We examine optimal taxation and social insurance if insurance markets are imperfect. This requires the development of a theory of labor supply under uncertainty. We show that the case for social insurance is not generally reinforced by adverse selection in insurance markets as social insurance will have welfare-decreasing e ects on the labor market. Furthermore, positive and normative implicati...

We revisit a framework of con‡ict in a canonic open economy model to examine appropriate policy responses. We derive further implications of the framework, we link them to other results in the literature, and we explore the scope and limits of the analogy between policy analysis in a con‡ict economy and the policy analysis under distortions o¤ered by the traditional trade literature. We rank al...

In order not to see their climate mitigation efforts be in vain by the unlimited growth in China and India, the developed world has started to consider imposing border tax adjustments on imports from these fast developing countries. This paper puts this problem into a game-theoretic perspective. It sets up the problem as a game between the developed world deciding on three regimes of border tax...

Measuring Richness and Poverty: A Micro Data Application to Europe and Germany In this paper, we define a new class of richness measures. In contrast to the often used headcount, these new measures are sensitive to changes in rich persons’ income and therefore allow for a more sophisticated analysis of richness. We demonstrate the application of these new measures to analyze the development of ...

Rate-based emissions policies (like tradable performance standards, TPS) fix average emissions intensity, while cap-and-trade (CAT) policies fix total emissions. This paper shows that unfettered trade between rate-based and cap-and-trade programs always raises combined emissions, except when product markets are related in particular ways. Gains from trade are fully passed on to consumers in the...

Social insurance schemes differ according to the relationship between contributions and benefits. Bismarckian systems provide earnings-related benefits, while Beveridgean systems offer flat payments. The conventional wisdom is that with factor mobility poor people have incentives to move towards Beveridgean countries. Consequently, Beveridgean regimes would not be sustainable under economic int...

Accumulating evidence indicates that lung cancer arises due to multiple genetic changes in both dominant oncogenes, such as ras, and tumor suppressor genes, such as p53. In this report we examined whether the wild-type p53 gene is able to suppress in vitro and/or in vivo cellular growth of lung cancer cell lines which carry multiple genetic abnormali ties. Introduction of a wild-type p53 comple...

This paper provides a discussion of the principles of environmental taxation. It considers the empirical identification of environmental taxes and the problems associated with the choice of the right tax base from the point of view of the correction of market incentives. It then presents a model of optimal second best environmental taxation when taxes must fulfil the double role of modifying ma...

We analyze non-cooperative environmental policy when the only strategic interaction between countries is through bilateral transboundary pollution, i.e., countries are closed or small open economies. When countries set pollution taxes simultaneously, there is no carbon leakage. However, in the sequential-move game, the leader sets its pollution tax lower than the marginal damage from own pollut...

Payment for Ecosystem Services from Forests Every year between 2000 and 2010, our planet lost native forests roughly the size of Costa Rica. (FAO, 2010). This rapid deforestation has dramatically changed the chemical composition of the world’s atmosphere, the level of biodiversity, and the presence of vegetation key to maintaining watershed function and preventing landslides. There has been a b...