Mainstream endogenous growth models assume that new knowledge is embodied into new intermediate or final goods, monopolistically supplied by the patent holder. Recent technological progress, however, often gives rise to pure intellectual contents, such as software codes or business models,...

The legal monopoly granted by the patent system has often been criticized for its inefficiency, which is exacerbated by the peculiarities of knowledge as a public good. In this paper we aim at studying more deeply the latter concern. Hence we build a model in which monopolistic exploitation does...

In this paper we model taxpayers reactions to the possibility of either reporting income as usual and running the risk of an audit or reporting a "cutoff" income and paying a threshold tax that gives the certainty of not being audited. Models of this kind already discussed in the literature...

This paper provides a simple model, based on expected utility theory, for rationalizing taxpayers' reaction to an unexpected amnesty offer. The model is estimated through a deterministic approach, with reference to data pertaining to the 1991 and 1994 Italian tax amnesties. Results seem sound...

This paper studies through an agency model the problem of concealing an illegal activity which benefits the principal. The agent can exert an effort that negatively affects the likelihood of detection. We model such behavior with the assumption that the principal is risk neutral while the agent...