We consider innovation incentives in markets where final goods comprise two strictly complementary components, one of which is monopolized. We focus on the case in which the complementary component is competitively supplied, and in which innovation is important. We explore ways in which the...

This essay develops a transcendental variable elasticity of substitution (Trans-VES) production function in which hypotheses concerning scale, output-input, and substitution, elasticities can be examined. The objective is to determine the impacts of domestic resources on the pattern of economic...

This paper presents estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources...

Families in developing countries face enormous financial risks from major illness both in terms of the cost of medical care and the loss in income associated with reduced labor supply and productivity. We test whether access to microfinancial savings and lending institutions helps Indonesian...

Bretton Woods was grounded in the Keynesian view that financial markets are innately too unstable to be given free rein. This view, which also shaped the financial policies of developing countries during the 1st post-war quarter-century, was gradually displaced during the 2nd post- war...

The author of this note takes it as self evident that prosperity and the provision of "things" (buildings, roads, furniture, furnishings, clothes, machines and equipment of all sorts) go together. The way people generally speak and act is in line with this view. If this is so, domestic...

This paper addresses an aspect of the financial crisis in South Korea that has not been dealt with in depth. The question that will be analyzed is: how does the general population perceive the crisis? In attempting to answer this question we rely on new representative survey data, covering the...

This paper seeks to dispel some of the myths commonly harboured about service jobs, service trade and the contribution services make to productivity improvements and living standards. Services account for more than three-quarters of national output and for four out of every five jobs.

This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the use of non- monetary transactions (barter, debt offsets, etc.) in Russia since the fall of Communism. The two primary theories are the credit crunch (liquidity constraint) theory and the virtual economy theory. The former relates to...