Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze a market for microfinance in a region of a developing nation in which all projects are either of high or low quality. There is adverse selection because only borrowers know whether their project is of high or low quality but the microfinance...

This article describes and critically investigates core features of the safe minimum standard of conservation (SMS), as outlined by Ciriacy-Wantrup, which have been neglected, de-emphasized or poorly interpreted. Different ensuing interpretations and developments of SMS, aimed at giving it a...

The study analyzes the timing of process and product innovations. A dynamic product differentiation model illustrates strategic interaction in a duopoly. Firms use asymmetric equilibrium strategies for the adoption of innovations, i.e. innovations are adopted sequentially. The priority of...

Large quantities of software, ranging from operating systems to web servers to games, are now available as “open source software” or “free software”. In many cases, this software is backed by large profit seeking corporations such as IBM. Traditional economic analysis is used to identify...

In the 1970s, Thomas C. Schelling proposed a model which claimed to show that a high degree of spatial segregation can result from individual preferences which do not in themselves aim to achieve such a degree of collective segregation. A perverse effect seems therefore to occur. However, the...

We survey the literature on social networks by putting together the economics, sociological and physics/applied mathematics approaches, showing their similarities and differences. We expose, in particular, the two main ways of modeling network formation. While the physics/applied mathematics...