This paper presents an infinite-horizon version of intergenerational utilitarianism that is both satisfactorily complete and consistent. By studying discounted utilitarianism as the discount factor tends to one, we obtain a welfare criterion - limit-discounted utilitarianism - that combines...

A hierarchically structured rent-seeking contest may be associated with lower equilibrium expenditure than a corresponding flat contest. In this chapter we discuss how this fact may be used to explain the structure of organizations such as firms, including why firms commonly have outside owners.

This paper provides axiomatic descriptions of social welfare relations, defined on infinite streams of utility, that are consistent with the utilitarian criterion on subsets where maximizing aggregate utility has a clear interpretation: the streams, or their differences, are summable. Besides...

We investigate the effects on individuals’ productivity (captured through their wage income) of two social networks in which individuals are embedded: their residential neighborhood and their workplace. We avail ourselves of Swedish micro-level data which makes it possible to identify...

The Swedish energy performance certificates for single family housing provide rich information on energy consumption and various physical attributes. They also include estimates of the energy conservation potentials resulting from implementing cost-efficient energy saving measures. By matching...

Existing studies associates financial constraints among innovators to small, young and high-tech firms. High adjustment cost implies that firms save money by smoothing innovation spending across the business cycle if they have available resources. This paper examines whether previous findings on...

Based on unique data covering individuals, firms, industries, and regions for the 1999-2005 period, we contribute with new knowledge concerning the impact of regional variables on spin-offs. Implementing a large number of controls, as well as different estimation techniques and robustness tests,...

Informal care of children for their frail elderly parents may induce parents to compensate their children for their help. To test this hypothesis, we use the Exit Interview from the Health and Retirement Study. Our results show that caregiving has a significant positive impact on the incidence...

We investigate whether and how an individuals' propensity to lie is affected by the social relationship between a potential liar and her/his possible victim. We argue that a shared social identity of sender and receiver increases sender's aversion to lie by raising two types of costs: the...

Much of the discussion about globalization has been held at a rather superficial macro-economic level. Discussions about globalization dealing with the meso- and micro-economic level, i.e. the level of regions and companies, have been much less common. Many of the discussions of globalization at...