In the mean–variance framework, insurance demand goes down when the expected size of insurable losses decreases or insurance premia increase if the elasticity of risk aversion with respect to expected wealth exceeds -1. In terms of the expected-utility approach, this condition is equivalent to...

This paper points to the important role that the elasticity of aggregate capital supply with respect to the net rate of return to capital plays for the efficiency of policymaking in a decentralized economy with mobile capital and spillovers among jurisdictions. In accordance with previous...

This paper analyzes the issue of leadership when two jurisdictions are engaged in tax competition and capital tax revenues are used to finance the provision of local public goods. For that purpose we consider a timing game between the two asymmetric jurisdictions. On the first stage...

The present paper analyzes how the welfare state, i.e., social insurance that works through redistributive taxation, should respond to increases in the skewness of the risk distribution. Income risks can be hedged either by individual self-insurance or by social insurance. It is shown that...

Using a dynamic durable good model, we investigate efficiency-restoring policy schemes in case of free garbage disposal. In the long-run, efficiency is attained by a subsidy on recyclability of the durable and a tax on the purchase of the durable. On the short-run adjustment path, in contrast,...