Since Akerlof’s theory of lemons, economists have viewed quality uncertainty as an informational advantage for sellers. Drawing on frontier techniques, we propose in this paper a simple method for measuring inefficiency of both sellers and buyers in markets for goods with different levels of...

In this paper, we study the smoking behavior of students aged from 18 to 25 using four cross-section data sets collected in France from 1997 to 2006. We focus on the role played by student income and parental resources. We find that both the probability of smoking and the number of cigarettes...

Patent insurance policies allow firms to externalise the legal cost in case of conflicts. These litigation insurances may incite innovators to sue more often, which would increase the social cost of litigation. By modelling a patent file, we show that these patent litigation insurances incite...