A two stage model is built where the first period strategic variable is used to update the information available on some private characteristics of the rival firms.

An optimal mechanism fot the provision of impure public inputs to oligopolistic firms is investigated using a three stage game where in the first stage the public agency which provides the public input fixes a non-linear price schedule.

We propose a theory of the origin of the State as an institution originating from the voluntary interaction among decentralized and fully informed agents.

This paper is an attempt to describe the discal structure of State as an equilibrium of a non-cooperative game where decentralized agents play both political and economic strategies. We propose a theory of fiscal equilibria (describing features of direct and indirect taxation as well as of the...

The exclusive privileges of corporations, statutes of apprenticeship, and all those laws which restrain, in particular employments, the competition to a smaller number than might otherwise go into them,uare a sort of enlarged monopolies, and may frequently, for ages together, and in a whole...

Financial incentives in primary care have been often introduced with the purpose of improving appropriateness of care and containing demand. We usually observe pay-for-performance programs, but alternatives have been also implemented, such as pay-for-participation in improvement activities and...

Pay-for-performance programs offering additional payments to GPs can be used not only to improve the quality of care but also for cost containment purposes. In this paper, we analyse the impact of removing financial incentives in primary care that were aimed at containing hospital expenditure in...

The reformulation of existing boundaries between primary and secondary care, in order to shift selected services traditionally provided by Emergency Departments to community-based alternatives has determined a variety of organisational solutions aimed at reducing the ED overcrowding. One...

This paper considers the influence of patients' characteristics on their evaluation of a health system's responsiveness, that is, a system's ability to respond to the legitimate expectations of potential users regarding non-health enhancing aspects of care (Valentine et al. 2003a). Since...

The release of the World Health Report 2000 has brought to the fore the concept of responsiveness as an indicator of health system performance. Responsiveness relates to a system's ability to respond to the legitimate expectations of potential users about non-health enhancing aspects of care...