Recent evidence on the respective contributions of institutions and trade to income levels across countries has demonstrated that – once endogeneity is considered – institutional quality clearly dominates the effect of trade. We argue that overall trade is not the most appropriate measure...

This paper studies the welfare implications of different institutions certifying environmental quality supplied by a monopoly. The monopolist can voluntarily certify the quality of the product through an eco-label provided either by an NGO or a for-proft private certifier (PC). The NGO and the...

The economy of the Balearic Islands has undergone strong growth in recent decades, although not without big contradictions generated by the maturing of what was a pioneering mass tourism economy. This paper reviews the most recent tourist booms in the Balearics, highlighting the crossroads that...

This study addresses the question of why some countries import more R&D- intensive goods than others. Using a panel data set of 80 countries for the period 1970 to 1995, results indicate that domestic investment, FDI and the quality of intellectual property rights (IPR) systems positively affect...

In a Downsian model of political competition we compare the equilibrium tax and redistribution level obtained from two systems to finance parties' political campaigns: the public and the private system. In the private system ideological voters make campaign contributions to increase the chances...

Drawing from the formal setting of the optimal tax theory, the paper identifies the level of Rawlsianism (or aversion to poverty) of the European social planners starting from the observation of real data and redistribution systems and builds a metric that allows measuring the degree of...

En el presente trabajo se analizan los efectos que han tenido sobre la desigualdad, la redistribución y la pobreza las recientes reformas del IRPF en Baleares. Los datos provienen de los registros fiscales suministrados por IEF-AEAT: muestra de declarantes y no declarantes del IRPF de 2006. Los...

The present work studies optimal taxation of labour income when taxpayers are allowed to evade taxes. The analysis is conducted within a general non-linear tax framework, providing a characterisation of the solution for risk-neutral and risk-averse agents. For risk-neutral agents the optimal...

This study extends the Rational Addiction theory by introducing an endogenous discounting of future utilities. The discount rate depends on habits accumulation over time which occur because of the repeated consumption of an addictive good. The endogeneity of the discount rate affects consumption...

This paper aims to investigate the effects of the introduction of an active welfare state measure, the Revenu de Solidarité Active (RSA), in France. The RSA replaced the old system of social minima, comprised by RMI and API. By using a micro-macro simulation model we characterize the effects on...