Economics Commons^™

Iraq Contracts Policy Bolsters Terrorist Agenda, Thierry Warin

Thierry Warin

Paul Wolfowitz, the US deputy secretary of defence, announced on December 9 a list of 63 countries allowed to bid on Iraq reconstruction contracts. A backlash is now in evidence: Germany, France and Russia will be excluded.

Consumer Willingness To Pay For Genetically Modified Food Labels In A Market With Diverse Information: Evidence From Experimental Auctions, W E. Huffman, J F. Shogren, M Rousu, A Tegene

Jason Shogren

With the continuing controversy over genetically modified (GM) foods, some groups advocate mandatory labeling of these products, while other groups oppose labeling. An important issue is how GM labels affect consumers' willingness to pay for these food products in the market. Using a statistically based economics experiment with adult consumers as subjects, we examine how willingness to pay changes for three food products-vegetable oil, tortilla chips, and potatoes-when GM labels are introduced. Participants in the experiments discounted GM-labeled foods by approximately 14% relative to their standard-labeled counterparts. The evidence also showed that sequencing of food labels affects willingness to pay, …

The Demand Bargaining Set..., Massimo Morelli, Maria Pilar Montero

Massimo Morelli

No abstract provided.

Is Nursing Home Demand Affected By The Decline In Age Difference Between Spouses?, Darius Noshir Lakdawalla, Robert F. Schoeni

Darius N. Lakdawalla

No abstract provided.

Entry Point: Comment On W. Brown, Howard J. Sherman

HOWARD J SHERMAN

This article discusses where the researcher should begin an analysis of any political, social, or economic, problem in a given society.

Institutions And The Business Cycle, Howard J. Sherman

HOWARD J SHERMAN

Feudal European political-economic institutions included a self-sufficient manor with very little market exchange, barter rather than money, and production motivated only by the need of the manor rather than a profit. All of these institutions meant that a business cycle was impossible, though there were many other problems. Capitalist institutions include production only for market exchange, a monetary economy, and production motivated only by profit. All of these institutions make possible the business cycle--since a contraction may occur if there is insufficient monetary demand to buy the supply at a price including a profit.

The Latest Misfires In Support Of The ‘More Guns, Less Crime’ Hypothesis, John Donohue, Ian Ayres

Ian Ayres

No abstract provided.

Employment Structure In Rural Andhra Pradesh, A Amarender Reddy

A Amarender Reddy

The study examined occupational diversification among rural households in Andhra Pradesh. The specific objectives of the study are: (i) To examine the occupational structure of households in different regions of rural Andhra Pradesh (ii) To assess the level of unemployment, underemployment and poverty in different categories of households (iii) To find out various socio-economic factors affecting employment pattern in different regions and among households, and (iv) To suggest policy measures to reduce unemployment and underemployment. The study is based on National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) unit household data from its 50th and 55th rounds on employment and unemployment surveys for …

Shock Effects On Stocks, Bonds, And Exchange Rates, Ray C. Fair

Ray C Fair

Tick data and newswire searches are used to find events that led to large and rapid changes in a stock future, a bond future, and three exchange rate futures. Knowledge of these events may be useful in future work. They have the advantages that they are truly surprises and that the sign of their effect on each financial market is known. The events are used in this study to analyze the effects of three types of events (monetary, price, and real) on the five variables.

Whose Life Is Worth More? (And Why Is It Horrible To Ask?), Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Electricity Deregulation: Lessons Learned From The California Crisis, Peter Navarro

PETER NAVARRO

No abstract provided.

The Real Effects Of Money Growth In Dynamic General Equilibrium, Liam Graham, Dennis Snower

Dennis Snower

Dynamic New Keynesian models generally ignore steady state money growth. Within a standard New Keynesian framework, we show that the interaction between staggered nominal contracts and money growth leads to a long-run trade-off between output and money growth that is significant, and remains so when the contract length is endogenised. We show that the existence of the tradeoff depends crucially on a phenomenon we call employment cycling: firms’ substitution among different labor types over the course of the contract period. We discuss the plausibility of this phenomenon and show that when it is absent, money becomes super-neutral.

Anatomy Of Congress Defeat In Tripura, Vikas Kumar

Vikas Kumar

No abstract provided.

Drug Testing In The Trucking Industry: The Effect On Highway Safety, Mireille Jacobson

Mireille Jacobson

No abstract provided.

Optimal Fiscal Policy In The Uzawa-Lucas Model With Externalities, Manuel A. Gómez

Manuel A. Gómez

This paper devises a fiscal policy by means of which the first-best optimum equilibrium is attained as a market equilibrium in the Uzawa-Lucas model when average human capital has an external effect on productivity. The optimal policy requires the use of a subsidy to investment in human capital which can be financed by a tax on labor income. Lump-sum taxation is not required to balance the government budget either in the steady state or in the transitional phase. Physical capital income should not be taxed. Alternatively, the optimal growth path can be attained by means of a subsidy to human …

The Assimilation Of Immigrants Who Arrived In The United States As Children, Michael C. Seeborg, Jeremy Sandford

Michael Seeborg

Although there has been much research on the effects of national origin, English speaking ability and educational attainment on the assimilation of immigrants, there has been little work on the effect of age of immigration on assimilation. This paper uses 1990 Census (IPUMS) data to assess the effects of age immigration on the relative earnings performance of 30-year-old immigrant men. Earnings regressions are run for three cohorts of immigrants defined by their age of arrival and a decomposition analysis is conducted to explain earnings gaps between each of the three immigrant cohorts and a sample of nonimmigrant men. We find …

Defesa Da Concorrência: Políticas E Perspectivas, Eloi Martins Senhoras

Elói Martins Senhoras

No abstract provided.

Truth-Bonding And Other Truth-Revealing Mechanisms For Courts, Robert D. Cooter, Winand Emons

Robert Cooter

Evolutionary Economics From A Radical Perspective, Howard J. Sherman

HOWARD J SHERMAN

This is a review article on David Hamilton, Evolutionary Economics: A Study of Change in Economic Thought. New Brncwick: Transaction Publishers, 1953, 1970, 1991, 1999.

Fractal Structure In The Chinese Yuan-Us Dollar Rate, Raul Matsushita, Iram Gleria, Annibal Figueiredo, Sergio Da Silva

Sergio Da Silva

Price changes of the Chinese yuan-US dollar rate are found to display a Sierpinski triangle in an Iterative Function System clumpiness test. This fractal structure commonly emerges in “the chaos game”, where randomness coexists with deterministic rules. We show that a threshold model with four states, two deterministic and two stochastic is able to replicate the properties of the yuan-dollar changes in general, and the Sierpinski triangle in particular.

Assessing Welfare Accounts, Stefan Fölster, Robert Gidehag, Micheal J. Orszag, Dennis Snower

Dennis Snower

The paper examines the possible effects of introducing a large-scale welfare reform in Sweden, namely, the introduction of comprehensive welfare accounts. Under this policy, individuals make mandatory contributions to accounts, which they can top up with voluntary contributions. In return, individuals’ welfare benefits are paid from their accounts. The paper uses a large panel of individual income data to examine how the adoption of universal welfare accounts may affect economic activity. We find that this policy could be designed so as to reduce social insurance expenditure considerably, improve the incentives to work and save, all with relatively small redistributive impact.

Aquaculture, Michael Rice

Michael A Rice

This is the chapter on small-scale aquaculture within a volume intended as a guide for practitioners engaged in sustainable rural livelihood and food production projects in the developing world. Included in this chapter on aquaculture are fundamentals of aquaculture water quality, selection of sites and construction methods for fish ponds, and management techniques for carp and tilapia which are nutritious and easy to grow in artisanal ponds. The fundamentals of cage culture of fish is also covered, along with the fundamentals of culturing oysters and other molluscan shellfish in coastal waters.

Effectiveness And Cost-Effectiveness Of Four Treatment Modalities For Substance Disorders: A Propensity Score Analysis, Ramin Mojtabai, Joshua Graff Zivin

Joshua Graff Zivin

No abstract provided.

Risk Sharing In Coasean Contracts, Joshua Graff Zivin, Arthur Small

Joshua Graff Zivin

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Ethnic Capital And Age Of Arrival On The Standard Of Living Of Young Immigrants, Michael C. Seeborg, Jeremy Sandford

Michael Seeborg

This paper uses a sample of 30 year old male immigrants from the 1990 Census PUMS data to explore the effects that age of arrival and ethnic capital have on the standard of living of immigrants. It finds that both time of arrival and ethnic capital effect immigrants’ standard of living through a set of interaction effects and indirect effects. In particular, immigrants who arrive as children enjoy greater returns to human capital investments than immigrants who arrive as young adults. Moreover, immigrants who arrive as children are affected less than young adult immigrants by the ethnic capital of the …

Long-Run Models Of Oil Stock Prices, Alessandro Lanza, Matteo Manera, Massimo Giovannini, Margherita Grasso

Matteo Manera

The identification of the forces that drive oil stock prices is extremely important given the size of the Oil&Gas industry and its links with the energy sector and the environment. In the next decade oil companies will have to deal with international policies to contrast climate change. This issue is likely to affect companies’ shareholder values. In this paper we focus on the long-run financial determinants of the stock prices of six major oil companies (Bp, Chevron-Texaco, Eni, Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total-Fina-Elf) using multivariate cointegration techniques and vector error correction models. Weekly oil stock prices are analyzed together with …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Austrian School And Equilibrium Theory, Aldo Montesano

Aldo Montesano

No abstract provided.

Merger Simulation, David A. Weiskopf

David A Weiskopf

No abstract provided.

The Veterans' Bonus Of 1936, Lester G. Telser

Lester G Telser

No abstract provided.

Tax Distortions And Global Climate Policy (With Mustafa Babiker And John Reilly)., Gilbert E. Metcalf

Gilbert E. Metcalf

We consider the efficiency implications of policies to reduce global carbon emissions in a world with pre-existing tax distortions. We first note that the weak double dividend, the proposition that the welfare improvement from a tax reform where environmental taxes are used to lower distorting taxes must be greater than the welfare improvement from a reform where the environmental taxes are returned in a lump sum fashion, need not hold in a world with multiple distortions. We then present a large-scale computable general equilibrium model of the world economy with distortionary taxation. We use this model to evaluate a number …