What degree of tax autonomy should be granted to a regional government on a local tax base? Although the regional policy maker aims at maximizing social welfare, her tax policy may be distorted by the lobbying activity of local taxpayers. In this political environment we characterize the...

We develop a theoretical model involving temporary equilibria with quantity rationing in each period and price adjustment between periods. The resulting dynamic system may present a variety of dynamic behaviors, ranging from the convergence to stationary or quasi-stationary states, to complex or...

We study information acquisition in a framework characterized by strategic complementarity or substitutability. Agents’ actions are based on costly public and private signals, the precisions of which are set by a policy maker and by private agents, respectively. The policy maker – acting as...

We build a simple model in which corporate governance may allow for institutions acting as commitment devices (e.g., the introduction of independent and minority members in the board). The model predicts that the incentive to adopt an institution — letting the general interest of shareholders...

In this paper we examine in a game theoretic framework in how far market conditions facilitating start-up formation positively affect technical change and firms' profits. We consider a model in which R&D efforts of an incumbent firm generate technological know-how embodied in key R&D employees,...

We study whether local economic conditions in different areas have an impact on the magnitude and direction of the concentration process of a banking industry. By using probit and count data (ZIP) models to study the consolidation of the Italian banking sector in the second half of the 1990s, we...

In a beauty contest framework, we show that more precise public information contributes to higher welfare when the precision of private information is endogenous. We consider a Stackelberg game in which public authorities decide the accuracy of public information taking into account how this...

In this paper we examine the trade off between different effects of the availability of venture capital on the speed of technological progress in an industry. We consider an evolutionary industry simulation model based on Nelson and Winter (1982) where R&D efforts of an incumbent firm generate...

We study lobbying behavior by firms in a two-region economy, with either centralized or decentralized provision of profit-enhancing local public goods. Firms compete either in the market, lobbying for public good provision once entered in a market, or for the market, lobbying to gain ccess to...