The medieval Church is viewed as a franchise system. The paper analyzes the licensing of the friars as an institutional innovation which the popes of the 13th century initiated in order to appropriate the rents made possible both by the systematic development of the concept of purgatory and the...

In this paper we propose a new method to evaluate the distribution of power between decision-making bodies in the European Union. Conventional methods that measure the voting power of players, such as the Banzhaf, Johnston, Holler and Shapley-Shubik indices, are insufficient for this purpose....

It is the purpose of the paper to shed light on the question to what extent there is a need for a unified contract law in the European Union. The paper outlines a concept of constitutional uncertainty in international trade and presents a model of international transactions in the presence of a...

In dem Paper wird untersucht, wann ein vertikal integrierter Netzbetreiber einen Anreiz hat, durch Fordern hoher Netznutzungsentgelte den Wettbewerb im nachgelagerten Produktmarkt zu beschränken. Außerdem wird geprüft, ob und wie eine kostenorientierte Regulierung der Netznutzungsentgelte den...

In diesem Paper werden die Wohlfahrtseffekte einer kostenorientierten Regulierung von Netznutzungsentgelten zur Schaffung fairen Wettbewerbs abgeleitet. Es wird gezeigt, daß eine solche Regulierung nur im Falle starker Kostenvorteile eines vertikal integrierten Netzbetreibers im Vergleich zu...

The conventional theory of international trade is dominated by a model presupposing a legal order that is perfect in its specifications and controllability, binding for all economic agents, no matter their nationality. World order appears to be cosmopolitan in the sense of Kant. An international...

The paper shows that being able to forecast another player's actual cooperation better than pure chance can change players' strategic incentives in a one-shot simultaneous PD-situation. In particular, it is shown that if both players have such ability (to forecast each others' actual choices...

Companies active in electricity generation or supply that also own transmission or distribution network assets are generally presumed to have an economic interest in using its monopoly position as network owner to prevent or hinder competition in other areas of the value chain. This can happen...

Das Paper untersucht zwei Fragen: (1) Wann hat ein Stromnetzbetreiber, der zugleich im nachgelagerten Strommarkt tätig ist (vertikal integrierter Netzbetreiber), einen Anreiz, durch diskriminierende Festsetzung von Netznutzungsentgelten die Konkurrenz im Strommarkt zu behindern? (2) Kann eine...