This paper examines coalition formation problems from the viewpoint of mechanism design. We consider the case where (i) the list of feasible coalitions (those coalitions which are permitted to form) is given in advance; and (ii) each individual’s preference is a ranking over those feasible coalitions which include this individual. We are interested in requiring the mechanism to guarantee each c...

Some institutional transitions are implemented as the deliberate outcome of bargaining among a small number of groups, but many are more decentralized, with a large number of private actors informally adopting new practices that are later confirmed by changes in formal governance structures. For example, land tenure norms, changes in conventional crop shares, shifts in inheritance practices, an...

Why was the same state in China able to promote economic growth in the reform era but not in the previous thirty years? In this paper we focus on a speci…c aspect that might help the search for a comprehensive explanation: the speci…c institutional arrangement that induced autocratic government to adopt growth-enhancing policies. To this aim, we consider a standard political agency model (Besle...

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that Monte Carlo treatment planning systems require tissue characterization (density and composition) as a function of CT number. A discrete set of tissue classes with a specific composition is introduced. In the current work we demonstrate that, for megavoltage photon radiotherapy, only the hydrogen content of the different tissues is of interest. T...

Increased attention to the issue of aid effectiveness has sparked a flurry of empirical studies attempting to measure the macro-level impact of aid flows on the performances of developing countries. These studies yield ambiguous and even contradictory results and one possible source of confusion is the fact that they are not grounded in solid theorizing. This paper tries to remedy this lacuna b...

This paper considers the possibility of collective action by the business community to counter corruption in the award of government licenses and contracts. The analogy is with contract enforcement institutions studied by economic historians and contract law scholars. The institution in this context comprises a no-bribery norm, a community system to detect violations, and a multilateral ostraci...

Quem constitui a família empresária? A resposta esta questão está por encontrar. Da aceitação da definição de empresária irá depender evolução do negócio familiar, liderança e sucessão ou divisão herança. Através revisão literatura, com recurso aos conceitos campo, habitus capital simbólico, apresenta-se uma proposta exploratória tipologia empresária. Esta aponta para um sistema aberto, interge...

Some institutional transitions are implemented as the deliberate outcome of bargaining among a small number of elite groups, but many are more decentralized, with a large number of private actors informally adopting new practices that are later confirmed by changes in formal governance structures. For example, land tenure norms, changes in conventional crop shares, shifts in inheritance practic...

We analyze the e¤ects of family ties on the incentives for production of e¤ort, where family ties are de…ned as a mixture of true and coerced altruism between family members. We model families as pairs of siblings. Each sibling exerts e¤ort in order to obtain output under uncertainty. A social norm dictates that a sibling with a high output must share a speci…ed amount of this output with his s...