Empirical Mode Decomposition, an adaptive data-driven technique which can be used to extract non-stationary signals buried in noise, seldom admits theoretical calculation of the statistical properties of the extracted signals. Instead, numerical experiments are required. In this paper we use...

In a pro-male biased society, brothers may reduce the parental investment received by female siblings, if parents face time or financial constraints. But brothers may also cause positive externalities. Using more than 12,000 firstborn twins from a highly sex-imbalanced economy, Taiwan, we test...

The veterans disability compensation (VDC) program, which provides a monthly stipend to disabled veterans, is the third largest American disability insurance program. Since the late 1990s, VDC growth has been driven primarily by an increase in claims from Vietnam veterans, raising concerns about...

Since Akerlof's (1970) seminal paper the existence of adverse selection due to asymmetric information about quality is well-understood. Yet two questions remain. First, given the negative implications for trading and welfare, how do such markets come into existence? And second, why have many...

Although households are responsible for many important decisions, they have rarely been the subject of economics experiments. We conduct a series of linked and incentivized experiments on decision-making, designed to see if the anomalies typically found in individual choice experiments are found...

In this paper we model the interaction between parties and candidates to highlight the mechanisms by which parties selecting candidates may discipline legislators. The selection of candidates happens by majority voting of party members. We assume a multidimentional policy space comprising an...

In this paper we show how the signalling effect of debt described by Ross (1977) does not work in an environment of hostile takeovers. This is because the effect of debt is to concentrate voting rights in the hands of the incumbent management, "jamming" the signal and preventing any...

Firms and environmental NGO's contest regulatory, legal and other Decisions in a variety of fora including law courts, administrative tribunals and the media. Environmental advocacy in the 1990's is big business, yet its organisation has been little studied. How can NGO's with differing...

The war in Iraq initiated in March 2003 triggered a wave of violence and turmoil in the country, exposing households to insecurity and to instability in daily life. The level of violence has varied across provinces, the south and centre areas being the most affected. Using the different...

I develop a model of rent seeking with informational foundations and an arbitrary number of rent seekers, and I compare the results with Tullock's (1980) classic model where the influence activities are "black-boxed." Given the microfoundations, the welfare consequences of rent seeking can be...