Credit-card issuers in the United States have begun to explore the idea of introducing electronic-cash products. Seven financial giants, including Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan, and MasterCard, have agreed to market the Mondex electronic cash product in the United States.1 VISA is developing a separate product. These products consist of a plastic payment card and other accessories, and consumers...

Why is the cost of resolving insurance company failures so high? Evidence in this article suggests that the state insurance regulatory bodies in charge of the liquidation process turn over an average of only $0.33 for each $1.00 of pre-insolvency assets to the guaranty funds (the state agencies responsible for paying claims). This very low “recovery rate” could result from ex ante regulatory fa...

Credit-card issuers in the United States have begun to explore the idea of introducing electronic-cash products. Seven financial giants, including Wells Fargo, Chase Manhattan, and MasterCard, have agreed to market the Mondex electronic cash product in the United States.1 VISA is developing a separate product. These products consist of a plastic payment card and other accessories, and consumers...

Constituency Development Funds (CDFs) are funding arrangements that channel money from central government directly to electoral constituencies for local infrastructure projects. Decisions about how these funds are allocated and spent are heavily influenced by elected members of parliament (MPs). The degree to which these funds are controlled by parliamentarians, and the degree to which local ci...

This paper investigates mechanisms for the private provision of a public good which utilize competition to incentivize contributions. Theory predicts that “all-pay” competition is particularly effective for fundraising. Within this class of mechanisms different types of lotteries and all-pay auctions are analyzed and ranked. Four all-pay competition mechanisms are then examined in a laboratory ...

We construct network centrality measures for customer and supplier industries in the U.S. economy. Consistent with Ahern, et al. (2014), we find central suppliers have higher levels of systematic risk than central customers and therefore more exposed to sectoral shocks. We posit that central suppliers have incentives to channel funds to their customers via trade credit. Our empirical results ar...