There is a broad consensus among economists, policymakers, and informed citizens that free-market economics do not preclude many inefficiencies in resource allocation. There are many circumstances where policy interventions have the potential to achieve a "Pareto improvement" in the sense of...

This paper proposes a noncooperative model of multilateral bargaining. The model can be viewed as an extension of the famous Stahl-Rubinstein bargaining game. Two players take turns proposing a division of a "pie." After one player has proposed a division, the other can accept or reject the...

In the third of three related papers, the authors discuss rules and mechanisms that could facilitate the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and promote freer trade and investment in the Americas. These mechanisms include macroeconomic policies that open trade and...

Part 1. Gordon Rausser: Scholar, Leader and Entrepreneur -- Chapter 1. On the Essence of Leadership: Lessons from Gordon Rausser -- Chapter 2. Scholar, Entrepreneur and Editorial Innovator -- Chapter 3. Gordon Rausser: Impacts on the World Food System -- Chapter 4. Gordon Rausser and the...

This paper focuses on recent theoretical developments in political economy and what role they might play in explaining and reforming individual country and global distortions in food and agricultural markets. Four groups of forces are isolated: political governance structures emphasizing the...

We develop a real option model of the irreversible native grassland conversion decision. Upon plowing, native grassland can be followed by either a permanent cropping system or a system in which land is put under cropping (respectively, grazing) whenever crop prices are high (respectively, low)....

This paper develops a spatial equilibrium model suitable to analyze the economic impacts of measures (such as isolation distances and buffer zones) meant to ensure coexistence between GM and non-GM crops. We show that policies that put the cost of such measures exclusively on GM producers lead...

Rate setting procedures for United States crop yield and revenue insurance contracts employ methods that presume correlations to be state invariant. Whether this is true matters. If yield-yield correlations strengthen when crops are subject to widespread stress, then diversification...