We model the decision problems faced by the members of societies whose new members are determined by vote. We adopt a number of simplifying assumptions: the founders and the candidates are fixed; the society operates for a fixed number of periods and holds elections at the beginning of each period;...

This paper provides a co-operative as well as a non-cooperative analysis of weighted majority games. The co-operative solution concept introduced here, the Stable Demand Set, yields a meaningful selection within the Mas-Colell Bargaining Set, it contains the Core, it eliminates the "dominated"...

During the last decade or so a number of banking crises has occurred in both industrial and developing countries. Bank unsoundness is the focus of deep concerns for its possible interactions with macroeconomic instability. The potential size and severity of sovereign debt crises in integrated...

The models of Lucas (1993), Krugman (1987), Stokey (1988, 1991) and Young (1991) predict that productivity growth is associated with the production of increasingly sophisticated products, and that high-end goods should exhibit more productivity growth than low-end goods. This paper investigates...

The relation between personal taxes and firm value has fundamental implications for understanding why firms pay dividends and how taxes influence capital structure choices. Assessing personal tax valuation effects also influences tax policy debates regarding the integration of corporate and...

Consider an environment with widespread externalities, and suppose that binding agreements can be written. We study coalition formation in such a setting. Our analysis proceeds by defining on a partition function an extensive form bargaining game. We establish the existence of a stationary...

This paper analyzes the institutional arrangements governing the international transfer of input-embodied new technologies in agriculture. While developed countries characteristically allow "multiple channel" private and public technological transfer, developing countries often force technology...

Marshallian districts are locales that accommodate a large number of small firms producing similar goods to be exported and benefit from the accumulation of know-how associated with workers residing there. We study the making of such districts by assuming that the cost function of a firm is a...

In an empirical analysis, considering 236 U.S. cities in the period 1980-1990, we document a strong positive correlation between local supply of skills and their return. In SMSA's where the average education of workers is high the education premium is also high. This is true both considering the...