A classic characterization of competitive equilibria views them as feasible allocations maximizing a weighted sum of utilities. It has been applied to establish fundamental properties of the equilibrium notion, such as existence, determinacy, and computability. However, it fails for economies...

In this paper, we provide a characterization of interim inefficiency in stochastic economies of overlapping generations under possibly sequentially incomplete markets. With respect to the established body of results in the literature, we remove the hypothesis of two-period horizons, by...

This article offers a proposal for the regulation of stem cell products by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) that corresponds to a specialized product liability scheme. It shows how product liability and administrative law can be successfully integrated to create a comprehensive legal...

We reconsider the well-known result of Arrow (1953) that the set of equilibria of an economy with complete markets coincides with the one of an economy with sequentially complete markets. We show by means of two examples that this result is problematic when there exist multiple equilibrium...

The ibiCash Protocol serves as a mechanism for encapsulating the time value of forests within a currency made up of units which represent the intangible value of 1 hectare of standing forest for the period of a single day in each of the world's ecoregions. At the end of each day, the system...

In "The Tragedy of the Commons," Garrett Hardin argues that those who can use a resource for free consume more of it than they would if they had to pay for it. Public resources eventually collapse because people overuse them. Hardin’s widely accepted argument seems correct as far as it goes,...

This paper analyzes the optimal monetary policy in a model with a public sector when firms choose prices under incomplete information, and the government can not observe the current state perfectly. We accommodate the notion of Odyssean forward guidance in a framework with a public sector. The...

In this paper, we provide a characterization of interim inefficiency in stochastic economies of overlapping generations under possibly sequentially incomplete markets. With respect to the established body of results in the literature, we remove the hypothesis of two-period horizons, by...

We consider the exercise of power in competitive markets for goods, labour and credit. We offer a definition of power and show that if contracts are incomplete it may be exercised either in Pareto-improving ways or to the disadvantage of those without power. Contrasting conceptions of power...

A 'folk theorem' originating, among others, in the work of Stiglitz maintains that competitive equilibria are always or 'generically' inefficient (unless contracts directly specify consumption levels as in Prescott and Townsend, thus bypassing trading in anonymous markets). This paper critically...