We explore the optimal delegation of decision rights by a principal to a better informed but biased agent. In an infinitely repeated game a long lived principal faces a series of short lived agents. Every period they play a cheap talk game ala Crawford and Sobel (1982) with constant bias,...

We explore the optimal delegation of decision rights by a principal to a better informed but biased agent. In an infinitely repeated game a long-lived principal faces a series of short-lived agents. Every period they play a cheap talk game ala Crawford and Sobel (1982) with constant bias,...

We examine an infi nitely repeated game between a principal, who has the formal authority to decide on a project, and a biased agent, who is privately informed about what projects are available. The optimal relational contract speaks to how power is earned, lost, and retained. It shows that...

This paper investigates the scope for international rules to address market failures in trade in natural resources and the associated international transactions of prospecting and investment in resource exploitation. We argue that several market failures are likely to have substantial costs....

Carbon pricing is a central part of climate policy, but is politically difficult while the economy is still reliant on fossil fuels. The long-lived green investments required to break the carbon lock-in depend on expected taxes, not current taxes. Policies which target the expectations of the...

These notes discuss some of the main results and models from the theory of international trade under imperfect competition. They are necessairy both selective and superficial. Multinationals are conspicuous by their absence, and the reader is referred to Markusen (1995) for a recent survey. Up...

The observation of an increase in the ratio of skilled to unskilled wages in the high-income countries and in some cases in low/middle income countries has led to considerable discussion and indeed controversy as to its cause. Virtually none of the analysis has considered a possible role of...

This paper analyses three main mechanisms through which transport improvements have impacts that deliver real income gain over and above user-benefits. One is economic density and productivity, a second is induced private investment and associated land-use change, and a third is employment...

This paper reviews recent work on the economics of fast growing developing country cities, with a focus on Africa. It sets out some of the broad facts about African urbanisation and summarises two recent pieces of research work. The first argues that coordination failure can create multiple...