The ongoing negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on agriculture has triggered an increased interest in the linkages between commodity production and public goods in agriculture. This paper takes a closer look at this issue. Particular emphasis is placed on production economics and...

The ongoing negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on agriculture has triggered an increased interest in the linkages between commodity production and public goods in agriculture. This paper takes a closer look at this issue. Particular emphasis is placed on production economics and...

In this paper, we analyze the contracting issues that arise in collaborative services, such as consulting, financial planning, and information technology outsourcing. In particular, we investigate how the choice of contract type--among fixed-fee, time-and-materials, and performance-based...

To mitigate the threat that terrorists smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States through maritime containers, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspects containers upon entry to domestic ports. Inspection-driven congestion is costly, and CBP provides...

This paper investigates to what extent the seminal contribution of Samuelson has been or not incorporated by the theories of general equilibrium and mechanism design in their analysis of optimal public good provision, and more generally of optimal public policy. Our conclusion is that, far from...

This paper first presents various simple regulatory mechanisms, in particular Vogelsang and Finsinger's iterative mechanism and Shleifer's yardstick Regulation. Unfortunately, in practical applications of these simple mechanisms the regulated utility will be able to dodge the regulator's...

This paper first presents various simple regulatory mechanisms, in particular Vogelsang and Finsinger's iterative mechanism and Shleifer's yardstick Regulation. Unfortunately, in practical applications of these simple mechanisms the regulated utility will be able to dodge the regulator's...

The aim is to investigate the difference in the functional dependence between incentives based on output and incentives based on an actual share of profit. Although the incentive role of profit sharing in contracts is an established result, we were looking for a functional solution form, able to...

This paper first presents various simple regulatory mechanisms, in particular Vogelsang and Finsinger's iterative mechanism and Shleifer's yardstick Regulation. Unfortunately, in practical applications of these simple mechanisms the regulated utility will be able to dodge the regulator's...