One of the challenges for multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) is designing efficient learning algorithms for a large system in which each agent has only limited or partial information of the entire system. In this system, it is desirable to learn policies of a decentralized type. A recent...

The purpose of this paper is to study why decentralized economies often fail to achieve national objective in the presence of externalities. The paper employs a two-period, open economy framework in which the central government allocates its tax revenues among a larger number of individual...

This study analyses a possible reason behind the ambiguous relationship between fiscal decentralization and government size by introducing the mediating factor of ethnic fragmentation. It is postulated that the heterogeneous needs and preferences of an ethnically fragmented region would lead to...

In this study, the interrelationship between income inequality, fiscal decentralization, and public health is investigated within a comprehensive research framework for the first time. Using the panel data of 23 Chinese provinces for a period between 2002 and 2012, a carefully designed...

Green development is critical for China's economic transformation. Enhancing green total factor energy efficiency (hereafterGTFEE) is vital to emission reduction and to win-win industrial development. This study uses the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces for the period 2005–2016 to...

We propose a model of strategic delegation in professional labor markets with heterogeneous workers. A big firm, competing with fringe firms, decides whether to exercise its market power to suppress wages. Alternatively, it may choose to delegate hiring to agents (divisions), thereby committing...

Purpose: This research aims at developing a comprehensive transshipment solution leading to additional opportunities of transshipment from small inland vessels throughout the West German canal network and, thereby, extending the existing capacities consisting of container bridges and reach...

We analyze a model of moral hazard in local public services which could be efficiently managed by officials under local democratic accountability, but not by officials who are appointed by the ruler of a centralized autocracy. The ruler might prefer to retain an official who diverted resources...