Under court rulings, the jurisdiction can require the developer to bear only those public-sector costs that relate reasonably to his project. To avoid a lawsuit by the developer over cost estimates, planners can offer him his choice of sets of conditions that would attach to land-use permits....

Longer patents to small inventors may accelerate genetic research with distant payoffs by assuaging their fears that a large, low-cost rival would quickly appropriate profits.

The paper models and tests the hypothesis that a self-interested policymaker will pursue projects that create jobs now at the environmental expense of future generations. An optimal-control model shows that jurisdictions are most likely to pursue such a project when they are characterized by low...

Patenting may speed up genetic research when small inventors face high research and development costs and also face large rivals that produce at declining marginal costs. Even with patents, however, small inventors may turn down socially beneficial projects when they believe that R&D spending...

Planners wish to avoid a lawsuit by the developer over their cost estimates of the public works required by his project. To avoid a suit, they can offer him his choice of several sets of conditions that would attach to land-use permits. In computer simulations of five such short- and long-term...

An optimal control model shows how a jurisdiction can tax tourists in a<BR> way that maximizes its revenues net of its costs in serving tourists: By<BR> relating its tax rate to its popularity with tourists. When its<BR> popularity waxes, it should raise the tax rate; when its popularity<BR> wanes, it should...

The self-interested ruler will not name a successor. Instead, he will prefer to rely on a tacit rule of succession, in which longevity confers legitimacy. [JEL D72, D81]

A woman may choose to become more educated, partly because she wishes to emulate those around her. A behavioral model suggests that she is less likely to lose her baby than the less educated by flouting basic rules of health. Estimates of a three-equation model suggest that low-weight births are...

The number of severe cases of cholera may rise linearly with the number of mild cases. [JEL I12]

In theory, employees may secure lasting employment if they have worked a long time early in their careers. [JEL J64]