It is shown that the evolution of modern developed societies results into reduction of the role of centralized governance as well as economic and political competition, whereas the role of collaboration mechanisms is growing. This process is supported by cultural changes: increasing trust,...

In their seminal work, The Calculus of Consent (1962), Buchanan and Tullock develop a decision model which embodies fundamental relation­ships relevant to institutional choices. However, the Buchanan-Tullock model remains "general," thus inviting others to specify details and to develop...

Using two alternative measures of expected inflation, this study investigates the impact of federal budget deficits on nominal long-term interest rate yields for the 1973.2-1995.4 period. Based on an open­ economy loanable funds framework, four instrumental variable esti­mates in first...

We develop a dynamic model for analyzing the programs of contractual savings for housing (CSH). We introduce concepts of stability as well as strong and weak stability of trajectories generated by CSH programs, and obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions that guarantee fulfillment of...

The theory of reforms usually assumes that a designer aims to increase public welfare under existing constraints. In practice, however, initiators of reforms quite often proceed from false premises, and pursue political and-or self-interested goals. In this paper, we analyze an example of such...

What would the true government expenditure and tax burden im­pacts of California's Proposition 4 likely be if it (or its equivalent) were enacted in all 50 states? What happened to actual state plus local government expenditures per capita over the period 1970-1976 is examined. Next, we examine...

I discuss goals of institutional experimentation as well as obstacles for its realization. The special attention is given to regional experiments. Institutional experiment reduces transformation costs, in particular, by diminishing probability of formation of erroneous reforms trap. The analyses...

This paper investigates the determinants of student choice of under­graduate major field. It argues that this choice depends on a variety of pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. After allowing for the recent trends toward Accounting and Business Administration, the empirical results indicate...

This paper examines the relationship between union corruption actions and union membership. State-level data from the Office of Labor-Management Standards, and other sources, are utilized over two study periods (1974-2000 and 2001- 2008) to test three hypotheses, including the union corruption...

The problem of finding a Pareto point which would satisfy additional conditions in the form of equalities is stated. A theorem on existence of a solution is proved. Examples are given.