This paper demonstrates the utility of systems and control theory in the analysis of economic systems. Two applications demonstrate how the analysis of simple dynamic models sheds light on important practical problems. The first problem considers the design of a retail laboratory, where the...

We seek to explain why countries have adopted national Old-Age Insurance and Health Insurance programs. Theoretical work has posited several factors that could lead to this adoption: the strain from expanding capitalism; the need for political legitimacy; the desire to transfer to similar people;...

I examine the effect of Old-Age Insurance (OAI) on older women's labor-force participation in fourteen countries since around 1930. Older women's participation has risen in the US, but has fallen over time in some European countries. The discontinuity of incentives at the state pension age helps...