Local public education and childless voting : the arising of an "ends with the middle" coalition

We show that capitalization of local education into the housing price induces childless voters to support local education. In particular, low income childless households vote for a tax raise when capitalization is strong, whereas high income childless supports a higher tax when capitalization is weak. The median income voter is never pivotal because "ends with the middle" coalitions arise: high income households (with and without a child) makes coalition with middle income class with a child, whereas low income households (with and without a child) make coalition with childless middle income class. We …nd that the income of the childless median voter is higher than the median income, whereas median voter with a child has income lower than the median. Thus the equilibrium tax preferred by the median voter (childless or not), is higher than the tax preferred by the childless median income voter and lower than the tax preferred by the median income voter with a child. This result implies that it is not possible to exclude voting equilibria in which thelocal public education; housings; local tax; capitalization; childless voting

Do childless households support local public provision of education

Empirical and theoretical studies show that the local provision of public education affects the well being of individuals through two channels: the first reflects the direct use of the good, whereas the second runs through the value of the housing. The second effect leans on the idea that the quality of public education is capitalized into the value of the own housing. Empirical evidence finds that in a multi-community model childless households support local public spending in education because of the capitalization effect. I study the behavior of childless households, not necessarily elderly, in a two community model and show that the capitalization effect may not be a sufficient condition for middle aged households without children to support local public spending in education by a majority voting.

Profitability of Horizontal Mergers in Trigger Strategy Game

It is shown that, in a dynamic competition, an exogenous horizontal merger is profitable even if a small share of active firms merge. However, each firm has incentive to remain outside the merger because it would benefit more (Insiders’dilemma). We show that in an infinite repeated game in which the firms use trigger strategies an exogenous bilateral merger can be profitable and the Insiders’dilemma is mitigated.Horizontal mergers; Insiders’ dilemma; trigger strategy

Public investment and higher education inequality

Empirical results show that children from high income households achieve higher levels of education and are more likely to be enrolled in post compulsory school. Theoretical findings fail to answer clearly whether greater public investment in the higher education system effectively decreases the inequality between the educational attainment of rich and poor children. We show that if the child receives a monetary transfer from his parents and allocates it between private consumption and investment in private additional education, then a further public investment decreases the educational gap. This result holds under the assumptions of both sub-stitutability and complementarity between private and public education.Higher education inequality; Public education; Altruism

Mergers under endogenous minimum quality standard: a note

We introduce merging strategies and endogenous MQS, borrowed from Ecchia and Lambertini (1997), in Scarpa (1998). MQS induces the low-quality firm to exit the market and leads to a monopoly arising from the bilateral merger of the high-quality firmsMergers, Minimum quality standard, Quality differentiation.