Recent experience shows that under certain conditions it can be assumed that demand for luxury goods is partly abnormal. To tackle the problem whether they can and should be taxed we (a) show that a positive slope of demand is possible by distinguishing snob and network benefits, (b) demonstrate...

Bei aller Hysterie, die sich an Begriffen wie "Klimakatastrophe" festmachen laesst und die aktuell fast schon zu Bestandteilen des Glaubensbekenntnis mutieren, ist es fuer Oekonomen, die sich mit Umwelt und Umweltguetern beschaeftigen, umso wichtiger, nuechtern, abgewogen und rational zu...

Merging the impacts of interest groups on economic growth with governments' interest in unemployment and inflation, there should be a link between political business cycles and interest group formation. Interpreting Olson's Law in a short-run perspective and integrating it with political...

Studies on EU enlargement mostly focus on its welfare-economic and much less so on its public-choice dimension. Yet, the latter may be as important as the former when it comes to sustain integration. This paper aims at filling the gap by exploring theoretically and empirically how enlargement of...

Studies on EU enlargement mostly focus on its welfare-economic and much less so on its public-choice dimension. Yet, the latter may be as important as the former when it comes to sustain integration. This paper aims at filling the gap by exploring theoretically and empirically how enlargement of...

The nexus between income and happiness is very much disputed. Many cross-sectional studies see a positive relationship, most longitudinal studies don’t. Starting from the fact that the theoretical basis in happiness research has been comparatively weak, we develop a model that identifies...

<title>Abstract</title> We discuss the economic aspects of fairness defined here in the benchmark case as equality of producer and consumer rents. We show that there are significant differences considering private and public goods, especially with regard to a potential self-damaging of the initially...