An expected-net-national-benefit-maximizing enlistment-age is analytically derived for small countries engaged in external conflicts by considering the effects of the enlistment age on army size, probability of war, military performance, forgone civilian output, remunerations in the case of...

Optimal control theory is employed to characterize the socially optimal trajectory of the royalty per channel and the number of royalty-paying users of state-owned spectrum for broadcasting. The spectrum royalty is set by an omniscient public planner to maximize the sum of the discounted...

Due to the open-access nature of the environment we consider an ad hoc adjustment of people’s footprints to the quality of the environment. The adjustment is due to concerns, but hindered by skepticism about announced changes in the state of the environment. Changes in the quality of the...

A socially desirable number of royalties-paying users of state-owned broadcasting spectrum is derived within an optimal control framework that allows free entry and exit. The analysis takes into account the trade-off between the benefits from higher variety and royalties’ revenues and the...

In the absence of a comprehensive international agreement, each country unilaterally sets her abatement of greenhouse gas emissions at a level that possibly maximizes her expected net benefit. In addition to a cleaner and healthier domestic environment and a slower global warming, a country’s...

This paper derives some possible implications of changing carrying capacity and environmental concerns for human survival. It proposes that even in the absence of any further technological, healthcare, social and international progress, diminishing complacency embarks the global environment and...

This paper explores a possible effect of social capital on the relationship between utility and wealth. Material status sensitivity is considered in constructing the individual social-capital index. The incorporation of the index into the individual’s utility function leads to the proposition...

This paper provides microeconomic foundations to the relationship between the values of residential properties and the environmental quality of their location. It constructs an environmental–quality-adjusted lifetime-utility function by combining satisfaction from consumption over the lifespan...

Locust swarms hit subsistence-staple-crop-growing households at random and are not privately controllable. A regional aerial-spraying scheme that supports these households’ livelihood at the least cost is proposed. The properties of this scheme are analysed and two steady states are...

This paper focuses on the consumption of alcohol to numb the suffering associated with failure. While drinking reduces the individual’s current level of suffering, it leads to future failures and potentially greater suffering. The basic model shows that the stationary status of an alcoholic is...