The aim of this paper is to compare empirically the effects of transport cost reductions due to infrastructure investments, emerging under different market structures. To this end, a computable spatial general equilibrium model with costly interregional trade is presented, which is calibrated...

German media repeatedly discuss the thesis, that residents in East Germany are dissatisfiedwith their life situation in comparison to those in West Germany. Therefore East Germanstend to moan. One intention of this essay is to answer the question, whether the East Germansare in fact dissatisfied...

We compare the effect of legal and institutional competition for the design of labor institutions in an environment characterized by holdup problems in human and physical capital. We compare autarky with the two country case, assuming that capital is perfectly mobile and labor immobile. We...

Patent pools in the framework of Lerner and Tirole (2004) may enhance or reduce social welfare. The purpose of this paper is to devise a pool formation mechanism which prevents welfare decreasing pool equilibria to emerge,and which encourages welfare enhancing pool formation. In order to...

We measure the cost of consumption fluctuations using an approach that does not require the specification of preferences and instead uses asset prices. We measure the marginal cost of consumption fluctuations, the per unit benefit of a marginal reduction in consumption fluctuations...

We study how the framework of classical game theory changes when the preferences of the players are described by Prospect Theory instead of Expected Utility Theory. Specifically, we study the influence of framing effect and probability weighting on the existence and specific structure of Nash...

Within the EFONET Coordination Action, an analysis of the state of the art of energy foresight activities in the EU countries has beencarried out in order to assess the transferability of the “good practices” learnt from the national foresight experiences towards energyforesight on the...

The government’s pensions Green Paper – A new contract for welfare:partnership in pensions – proposes fundamental changes to the UK’sretirement income system. Members of CASE and of the Department ofSocial Policy at LSE have looked at the likely implications of the reformsfor pensioner...

The Lisbon summit of the European Council in March 2000 declared the number ofpeople living in poverty and social exclusion in the European Union to beunacceptable, and called for steps to tackle the issue, beginning with the setting oftargets for particular indicators. The targets suggested...