Aus moderner wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Sicht leistet die ökonomische Theorie der Clubs einen wichtigen Beitrag zu einer effizienten Gestaltung von Integrationsprozessen, insbesondere der Europäischen Union. Um aber das Pareto-Optimum einer Welt voller Clubs bestimmen zu können, spielt die...

Abstract The economic theory of clubs can offer eminent contributions to an efficient shaping of processes of integration, especially at the level of the European Union. To determine a welfare maximum in a world full of clubs, the distinction between the within-club point of view and the total...

The economic theory of clubs can offer eminent contributions to an efficient shaping of processes of integration, especially at the level of the European Union. To determine a welfare maximum in a world full of clubs, the distinction between the within-club point of view and the total economy...

Studies on EU enlargement mostly focus on its welfare-economic and much less so on its public-choice dimension. Yet, the latter may be as important as the former when it comes to sustain integration. This paper aims at filling the gap by exploring theoretically and empirically how enlargement of...

The nexus between income and happiness is very much disputed. Many cross-sectional studies see a positive relationship, most longitudinal studies don’t. Starting from the fact that the theoretical basis in happiness research has been comparatively weak, we develop a model that identifies...

Based on the premise that fairness is different from equity and that it is primarily used in in-formal contexts we present an economic approach to fairness. Discussing the results of behav-ioral economics reveals the experience that people do not accept a monetary offer even if that collides...

Recent experience shows that under certain conditions it can be assumed that demand for luxury goods is partly abnormal. To tackle the problem whether they can and should be taxed we (a) show that a positive slope of demand is possible by distinguishing snob and network benefits, (b) demonstrate...

The political blessings of federalism are the core of our discussion. These benefits are operationalized as the decrease in the number of outvoted in a federal system with majority voting as an important source of regime satisfaction. The approach originates from the work of Roland Pennock who...