Child care and housing programs in the U.S. are marked by quality homogeneity, restricted eligibility, rationing, and co-payments that increase as recipients' income rise. Why? I show that these programs can best be explained as attempts to reduce the child care or housing 'poverty gaps',...

Majority rule resolves noncontractible uncertainty efficiently for issues where all players' stakes are expected to be about the same; dictatorship is efficient when one player's stake is much higher than any other players'. In general, weighted voting schemes where weights depend positively on...