Economics Commons^™

Income Growth In U.S. States: Is It Pro-Poor?, Brandon Curtis

Master's Theses - Economics

While it is generally assumed that economic growth will have a positive effect the vast majority of the population, this claim is often left unchallenged. In particular, the effect of economic growth on the low-income segment of the population is not well understood. In particular, it is not clear if 1) the poor benefit from economic growth, and if so 2) what is the size of the benefit? A growing number of studies have been devoted to answering these questions. This field of study is commonly known as the pro-poor growth literature.

Redistribution By Insurance Market Regulation: Analyzing A Ban On Gender-Based Retirement Annuities, Amy Finkelstein, James Poterba, Casey Rothschild

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This paper illustrates how a model of an insurance market with asymmetric information can be calibrated and solved to evaluate the economic consequences of government regulation. We estimate the impact of restricting gender-based pricing in the United Kingdom retirement annuity market, a market in which individuals are required to annuitize their retirement savings by selecting among a range of different annuity contracts. After calibrating a lifecycle utility model and estimating a model of annuitant mortality that allows for unobserved heterogeneity, we solve for the range of equilibrium contract structures with and without gender-based insurance pricing. Eliminating gender-based annuity pricing is …

Paying To Save: Tax Withholding And Asset Allocation Among Low- And Moderate-Income Taxpayers, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

We analyze the phenomenon that low- and moderate-income (LMI) tax filers exhibit a “preference for over-withholding” their taxes, a measure we derive from a unique set of questions administered in a dataset of 1,003 households, which we collected through the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. We argue that the relationship between their withholding preference and portfolio allocation across liquid and illiquid assets is consistent with models with present-biased preferences, and that individuals exhibit self-control problems when making their consumption and saving decisions. Our results support a model in which individuals use commitment devices to constrain their consumption. …

Widespread Economic Doubts, Julio J. Prado

Julio J Prado

Many people think –perhaps with just reason- that the economy is a boring theoretical science, and that it does not have its feet upon the ground. In order to try to change that perception, we are going to propound for ourselves some day to day questions, to which we can provide an answer (to the extent possible) with a bit of economic “logic”.

November 2007, Syracuse Department Of Economics

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Using The Unidroit Principles To Fill Gaps In The Cisg, John Y. Gotanda

Working Paper Series

The United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) sets forth only a basic framework for the recovery of damages, thereby giving a court of tribunal broad authority to determine an aggrieved party’s loss based on circumstances of the particular case. Unfortunately, the lack of specificity has resulted in much litigation, and seemingly conflicting results. To remedy this problem, some have argued that the gaps in the CISG damages provisions should be filled with the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. In this paper, I argue that the gap-filling rules of CISG preclude the UNIDROIT Principles from being …

The Economic Contribution Of Marine Science And Education Institutions In The Monterey Bay Crescent, Judith T. Kildow Dr, Nathaniel Miller

Publications

Ocean and coastal areas of the United States contribute significantly to our nation’s overall economy. The extent to which our economy benefits from the wide range of marine and coastal activities is not completely understood. The National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) has attempted to track and value the ocean and coastal- related economic activities in the United States. To date six sectors are included in its information system (www.oceaneconomics.org). The economic contribution of marine research and education institutions is a sector of activity that lies outside of the normal federal government datasets, but one which seemed to have growing importance …

A Monetary Policy Framework For Sudan, Warren Coats

Warren Coats

This short overview of the money supply process and the central bank's control of the money supply is tailored to the situation of Southern Sudan, now the independent country of South Sudan.

La Inversión En Argentina: ¿Presente Incierto, Futuro Promisorio?, Martin Enrique Krause, Aldo Abram, Felipe De La Balze, Javier González Fraga, Carlos Rodriguez Braun

Martin Krause

Argentina sufrió la peor crisis de su historia en los años 2001-2002. A partir de entonces ha experimentado una fuerte recuperación, en la que incluso se ha superado el máximo nivel de PBI anterior a la caída, generando un ciclo de cinco años de crecimiento como nunca antes durante todo el siglo XX, con superávit fiscal y, hasta el momento, evitando la volatilidad de la que ha sido aquejada en forma constante. Una economía profundamente deprimida tenía un largo camino por recorrer para acercarse a su frontera de posibilidades de producción, punto que parece haber alcanzado en la mayoría de …

Will Marriage Promotion Work?, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Legal Periphery Of Dominant Firm Conduct, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores two different but related problems and how U.S. antitrust law and EU competition law approach them. The first is the offense of attempt to monopolize, which concerns the acts that a firm that is not yet dominant might undertake in order to become dominant. The second is the offense of monopoly or dominant firm leveraging, which occurs when a firm uses its dominant position in one market to cause some kind of harm in a different market where it also does business.

The language of EU and U.S. provisions concerning dominant firms provokes one to think that …

From Tranquility To Secession And Other Historical Sequences: A Theoretical Exposition, Paul Hallwood

Economics Working Papers

A model is developed explaining many common historical sequences: inter alia, the rise and fall of empires, expansion or contraction in the geographic size of nations, wars of secession, non-contested secessions, and growth of supra-national unions. The basic unit of analysis is a transaction in international (or national) law that verifies and legitimizes transformations from one organizational entity to another. Decision-makers for national, or super-national entities as well as those at sub-levels are assumed to be welfare maximizers under cost constraints. Potential secessionists face dispute costs, and decision-makers for the higher-level entity incur persuasion costs. Both costs may include military …

The Apostle Table - Part Iii - Incompetent Endogenous Response Intransitivity, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins

The Apostle Table illustrates a New Testament encryption scheme revealed in the Book of Matthew. Specifically, the list of the twelve apostles in Matthew, 10:1-4, points to the Matthew, Chapters 8 and 9, disciple characterizations. The disciples metaphorically characterize the social choice theory aspect of the scripture writers' (ordered relations theory: social choice theory: welfare model) regression. The paper is written in two parts: I. The Exogenous Pressures; and, II. The Endogenous Response. Interestingly, the paper explains why the crucified Jesus could not get off the cross.

What Kinds Of Stock Ownership Plans Should There Be? Of Esops, Other Sops And "Ownership Societies", Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Present-day advocates of an ownership society (OS) do not seem to have noticed the means we have already employed to become an OS where homes and human capital (higher education) are concerned. Nor do they appear to have considered whether these same means - which amount to publicly enhanced private credit markets - might be employed to spread shares in business firms, with a view to completing our OS. This article, the third in a series, seeks tentatively to fill that gap. It does so first by demonstrating how the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, in effect replicates our …

A Soft Landing And A Long Layover, John Austin, Chris Decker, Tom Doering, Ernie Goss, Philip Baker, Bruce Johnson, Lisa Johnson, Ken Lemke, Franz Schwarz, Scott Strain, Eric Thompson

Economics Faculty Publications

The U.S. economy achieved a soft landing in 2006. This was a desirable outcome. The economy needed a break from its rapid, and potentially inflationary, growth in 2004 and 2005, before taking off again. But, that new flight has been delayed. The aggregate economy has remained mired in slow growth in the first half of 2007. Pockets of the economy, such as the labor market, have been strong, but a weak housing sector has limited overall growth. Further, signs point to one or two more quarters of weaker growth, before the economy is able to take off again.

[Introduction To] The Wealth Of Nations, Adam Smith, Jonathan B. Wight

Bookshelf

The Wealth of Nations is a treasured classic of political economy. First published in March of 1776, Adam Smith wrote the book to influence a special audience - the British Parliament - and its arguments in the early spring of that year pressed for peace and cooperation with Britain's colonies rather than war.

Smith's message was that economic exploitation, through the monopoly trade of empire, stifled wealth-creation in both home and foreign lands. Moreover, protectionism preserved the status quo, and privileged a few elites at the expense of long run growth.

Smith wrote, "It is the industry which is carried …

April 2007, Syracuse Department Of Economics

Economics - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Montana Nonresident Traveler Expenditure Trends: 1996-2006, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report shows the nonresident traveler expenditure trends for visitors of Montana from 1996-2006. It also displays the total actual expenditures and the total inflation-adjusted expenditures.

Montana Nonresident Traveler Expenditure Profiles: 2006, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report examines spending profiles of nonresident travelers to Montana. It displays the average daily expenditures by purpose of trip for different spending categories during 2006.

Montana Nonresident Traveler Expenditures And Economic Contribution: 2006, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report shows the economic contributions, expenditures, and average daily spending of nonresident visitors to Montana during 2006.

Time To Step Up: Modeling The African American Ethnivestor For Self Help Entrepreneurship In Urban America, Roger M. Groves

ExpressO

Almost $6 billion in taxes paid by the American people have been rather ubiquitously placed in the hands of a federal subsidy program for investors in low income communities. The subsidy is in the form of a tax credit. The program is entitled the New Markets Tax Credit (“NMTC”) initiative. Under the program, the tax credit is used to lure investors to provide equity capital into low income areas, urban and/or rural (i.e. a new market for equity funding). According to my companion law review article (Florida Tax Review, Spring, 2007; The Florida Tax Review was ranked 1st among tax …

The Effects Of Domestic Legal Institutions On International Trade Flows, Yu Wang

ExpressO

The effects of institutions on international trade relations are of theoretical and practical interest. By following the research perspective that interprets institutions as the “rules of the game”, I suggest and study three domestic legal institutions---tenure system for judges, precedent law, and judicial review that supposedly have significant effects on international trade flows. My empirical tests show that both precedent law and judicial review have independent effects on bilateral trade volume while the proposed independent effect of tenured judge is unsupported. Moreover, my empirical evidences suggest that precedent law introduces its effect in a monadic fashion while judicial review (measured …

Controlling Family Shareholders In Developing Countries: Anchoring Relational Exchange, Ronald J. Gilson

ExpressO

The Law and Finance account of the ubiquity of controlling shareholders in developing markets is based on conditions in the capital market: poor shareholder protection law prevents controlling shareholders from parting with control out of fear of exploitation by a new controlling shareholder who acquires a controlling position in the market. This explanation, however, does not address why we observe any minority shareholders in such markets, or why controlling shareholders in developing markets are most often family-based. This paper looks at the impact of “bad law” on shareholder distribution in a very different way. Developing countries typically provide not only …

The Hidden Harm Of Law And Economics, Daniel I A Cohen

ExpressO

The paper deals with the adverse psychodynamic consequences to an individual and to society, immediately and in the long run, of dissolving individual responsibility for fault as in the doctrine of Law and economics.

Using Ethanol As A Fuel To Reenergize Free Trade Area Of The Americas Negotiations, Marcel De Armas

ExpressO

Currently the United States imposes a 2.5 percent ad valorem tax along with a 14.27 cents per liter tax on imported ethanol from countries with normal trade relations under the harmonized tariff schedule. However, the United States exempts many countries from this tariff or reduces the tariff under various free trade agreements or initiatives. The issues that resulted in Doha’s failure also caused FTAA negotiations to temporarily stall since both Brazil and the United States wanted certain FTAA issues negotiated at the WTO level. The United States could initiate this process with a discussion of reducing or eliminating its ethanol …

Spatial Inequality In Chile, Claudio A. Agostini, Philip H. Brown

Working Papers in Economics

Despite success in reducing poverty over the last twenty years, inequality in Chile has remained virtually unchanged, making Chile one of the least equal countries in the world. High levels of inequality have been shown to hamper further reductions in poverty as well as economic growth and local inequality has been shown to affect such outcomes as violence and health. The study of inequality at the local level is thus crucial for understanding the economic well-being of a country. Local measures of inequality have been difficult to obtain, but recent theoretical advances have enabled the combination of survey and census …

When Second Comes First: Correcting Patent’S Poor Secondary Incentives Through An Optional Patent Purchase System, Jordan Barry

ExpressO

As research has advanced, technologies have become more closely knit, and the relationships between them—both complementary and competitive—have become increasingly important. Unfortunately, the patent system’s use of monopoly power to reward innovators creates inefficient results by overly encouraging the development of substitute technologies and discouraging the development of complementary technologies. This paper explains how an optional patent purchase system could help ameliorate such problems and discusses the implications of such a system.

Imagining A Progressive And Comprehensive Consumption Tax, Sean K. Raft

ExpressO

The income tax system has become quite a mess. Unfortunately, the brunt of that mess falls primarily on the backs of the individual taxpayer, who is required to sift through the tens of thousands of pages of instructions and tax rules just to calculate, file, and pay what they owe. The filing burden and costs of compliance are already exorbitant, but they are only increasing.

In response to the complaints over the increasing complication, economists and tax scholars have imagined ways to improve or replace the income tax. Yet, the alternatives are either regressive or fail to generate enough revenue …

Transracial Adoption Of Black Children: An Economic Analysis, Mary Eschelbach Hansen, Daniel Pollack

ExpressO

The anti-discrimination law governing placement of children in foster care and adoption was intended to speed the adoption of Black children who could not be reunited with their families of origin. Only recently have two states been fined for violating this decade-old law. Based on our analysis of administrative data collected by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we conclude that more vigorous enforcement of the anti-discrimination law in adoption could result in significant gains to Black children. We find that Black children spend more time as legal orphans than children of other races …

Toward An Agenda For Behavioral Public Finance, Edward J. Mccaffery, Joel Slemrod

Edward J McCaffery

This essay is about the intersection -- or possible intersection -- between the fields of behavioral economics and public finance, which we call behavioral public finance.