The Emerging Aversion to Inequality: Evidence from Poland 1992-2005

This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish experience of transition and explore self-declared attitudes of the citizens. Using monthly representative surveys of the population, realized by the Polish poll institute (CBOS) from 1992 to 2005, we identify a structural break in the relation between income inequality and subjective evaluation of well-being. The downturn in the tolerance for inequality (1997) coincides with the increasing distrust of political elites.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64387/1/wp919.pd

Market distortions and corporate governance

This paper studies corporate governance when a firm faces imperfect competition. We derive firms' decisions from utility maximization by individuals. This reduces the usual monopoly distortion. We find that corporate governance can effect the equilibrium in the product (or input) markets. This enables us to endogenize the objective function of the firm. If the firm cannot commit not to change its constitution, we find a Coaselike result where all market power is lost in the limit. We present a more abstract model of governance in the presence of market distortions and discuss its implications for the governance of universities