Theoretical Aspects of Collective Decision Making - Survey of the Economic Literature

The article aims at surveying the economic literature related to collective decision making. In order to do so it proposes a coherent framework allowing for a structured analysis of the factors influencing the works of a committee. These factors are divided into external ( shaped outside of the committee e.g. by law) and internal ones (related to the composition of the committee and interactions between its members). The survey of the general economic literature related to collective decision making presented within the proposed framework yields interesting suggestions for further research, including the consequences for the shape of monetary policy committeesArtykuł ma na celu dokonanie przeglądu literatury ekonomicznej z zakresu kolektywnego podejmowania decyzji. W tym celu zaproponowano ramy pozwalające na ustrukturyzowaną analizę czynników wpływających na pracę organu kolektywnego (rady). Dokonano podziału tych czynników na zewnętrzne (tzn. kształtowane poza samą radą, np. przez wymogi prawne) oraz wewnętrzne (związane ze składem rady oraz interakcjami między jej członkami). Dokonany w ramach zaproponowanej struktury przegląd literatury ogólnoekonomicznej dotyczącej kolektywnego podejmowania decyzji pozwala na zaproponowanie interesujących kierunków dalszych badań, w tym konsekwencji dla kształtu rad polityki pieniężnej

Gamma-Ray Bursts in the SALT/Swift Era: GRB/SN Connection

I discuss the Gamma Ray Burst research in the era of SALT and Swift, concentrating on the GRB/SN connection.Comment: Invited talk at the First International Workshop on ``Stellar Astrophysics with the World Largest Telescopes'', Torun, Poland, 7-10 September 2004. 12 pages, 6 figures. See http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/oir/Research/GRB/ for related material

Crises and Tax

How can law best mitigate harm from crises like storms, epidemics, and financial meltdowns? This Article uses the law and economics framework of property rules and liability rules to analyze crisis responses across multiple areas of law, focusing particularly on the ways the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) battled the 2008–09 financial crisis. Remarkably, the IRS’s responses to that crisis cost more than Congress’s higher-profile bank bailouts. Despite their costs, many of the IRS’s responses were underinclusive, causing preventable layoffs and foreclosures. This Article explains these failures and demonstrates that the optimal response to crises is to shift from harsh property rules to compensatory liability rules, temporarily. Arranging such a shift in advance further mitigates harm when crises arrive. This analysis also provides new insights for the broader literature on property rules and liability rules. For example, arranging in advance for temporary moves to liability rules during crises can avoid windfalls, allow speedier relief, and encourage flexible private contracts. These lessons have practical applications in areas as far afield as how constitutional law and patent law respond to epidemics

Productivity changes of Credit Department of Farmers¡¦ Associations of the NAN-TOU County in Taiwan:1995-2004

The objective of this article was to measure the productivity of CDFAs of the NAN-TOU County in Taiwan over the period of 1995-2004. This study calculated the Malmquist productivity index by using the nonparametric frontier approach, and decomposed the index into two components: technical change and efficiency change. Empirical results showed that the productivity change of CDFAs in NAN-TOU County ranged from DMU 2¡¦s -6.4% to DMU 8¡¦s -3.8% over the sampled period. The decomposition of Malmquist index into efficiency change and technical change showed that, on average, the productivity change was due to scale change rather than pure efficiency change.