This paper examines, for a two-period signalling game played by a revenue-raising government and a monopolistic firm in an asymmetric information context, how the government behaves when it taxes the firm’s production. Information regarding the firm’s efficiency (or its potential to pay taxes) is private; therefore, only the firm knows its ‘type’. To prevent opportunism and lead the firm to dis...

The non-Marxist, or neo-Malthusian, approach to the study of population problems is criticized, with particular reference to the situation in Africa. An alternative Marxist approach is proposed in which the solution to population problems is sought either in revolution or radical improvements in social welfare involving the maximum egalitarian distribution of the benefits of social and economi...

This paper shows that subsidy can naturally emerge as part of the equilibrium strategy of an innovator of a cost-reducing innovation in a Cournot oligopoly when the innovator is endowed with combinations of upfront fee and royalty. It is further shown that there are robust regions where the social welfare is higher in subsidy-based licensing compared to the regime where licensing involving subs...

BACKGROUND Egalitarianism and altruism are two ways in which people may have attitudes that go beyond the narrowly defined selfish preferences. The theoretical constructs of egalitarianism and altruism are different from each other, yet there may be connections between the two. This paper explores the empirical relationship between egalitarianism and altruism, in the context of health. METHOD...

This paper considers a mechanism design problem in which a retailer motivates a manufacturer to gather information concerning the demand for its new product. The information will be of value to the retailer, in deciding whether to allocate limited shelf space for the new product. The model reveals that if the retailer cannot observe whether the manufacturer has gathered information, then to mot...

We consider a multimarket framework where a set of firms compete on two interrelated oligopolistic markets. Prior to competing in these markets, firms can spy on others in order to increase the quality of their product. We characterize the equilibrium espionage networks and networks that maximize social welfare under the most interesting scenario of diseconomies of scope. We find that in some s...

We investigate the environmental impacts of several forms of policies that offer farmers subsides in return for adoption of conservation tillage. The policies differ on whether the tillage practice or one of the environmental benefits is targeted. We develop an environmental Lorenz curve that fully represents the performance of the targeting policies, and we show that these curves can be used d...

Comprehensive multicultural organizational development (MCOD) is increasingly necessary in human services agencies. This article presents results from an exploratory study that identified challenges and solutions to MCOD, against the backdrop of daily realities of agency life. The author conducted interviews with 20 consultants and 20 practitioners experienced in MCOD. Qualitative analysis reve...

We study the policy choice of an office-holding politician who is concerned with the public’s perception of his capabilities. The politician decides whether to maintain the status quo or to conduct a risky reform. The success of the reform depends critically upon the abilities of the politician, which is privately known to the politician. The public observes both his policy choice and the outco...

The Beckerian approach to tax compliance examines how a tax authority can maximize social welfare by trading-off audit probability against the fine rate on undeclared tax. This paper offers an alternative examination of the privately optimal behavior of a tax authority tasked by government to maximize expected revenue. The tax authority is able to trade-off audit probability against audit effec...