It is well-known that if the required number of military personnel is large, paying the soldiers their hire may involve very high taxes. While conscription involves the inefficiency and unfairness of violating free choice, it may save significant distortionary costs of taxation. It is not...

Ng & Ng (2003) provide a qualified support for Buchanan's (1991, 1994) hypothesis on work ethics by showing that a decrease in preference for leisure (a higher work ethics) by an individual benefits her trading partners by improving the terms of trade of the latter. Moreover, the higher the...

The Chinese government has been active in trying to cool the alleged bubbles in its housing markets, especially in urban areas. This paper argues that the high housing prices are at least partly caused by some real factors, including the policy of restricting land uses, in particular the...

The Chinese government has been active in trying to cool the alleged bubbles in its housing markets, especially in urban areas. This paper argues that the high housing prices are partly caused by some real factors, including the policy of restricting land uses, in particular the maintenance of a...

The analysis of economies of specialization at the individual level by Yang & Shi (1992) and Yang & Ng (1993) is combined with the Dixit & Stiglitz (1977) analysis of monopolistic-competitive firms to show that, ignoring administrative costs and indirect effects (such as rent-seeking), even if...