Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Agricultural Modernization In China And Its Impact On Cities: From The Perspective Of Rural-Urban Linkage, Qian Forrest Zhang

Qian Forrest ZHANG

No abstract provided.

High Speed Rail: Strategic Information For The Australian Context, Tania Von Der Heidt, Pat Gillett, Chris Hale, Philip Laird, Alex Wardrop, Robert Weatherby, Charles Waingold, Michael Charles, Ian Rossow, Dale Coleman, Bala Ramasokeran, Rocco Zito, Michael Taylor, Adrian Pollock

Dr Philip Laird

No abstract provided.

The Viability Of Malaysian Developmental State For Africa In An Era Of Economic Globalization, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Expert Advisory Panel On Occupational Health And Safety, H. Hunt

H. Allan Hunt

This project developed a set of recommendations to improve occupational health and safety in Ontario, Canada. The project addressed the roles and responsibilities of the occupational health and safety system partners and the role of the joint health and safety committees. It evaluated the information and data collection and exchange, the use of technology, and incentives in the system. Supply chain and subcontracting issues were also discussed.

Extension Of Washington Pension System Review, H. Hunt

H. Allan Hunt

This project extended the work performed under a previous project that addressed the incidence of total and permanent disability pensions in the Washington workers’ compensation system. Researchers provided a literature review of studies that analyze worker outcomes after settlement agreements and a review of benefit structures in other disability systems that may offer ways to bridge the gap between permanent total and permanent partial disability awards in Washington.

Benefit Equity, Adequacy And Efficacy For Serious Injuries: An Empirical Analysis Of Workers’ Compensation Programs, H. Hunt

H. Allan Hunt

The project examined workers compensation benefits in a sample of states, using wage-loss methodology to address the equity of compensation and the efficacy of different ways to determine compensation.

British Columbia Workers' Compensation Core Services Review Revisited, H. Hunt

H. Allan Hunt

This short-term project revisited the issues raised in the Service Delivery Core Review Report prepared for the Ministry of Skills Development and Labour in the Government of British Columbia, Canada in 2002. This project evaluated the administration of workers' compensation in British Columbia and made recommendations for change. WorkSafe BC requested an assessment of progress made since the 2002 after the goals and recommendations were implemented.

Counterpoint: Reply To Orrenius And Zavodny, Vernon Briggs

Vernon M Briggs Jr

[Excerpt] On the fundamental conclusions, the positions argued by Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny and my own are in essential agreement. The immigration policy of the United States is in dire need of changes. The public concern is, in their words, “driven by the increase in immigration in recent years, particularly of unauthorized immigration.” Our mutual worries pertain to the disproportionately adverse impacts of the immigrant inflow on the nation’s low-skilled work force and the high fiscal burden borne by local communities and states with growing immigrant populations. The differences between the two papers center on the approaches taken to …

The Elusive Goal: The Quest For A Credible Immigration Policy, Vernon Briggs

Vernon M Briggs Jr

[Excerpt] The starting point for all immigration reform efforts must be making the immigration system enforceable. Nothing else makes sense. Otherwise, immigration policy is on a squirrel wheel going nowhere. Illegal immigrants will keep coming in defiance of its terms.

Catching Up Or Pulling Away: Intra-Industry Trade, Productivity Gaps And Heterogeneous Firms, Rod Falvey, David Greenaway, Zhihong Yu

Rodney Falvey

In this paper we develop a heterogeneous firm, intra-industry trade model in which countries are asymmetric in both technology and size. In the trading equilibrium, the industry productivity levels countries are jointly determined by the technology gap and trade barriers. We find that the (exogenous) technological gap is a key determinant of the size and direction of the intra-industry resource reallocation introduced by trade. Most importantly, the effect of trade on the (endogenous) productivity gap could be non monotonic over time. In the short-run, where the number of incumbents cannot adjust to trade, the effect of import competition dominates and …

Money Supply Endogeneity And Bank Stock Returns, Z. Badarudin, M. Ariff, A. Khalid

Ahmed Khalid

This article presents results of tests on two related hypotheses on moneysupply. The first relates to an unresolved issue of money endogeneity whilethe second centres on the yet-explored relationship between money supplyand bank stock returns if money is found to be endogenous. Our results,using long-horizon data of Group of Seven (G-7) economies, supports causality in money supply as running from bank lending to bank deposits,a result that is predicted by the post-Keynesian money supply endogeneity(bank-credit-driven) theory. Thus, the result is not consistent withexogeneity proposition. A new evidence of positive relationship betweenendogenous money supply and aggregate bank stock return is statisticallysignificant …

Negative Productivity Spillovers And Socially Responsible Investment: The Case Of Fdi In China, Xiaowen Tian

Xiaowen Tian

A widening gap between the rich and the poor is found in most, if not all, developing countries that have recently opened up to FDI and is threatening the sustainability of economic progress in these countries. The study finds strong evidence that FDI contributes to the widening gap between rich and poor regions through negative productivity spillovers in a large developing country, and provides some theoretical explanations. The study discusses implications of the findings for transnational corporations in making socially responsible investment and for developing countries in attracting foreign investors to poor regions.

Cross-Region Fdi Productivity Spillovers In Transition Economies: Evidence From China, Xiaowen Tian, Vai Lo, Shuanglin Lin, Shunfeng Song

Xiaowen Tian

Prior studies have failed to examine the spatial dimension of FDI productivityspillovers in transition economies. Using data from China, this article investigates how FDI in one location may affect the productivity of domestic firms in another location. The study finds strong evidence that FDI in the growth pole on the coast adversely affects the productivity of domestic firms in the peripheral interior. There is also some evidence that FDI in the peripheral interior positively affects the productivity of domestic firms in the growth pole on the coast. The findings indicate that the inflows of FDI contribute to the widening regional …

A Gaussian Test For Unit Roots With An Application To Great Ratios, Tilak Abeysinghe, Gulasekaran Rajaguru

Gulasekaran Rajaguru

Non-standard distributions are a common feature of many tests for unit-roots and cointegration that are currently available. The main problem with non-standard distributions is that when the true data generating process is unknown, which is the case in general, it is not easy to engage in a specification search because the distribution changes as the specification changes, especially with respect to deterministic components. We use a mixed-frequency regression technique to develop a test for cointegration under the null of stationarity of the deviations from a long-run relationship. What is noteworthy about this MA unit root test, based on a variance-difference, …

Don't Blame Faculty For High Tuition: The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession, 2003-04, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The bottom line is that although faculty and staff salary in-creases obviously contribute to increases in tuition, other factors have played more important roles during the last quarter century. These factors include the escalating costs of benefits for all employees, reductions in state support of public institutions, growing institutional financial-aid costs, expansion of the science and research infrastructure at research universities, and the increasing costs of information technology. If tuition and fee increases had been held to the rate of average faculty salary increases during this period, average tuition and fees would be substantially lower today in both the …

Toward A Knowledge Economy In Saudi Arabia, Giulio M. Gallarotti, Essam Elfalily, Osama Tayyeb

Giulio M Gallarotti

Nations that have sought to overcome the resource curse and other barriers to economic growth have for some time sought greater development through a number of strategies: from import substitution in the 1950s to current strategies based on microfinance and human-capabilities approaches. Needless to say, the international community is still searching for the elusive Holy Grail of the optimal development strategy. One strategy that is gaining greater attention and adherents is that of promoting a transition to a knowledge economy. This paper is about one such nation: Saudi Arabia. In analyzing the Kingdom’s quest for a knowledge economy, this article …

The Effect Of Treasury Auction Announcements On Interest Rates: 1990-1999, James J. Forest

James J Forest

In this study we examine the secondary-market response of U.S. Treasury interest rates to both the release of pre-auction auction supply announcements and post-auction details from U.S. Treasury auctions during the period of the 1990s. Rate changes are found to differ significantly on auction days. Pre-auction announcements of auction volumes are shown to affect rates significantly, in contrast with the findings of Wachtel and Young (1987) with respect to deficit announcements. We find that surprises in the release of bid-to-cover ratios affect Treasury rates significantly, while the surprises in the volume of noncompetitive bids appears to have little affect on …

A Bayesian Examination Of Information And Uncertainty In Contingent Valuation, David Aadland, Arthur Caplan, Owen Phillips

Owen R Phillips

A theoretical framework is presented to explain how agents respond to information under uncertainty in contingent valuation surveys. Agents are provided with information signals and referendum prices as part of the elicitation process. Agents use Bayesian updating to revise prior distributions. An information prompt is presented to reduce hypothetical bias. However, we show the interaction between anchoring and the information prompt creates a systematic bias in willingness to pay. We test our hypotheses in an experimental setting where agents are asked to make a hypothetical, voluntary contribution to a public good. Experimental results are consistent with the model.

Estimating Hypothetical Bias In Economically Emergent Africa: A Generic Public Good Experiment, Arthur Caplan, David Aadland, Anthony Macharia

David Aadland

This paper reports results from a contingent valuation based public good experiment conducted in the African nation of Botswana. In a sample of university students, we find evidence that stated willingness to contribute to a public good in a hypothetical setting is higher than actual contribution levels. However, results from regression analysis suggest that this is true only in the second round of the experiment, when participants making actual contributions have learned to significantly lower their contribution levels. As globalization expands markets, and economies such as Botswana’s continue to modernize, there is a growing need to understand how hypothetical bias …

Household Valuation Of Curbside Recycling, David Aadland, Arthur Caplan

David Aadland

This paper looks at the willingness to pay for and participate in a curbside recycling program based on a survey of 401 residents in Ogden, Utah. Modifying the Cameron and James (1987) econometric model to fit ordered-interval data, we estimate that the mean willingness to pay for curbside recycling is $2.05 per month, and that 72% of the residents would willingly participate in such a program. Furthermore, females, young people, college-educated, those currently recycling without monetary reward, those regarding recycling as beneficial to the community and nation, and those with relatively high incomes are willing to pay the most for …

Willingness To Pay For Curbside Recycling With Detection And Mitigation Of Hypothetical Bias, David Aadland, Arthur Caplan

David Aadland

No abstract provided.

Recycling In Utah: Too Little Or Too Much?, David Aadland, Arthur Caplan

David Aadland

No abstract provided.

A New Direction For Assessing Market Power In The Beef Packing Industry, Lynn Hunnicutt, Deevon Bailey, David Aadland, Michelle Crook

David Aadland

No abstract provided.

Curbside Recycling: Waste Resource Or Waste Of Resources?, David Aadland, Arthur Caplan

David Aadland

In this paper, we address the often contentious debate over state and local recycling policy by carefully estimating the social net benefit of curbside recycling. Benefits are estimated using household survey data from over 4,000 households across 40 western U.S. cities. We calibrate household willingness-to-pay for hypothetical bias using an innovative experimental design that contrasts stated and revealed preferences. Cost estimates are compiled from previous studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Institute for Local Self Reliance, and from in-depth interviews with recycling coordinators in our sampled cities. Across our sample of cities, we find that the estimated …

Incentive Incompatibility And Starting-Point Bias In Iterative Valuation Questions: Comment, David Aadland, Arthur Caplan

David Aadland

In a recent study, Whitehead (2002) proposes incentive-incompatibility and starting-point-bias tests for iterative willingness-to-pay questions. We show that if restrictions associated with the nature of starting-point bias are not imposed on the estimation, one obtains inconsistent estimates of the structural parameters and may draw inaccurate conclusions regarding the extent of incentive incompatibility and starting-point bias in contingent-valuation survey data.

Affective Economies: Indigenous Conflict Over Natural Resources In Contemporary India, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

The Urban Density Premium Across Establishments, R. Jason Faberman, Matthew Freedman

Matthew Freedman

We use longitudinal micro data to estimate the urban density premium for U.S. establishments, controlling for observed establishment characteristics and dynamic establishment behavior. We find that a doubling of urban density increases the average earnings of establishments by between 6 and 10 percent. The result holds after controlling for endogeneity issues and with the use of alternative measures of density. We find strong evidence against accumulated knowledge spillovers over time at the establishment level—that is, the density premium is realized at birth and is constant over the life of establishments. We find little evidence that the endogenous entry or exit …

Mncs And Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Case, Lukas Danner

Lukas K. Danner

No abstract provided.

Microeconomics, Daniel Rubinfeld, Robert Pindyck

Daniel L. Rubinfeld

No abstract provided.

Thomas Robert Malthus: The Economist, Vernon Briggs

Vernon M Briggs Jr

"As Robert Heilbroner has so aptly observed, economics has produced "a handful of men" whose contributions to mankind have been "more decisive for history than many acts of statesman who basked in brighter glory, often more profoundly disturbing then the shuttling of armies back and forth across frontiers, and more powerful for good and bad than the edicts of kings and legislatures." One such person cited by Heilbroner is Thomas Robert Malthus."