Regulatory reforms across European countries have attempted to increase consumer welfare by introducing competition and choice into public service markets. But it has been questioned whether reforms have benefited all people equally, suggesting that vulnerable groups of service users are...

There is a heightened lack of clarity and understanding about the new U.S. business forms both in terms of theory and practice, especially with regard to relative priorities of social good (or the absence thereof), decision-making, and meaningful accountability thereto (or the lack thereof). As...

We develop a model of endogenous network formation in order to examine the incentives for R&D collaboration in a mixed oligopoly. Our analysis reveals that the complete network, where each firm collaborates with all others, is uniquely stable, industry-profit maximizing and efficient. This...

We propose a model of charity competition in which informed giving alone can explain quality heterogeneity across similar charities. It is this heterogeneity that also creates the demand for information. In equilibrium, too few donors pay to be informed; but interestingly, informed giving may...

We present a theory of charitable fund-raising in which it is costly to solicit donors. We fully characterize the optimal solicitation strategy that maximizes donations net of fundraising costs. The optimal strategy dictates that the fund-raiser target only those individuals whose equilibrium...

Fundraisers often start their campaigns by soliciting the wealthier, more recognized and respected individuals in a community. We examine whether an explanation for such a solicitation ordering may be that people prefer to associate with those of higher social ranking than themselves. Using a...

While existing theory predicts that matching leadership gifts raise more voluntary contributions for public goods than seed money, recent experiments find otherwise. We reconcile the two by studying a model of leadership giving in a large economy with incomplete information about the quality of...

Decisions to donate time or money for charitable purposes are typically seen as make-or-buy decisions, implying that there should be a clear distinction between individuals engaging in one of these two forms of giving and that this distinction should be somehow linked to opportunity costs. But...

We test how donors respond to new information about a charity's effectiveness. Freedom from Hunger implemented a test of its direct marketing solicitations, varying letters by whether they include a discussion of their program's impact as measured by scientific research. The base script, used...

We develop a model of policy communication by aid agencies, NGOs and intergovernmental organizations and we show how the need for fundraising affects the policy communication strategy of these organizations. To attract more funds, organizations may bias their communication. The bias depends on...