The off-net/on-net price differential in mobile voice observed in many countries is much larger than what can be explained away by standard economic theory. This situation has generated important anticompetitive concerns, leading some authorities to contemplate (and even impose) a ban on such...

This paper analyses the link between human capitaland information technology(IT ) in the service production process. The analysis is based on 1994 cross-sectional data for 1929 German. Firms drawn from the first wave of the Mannheim Service Innovation Panel (MIP-S). Factor demand functions are...

Despite recent reforms, the services sector remains more regulated in France than in most OECD countries. This paper reviews evidence of the potential gains from a deregulation of the services sector. First, it provides evidence that past regulatory reforms had a positive impact on the...

We propose a model of "trade" between high income and low-income groups where the rich being scared of the spread of infection hires the poor to engage them in exposure-intensive outdoor activities as workers in the household industry. People who endure hardships and sustain exposure to...

Prior to the invention of the Internet, shopping for goods was relatively simple: a consumer visited a brick-and-mortal retailer and selected a product from what was available or, for some retailers, shopped using a catalog. Today, a simple Internet search may return a bewildering number of...

A benchmark result in the political economy of taxation is that majority voting over a linear income tax schedule will result in an inefficiently high tax rate whenever the median voter has a below average income. The present paper examines the role of tax avoidance for this welfare assessment....

This paper is concerned with the implicit values of urban accessibility and air quality in Sweden. Based on the hedonic wage and rent theory, we construct an econometric model to compute such values, and illustrate their implications for regional sustainability analysis. It is shown that for...

This paper studies majority voting on taxes when tax evasion is possible. We characterize the voting equilibrium where the agent with median taxed income is pivotal. Since the ranking of true incomes does not necessarily correspond to the ranking of taxed incomes, the decisive voter can differ...

A fundamental question in monopolistic competition theory is whether the market allocates resources efficiently. This paper generalizes the Spence-Dixit-Stiglitz framework to heterogeneous firms, addressing when the market provides optimal quantities, variety and productivity. Under constant...