Welfare tradeoffs between intellectual property (IP) protections provided by patents and by plant variety protection (PVP) are explored. PVP breeders' exemption weakens IP protection, but may speed the transfer of research gains across firms. A model is developed assuming firms optimize research...

We investigate the effectiveness of initiating deposit insurance at the outset of a banking crisis. Using a conjoint analysis approach that allows us to consider the simultaneous impact of multiple deposit insurance attributes and various counterfactuals, we ask a multinational sample of...

This paper provides a description of important steps in the mechanization of U.S. fruit and vegetable harvesting, which can be hard, backbreaking work, and in addition, the risk of falling is significant for hand-harvesting fruit trees from ladders. Switching to mechanical harvesting frequently...

 A social planner wishes to launch a project but the contenders capable of running the project are cash-constrained and may default.  To signal their capabilities, the contenders may finance their bids through debt or equity, depending on the mechanism chosen by the social planner.  When...