This paper relates the erosion of the custom of shotgun marriage to the legalization of abortion and the increased availability of contraception to unmarried women in the United States. The decline in shotgun marriage accounts for a significant fraction of the increase in out-of-wedlock first...

A partnership is a coalition that divides its output equally. The authors show that when partnerships can form freely, a stable or "core" pa rtition into partnerships always exists and is generically unique. Wh en people differ in ability, the equal-sharing constraint inefficient ly limits the...

The authors show that a new product monopolist may benefit from (delayed) competition if consumers incur setup costs. Setup costs create a dynamic consistency problem: the monopolist cannot guarantee low future prices once customers have incurred those costs. The authors show that, if customers...