Digital Commons Network^™

The Effectiveness Of Employment Vouchers: A Simple Approach, Dennis Snower, Michael J. Orszag

Dennis Snower

No abstract provided.

Interview With Howard Sherman In Democratic Left, Howard J. Sherman, Solveig Wilder

HOWARD J SHERMAN

Interview with Howard Sherman on Democratic Socialism, based on his book Reinventing Marxism. Interviewer Solveig Wilder comments: "If you're like me, you read a great deal searching for theories that you can apply to your activism. I recently discovered a book called, Reinventing Marxism, which succinctly covers so many of the questions that I've grappled with about Democratic Socialism. Author and DSA member Howard Sherman agreed to give me an interview so that other DSAers could find out about this useful resource."

Labor Standards As A Trade Issue, Robert C. Shelburne

Robert C. Shelburne

The current attempts by the United States to introduce core labor standards into its bilateral and regional trade agreements and into the World Trade Organization (WTO) are discussed. Labor standards are already an important aspect of several international organizations and agreements. The role of labor standards in the ILO, EU, U.S. trade law, and the OECD are discussed. The rationale and arguments against labor standards are evaluated. Models attempting to determine the economic implications of imposing minimum labor standards on low-standard nations are reviewed; assumptions as to whether capital and technology inflows are affected by labor standards are critical to …

Collusive Bidding: Lessons From The Fcc Spectrum Auctions, Peter Cramton, Jesse Schwartz

Jesse A. Schwartz

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auctions use a simultaneous ascending auction design. Bidders bid on numerous communication licenses simultaneously, with bidding remaining open on all licenses until no bidder is willing to bid higher on any license. With full revelation of bidding information, simultaneous open bidding allows bidders to send messages to their rivals, telling them on which licenses to bid and which to avoid. These strategies can help bidders coordinate a division of the licenses, and enforce the proposed division by directed punishments. We explore the extent that bidders signaled each other with retaliating bids in recent FCC …

Political Sustainability And The Design Of Social Insurance, Georges Casamatta, Helmuth Cremer, Pierre Pestieau

Georges Casamatta

This paper examines how the issue of political support affects the design of social insurance. It distinguishes between redistributive character and size of social protection. Three main results emerge. First, it may be appropriate to adopt a system which is less redistributive than otherwise optimal, in order to ensure political support for an adequate level of coverage in the second (voting) stage. Second, supplementary private insurance may increase the welfare of the poor, even if it is effectively bought only by the rich. Third, the case for prohibiting (supplementary) private insurance may become stronger when the efficiency of private insurance …

Garbage And Recycling With Endogenous Local Policy, Thomas C. Kinnaman, Don Fullerton

Don Fullerton

This paper estimates the impact of a user fee and a curbside recycling program on garbage and recycling amounts, allowing for the possibility of endogenous policy choices. Without correction for endogenous policy, the price per unit of garbage collection has a negative effect on garbage and a positive cross-price effect on recycling. When we correct for endogenous policy, then the effect of the user fee on garbage increases. The implementation of a $1 per bag user fee is estimated to reduce garbage by 412 pounds per person per year.

Mental Health Parity Legislation: Much Ado About Nothing?, Rosalie Pacula, Roland Sturm

Rosalie Liccardo Pacula

No abstract provided.

The New Rural-Urban Labor Mobility In China: Causes And Implications, Michael C. Seeborg, Zhenhu Jin, Yiping Zhu

Michael Seeborg

As the Chinese economy reforms, a huge new population of rural-urban migrants is transforming the urban labor force. This article explores some of the most important reasons for the emergence of the floating population in China. We argue that the neoclassical model alone is not adequate to explain the massive rural-urban internal migration underway in China. Instead, ideas drawn from both sociological theories of segmented markets and institutional economics are used to supplement the standard neoclassical explanation. We found that Chinese policy reforms in both rural and urban areas decreased the balkanization of labor markets and opened up employment opportunities …

Computing The Extent Of Circumvention Of Proposition 13: A Response, Robert L. Sexton, Gary M. Galles

Robert L Sexton

ABSTRACT. Galles and Sexton (1998) showed that California state and local revenues exceeded their previous real per capita levels as did the sum of property taxes plus charges and miscellaneous revenues within a decade after Proposition 13 passed, and concluded that Proposition 13 was only temporarily successful at shrinking California state and local governments. Khoury and Pal (2000) challenge this conclusion. However, their conclusion that Proposition 13’s circumvention “has been only marginal” results from using per $1000 of income comparisons rather than real per capita comparisons and from using growth rate changes, which fail to adjust for U.S. fiscal trends, …

A Prespective On Real Exchange Rate Determination In Italy During The Convergence Process Towards The Emu: The Traded Non-Traded Model, Roberta De Santis

Roberta De Santis

Domestic Demand For Petroleum In Opec Countries, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Fereidun Fesharaki, Shuoying Zhou

Ujjayant Chakravorty

The literature on OPEC energy policy has focused primarily on its production and export potential. The rapidly increasing domestic demand for petroleum products in OPEC countries has often been ignored. This study estimates domestic demand for petroleum products by the major OPEC economies and forecasts consumption trends under alternative assumptions regarding economic growth and price deregulation. It concludes that product demand is generally price and income inelastic and thus domestic consumption in OPEC will continue to grow rapidly, even if domestic prices are raised closer to world levels in the near future.

Piac És Igazságosság? (Market And Justice?), Attila Tanyi

Attila Tanyi

The aim of the book is to uncover the relation between market and justice through the critical examination of the work of Friedrich Hayek. The book argues for the following thesis: the institution of free market is not the only candidate social system; substantial, not merely formal distributive justice must become the central virtue of our social institutions. Notwithstanding its achievements and virtues, the Hayekian theory makes a simple mistake by equivocating possible social systems, dividing them into two groups. One is the world of liberty and free market where people follow the general and abstract rules of conduct, accepting …

Adaptive Testing In Arch Models, Douglas G. Steigerwald, Oliver Linton

Douglas G. Steigerwald

Specification tests for conditional heteroskedasticity that are derived under the assumption that the density of the innovation is Gaussian may not be powerful in light of the recent empirical results that the density is not Gaussian. We obtain specification tests for conditional heteroskedasticity under the assumption that the innovation density is a member of a general family of densities. Our test statistics maximize asymptotic local power and weighted average power criteria for the general family of densities. We establish both first-order and second-order theory for our procedures. Simulations indicate that asymptotic power gains are achievable in finite samples.

Mental Health Parity Legislation: Much Ado About Nothing?, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Roland Sturm

Roland Sturm

No abstract provided.

An International Law Institution In Crisis: Rethinking Permanent Neutrality, Brian Havel

Brian Havel

No abstract provided.

Skewed Incentives: Paying For Politics As A Japanese Judge, Eric Bennett Rasmusen, J. Mark Ramseyer

Eric Bennett Rasmusen

A nontechnical survey of our work on Japanese courts for the practitioner journal, Judicature.