Starting with a world where all countries apply Nash-optimal tariffs aginst all imports, we ask when , if ever, a group of countries can gain by trading freely ("promise") and when, if ever, it pays an outsider to join them ("attractiveness").

The simplest flat tax proposals envisage a single marginal tax rate applying on all income. In the context of a simple model where agents vary in ability to earn, we demonstrate (a) that everyone is better off in the long run with an income-tax exemption for investment, than without it, and (b)...

Shackle's theory of decision-making under uncertainty and the background to it are outlined. Its major prediction about action-choice is set out and proved. An experimental design to test its veracity is described; a design that it is demonstrated will make it possible to discriminate between...

The European Union's agricultural policies are wasteful, and Britain's share of the burdens of them are disproportionately large. Nonetheless, enlargement of the European Union in the 1970s and 1980s appears to have raised new members's growth rates (with the single exception of Grece). In...

Within an open economy, redistributive taxation makes home output scarcer, thereby improving the terms of trade all else equal. This can generate too much taxation and unemployment, and excess taxation tends to shrink, not grow, the larger the economy.