The traditional theory of fiscal federalism prescribes a very limited tax base for subnational governments. The only good local taxes are said to be those that are easy to administer locally, are imposed solely (or mainly) on local residents, and do not raise problems of harmonization or competition between subnational – local or regional governments or between subnational and national governme...

The value that brokers generate depends on both the quality of their investment recommendations and their clients’ counterfactual portfolios. To identify counterfactual portfolios inside a defined contribution retirement plan, we exploit time-series variation in access to brokers. When brokers are available, the correlations with age, income, and educational attainment suggest that brokers are ...

In a series of influential papers, Lester Brickman (2003a, 2003b, 2004) has argued that the income and effective hourly rate of tort lawyers using contingent fees has increased by 1400% since 1960 and that the market for contingent fee lawyers is uncompetitive as evidenced by lack of price advertising and uniform pricing across practitioners, cases and time. He also argues that contingent fee l...

In England, Local Authorities (LAs) contribute to the care home fees of two-thirds of care home residents aged 65+ who pass a means test. LAs typically pay fees below those faced by residents excluded from state support. Most proposals for reform of the means test would increase the proportion of residents entitled to state support. If care homes receive the LA fee for more residents, they migh...

I model investors who are only able to access equity markets through a broker. These brokers have an incentive route based on the fees charged by exchanges, rather than execution quality for their clients. This conflict of interest reduces investor utility, as they must pay higher commissions orders sent exchanges with best market quality. show that regulators may be improve utility allowing se...

Public health systems in most low-income countries are unfair to poor people. Clearly preventive and curative public health-care services, especially hospital services, are accessed by poor people less frequently than by those who are better off . This injustice is now high on the international agenda. A solution for this issue has some global dimensions, such as the need for a large transfer o...

General practitioners are unlikely to receive the exact level of remuneration recommended in the 16th report of the doctors' and dentists' review body' even if the level was accepted in full by the government and implemented from 1 April. This alarming sounding position is so because general practitioners' remuneration is a series of fees and allowances designed to produce an average income acr...

We investigate the role of commissions paid by product providers to information intermediaries who advise customers on product suitability. These commissions and hidden “kickbacks” are widespread and controversial in markets for retail financial products and health services. We show that product providers have an incentive to pay commissions to steer the intermediary’s advice and to counteract ...