We provide an example of a monopoly with Pigouvian second-degree price discrimination where unit taxes are Pareto superior to ad valorem taxes.

It has been proved that in an homogeneous product industry, price over marginal costs, business stealing, set up costs and free entry imply excess entry from the welfare point of view. The proof assumes identical firms. We show by example that with non-identical firms, those conditions are...

This paper compares the effects of unitary and ad valorem taxes in a homogeneous good market where two technologies are freely available. We find that, both in monopolies and Cournot oligopolies, unit taxes may be welfare superior to ad valorem taxes.

This paper studies technology choice as a relevant aspect to be considered when analyzing price discrimination and welfare. Our results reinforce the traditional wisdom that an increase in output is a necessary condition for price discrimination to improve social welfare. But we also find that...

The different ways to rank universities regarding their research production include a great number of factors. The quality of journals where faculty members are publishing is one of the most relevant aspects in order to determine the quality of the affiliation institution. Among other more...

This paper studies the decentralization process of public spending in Spain, which has been one of the main landmarks in recent years, and not only in Spain but also in many different countries. The classical assumption to speak about this kind of processes is the theory of fiscal federalism....

This paper offers further evidence to “The Economist” index of economic power developed by Pujol (2003). The original index is composite by construction and it gives information about year 2000, comparing the results with year 1990. Also econometric evidence is offered. Testing the...

This paper presents a method to make measurable what was not: the discourses of politicians regarding decentralization. For this purpose, we develop a “matrix of arguments” and a set of indexes, and apply them to provide a snapshot of the politicians’ views on the “General Law of...

The classical Allingham-Sandmo-Yitzhaki model explains tax evasion behavior based on the probability of being discovered, the amount of the fine imposed and the level of risk aversion. Nonetheless, empirical studies show that the decision and the level of tax evasion depends also on non economic...

The present work analyzes the different positions of the different political parties in Spain with respect to the new General Law of Budgetary Discipline. In this sense, the paper extracts the relevant information about this law from the different parliamentary debates. First, we elaborate a...