Two different ways to model the diffusion of alternative choices within a population of individuals in the presence of social externalities are known in the literature. While Galam’s model of rumors spreading considers a majority rule for interactions in several groups, Schelling considers...

The phenomenon of synchronization of a two-dimensional discrete dynamical system is studied for the model of an economic duopoly game, whose time evolution is obtained by the iteration of a noninvertible map of the plane. In the case of identical players the map has a symmetry property that...

We propose a repeated oligopoly game where quantity setting firms have incomplete knowledge of the demand function of the market in which they operate. At each time step they solve a profit maximization problem by using a subjective approximation of the demand function based on a local estimate...

The time evolution of prices and savings in a stock market is modeled by a discrete time nonlinear dynamical system. The model proposed has a unique and unstable steady-state, so that the time evolution is determined by the nonlinear effects acting out of the equilibrium. The nonlinearities...

In U.S. elections, voters often vote for candidates from different parties for president and Congress. Voters also express dissatisfaction with the performance of Congress as a whole and satisfaction with their own representative. We develop a model of split-ticket voting in which government...

We study the effects of nominal debt on the optimal sequential choice of monetary and debt policy. When the stock of debt is nominal, the incentive to generate unanticipated inflation increases the cost of the outstanding debt even if no unanticipated inflation episodes occur in equilibrium....

We design and analyze experimental versions of monetary overlapping generations economies under alternative policy regimes. Economies with a constant level of real deficit financed through seigniorage, economies in which the level of deficit is adapted in order to follow a monetary policy with a...

We study the effect on the growth of an economy of alternative financing opportunities in a stochastic growth model with incentive constraints. Efficient accumulation mechanisms are designed and computed for economies that differ in their incentive structure. We show that when borrowing is...