In most major democracies there are very few parties compared to the number of possible policy positions held by voters. We provide an e¢ ciency rationale for why it might be appropriate to limit the proliferation of parties. In our model, the larger the number of parties, the greater the ine¢ ciency of Acknowledgments: We would like to thank two anonymous referees and Xavier Vives for helpful ...

The size of conformational ensembles required for regular coverage of the conformational space of druglike molecules was examined. Using the conformer generation program Omega, the number of regularly distributed conformers (NRC) of flexible compounds was determined as a function of the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) resolution of coverage. A regression equation was developed predicting the ...

A set of perception experiments, using reiterant speech, were designed to carry out a diagnostic of the segmentation / hierarchisation linguistic function of prosody. The prosodic parameters of F0, syllabic duration and intensity of the stimuli used during this experiment were extracted. Several dissimilarity measures (Correlation, root-mean-square distance and mutual information) were used to ...

This paper considers a seeming disconnect between the consensus in policy circles that reducing gender inequalities is to be prioritized in strategies for reducing inequality and poverty, and a view in mainstream economics (and in some policy circles) that gender inequalities are overemphasized. This latter view is not stated openly, it being politically incorrect to do so, but is nevertheless ...

Is the rapid growth of experimental research in economics evidence of a new scientific spirit at work or merely fresh evidence of a misplaced desire to ape the methods of natural sciences? It is often argued that economic experiments are artificial in some sense which tends to render the results problematic or uninteresting. In the early part of this paper I argue that this artificiality critiq...

The traditional current account can be an inaccurate measure of the change in the net foreign asset (NFA) position. Using gross asset and liability positions at the country level, a number of 'valuation effects' have been identified which contribute to changes in NFA but do not enter the reported current account. This paper uses new developments in the analysis of portfolio allocation in genera...

In this paper we present a model of endogenous trade-policy formation which captures crucial aspects of the Japanese commercial and political culture. We analyze the influence of the portrayed cultural traits and show that cultural idiosyncrasies are important determinants of trade policy formation; especially the complex interaction of the two types of cultures is shown to have significant con...

This paper analyzes the optimal partisan and bipartisan gerrymandering policies in a model with electoral competitions in policy positions and transfer promises. With complete freedom in redistricting, partisan gerrymandering policy generates the most one-sidedly biased district profile, while bipartisan gerrymandering generates the most polarized district profile. In contrast, with limited fre...

this paper examines critically the contributions of cournot, jevons and walras as the founders of classical mathematical economics from a methodological standpoint. advances in different economic schools and doctrines in the 19th century produced an environment of multi-dimensionality in economic analysis which was regarded by the pioneers of classical mathematical economists as a chaotic state...