A collection of papers dealing with a broad range of topics in mathematical economics, game theory and economic dynamics. The contributions present both theoretical and applied research. The volume is dedicated to Mordecai Kurz. The papers were presented in a special symposium co-hosted by the Stanford University Department of Economics and by the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research in August 2002.

Inhalt

Foreword to the Symposium in Honor of Mordecai Kurz.- The genuine savings criterion and the value of population.- Macro foundations of micro-economics.- Risk aversion in the Talmud.- Annuities and retirement.- Claims problems and weighted generalizations of the Talmud rule.- Speculative trading with rational beliefs and endogenous uncertainty.- Floating exchange rates versus a monetary union under rational beliefs: the role of endogenous uncertainty.- Endogenous uncertainty and the non-neutrality of money.- Inside and outside fiat money, gains to trade, and IS-LM.- The economic effects of restrictions on government budget deficits: imperfect private credit markets.- Speculative trade, asset prices and investment levels.- Indeterminacy of equilibrium in stochastic OLG models.- Existence and uniqueness of 'money' in general equilibrium: natural monopoly in the most liquid asset.- Is assortative matching efficient?.- On extensive form implementation of contracts in differential information economies.- Vickrey auctions with reserve pricing.- Incentives in market games with asymmetric information: the core.- The cheapest hedge.- The informational efficiency of finite price mechanisms.- Information at equilibrium.- Nash and Walras equilibrium via Brouwer.- The application of CVM for assessing the tele-health system: an analysis of the discrepancy between WTP and WTA based on survey data.- Similarity of endowments and the factor price equalization condition.- Domestic and international strategic interactions in environment policy formation.- Firm reputation with hidden information.- Structural breaks in the volatility of macroeconomic and financial data: The rule, not the exception.- Effect of credible quality investment with Bertrand and Cournot competition.- To each according to his needs: an axiomatic characterization.- Closed-loop equilibrium in a multi-stage innovation race.- Modelling exchange of probabilistic opinions.- Effects of asset market structure on welfare and trading volume.- Estimating the stationary distribution of a Markov chain.- Monte Carlo simulation of macroeconomic risk with a continuum of agents: the symmetric case.- A more reasonable model of insurance demand.