How do you measure the structural similarity (difference) between economies? We follow an axiomatic approach in the paper answering this question. Our characterization of the measurement of structural difference between economies leads to some difference (similarity) index which is practically...

We develop two models in this paper to investigate the social welfare implication of the number and size of interest groups. The first model analyzes the case in which individuals in each group ignore the effect of the lobbying effect on the size of the aggregate output of the economy. It is...

In empirical studies concerning comparison of economic structures and/or structural changes of economies, it is quite useful to employ an aggregate index to describe the structural difference (similarity). This paper offers an axiomatic characterization of the measurement of structural...

We develop a formal model with transaction costs and economies of labor specialization to address the firm size and the level of social division of labor. We show that the decline of firm size and the increase of the level of social division of labor may concur. We also demonstrate that an...