Assuming simple functional forms, numerical methods are used to analyze linear regulatory rules that include cost-plus and price-cap regimes. Regulators are assumed to observe actual cost, but not the disutility of cost reduction, and are assumed unable to impose taxes or make transfers. Best...

We construct a simple model of the regulatory process in which a monopoly firm has private information about its capabilities and its cost-reducing activities. The optimal regulatory policy offers the firm a choice between two regulatory regimes, one of which resembles price-cap regulation. The...

Federal and state regulatory agencies have traditionally used rate-of-return regulation to set profit and rate levels for utilities. A "price cap" framework, in which the regulatory agency sets a maximum rate below which the regulated utility has pricing flexibility, is possibly a more efficient...

This article presents a model of an increasing returns economy in which each agent is allowed to choose his occupation; he can be a worker or an employer. It is shown that as the number of agents increases to infinity, the proportion of employers in the population approaches zero. A large...

This article investigates expense preference behavior in the savings and loan industry. Previous studies used an intercept test and, in general, concluded that managers of mutual S&Ls exhibit expense preference behavior. I derive the necessary and sufficient conditions on cost functions for the...

In this article we report the results from a series of laboratory markets in which sellers have better information about the quality of an item than any of the potential buyers. Sellers may voluntarily choose to reveal this information or they may instead decide to "blind bid" the item. We find...

In this article I develop a model to analyze patent licensing that is induced as part of a settlement agreement to avoid litigation of the issue of patent validity. The patentee possesses private information about patent validity and makes a take-it-or-leave-it settlement offer to a single...