Overcoming a technological lock-in by means of governmental intervention may be welfare enhancing, even if the implemented technology will be replaced by a better one at a certain time in the future. This holds, if the environmental externality of the implemented technology is small relative to...

Opportunistic politicians use the composition of public debt as a signal for competence. A competent government will not issue long-term nominal debt, as optimal to balance the budget, but long-term inflation-indexed debt. We consider politicians that pursue the objective of a balanced budget...

Living downtown can be advantageous because it enables convenient access to a variety of shopping and leisure activities, but a major disadvantage is the difficulty of finding a parking spot. We formally model the trade-off between privileged parking for residents and economic vitality in terms...