Motivated by the increasing literature on endogenous preferences as well as on endogenous fertility, this paper investigates the implications of the interaction of the endogenous determination of the number of children with habit and aspiration formation in an OLG model. In contrast with the...

This paper analyses the effects of a downstream merger in a differentiated duopoly under price competition and plant-specific unions. We show, in contrast with the preceding literature, that the standard welfare results may be reversed: a downstream merger may increase consumer surplus and...

Abstract Motivated by the widespread presence both of decentralised unions and cross-participation at ownership level (for instance in Japan and US), this paper aims at investigating whether the conventional wisdom that a reduction in the degree of product differentiation (which increases...

This paper explores whether the common belief that the currently observed fertility drop is a threat (or, conversely, the invoked fertility recovery is beneficial) for PAYG pensions is really always validated by the basic accounting of the PAYG pension budget. It is shown, through a simple...

In this paper we revisit the issue of the scope of bargaining between firms and unions. It is shown that an agreement between p arties on the bargaining agenda may endogenously emerge only on the Efficient Bargaining arrangement, provided that union’s power is not too high.

Can a merger from duopoly to monopoly be detrimental for profits? This paper deals with this issue by focusing on the interaction between decreasing returns to labour (which imply firms’ convex production costs) and centralised unionisation in a differentiated duopoly model. It is pointed out...

We examine how subsidy policies to support child-rearing affect the fertility rate in a standard OLG small open economy with life uncertainty and involuntary bequests. It is shown the counter-intuitive result that increasing the child grant may actually reduce the long-run fertility rate.

This paper analyses the effects of a downstream merger in a differentiated duopoly under price competition and firm-specific unions. In contrast with the acquired wisdom, we show that a downstream merger may increase overall welfare when products are sufficienly substitutes and unions are...

We extend the two-period-lived-agent overlapping generations model with endogenous fertility and demand for money to understand whether and how the introduction of a money sector modifies what we have so far learned about fertility behaviours. It is shown that the existence of money may tend to...

We analyse the dynamics of a banking duopoly game with heterogeneous players (as regards the type of expectations’ formation), to investigate the effects of the capital requirements introduced by international accords (Basel-I in 1988 and more recently Basel-II and Basel-III), in the context...