We study the harmonization of the base remuneration for the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who were previously paid like national parliamentarians implying large differences between the delegations from the 27 member countries. Based on detailed information on individual MEPs between...

Using a new data set on Swiss state and local governments from 1890 to today, we analyze how the adoption of proportional representation affects fiscal policy. We show that proportional systems shift spending toward broad goods (e.g. education and welfare benefits) but decrease spending on...

We employ bootstrap methods (Efron (1979)) to test the effect of an important electoral reform implemented in Italy from 1993 to 2001, that moved the system for electing the Par-liament from purely proportional to plurality rule (for 75% of the seats). We do not find any effect on either the...

The main aim of the paper is to highlight the relation between flexibility and vertical integration. To this purpose, we go through the selection of the optimal degree of vertical disintegration of a flexible firm which operates in a dynamic uncertain environment. The enterprise we model enjoys...

It is a well-known fact that there exists an ever increasing number of problems for which, despite the efforts of many inventive and persistent researchers, it seems virtually impossible to find efficient algorithms. In this Situation, the theory of computational complexity may provide helpful...

This article presents a mathematical model for barge transport planning on the river Rhine, which is part of a decision support system (DSS) recently taken into use by the Swiss company Omya. The system is operated by Omya's regional office in Cologne, Germany, responsible for distribution...