Optimal tax theory has difficulty rationalizing high marginal tax rates at the upper end of the income distribution. In this paper, I construct a model of optimal income taxation in which agents' preferences are interdependent. I derive a simple expression for optimal taxes that accommodates...

This paper provides a framework and estimates of Enrollment Rates per natural and combines them with previous Income and Child Mortality per natural estimates by Clemens and Pritchett (2008) to produce a Human Development Index Per Natural. The methodology is applied for 1990 and 2000 to provide...

Controls on human mobility and efforts to undermine them continue to shape South Africa’s politics, economy, and society. Despite the need for improved policy responses to human mobility, reform is hindered by lack of capacity, misinformation, and anti-migrant sentiments within and outside of...

This paper examines the situation of a subgroup of non-citizens found in virtually all contemporary states, what I call “precarious residents”. Precarious residents can be defined as non-citizens living in the state that possess few social, political or economic rights, are highly vulnerable...

Migration continues to be a very important income diversification strategy, especially for poor populations in developing countries. However, while there has been much analysis on the economic consequences of migration for migrants and the receiving regions, whether internal migration improves...

This paper examines the effects of poverty and schooling returns on child labour in Vietnam using household-level data from the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS) for 1997-98. I find that poverty is a robust determinant of child labour in Vietnam. Being above the poverty line reduces child...

Women are increasingly significant as national and international migrants, and it is now evident that the complex relationship between migration and human development operates in genderdifferentiated ways. However, because migration policy has typically been gender-blind, an explicit gender...

What economic roles, if any, should government play? This is still an incompletely analyzed issue that different individuals – depending on their ideologies, rent-seeking opportunities, and analytical abilities – may answer very differently. To advance its analysis, this paper recognizes...

We analyze the use of information in a repeated oligopolistic insurance market. To sustain collusion, insurance companies might refrain from changing their pricing schedules even if new information about risks becomes available. We therefore provide an explanation for the existence of "unused...

We consider the case of an upstream seller who works to improve an asset that has been specialized to a downstream buyer's needs. The buyer then makes a take it or leave it offer to the seller about how the future surplus should be split. We assume that the seller from the outset has private...