In this paper we consider the effect of quantity restrictions and scrutiny on the consumption of quasi-free goods. A good is quasi-free if it is zero priced, but it is consumed in the context of a social setting (e.g., as an employee, client, friend, etc.). Examples include cookies at a picnic,...

In this paper we consider the effect of quantity restrictions and scrutiny on the consumption of quasi-free goods. A good is quasi-free if it is zero priced, but it is consumed in the context of a social setting (e.g., as an employee, client, friend, etc.). Examples include cookies at a picnic,...

This paper analytically investigates the incentive scheme of perpetrators of violent conflicts. It provides a rational equilibrium framework to elicit how monetary incentives and survival considerations shape a combatant’s decision to participate in a conflict. In the model, a leader decides...

This paper analytically investigates the incentive scheme of perpetrators of violent conflicts. It provides a rational equilibrium framework to elicit how monetary incentives and survival considerations shape a combatant’s decision to participate in a conflict. In the model, a leader decides...

Wage secrecy is common in many cultures, especially in highly competitive markets. This paper examines why people in a society honor the wage taboo and explains the role of the secrecy norm in a growing-inequality economy. Assuming that people do take their relative position on the pay ladder...

This study presents a general model of conspicuous consumption in which two partly visible goods serve as a signal of dual unobserved individual attributes (wealth and wisdom). In addition to a classic Veblen good, a more sophisticated cultural conspicuous-consumption good is introduced. Agents'...

We investigate a setting in which members of a population, bifurcated into a majority and a minority, transact with randomly matched partners. All members are uniformly altruistic, and each transaction can be carried out cooperatively or through a market mechanism, with cooperative transactions...

This paper presents a first attempt at understanding some of the many issues involved in the granting of an amnesty to illegal immigrants. We consider government behavior with respect to allocations on limiting infiltration (border control) and apprehending infiltrators (internal control) and...

The demographic history of the Jews in the Middle Ages may be characterized by two main phenomena: i) a sharp drop in the number of Jews until the beginning of the modern period, due mainly to conversions; and, ii) early urbanization. Until now, these features have been analyzed as primarily...

This paper presents some of the many issues involved in the granting of an amnesty to illegal immigrants. Complementing studies by Chau (2001, 2003), Karlson and Katz (2003) and Gang and Yun (2006), we consider government behavior with respect to allocations on limiting infiltration (border...