In this paper we focus on the implications of consumer heterogeneity for whether competition will improve outcomes in health care markets. We show that competition generally favours the majority group as higher quality for the majority is an effective way to increase the quality signal and...

The main objective of this paper was to quantify the long- and short-term impacts of labour market reforms on economic activity in EU countries, including Croatia. Therefore, we derived a model using the pooled mean group estimator (PMG) for the period from 2000 to 2011. Before performing...

This paper examines the relevance of price competition in the protection market in order to explain the different modes of empire-building. Our approach unravels the economic rationale of merchant empires which is not explicable with existing theoretical frameworks systematically eluding price...

This paper focuses on the role of local governments in bringing about fair, accountable, incoorruptible and responsive (FAIR) governance. Local governments around the world have done important innovations to earn the trust of their residents and their comparative performance is of great interest...

Although Jordan reached middle-income status more than three decades ago, the country has not made the additional leap, like most developing countries in the Middle East, to become a high-income economy. In this paper, we argue that institutions, namely formal rules (constitution, judiciary,...

The scope of public human resource policy is outlined. Motivation for the need of transparency in this policy is provided in terms of informational asymmetries, human capital externalities, and long planning horizons. Transparency is defined both along a time dimension – ex ante and ex post...

Sub-Saharan Africa is concurrently characterised by low institutional quality and large-sized government sectors and both may keep the cost of doing business high. This paper revitalises the political economy literature on growth of governments in highlighting the essence of upgrading...

This paper develops a new argument for the Chinese Communist Party´s success in implementing the post-Mao economic reform. We build a three-player political agency model, showing that the credibility of the threats of deposition by the selectorate and of revolts by citizens are both crucial...

In the context of public-good provision, despite noncontractibility of investments, it is possible to specify who is in charge of tasks such as construction and maintenance. We show that complementarity between the investments of the two tasks favors unbundling of tasks through different...

This discussion paper provides an overview of the analytical indicators used to evaluate fiscal policy in the short, medium and long term. It focuses on their clear definition and their advantages/disadvantages, and accentuates the importance of their clear interpretation. In addition to the...