Der Text beruht auf einer am 9. Mai 2017 vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht abgegebenen Stellungnahme in der mündlichen Verhandlung zu einem Verfahren über den Umfang der Verpflichtung der Bundesregierung zur Information des Parlaments (Az. 2BvE 2/11). Das Gericht hatte um Auskünfte zur...

Kolmogorov's extension theorem provides a natural mapping from the space of coherent hierarchies of an agent's first-order, second- order, etc. beliefs to the space of probability measures over the exogenous parameters and the other agents' belief hierarchies. Mertens and Zamir (1985) showed...

The paper discusses criteria for comparing risk aversion of decision makers when outcomes are multidimensional. A weak concept, commodity specific greater risk aversion , is based on the comparison of risk premia paid in a specified commodity. A stronger concept, uniformly greater risk aversion...

According to Homburg's (2014) comment on Kim and Lee (1997), an ad-valorem property tax on land cannot cause dynamic ineffi ciency of equilibrium allocations in an overlapping-generations model unless the tax is "confiscatory", i.e., equal to or greater than land rents. With such a tax, Homburg...

The paper contributes to the discussion on whether real interest rates smaller than real growth rates can be taken as evidence of dynamic in- efficiency that calls for scal interventions. A seemingly killing objection points to the presence of land, a non-produced durable asset whose value...

The paper gives conditions for dynamic inefficiency of laissez-faire allocations in an overlapping-generations model with safe and risky assets. If the rate of population growth is certain, the conditions given depend only on how the rate of return on safe assets compares to the growth rate. If...

The paper contributes to a symposium of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy on "Capitalism: What has Gone Wrong, What Needs to Change, and How can it be Fixed?". The analysis starts from the observation that, in the United States, the United Kingdom and continental Europe, widespread discontent...

An anonymous social choice function for a large atomless population maps cross-section distributions of preferences into outcomes. Because any one individual is too insignificant to affect these distributions, every anonymous social choice function is individually strategy- proof. However, not...

The paper studies efficient public-good provision in a model with private values whose distribution depends on a macro shock; conditionally on this shock, values are independent and identically distributed. A generalization of the Bayesian mechanism of d'Aspremont and Gérard-Varet is shown to...