Reduced Form Auctions Revisited

This note uses the Theorem of the Alternative to prove new results on the implementability of general, asymmetric auctions, and to provide simpler proofs of known results for symmetric auctions. The tradeoff is that type spaces are taken to be finite.     

Some properties of the length of the shortest half

This paper discusses some properties of the length of the shortest half proposed by Rousseeuw and Leroy (1988) as a robust scale estimator.     

Putting supplies at the bedside via the Friesen concept

Hospitals designed using the concepts of architect Gordon Friesen are especially conducive to reengineering for patient-focused care. The Nurserver, a closet-like space outside each patient's room, makes it very easy for hospitals to redesign their methods for delivering supplies so that caregivers seldom have to go more than a few feet to get what they need. In this article, staff of Monongalia General Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, describe how they have used the Friesen design to modify supply distribution processes.     

The market for surrogate motherhood contracts

Surrogate motherhood is a controversial subject, and has not previously been formally modelled by economists. In this paper, a neoclassical model of the market for surrogate motherhood contracts is developed, based on the utility maximizing decisions of potential surrogate mothers and commissioning parties. The presence of both altruistic and self-interested behaviour generates unusual market outcomes.