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A simple model of relations between Ministry and enterprise in uncertain supply conditions.
This article considers the instability of input plans determined at ministerial level. Revision of plans is seen as the result of a balancing act between ministry and enterprise, in the presence of an uncertain shortage of input seen only at local level. The ministry can choose to revise the plan, and the enterprise decides on the rate of intensity of work, without being overseen by the ministry. It is shown that the relationship between revision and expected shortage is not necessarily straightforward. Moreover, while plan revision may serve to counterbalance sectoral shortage, it does not thereby constitute an optimal regulatory procedure.

Does redistribution in democracies cater to the will of the majority? We propose a direct empirical strategy based on survey data that needs not assume that voters are guided by pecuniary motives alone. We find that most democracies implement the median voter's preferred amount of redistribution and the probability to serve the median voter increases with the quality of democracy. However, there is a non-negligible share of democracies that implement a minority-backed amount of redistribution. Political absenteeism of the poor cannot explain such outcomes. Rather, they can be explained by the electoral bundling of redistribution with values and rights issues.

Giacomo Corneo presents a refreshingly antidogmatic review of economic systems, in the form of a fictional dialogue between a daughter indignant about economic injustice and her father, a professor of economics. They tour hypothetical systems in which production and consumption obey noncapitalistic rules and test the systems' economic feasibility