We often use delegation as a commitment device if a government faces problems of timeinconsistency. McCallum (1995, AER P&P) challenged this practice, claiming that delegation merely relocates the commitment problem but does not solve it. In a model where delegation and specific policies are subject to the same commitment technology it is shown that McCallum’s conjecture holds if optimal ex-ant...

When a firm starts a new monthly customer account, they typically will bill new customers one month from the start of the new account. However, if they have the opportunity to choose the date of the first bill, this results in missing an opportunity for additional profit. This paper calculates the initial billing period that maximizes the net present value to the firm, and calculates the net ga...

MUSL 1310 Piano Lessons — 1 credit Half-hour or 50-minute lessons available. Register for course number 1310 the first two semesters of lessons, 2310 the third and fourth semesters, 3310 the fifth and sixth semesters, and 4310 the seventh and eight semesters. Register for section D01 for 30-minute lessons, and section D02 for 50-minute lessons. Offered in the College for Women. Prerequisites: P...

We experimentally investigate information aggregation through majority voting when some voters are biased. In such situations, majority voting can have a “dark side,”that is, result in groups making choices inferior to those made by individuals acting alone. In line with theoretical predictions, information on the popularity of policy choices is beneficial when a minority of voters is biased, b...

A Theory of Child Adoption Women can bear own children or adopt them. Extending economic theories of fertility, we provide a first theoretical treatment of the demand for adoption. We show that the propensity to adopt a child increases in the degree of own altruism, infertility, relatedness to the child, costs of own child birth, and any adoption-specific monetary return that is received net of...

In their recent paper, Roth et al. [Pairwise kidney exchange, J. Econ. Theory 125 (2005) 151–188] consider pairwise kidney exchanges, and show within this subset of feasible exchanges that a priority mechanism is strategy-proof. We show that this result can be broadened to allow much more general mechanisms and restrictions on the feasible set of allocations, including allowing three-way exchan...

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 ...

Few studies have analyzed the gut microbiota of child in unindustrialized countries, but none during the first month of life. Stool samples were collected from healthy newborns in hospitals of Gabon (n = 6) and Republic of the Congo (n = 9) at different time points during the first month of life: meconium, day 2 (D02), day 7 (D07) and day 28 (D28). In addition, one fecal sample was collected fr...

People often form expectations about others using the lens of their own attitudes (the so-called consensus effect). We study the implications of this for trust and trustworthiness. Trustworthy individuals are more “optimistic” than opportunists and are accordingly less afraid to engage in market-based exchanges, where they may be vulnerable to opportunistic behavior. In some cases, the material...

This paper analyzes the effect of inter-jurisdictional spillovers and congestion of local public services on the segregative properties of endogenous formation of jurisdictions. Households choosing to live at the same place form a jurisdiction, the aim of which is to produce congested local public services, resulting in generate positive spillovers to other jurisdictions. In every jurisdiction,...