In this paper we show that costs associated with infractions of property rights, such as theft, can be reduced by imposing lower penal-ties on individuals who admit to such infractions and make restitution. We find that the socially optimal penalty on a confessed thief may be zero (complete...

This paper examines the effect of introducing positive loading factors into insurance premia, in insurance markets consisting of groups of individuals in different risk categories. It is shown that that such loading factors may have far-reaching effects on insurance market equilibria.

In this paper we present quantitative measures of the ‘proneness’ of different countries to respond to pressure groups in determining the composition of their spending. These, in turn, help us to derive simple measures of the rent-seeking done in relation to the government's spending pie....