This study employs various bootstrapped Malmquist indices and efficiency scores to investigate the effects of government regulation on the performance of the Iranian banking industry over the period 2003-2008. An alternative decomposition of the Malmquist index, introduced by Simar and Wilson...

A socially desirable number of royalties-paying users of a state-owned broadcasting spectrum is derived within an optimal control framework where the adjustment of the number of users to above-normal profits is adversely affected by sunk costs. The optimal control takes into account the tradeoff...

Australia’s commitment to the Vietnam War drew on the selective conscription of additional manpower through 16 biannual ballots. 20-year-old men were liable to serve if their date of birth was drawn out. The random nature of the ballot was seen as an equitable method of selection for a system...

This paper analyzes the qualitative and quantitative deviations of rational consumers from their physiologically optimal diets with a distinction between a nutritionally and digestively superior food and a taste and price superior food. The inclusion of a cause-and-effect relationships of these...

The responsibility for, and consequences of, greenhouse gas emissions are shared by all countries, but only a few are willing to tax emissions. The paper argues that the reactions of the abstaining countries are crucial for assessing the effectiveness of the tax. The paper analyzes an...

Despite the fact that blackmail constitutes a voluntary transaction between two parties, it is deemed to be a criminal offence in most legal systems. Traditional economic approach to this so-called ‘paradox of blackmail’ emphasizes welfare loss generated by the costly rentseeking activities...

This paper aims to analyse the value of merchandise through a broad category of trade between Australia and nine selected Latin American countries by using a gravity model focusing on the period from 1998 to 2004. The traditional cross-sectional data is a useful tool to understand this bilateral...

This paper is an attempt to tease out a taxonomy of economic sectors based on a systems approach to innovation and economic growth that may be useful for policy analysis. The taxonomy explored here revolves around novel products rather than ethereal knowledge-producing entities. This insight...

The equity risk premium puzzle has received regular attention by economists since it was first invoked by Mehra and Prescott (1985) twenty years ago. In a recent paper, they revisit the question and reject many of the explanations offered but we are left with no clear alternative account. The...