Patent law today is a complex institution in most developed economies, and the appropriate structure for patent law is hotly debated around the world. A crucial feature shared among the diverse patent systems of the industrialized world, even before the recent trend toward harmonization, is that...

At present, new EU-members have to fully accept the "acquis communautaire" even if their economic and institutional development differs drastically from the EU-average. In contrast, we propose that there should be the possibility of partial entry into the EU. East European Countries should have...

This paper reviews the theory and evidence concerning Political Business Cycles (PBC), which are based on the obvious facts of democratic life that voters care about the economy while politicians care about power. The first section provides an overview of different approaches to political...

This paper deals with efficiency in the public sector. It argues that the habit of relating efficiency to public spending, as is generally done, may give wrong results when, as is often the case, public institutions use public assets (land, buildings, etc.) without imputing a cost for that use....

There will be many researchers who discover voting theory afresh and who will want to understand it and its interesting paradoxes. Arrow's theorem (1951, 1963) is the most celebrated result in social choice theory. It has been criticized a lot but Howard DeLong (1991), "A refutation of Arrow’s...

Various scientists under the label of “Scientists for a democratic Europe” (SDE) sent a joint “Letter to the governments of the EU member states” (2007) advising the use of the Penrose Square Root Weights (PSRW) for the EU Council of Ministers. When we compare the SDE letter with...

This paper uses the European Working Conditions Surveys to examine the intensity of work for male and female employees. The first section gives an overview of the usefulness of the survey for examining European Union (EU) working conditions and shows how women's intensity of work has been...

This paper surveys the state of the art on monetary policy and central bank behaviour from a public choice perspective. After a brief look at the roots of today’s view of monetary policy conduct and institutional design in early work on political business cycles, the inflation-stabilisation...

This article summarizes the main line thought of Eduardo Wiesner, who has greatly influenced Colombian public policy. Wiesner is aware of the most important discussions on contemporary economic theory and has been able to convert them into legislative proposals. He shows the importance of market...