We show that the simple fact that a monopolist sells a good in units whichare indivisible may we induce him to select a quality for his product which is not the highest one, even if no cost of any sort is attached to quality improvement.

Should health care provision be public, private, or both? We look at this question in a setting where people differ in their earnings capacity and express an inelastic demand for health care. We assume that illness reduces a person's health status when not receiving immediate treatment.

In this paper we illustrate the possible normative relevance of the links between human capital and financial assets via an example related to growth. When the financial structure is complete, growth is indeterminate because individual allocations between human capital and a tradable asset are...

In the empirical analysis of financial time series, multivariate GARCH models have been used in various forms. In most cases it is not well understood how the use of a restricted model has to be paid with loss of valuable information. We investigate the structural implications of two alternative...

When the production of high quality needs the employment of qualified labour, firms' decisions concerning quality are affected by the extent to which skills are abundant. By means of a comparison between monopoly and perfect competition, we show how market power in such a context may entail a...