amounts set aside to cover hablhtles from future clamls payments) as & percentage of prenuums earned would, no doubt,, show 8 higher figure for 19’75 In 1074, this ratlo was 72 percent, 19 percentage pomts higher than the rate based on premiums wntten Correspondmg loss ratios for the Stnte-operated msurance funds have alwnys been hvgher than those for private cnrr~rs The ratlo of losses pald to...

A large public finance literature argues that taxable income elasticities are a sufficient statistic for the social welfare consequences of taxation. We develop calibrations that show such deadweight loss calculations are overestimates proportional to the quantitative significance of heterogeneity in amenities across job matches. In particular, the endogenous supply of amenities can substantial...

This paper explores the impact of airport noise regulation on airline service quality and airfares. It also characterizes the socially optimal stringency of noise limits, taking both noise damage and the various costs borne by airlines and their passengers into account. The analysis also investigates the effect of noise taxes, as well as the optimal level of such taxes. Along with the companion...

In many online systems, individuals provide services for each other; the recipient of the service obtains a benefit but the provider of the service incurs a cost. If benefit exceeds cost, provision of the service increases social welfare and should therefore be encouraged – but the individuals providing the service gain no (immediate) benefit from providing the service and hence have an incenti...

Little is known about broiler chicken ranging behaviour. Previous studies have monitored ranging behaviour at flock level but whether individual ranging behaviour varies within a flock is unknown. Using Radio Frequency Identification technology, we tracked 1200 individual ROSS 308 broiler chickens across four mixed sex flocks in two seasons on one commercial farm. Ranging behaviour was tracked ...

Educational risk and wage uncertainty are important features in human capital investment. Therefore, we apply an OLG-model, wherein human capital formation is exposed to idiosyncratic risk. Extending the instruments available for social insurance, a (Norwegian-type) two-bracket progressive labor tax system and education subsidies are shown to enhance the efficiency-insurance trade-off and to in...

I study the social value of information in a New Keynesian model of monopolistic pricesetting with dispersed information, where the central bank can choose what information to share with the public. Under flexible prices, more disclosure is welfare improving: it reduces price dispersion and moves the economy closer to the first-best allocation. Under Calvo [1983] price stickiness, however, disc...

Strategic suppression of grades, as well as early offers and contracts, are well-known phe-nomena in the matching process where graduating students apply to jobs or further education.In this paper, we consider a game theoretic model of these phenomena introduced by Ostrovskyand Schwarz, and study the loss in social welfare resulting from strategic behavior of the schools,employe...

For over half a century, the development of the welfare state has served as the principal means by which left-progressive governments have reconciled the pursuit of efficiency with the pursuit of equity. From a Keynesian perspective, welfare spending—and the taxes that financed it—provided an “automatic stabilizer,” smoothing aggregate demand in the face of fluctuations in the business cycle. F...

In the context of introduction of deregulatory policy measures and subsequent wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Indian corporate sector since 1991, the present paper attempts to examine the welfare implications of this wave. It is found that M&A do not have any significant impact on consumers’ welfare. Instead, consumers’ welfare is significantly influenced by exports intensity, imports...