This paper exploits data on the pattern of violence across regionsand over time to estimate the impact of the peace process in NorthernIreland on house prices. We begin with a linear model that estimatesthe average treatment effect of a conflict-related killing on house prices-showing a negative...

We consider a two-person Cournot game of voluntary contributions to a public good with identicalindividual preferences, and examine equilibrium aggregate welfare under a separable, symmetric andconcave social welfare function. Assuming the public good is pure, Itaya, de Meza and Myles...

Am Abend des 30. Oktober 1938 löste eine Radiosendung in den USA eine Massenhysterie aus (vgl. Wells 1974: 342). Das Hörspiel Krieg der Welten wurde von ca. sechs Millionen Menschen verfolgt, zwei Millionen von ihnen glaubten, die Sendung basiere auf aktuellen Geschehnissen. Die darauf...

Recent organizational theories suggest that there is a tradeoff between loyalty and competence. This paper tests several such theories in the context of public agencies. Prime ministers, chancellors, and kings alike need to secure the (efficient or inefficient) loyalty of their agencies, such as...

We study a model where two parties, one from the left and one from the right, compete forposition. The election is to be held in the near future and the outcome is uncertain. Prior to theelection, the members of both parties nominate their prime ministerial candidates. Investorscare about the...

This paper reviews some issues relevant to the delivery of public services. Itreviews some of the debates and flags some issues that are significantworldwide, especially in Africa. It emphasises how the debate has movedalong in terms of defining the relative responsibilities of the public...

Epistemic arguments play a significant role in Hayek’s defense of market liberalism. Hisclaim that market competition is a discovery procedure that serves the common good is acase in point. The hypothesis of the markets’ efficient use of existing knowledge issupplemented by the idea that...

Several countries have recently abolished or significantly reduced their taxes on bequests.Bequest taxes, on the other hand, were among the first to be introduced when modernsystems of taxation were developed at the end of the nineteenth century. We propose anexplanation for these facts which is...

We construct a simple political economy model with imperfect capital markets to explain infrastructure investements across Indian states. The model predicts that: i) the fixed cost of accessing the modern sector, ii) the initial stock of infrastructure, iii) median voter weath, and iv)...

This paper constructs a dynamic analysis of the growth and distribution models of Das and Ghate (2004) and Alesina and Rodrik (1994) when leisure is valued by agents. When leisure enters the utility function, we show that the tax rate on capital income chosen in a political equilibrium is lower...