Economic evaluation of projects involving changes in mortality risk conventionally assumesthat lives are statistical, i.e., that risks and policy-induced changes in risk are small andsimilar among a population. In reality, baseline mortality risks and policy-induced changes inrisk often differ...

We analyze the design of optimal environmental policy when environmentaldamage is uncertain and investments in abatement technologies are irreversible. Weassume that the investment in the new abatement technology can be used for twoperiods and that the true extent of environmental damage will...

We are considering for examination an Irreversible Investment under Uncertainty, subsidizedby the government. If the government announces the termination of a form of subsidization,investors may decide to realize their investment in order to obtain the subsidy. These investors mighthave...

We discuss political economy mechanisms which can explain the resource curse,in which an increase in the size of resource rents causes a decrease in the economy’stotal value added. We identify a number of channels through which resource rentswill alter the incentives of a political leader....

The extinction of genetic resources as a consequence of land development, especially in ‘biodiversity hot spots’like rain forests in South America or South East Asia, is becoming a serious problem - not only for local communitiesbut also for international firms in the pharmaceutical...

In enhanced annuities, the annuity payment depends on one's state ofhealth at some contracted date while in "standard annuities", it does not.The focus of this paper is on an annuity market where "standard" and en-hanced annuities are oered simultaneously. When all insured know equallywell on...

We study trade patterns in a pure exchange economy where preferences are symmetric up to taste intensity parameters. In a 2-person, 2-good endowment economy, then all endowments in a particular Edgeworth box rectangle require trading out of that rectangle. Under strictly quasi-concave...

Proposals are often made to tax goods which are environmentally damaging. Manysuch goods are consumed both directly by households and industry at large: for example,carbon-intensive fuel, waste water or congested road space. This paper adopts a tax-reformsetting to evaluate such a policy. The...

In practice, central banks have been confronted with a trade-off between stabilising inflation and output when dealing with rising oil prices. This contrasts with the result in the standard New Keynesian model that ensuring complete price stability is the optimal thing to do, even when an oil...