infonet-economy

During the 1990s, the social health insurance schemes of Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Israel were significantly reformed by the introduction of freedom of choice (open enrolment) of health insurer. This was introduced alongside a system of risk adjustment to compensate health insurers for enrolees with predictable high medical expenses. Despite the similarity in...

We report survey and experimental evidence on trust and voluntary cooperation from more than 630 non-student and student participants in rural and urban Russia. Our subjects have a diverse socioeconomic background that we relate to the answers of a survey on trust attitudes and to contribution behavior in a one-shot public goods game. We find that the socio-economic background...

Recent years have seen a proliferation of preferential trading agreements, with certain nations signing a sequence of agreements over time. This latter fact raises the question as to what factors determine the sequence of trade agreements that a nation, or group of nations, enters into. Drawing upon both long-standing European experience and recent developments in East Asia, this...

In this paper the approach of Constitutional Economics is presented and some of its applications are shown. First, the concept of the original position (constitutional convention) with its informational restrictions and the unanimity rule are discussed. Next, the exchange paradigm which lies behind the whole approach and the role of the self-interest assumption are discussed. Then it...

Mit dem WTO-Abkommen trat am 1. Januar 1995 ein neues Streitschlichtungsverfahren für das multilaterale Handelssystem in Kraft. Der neue Mechanismus brachte eine stärkere Regelorientierung bei der Beilegung von Handelsstreitigkeiten. Nach zehn Jahren Anwendung kann sich die Zwischenbilanz sehen lassen: Das Verfahren wird von den Mitgliedern rege genutzt, und auch die...

This article introduces translation studies in order to theorize about the ways in which international companies approach language diversity. Its purpose is to develop different language strategies relying on theoretical insights borrowed from translation studies. Inspired by historical developments in this discipline, we identify three metaphorical perspectives each with a different...

In this paper, the introduction of direct-democratic decision-making in all EU decisions is considered when it is feasible without prohibitively increasing decision-making costs. We start with the contractarian argument that each constitution is a contract joining the citizens of a state and requires as such the explicit agreement of (a majority of) citizens. Thus, the future...

This paper purports to develop a simple microeconomic model designed to shed light on behavioral change induced by improved information about smoking risks. It predicts the conditions in which improved information indeed increases the demand for cigarettes. After recalling the economic rationale of an anti-tobacco policy, the article points out a few startling implications of...