Constrained Firms, Not Subsistence Activities: Evidence on Capital Returns and Accumulation in Peruvian Microenterprises We investigate the returns to capital and capital accumulation using panel data of Peruvian micro enterprises (MEs). Marginal returns to capital are found to be very high at low levels of capital, but rapidly decreasing at higher levels. The dynamic analyses of capital accumu...

We compare state-of-the-art implementation of Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) and Cost Utility Analysis (CUA) as tools for making priorities in allocation of national public funds in the transport sector and health sector, respectively, in Sweden. While the principal distinctions between these methods are well known, less notice has been given to a number of other differences that have emerged as n...

A major virtue of von Neumann-Morgenstern utilities, for example, in the theory of general financial equilibrium (GFE), is that they ensure time consistency: consumption-portfolio plans (for the future) are in fact executed (in the future) — assuming that there is perfect foresight about relevant endogenous variables. This paper proposes an alternative to expected utility, one which also delive...

In the problem of assigning indivisible goods and monetary transfers, we characterize welfareegalitarian mechanisms (that are decision-efficient and incentive compatible) with an axiom of solidarity under preference changes and a fair ranking axiom of order preservation. This result is in line with characterizations of egalitarian rules with solidarity in other economic models. We also show tha...

Many health improving interventions in low-income countries are extremely good value for money. So why has it often proven difficult to obtain political backing for highly cost-effective interventions such as vaccinations, treatments against diarrhoeal disease in children, and preventive policies such as improved access to clean water, or policies curtailing tobacco consumption? We use economic...

We analyze the political philosophy question of what kind of welfare differentials are allowed if we respect private ownership rights over self and public ownership of the external world. We consider cases where agents have equal rights over the publicly owned external world resources but are individually responsible for their preferences. We discuss that these ownership rights are naturally re...

Recent theoretical progress on inequity has left unresolved the crucial question of what constitutes equity. This paper proposes a positive theory of distributive justice, in a framework of inequity aversion, that depends on three general justice principles and context. The current study challenges the view of many previous inquiries that justice is context-specific and instead advances a theor...

This paper provides new estimates of efficient emission fees for sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions in the US electricity sector. The estimates are obtained by coupling a detailed simulation model of the US electricity markets with an integrated assessment model that links changes in emissions with atmospheric transport, environmental endpoints, and valuation of impacts. E...

This paper compares the implementation of the two economic evaluation methods Cost-Effectiveness/Utility (CEA/CUA) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) as tools for allocation of national public funds in the health and transport sector in Sweden, respectively. We compare the recommended values for important economic parameters such as the social discount rate, the marginal cost of public funds, and ...

We present a laboratory experiment that measures the effects of group identity – one’s perceived membership in social groups – on market transactions in an oligopoly market with a few sellers and buyers. We artificially induce group identity using art preferences and college majors in different treatments, respectively. Subjects are randomly assigned into the roles of buyers and sellers and int...