizontal and vertical fiscal externalities in a federal country with a bicameral national system. We show under which conditions, at equilibrium, the two chambers agree or disagree on the choice of a national tax rate.

Even if both the health and the educational sector are under the state supervision in basically all countries, there are wide differences in the mix of their public/private provision and financing across them. The debate on the proper mix between the private and the public involvement has also...

We analyse how vertical or horizontal fiscal equalization affects the overprovision of local public goods due to vertical fiscal externality, when there is tax evasion. The regional governments overspending incentive is examined both in case of a fiscal equalization based on pretax earned income...

In an economy where graduate jobs are allocated by tournament, and some of the potential participants cannot borrow against their expected future earnings, the government can increase efficiency and ex ante equity by redistributing wealth or, if that is not possible, by borrowing wholesale and...

The paper analyzes the optimal delegation and ownership structure in a setting where the owner of a firm hires a manager to run the firm and to gather information on investment projects. The initial owner has two tasks: monitoring the manager and supervising project choice. Profits depend on...