Traditionally, a society's literacy has been measured by the 'literacy rate' or the percent of the adult population that is literate. The present paper maintains that the distribution on literates across households also matters, due to the external effects of literacy - the benefits that...

The utility from some commodities depends on the allocation rule used to distribute them because, by the acquisition of such a commodity, a person tries to gain "association" with its other recipients. Such a commodity is called an association good and it is shown that its existence can...

In standard models in economics, indi viduals interact pairwise. Allowing for "triadic" relations explains concepts like power and influence, which have been considered in economics only periphera lly. This paper constructs three illustrations of power, all relying on triadic relations. The...