Various plans developed by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) have indicated for some time a need for expansion of the Alberta electrical transmission system. This was also recommended in Alberta's Provincial Energy Strategy released in December of 2008 and it seems generally accepted...

With new technologies that enable insurers to electronically monitor vehicles and drivers, insurers should be able to price automobile insurance more accurately, creating individualized prices for consumers. The welfare effects of lower prices are straightforward, but we also consider that...

This paper offers an economic rationale for compulsory licensing of needed medicines in developing countries. The patent system is based on a trade-off between the “deadweight losses†caused by market power and the incentive to innovate created by increased profits from monopoly...

This paper examines puzzling behavior in industries in which one firm is able to obtain a price premium and/or a dominant market share for a product which is identical to that of its rivals. It is shown that when there is learning by doing, economies of scale, network externalities, or...

We introduce the Irish loan funds, a set of independent but regulated microcredit societies, which in the mid-nineteenth century were lending to 20% of Irish households. Their institutional evolution is traced from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. This system was remarkably successful...

This paper investigates whether the contractual exclusion of third-party extended warranties should be legally permissible, using a model incorporating consumer heterogeneity. The welfare effects of competition in the market for extended warranties are shown to depend on the degree of...

With new technologies that enable insurers to electronically monitor vehicles and drivers, insurers should be able to price automobile insurance more accurately, creating individualized prices for consumers. The welfare effects of lower prices are straightforward, but we also consider that...

Parallel imports are genuine products imported without the authorization of the trademark or copyright owner in a country. Authorized dealers have employed trademark and copyright law to exclude parallel imports using claims of infringement. Our assertion is that trademark and copyright laws are...