We present a new model of an economy with clubs, where players may belong to multiple clubs and where clubs may engage in a variety of club activities. The activities of each club may be unique to that club and may include provision of private goods, public goods, or simply covariance. Three...

The aim of the paper is to outline an economic theory of security in international perspective. First section highlights the economic theory of alliances. Second section examines the defence economics. Third section looks at terrorism from rational choice theory point of view. Forth section...

This paper describes institutions of direct democracy between 1997 and 2003 in 26 Swiss cantons (states), specifically the statutory initiative and referendum, the constitutional initiative, and the fiscal referendum. In particular, it discusses their applications, but also the legal...

Clustering methods group individuals or objects based on information about their similarity or proximity. When the raw information to generate clusters cannot be easily observed or verified, the cluster designer must rely on information reported by individuals behind the observations. When these...

Corruption and mismanagement of public resources can affect the quality of government services and undermine growth. Can citizens in poor communities be empowered to demand better-quality public investments? We look at whether providing social accountability training and information on project...

The emancipation of the serfs is often viewed as watershed moment in 19th-century Russian history. However, this reform was accompanied by numerous others measures aimed at modernizing the Tsarist economy and society. Among these "Great Reforms" was the creation of a new institution of local...

Although they would yield social benefits, some political projects may not be implemented in democracies. Prominent examples are the reform of European labour markets, the reduction of government debt or the reduction of greenhouse gases. We suggest introducing political contracts to make...

The problems Turkey faces today are because of neither poor performances of a few governments nor solely economic factors. Turkey has serious structural difficulties in the fields of economic, political and human rights which have been seen in totalitarian and authoritarian countries of Latin...

December 1999 <p> This papers develops a theory of intergenerational exchange for generations that are either selfish or have non-dynastic altruism. The main building blocks of the theory are forward and backward intergenerational goods (FIGs and BIGs) and the relationship between them. A FIG is a...</p>

The election mechanism has difficulties in selecting the most able candidates and deselecting less able ones. In a simple model we show that the power of elections as a selection and incentive device can be improved by requiring higher vote thresholds than 50% for incumbents. A higher vote...