The present value model of asset prices a la Campbell and Shiller predicts the price-rent ratio in the housing market to be stationary. The observed movements in the actual price-rent ratio, often exhibiting large and long swings in the ratio, may put into question the validity of the standard present value model. In this paper, we allow for two sources of possibly unwieldy deviations in the pr...

In this paper, …rms engage in rent seeking in order to be assigned a governmental contract. We analyze how a change in the contract length a¤ects the …rms’ rent-seeking behavior. A longer contract leads to more rent seeking at a contract assignment stage, as the …rms value the contract higher. On the other hand, the contract has to be assigned less often, which of course leads to less rent seek...

Innovations and their adoption are the keys to growth and development. Innovations are less socially useful, but more profitable for the innovator, when they are adopted slowly and the innovator remains a monopolist. For this reason, rent-seeking, both public and private, plays an important role in determining the social usefulness of innovations. This paper examines the political economy of in...

The city government of Munich regularly publishes a booklet called the “Mietspiegel” (MS). The MS basically contains a verbal description of an expert system. It allows to calculate the estimated fair rent for a flat. By hand, one may need a weekend to do so. With our computerized version, “The Munich Rent Advisor”, the user just fills in a form in a few minutes and the rent is calculated immed...

In the wake of a judging controversy at the Winter 2002 Olympic games, the governing council of the International Skating Union scrapped its judging system, replacing it with a new system which uses scores from only some of the judges, selected randomly. This means that the composition of the awarding committee is unknown. I examine rent-seeking expenditures when the composition of the committe...

False meningoceles following laminectomy have been reported; however, calcified postoperative meningoceles have not been demonstrated by computed tomography (CT). These cystic lesions may be considered as postoperative false (or spurious) meningoceles. The development of these changes occurs because a collection of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulates in the soft tissue through a rent in the d...