How should we define the feasible set? Even when individuals agree on facts and values, as traditionally construed, different views on feasibility may suffice to produce very different policy conclusions. Focusing on the difficulties in the feasibility concept may help us resolve some policy...

The author considers recent proposals that the government should attempt to stabilize the nominal value of a CPI futures contract. Under a variety of conditions, arbitrageurs will break the peg and bankrupt the central bank, the central bank ends up in a gaming problem with private traders, or...

We survey and evaluate explanations for the widespread use of the non-profit form in higher education, including the subsidies hypothesis, the donative hypothesis, efficient faculty monitoring, the trust hypothesis, and the reputation hypothesis. We confront the available hypothesis with the...

Thomas Schelling has been one of the, and in many cases the, pioneer in developing the following ideas: coordination concepts, focal points, convention, commitments (including promises and threats) as strategic tactics, the idea that strategic strength may lie in weaknesses and limitations,...

Public officials often have little incentive to spend time and effort proposing policies that benefit others. When, however, some public policies generate rents to these officials, rent seeking in politics can motivate them to provide public goods. We consider the motivational effects of rent...