Demand for wireless data communication has risen rapidly in the past few years, raising important policy questions about how to allocate radio spectrum for this purpose. Historically, the US government has designated some spectrum for licensed use and a smaller but significant amount for...

Market design applies economic principles to the often messy problems of real-world exchange in which goods may not be homogeneous, the identities of trading partners may matter, contracts may not be executed, and even the formulation of trade as balancing supply and demand may be unhelpful....

A "core-selecting auction mechanism" is a direct mechanism for a multi-item allocation problem that selects a core allocation with respect to the bidders' reported values and the auctioneer's exogenously given preferences. For every profile of others' reports, a bidder has a best reply that is a...

Broadband, or high-speed access to the Internet, has generated significant economic benefits. Certain regulations, however, are slowing investment and deterring entry into the broadband market. In this statement, we make two recommendations that would remedy these regulatory defects and thereby...

Traditional economics focuses on hypothetical markets in which prices alone can guide efficient allocation, with no need for central organization. Such models build from Adam Smith's famous concept of the invisible hand, which guides markets and renders regulation or interference largely...

Many proposed surface water transfers undergo a series of regulatory reviews designed to mitigate hydrological and economic externalities. While these reviews help limit externalities, they impose substantial transaction costs that also limit trade. To promote a well-functioning market for...