Using a time-series data, the paper appraises allocative efficiency of the telecom sector in Pakistan through some of the macroeconomic and policy variables. Results of the study reveal that the openness of the telecom sector to foreign firms and the existing size of population have led to an improvement in efficiency of both the fixed and cellular networks. However, findings on the impact of r...

We examine the incentive effects of funding contracts on entrepreneurial effort and on allocative efficiency. We experiment with funding contracts that differ in the structure of investor repayment and, thus, in their incentives for the provision of entrepreneurial effort. Theoretically the replacement of a standard debt contract by a repayment-equivalent non-monotonic contract reduces effort d...

In this paper we explore how specific aspects of mechanism design affect the efficiency of the market outcome. In particular, we are interested whether the availability of information about actions of other participants improves market efficiency. We consider a simple market of a homogeneous good populated by buyers and sellers. The valuations of the buyers and the costs of the sellers are give...

This paper reviews the progress of Islamic banking from both theoretical and practical aspects. It highlights the basic principles on which Islamic banking is based and describes the operational details of Islamic banks. It mentions some of the misgivings with respect to the viability of Islamic banking and evaluates them objectively. It highlights the effects of Islamic banking on savings, inv...

Overall, the programme is attested satisfactory efficacy. At appraisal stage TB and leprosy prevalencies in Nigeria were very high and, accordingly, the programme was highly relevant. In the course of implementation, only limited results were achieved, despite the measures carried out. Case detection rates for both diseases fall far short of the targets recommended by WHO. The allocative effici...

The stock market, take-over bidders, executive pay setters, perhaps Stephen Littlechild himself, even last summer’s weather, all seem to have been undermining RPI–X price-cap regulation. Until recently, price-cap regulation was regarded as demonstrably superior to US-style rate-of-return regulation, and regulatory reform in several countries has embraced price-cap regulation. But in Britain, wh...

This paper examines the optimality of the shooting decisions of National Basketball Association (NBA) players using a rich data set of shot outcomes. The decision to shoot is a complex problem that involves weighing the continuation value of the possession and the outside option of a teammate shooting. We model this as a dynamic mixed-strategy equilibrium. At each second of the shot clock, dyna...

Combinatorial auctions are promising auction formats for industrial and public procurement. Potential advantages of using combinatorial auctions include lower overall spend, low transaction costs for multi-item negotiations, fairness and market transparency for suppliers, as well as high allocative efficiency. A number of fundamental design considerations are relevant to the application of comb...

Real market institutions, stock and commodity exchanges for example, do not occur in isolation. The same stocks and commodities may be listed on multiple exchanges, and traders who want to deal in those goods have a choice of markets in which to trade. While there has been extensive research into agent-based trading in individual markets, there is little work on this kind of multiple market sce...

This paper tries to reconcile incentive theory with transaction costs theory. We first discuss the fundamental assumptions underlying the use of the Revelation Principle in the standard mechanism design literature and show how various contractual incompletenesses and externalities induced by transaction costs affect the basic trade-off between allocative efficiency and informational rents highl...