A Theory of Natural Addiction

Economic theories of rational addiction aim to describe consumer behavior in the presence of habit-forming goods. We provide a biological foundation for this body of work by formally specifying conditions under which it is optimal to form a habit. We demonstrate the empirical validity of our thesis with an in-depth review and synthesis of the biomedical literature concerning the action of opiates in the mammalian brain and their eects on behavior. Our results lend credence to many of the unconventional behavioral assumptions employed by theories of rational addiction, including adjacent complementarity and the importance of cues, attention, and self-control in determining the behavior of addicts. We oer evidence for the special case of the opiates that "harmful" addiction is the manifestation of a mismatch between behavioral algorithms encoded in the human genome and the expanded menu of choices faced by consumers in the modern world.

Közjavak optimális előállítása (Optimal production of public goods)

A közjavak közgazdaságilag optimális szintjének előállítása piaci körülmények között általában nehézségekbe ütközik. Napjainkban számos országban többféle közjószág áll rendelkezésre, a szakirodalomban pedig például a nyugdíjrendszer egyes elemeinek közjószágjellegével kapcsolatos felvetések is megjelentek már. Ezzel összefüggésben is érdekes a kérdés, milyen körülmények között fordulhat elő, hogy racionális egyéni döntéshozók egyénileg optimális döntéseikkel valamely közjószág optimális szintjét hozzák létre. Jelen tanulmány ezzel a kérdéssel foglalkozik. / === / It is difficult to produce the economically optimal level of public goods in a market environment. There are many different types of public goods, and today even some aspects of the pension system are considered as such. Still, it is an interesting question if individually optimal decisions made by rational individuals could lead to an optimal level of public goods. The paper attempts to analyze this question.

The regulatory environment of the section of the non-standardized goods market - The findings of an interview research on Hungarian construction industry small enterprises

In this paper the behavior of economic actors shown in the uncertain quality goods markets is examined from the perspective of the sociology of markets. The analysis uses the findings of in-depth interviews conducted in 2011 and 2012 respectively amongst small and medium size entrepreneurs working in construction industry. In the Hungarian construction industry neither formal rules, nor vocational chambers, are able to create a safe environment for entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, networks created as a result of micro-selection steps might be able to enforce the quality of services, observe deadlines and what is more, ensure payment discipline. In this market, the typical high risk can be reduced by relationships. Networks reduce also the cost of transactions, since the important part of the services in this field could only be standardized at significant costs.