Regional integration proposals often require agreements between countries that differ in geographic size, resource endowments, transportation assets, technologies, and product quality. In this asymmetric setting, questions arise about the potential for mutual gains and the distribution of...

All countries - whether industrial, developing, or in transition to a market economy - are interested in health care reform. A central focus of reform everywhere is to make patients more responsive to health care costs without diluting the protection offered by public or private insurance....

Empirical studies of the effects of intergovernmental grants to localities do not support standard microeconomic predictions. Block grants have surprisingly large positive effects on public expenditures. Researchers have attributed this quot;flypaper effectquot; to imperfect information (fiscal...