We synthesize the results of the recent theoretical literature on the determination of interchange fees by payment card associations. We analyze in particular the conditions under which these interchange fees are excessively high, as compared with social optimum. These conditions involve several parameters: the intensity of competition between banks and between merchants; the elasticities of de...

This paper develops a dynamic model of an economy in which homogeneous agents choose between specializing as producers or as merchants, and can change occupation at any time. Merchants operate alongside a decentralized search market and provide immediacy in exchange in return for a price. We characterize equilibria in symmetric Markov strategies, and derive conditions under which merchants and ...

Recent studies have linked transfers from Mexican conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades (formerly PROGRESA) to improvements in child development (Fernald, Gertler, and Neufeld 2008, 2009) but this work has been criticized as failing to account for endogeneity of the transfers. We create an exogenous instrument for the amount of transfers and use it to test program and transfer effects...

The fall of the Vijayanagar kingdom was reverberated whole South India in a state political chaos and consequent economic distress. From 1757 British had used their control over to promote own interests. But it would be wrong think that basic character rule remained same throughout. It passed through several stages its long history nearly 200 years. nature imperialism, as also policies impact, ...

Money is central in US politics, and most campaign contributions stem from a tiny, wealthy elite. Like other political acts, campaign donations are known to be socially contagious. We study how campaign donations diffuse through a network of more than 50,000 elites and examine how connectivity among previous donors reinforces contagion. We find that the diffusion of donations is driven by indep...

When it is compared to other premodern societies, ihe Greek world, in 800-300 BC, was prosperous. The Greek economy grew (both in the aggregate and per capita) at a hight rate by premodern standards (although growth was feeble by modern standards). By the fourth century BC Hellas was comparatively densely populated and highly urbanized. Incomes of working people were high (at least in Athens) a...

Farm Credit markets in the United States are excellent testimony to high performance over the long term in providing credit and related services to the farm sector, and to timely innovation of new financial institutions, instruments, and practices for meeting farmers' capital and credit needs. These markets evolved from strong reliance a century ago on country or frontier,banks, local merchants...

This thesis introduces a financial simulation model covering two related financial domains: Mobile Payments and Retail Stores systems. The problem we address in these domains is different types of fraud. We limit ourselves to isolated cases of relatively straightforward fraud. However, in this thesis the ultimate aim is to introduce our approach towards the use of computer simulation for fraud ...