Electoral turnout cannot be easily explained by reference to instrumental rationality. Instead, turnout depends on consumption gains arising from the act of voting. This paper distinguishes between utility derived from fulfilling a civic duty and utility derived from expressing a political...

This paper continues the development of a theoretical foundation for measuring 'altruistic' behaviour with respect to tax versus expenditure preferences in three specific spheres: health, education and welfare payments. Particular emphasis is placed on analysing the choice theoretic calculus...

This paper considers a measure of the “publicness” of goods and services implicit in responses that individuals make when asked about public sector spending. At the limit, all consumers consume equal amounts of a public good. Thus any differences between an individual's self-interest...

Standardization reduces uncertainty faced by consumers when choosing products with unknown product quality, which should help those firms without an established brand name in the country of sale and from countries who do not themselves have a reputation for high quality products for the good in...