A method for dealing with monotonicity constraints in optimal control problems is used to generalize some results in the context of monopoly theory, also extending the generalization to a large family of principal-agent programs. Our main conclusion is that many results on diverse economic...

Implementability conditions in Rochet (1987) are extended to utility functions not necessarily quasilinear in the transfer, or linear in the type, for the case where agents’ information is one-dimensional but actions become multidimensional. The results obtained are relevant for the...

We explore the precise requirements for the qualitative results on optimum income taxation to hold, with the aim of extending their application to a larger space of solutions than that of continuous, piecewise differentiable functions assumed in the literature. In particular, properties...

A class of solutions that violates the standard results on the sign and shape of optimal tax-rates is shown to be less exceptional than what might be expected, thus casting doubt on the general necessity of qualitative features of income tax-schedules accepted heretofore.

A procedure for dealing with monotonicity constraints in optimal control problems is used, within the context of a general model on incentive provision with hidden characteristics, to extend the space of contracts considered in principal-agent theory and thus generalize its results. We conclude...

We extend the conditions for incentive compatibility in mechanism design problems to a more general structure of preferences than that found in the literature, for the case where type is one-dimensional but the outcome function becomes multidimensional. This is so, at least, as long as...