Private politics social pressure is led by social activists who use confrontational and cooperative strategies to induce firms to provide social benefits. A confrontational activist demands that a firm change its practices and threatens a harmful campaign if it does not change. A cooperative...

Credence attributes of products are unobservable through search or experience. Some consumers are willing to pay a premium for their provision, and in addition, citizens can apply social pressure on firms to supply credence attributes. Firms have formed voluntary organizations to assure the...

The objective of this study is the estimation of the amount of hospital cost inflation associated with increases in factor prices, technological and case-mix change, and growth in hospital demand. The estimates indicate that the majority of the increase in average costs for the sampled hospitals...

This paper presents a theory of self-regulation by a firm or an industry acting collectively in the context of private and public politics. In private politics an activist identifies a social issue, makes a demand on the firm, and threatens a harmful campaign. The firm self-regulates to...

This paper presents a dynamic model of election, government formation, and legislation in a parliamentary democracy with proportional representation in which the policy chosen in one period becomes the status quo for the next period. The electorate votes strategically by taking into account the...

This paper presents a theory of parliamentary systems that incorporates electoral, government formation, and legislative institutions and focuses on the strategic opportunities inherent in those institutions. The electoral system is proportional representation, and a party is selected as...