This paper is a preliminary draft of an article to appear in Chicago Law Review (2000), as part of a symposium reviewing two new books on economic analysis of constitutions: Dennis Mueller's Constitutional Democracy and Robert Cooter's Strategic Constitution. Some of the basic questions of constitutional analysis are introduced, and the importance of work in this area is shown as one of the maj...

In the paper, some classical and recent approaches to cluster analysis are discussed. Over the last decades researchers focused mainly on categorical data clustering, uncertainty in cluster analysis and clustering large data sets. In this paper some of the recently proposed techniques are introduced, such as similarity measures for data files with nominal variables, algorithms which include unc...

Some of the best philosophers do not hold academic appointments in philosophy departments. Wouldn't you rather have the ghost of Frank Ramsey (the Cambridge mathematician who died in the 1920s) as a hall mate instead of some of your current colleagues? Confining our attention to the living, we find some economists among the more philosophically inclined intellectuals. The best of these fellow t...

In times of conflict, an adversary’s resources are a source of potential harm. Many geopolitical tactics are, thus, quite explicitly economic, as they seek either to deter an adversary’s worst intentions or reduce its capacity to inflict damage (Richardson 1960; Tullock 1974). Relevant policies include trade-limiting sanctions (Galtung 1967; Pape 1997) and direct attacks on an adversary’s milit...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We report on the incremental costs associated with improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQL) following 6 months of respiratory rehabilitation compared with conventional community care. DESIGN Prospective randomized controlled trial of rehabilitation. SETTING A respiratory rehabilitation unit. PARTICIPANTS Eighty-four subjects who completed the rehabilitation tr...

This paper considers the problem of pet overpopulation. It develops a tractable dynamic model whose positive predictions square well with key features of the current U.S. market for pets. The model is used to understand, from a welfare economic perspective, the sense in which there is \overpopulation" of pets and the underlying causes of the problem. The paper also employs the model to consider...

Many socio-economic factors and health care system related issues impact the outcome of diabetes and consequently its costs and vice versa. Factors that influence delay in diagnosis also determine complication rates and thus costs. Presence and severity of complications as well as co-morbid conditions are the most important determinants of treatment and monitoring regimen as well as the need fo...

Successful economic development depends on the rational use of natural resources and on reducing as far as possible the adverse environmental impacts of development projects. Environmental assessment (EA) is a primary tool for achieving this objective, by inserting critical environmental information into the process of project identification, preparation, and implementation. Economic analysis, ...

In this article health economic implications of screening are analysed. First, requirements screening programmes should fulfil are derived, and methodical standards of health economic evaluation are outlined.Using the example of newborn hearing screening, it is then examined if empirical studies meet the methodical requirements of health economic evaluation. Some deficits are realised: Health e...

Economic research contributes to our understanding of alcohol use and the prevention and treatment of alcohol-related problems in several ways. This article reviews three areas in which the tools of economic analysis have produced significant insights in recent years. First, economic researchers have analyzed the effects of beverage prices and taxation on alcohol consumption and on adverse cons...