A substantial literature examines second-best environmental policy, focusingparticularly on how the Pigouvian directive that marginal taxes should equalmarginal external harms needs to be modified in light of the preexistingdistortion due to labor income taxation. Additional literature is...

We analyze the effects of free trade on environmental policies in a strategic setting withtransboundary pollution. Trade liberalization can result in a race to the bottom in environmentaloutcomes, making both countries worse off. With command and control policies(quotas), there is no race to the...

We study environmental policy for a polluting firmthat can invest in extracapacity. The optimal levels of allowed output as well as the tax rate are increasingin investment. With divisible investment, commitment always leads to the first best,under direct regulation and taxation. Time-consistent...

Environmental policy often has to be devised under informational constraints,like uncertainty and asymmetric information. We consider an environmentalpolicy that aims at reducing the welfare losses caused by asymmetricinformation while being sufficiently simple for implementation. Inthis policy,...

The contributory infringement rule assesses liability to a third party that contributes tothe infringement of a patent. Not only are firms that directly infringe liable, those whoindirectly contribute are also liable. We investigate how this rule affects the creation of anetwork of members...

The literature on new goods and social welfare generally assumes thatmanufacturers develop innovations. But innovation by users has been foundto also be an important part of innovative activity in the economy. In this Paperwe explore the impact of users as a source of innovation on product...

Scotchmer and Wooders (1987) show that efficient clubs are homogeneouswhen consumers are divisible in Berglas’s (1976) anonymouscrowding model. However, if consumers are not divisible or ifclubs have multiple facilities with economies of scope, mixed clubs areefficient. In such a model, we...

We review a large body of literature dealing with the effects of Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) on economies during their transformation from a command economic systemtoward a market system. We report the results of a meta-analysis based on the literatureon externalities from FDI. The studies on...

This paper provides a systematic welfare-based approach to analyze the impact of non-tariffmeasures (NTMs) on trade and welfare in presence of market imperfections. We focus onstandard-like measures such as technical barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary regulations.The approach overcomes the...

We present a general model of child labor that incorporates the various componentspresented in the literature as explanations for its existence. Our proposal is to mitigate thephenomenon by encouraging temporary emigration...