This paper opens a series of discussion papers which report about the findings of a research project within the Phare-ACE Programme of the European Union. We, a group of Bulgarian, German, Greek, Polish and Scottish economists and agricultural economists, undertake this research to provide An...

In socialist economies firms have provided various social benefits, like child care, health care, food subsidies, housing etc. Using panel data from Bulgarian and Polish firms, this paper attempts to explain firm-specific provision of social benefits in the process of transition. We investigate...

The value concept of traditional resource economics is welfare. Therefore,sustainability of welfare is often taken to characterise our obligations to future generations. This paper argues that this view is inappropriate because it leaves no room for futuregenerations autonomy. Future generations...

In modern political philosophy social contract theory is the most prominentapproach to individual rights and fair institutions. According to social contract theory thesystem of rights in a society ought to be justified by reconstructing its basic features as acontract between the mutually...

The paper is an enquiry into dynamic social contract theory. The social contractdefines the rules of resource use. An intergenerational social contract in an economy with asingle exhaustible resource is examined within a framework of an overlapping generationsmodel. It is assumed that new...

The concepts of food deficit, hunger, undernourishment and food security arediscussed. Axioms and indices for the assessment of nutrition of individuals and groups aresuggested. Furthermore a measure for food aid donor performance is developed and applied toa sample of bilateral and multilateral...

Of Rawls's two principles of justice only the second has received attention fromeconomists. The second principle is concerned with the social and economic conditions in a just society. The first principle, however, has largely been neglected. It claims, that all people in society should have...