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作者:Cowan, S
摘要:The model shows how a regulated monopolist's price should change as random cost and demand parameters are revealed. The regulator has a Ramsey-type problem. With a linear tariff a trade-off between allocative efficiency and risk sharing typically exists. The attitudes of the consumer and the firm to both income and price risk determine how the price should move. Sufficient conditions are found for price adjustment schemes used in practice to be optimal. These schemes include full, partial and ...
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作者:Bound, J; Cullen, JB; Nichols, A; Schmidt, L
作者单位:University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research; Williams College
摘要:In order to evaluate whether workers are over- or under-insured through the Disability Insurance (DI) program, we develop a framework that allows us to simulate the benefits as well as the costs associated with marginal changes in payment generosity from a representative cross-sectional sample of the population. Under the assumption that individuals are reasonably risk averse, we find that the typical worker would value increased benefits somewhat above the average costs of providing them. How...
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作者:Fortin, B; Lacroix, G; Drolet, S
作者单位:Laval University
摘要:This paper uses a major reform of the welfare program implemented in the Province of Quebec (Canada) in 1989 to analyze the impact of benefits on the length of welfare spells. An important feature of this reform was the abolishment of discrimination based on age that applied to benefits. As a result, the monthly benefits of single individuals aged less than 30 increased from $173 to $425 ($1986), an increase of over 145%. To assess the impact of the reform, we estimate a series of semi-paramet...
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作者:Keen, M; Mintz, J
作者单位:International Monetary Fund; University of Toronto; University of Toronto
摘要:One of the key features of a value-added tax-and often one of the most contentious-is the threshold level of turnover at which firms are obliged to register for the tax. Despite its importance, however, the question of the appropriate level at which to set this threshold has received little analytical attention. This paper first develops a simple rule characterizing the optimal threshold (when firms' sizes are fixed) in terms of a trade-off between tax revenues and collection costs. It then co...
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作者:Duncan, B
作者单位:University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Denver
摘要:This article develops a new model of altruism called impact philanthropy. An impact philanthropist is someone who wants to personally 'make a difference.' While that motive is straightforward, its logical implications are significantly different from other models of philanthropy. For example, the contributions of other donors can reduce an impact philanthropist's charitable fulfillment. As a result, cooperation among impact philanthropists can reduce aggregate giving. In addition, impact phila...
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作者:Tinkelman, D
作者单位:Pace University
摘要:Using IRS data from 1982 to 1994, this study finds the typical fund-raising elasticities in seven categories of nonprofit organizations to be between zero and one. These results are consistent with most nonprofit managers following intermediate strategies between pure program service maximization and pure organization size maximization. However, the distribution of fund-raising elasticities contains extreme observations that can disproportionately affect mean elasticities and standard deviatio...
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作者:Cai, HB; Treisman, D
作者单位:University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
摘要:Competition among local governments in a decentralized political system is often thought to discipline lazy or corrupt officials, improving public good provision and increasing welfare. Some scholars note possible distortions due to spillovers or a 'race-to-the-bottom', but suggest that central transfers or regulations can remedy these. Both arguments take for granted a framework of constitutional order in which the central government can collect taxes, allocate transfers, and enforce regulati...
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作者:Clarke, GRG; Xu, LC
作者单位:The World Bank; Peking University
摘要:Using enterprise-level data on bribes paid to utilities in 21 transition economies in eastern Europe and central Asia, we examine how characteristics of the utilities taking bribes and the firms paying bribes affect corruption in the sector. Bribe takers (utility employees) are more likely to take bribes in countries with greater constraints on utility capacity, lower levels of competition in the utility sector, and where utilities are state-owned. Bribe payers (enterprises) are more likely to...
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作者:Klein, P
作者单位:Simon Fraser University
摘要:This paper analyses the effect of investors' accrued capital gains on optimal portfolio composition and equilibrium returns under the assumption that investors are able to re-balance with perfect substitute securities. No-dominance arguments are used to show that pricing differences because of accrued capital gains do not arise among securities which are perfect substitutes. These arguments are insufficient, however, to prevent pricing differences because of accrued capital gains among securit...
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作者:Aizer, A
作者单位:Princeton University
摘要:As female participation in the labor force continues to grow in the US, so too does reliance on non-parental child care. However, the high cost of child care has impeded the ability of many working mothers to find sufficient child care for their children. As a result, as recently as 1998 over eight million children ages five to 14 spent time without adult supervision on a regular basis in the US. I examine the effect of the lack of adult supervision after school on a panel of school-age childr...