In this paper we will seek to provide a political economy explanation for the government issuance of indexed bonds. We will show that the issuance of nominal bonds decreases inflation whenever the bondholders' constituency is stronger than the taxpayers' constituency. We then assume that public...

Patenting is a most common strategies to protect and commercially exploit innovations. Patented inventions could be licensed on the market, and its use allowed to interested parties at a price. Therefore, many organizations have to form desirable combinations of licenses, to perform efficiently...

A main issue in auction and contest design is how to attract the appropriate pool of potential bidders to enter and compete aggressively. In all-pay auctions with complete information (Baye at al, 1993 AER) formulated the so called “Exclusion Principle” showing that when the auctioneer...

Epidemic, infectious, diseases are a major concern worldwide. Globalization, easy transportation, increased population and climate change all can contribute to their diffusion and persistence in large communities. Based on established knowledge on epidemic diffusion processes, the paper poses...

In recent years neglected diseases attracted much attention. In particular, a debate has developed on which incentive scheme could be more effective to stimulate R&D investments, by pharmaceutical companies, to treat such diseases. The debate took place in conferences, academic journals, reports...

In the Italian Football League rights to a player’s performance could be co-owned by two clubs for one year. Co-ownership must then be resolved and if the clubs fail finding an agreement they are asked by the League to participate to an auction, where each of them submits a price offer for the...

According to the Lisbon Strategy innovation is considered to be a fundamental element for socio-economic growth in the EU. In particular, since it is estimated to count for about 16-18% of the European GDP, public procurement can be a driving force for this. To support this role in 2007 the EC...

The paper introduces Knightian uncertainty, formalized by non-additive probabilities, within a simple agency model. The framework appears to be suitable to deal with issues like delegation in innovative firms. The paper stresses that, with Knightian uncertainty, if the principal is pessimistic...