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Why Brennan and Buchanan are wrong (after all)
Apolte, Thomas - 2007
In their book The Power to Tax, Brennan and Buchanan have pointed to a central weakness of the traditional theory of … public finance and especially of the theory of optimal taxation: This approach overlooked the problem of governmental power … theory appears to be once the problem of power is considered. Nevertheless, Brennan and Buchanan's suggestions for …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010298416
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An enabling mechanism for the creation, adjustment, and dissolution of states and governmental units
Hausken, Kjell; Knutsen, John F. - In: Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal 4 (2010) 2010-32, pp. 1-38
The article proposes an enabling mechanism for the creation, adjustment and dissolution of governmental units, giving autonomy to each individual as in a direct democracy. The mechanism is designed such that Pareto optimality is possible, in contrast to earlier models which make various...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010302703
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The economic effects of federalism and decentralization : a cross-country assessment
Voigt, Stefan; Blume, Lorenz - 2009
This paper explores the idea that institutional details matter and that attempts to estimate the economic effects of federalism by employing a simple dummy variable neglect potentially important institutional details. Based on a principal component analysis, seven aspects of both federalism and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010271861
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Tullock challenges: Happiness, revolutions and democracy
Frey, Bruno S. - 2011
Gordon Tullock has been one of the most important founders and contributors to Public Choice. Two innovations are typical 'Tullock Challenges'. The first relates to method: the measurement of subjective well-being, or happiness. The second relates to digital social networks such as Facebook,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010274770
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Tullock challenges: Happiness, revolutions and democracy
Frey, Bruno S. - 2011
Gordon Tullock has been one of the most important founders and contributors to Public Choice. Two innovations are typical Tullock Challenges. The first relates to method: the measurement of subjective well-being, or happiness. The second relates to digital social networks such as Facebook,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010316889
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The political economy of intergenerational cooperation
Cigno, Alessandro - 2005
The paper examines the scope for mutually beneficial intergenerational cooperation, and looks at various attempts to theoretically explain the emergence of norms and institutions that facilitate this cooperation. After establishing a normative framework, we examine the properties of the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010261395
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Hobbes to Rousseau : Inequality, Institutions, and Development
Cervellati, Matteo; Fortunato, Piergiuseppe; Sunde, Uwe - 2005
We analyze the endogenous evolution of economic and political institutions and the interdependencies with the process of economic development. Favorable economic institutions ensure the appropriability of rents in form of a state of law. We study the conditions under which a state of law can be...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010262181
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Social Harmony at the Boundaries of the Welfare State: Immigrants and Social Transfers
Epstein, Gil S.; Hillman, Arye L. - 2000
The social contract of the welfare state can be strained by the arrival of immigrants who receive welfare payments financed by citizens? taxes. We show, however, that the presence of unemployed immigrants receiving welfare payments is consistent with social harmony. The social harmony, which is...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010262377
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The Delegation Perspective on Representative Democracy
Hain, Roland; Mitra, Manipushpak - 2002
Why do political constituencies delegate decision power to representative assemblies? And how is the size of such assemblies determined? We analyze these questions of constitutional design in a model with voters learning their preferred alternative only after engaging in costly information...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010263053
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Unanimous Constitutional Consent and the Immigration Problem
Josten, Stefan D.; Zimmermann, Klaus W. - 2004
This paper utilizes the cross-cutting cleavages approach to evaluate the probability of a unanimous constitutional consent and, based on these results, discusses the implications of immigration on an existing constitutional consent. It is shown that previous conclusions of beneficial effects...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010263431