Suchergebnisse

Cover -- brief contents -- contents -- list of figures and tables -- list of boxes -- acknowledgements -- foreword -- introduction -- 1 what it's all about and how to study it -- 1 what is economics? -- 1.1 the study of the allocation of limited resources? -- 1.2 the dismal science? -- 1.3 the study of money? -- 1.4 a way of thinking? -- 1.5 a branch of maths? -- 1.6 what is economics, then? -- 1.7 economics as a diverse social science -- 1.8 summary -- 2 why study economics? -- 2.1 understanding the wider world -- 2.2 other transferable skills -- 2.3 employment opportunities -- 2.4 summary -- 3 what to expect from your economics course -- 3.1 typical structure and content -- 3.2 selecting your course and modules -- 3.3 summary -- 4 studying economics successfully -- 4.1 tackling all the reading -- 4.2 tackling theoretical analysis: the diagrams and maths -- 4.3 tackling statistics -- 4.4 thinking critically -- 4.5 summary -- 2 introducing smaller-scale analysis: the microeconomic world -- 5 what consumers buy -- 5.1 the products consumers would like to buy -- 5.2 the products consumers can afford to buy -- 5.3 the products consumers actually buy -- 5.4 consumer demand -- 5.5 determinants of demand -- 5.6 elasticity of demand -- 5.7 criticisms of the standard model -- 5.8 summary -- 6 how much producers make and sell -- 6.1 production costs -- 6.2 revenue -- 6.3 how much output producers make and sell -- 6.4 supply -- 6.5 criticisms of the standard model of producer behaviour -- 6.6 summary -- 7 when consumers and producers interact -- 7.1 market demand and supply analysis -- 7.2 market welfare -- 7.3 perfect competition -- 7.4 pure monopoly -- 7.5 monopolistic competition -- 7.6 oligopoly -- 7.7 summary -- 8 when the interaction goes wrong -- 8.1 market power -- 8.2 merit and demerit goods -- 8.3 externalities -- 8.4 summary.

AbstractSince it was formalised in 1986, the use of the common agency model has generated important results in the fields of political influence, industrial organisation and public goods provision. A general version of the model is presented in this article, and its underlying intuition is explained, before a discussion of a topical application in each of the first two of these key fields. The article concludes with observations about the model's fruitfulness but also about its limitations and the avenues of research that remain to be examined.

A political economy model is presented that proposes an effective explanation as to why national allocation plans in the emissions trading scheme of the European Union have taken the form they have. The influence of the national bureaucracy, which is omitted in the majority of the related political economy literature, is shown to be potentially significant and costly – particularly through its interaction with the influence of the affected industrialists. The analysis suggests that the role of the national bureaucracy in the design of environmental policy should be carefully considered and structured, and suggests an avenue of potentially important and fruitful future research.