In the recent economic literature the independence of the central bank is often considered to be one of the most effective guarantees to archieve price stability. A strong theoretical basis of this proposition is that the monetary policy delegation given to an independent central bank is an...

In this paper we analyze the optimal regulation of an internationally integrated monopolist, producing in one country and selling in another country. The monopolist’s pricing policy is constrained by transfer pricing regulations, and is subject to different tax rates on profits in the two...

In this paper we analyze how the presence of loyal versus variety seeking consumers affects manufacturers’ package decisions. Package decisions relate to the price of the package, the quantity of the commodity it contains, and the number of different varieties in it. We first study the optimal...

In this paper we model competition between two publicly financed and identical universities deciding on quality and on admission standards. The education offered by the two universities is differentiated horizontally and vertically. If horizontal differentiation dominates, the Nash equilibrium...

This paper will be focused on two issues. Firstly, entrepreneurial innovative behaviour will be explained and, investigating the corresponding literature, it will also be concluded that innovation can reasonably be explained by patent behaviour. Secondly, because of the essential role of R&D...

This paper analyzes corporatism in a two-player game which integrates macroeconomic stabilization policy and a policy of social transfers. The government decides on the level of nominal social transfers, and the trade union decides on the nominal wage level. A central finding is that if one...

The paper considers a public authority wishing to carry out a major public project. As a result of competitive bidding the project is assigned to the firm with the lowest bid. The cost of the project is uncertain in the sense that it can be low or high. After the bidding process the firm...

We study duopolistic pricing by ports that are congestible, share the same overseas customers and have each a downstream, congestible transport network to a common hinterland. In the central set-up, local (country) governments care about local welfare only and decide on the capacity of the port...

It has frequently been noted in the wage bargaining literature that increasing average labour taxes may in fact be over-shifted in the pre-tax wage that is negotiated between unions and firms, raising workers post-tax wages. In this paper, we study the precise conditions for such tax...