We investigate the welfare effects of policies that increase voter turnout in costly voting models. In a generalized costly voting model, we show that if the electorate is sufficiently large, then increasing voter turnout is generically efficient. Increasing turnout in small elections is only...

Is the use of fiat money essential in any efficient organization of exchange? We investigate this question in economies that are generalizations of the Townsend (1980) turnpike model that include limited commitment and differential information. We show that in the Townsend turnpike model fiat...

We analyze two examples of economies with incomplete financial markets. In the first model we consider a stock and an American put option on the stock. Although there is only one commodity and asset payoffs therefore do not depend on spot prices, we derive robust non-existence of equilibria. In...

The power to enforce rights and obligations in a society is essential. For simplicity, economists have focused on two extreme forms of enforcement: perfect ex-post enforcement of contracts by an exogenous un-modeled authority (a ``court'') or contracts that are ``self-enforcing.'' Models that...

We analyze three different examples of economies with incomplete financial markets. In the first model we consider a bond and a convertible bond, and in the second model a stock and an American put option on the stock. Although there is only one commodity and asset payoffs therefore do not...