Public Economics Commons^™

Census Bureau Seeks Partners In Business, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"By now you should have seen the advertisements for the U.S. Census Bureau to apprise us of the forthcoming census on April 1, 2000. And there will be plenty more since the Bureau has budgeted $167 million on this push for public awareness, something it has never perviously paid to do."

Volatility Of Central Europe Exchange Rates: Reaction To Financial Contagion, And Policy Recommendations For European Union Accession, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Thomas D. Corrigan

WCBT Faculty Publications

Examines the volatility of the exchange rates in Central Europe. Role of capital account liberalization and financial market integration in exchange rate stability; Remedies employed to financial problems of each countries; Impact of Asian and Russian financial crises on currencies of Central European countries; Recommendations for European Union accession.

The Challenge Of Administration By Regulation: Preliminary Findings Regarding The U.S. Government's Venture Capital Funds, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

This article assesses the ability of elected officials to control public policy as implemented by public/private hybrid organizations, specifically, government venture capital funds. The study reveals greater control over OPIC investment funds than Enterprise Funds despite the existence of more traditional administrative tools of control for Enterprise Funds. This finding suggests that the regulatory infrastructure for hybrid organizations is more determinative of control than the existence (or lack) of traditional administrative control tools. Thus the challenge of hybrid government centers on the development of regulation as a substitute for administration.

How Useful Are Forecasts Of Corporate Profits, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

If forecasters predict higher earnings for corporations, the stock market will rise. Stock prices will drop with a forecast of lower earnings. But are such forecasts on the money? Dean Croushore uses data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters to check the accuracy of forecasts of corporate profits. The results show that, despite the volatility of corporate profits, the forecasts are rational.

Institutional Changes And Discretionary Value For Property Rights In Drylands’ Farming Of The Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Research on land tenure and use control and the socioeconomic sets of regulations in the agricultural rainfed sub sector of Sudan, come to focus for many reasons. Anthropogenic pressure, expanding animal population and migration led to accelerated impacts on both the ecological systems and land yields. Conflicts between governmental regulations and indigenous rules contribute to generate inconsistencies on who have the right to till the land and hence own it. With such transformation logically, more intensive commercial farming took place and land intake exponentially increased. Private or collective property rights of land are procured through traditional tenure, prescription, settlement or …

Town Of Amesbury, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report explored the town of Amesbury, Massachusetts. Amesbury’s municipal government was supported by diverse citizen groups and business organizations. The town was a suburban community with abundant natural resources and a delightful village core.

Town Of Boxford, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report explores the town of Boxford, Massachusetts. Boxford is a unique rural community in the Merrimack Valley and the Boston metropolitan area. It has no traffic lights, sidewalks or signs, and very few streetlights, or commercial or industrial activity. Because of its 50-year old 2-acre zoning and close proximity to Boston, which contribute to its high housing costs, this community is out of reach for most Massachusetts residents.

Town Of Lawrence, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report takes a look at the town of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Lawrence, originally a rural farming town, was transformed into a major industrial center when Boston Entrepreneurs developed huge textile mills on the Merrimack River to use the power of its water falls. The mill owners built canals, a dam and reservoir, boarding houses and a machine shop for locomotives, creating one of the first industrial complexes in the country.

Town Of Andover, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Andover is a suburban community of 32 square miles with a population of 29,000. The town is located just 20 miles south of Boston at the intersection of I-93 and I-495. With easy access to the city and Logan Airport, Andover is home to many of the largest high-technology firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Raytheon, Digital, Gillette, and Genetics Institute.

Town Of Georgetown, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report focuses on the town of Georgetown, Massachusetts. While it was still widely forested, with many acres of open and recreation land, the town also had a walkable village core as well as industrial and commercial development. The town was renowned for its thriving antique industry and also boasted an organ manufacturing company, a supermarket and an expanding public golf and country club.

Town Of Merrimac, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Starting out as a farming and maritime community in the 1600’s, Merrimac, Massachusetts became an active manufacturing community through the 19^th century with thirty-one different carriage factories, and today has developed into principally a residential community.

Town Of Methuen, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Methuen, Massachusetts played a significant role in this country’s industrial revolution, which began in the Merrimack Valley. In the mid-to late 19^th century, mills along the Spicket River and Spicket Falls produced hats, shoes, and textiles.

Town Of Salisbury, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Salisbury, Massachusetts has the history and the skeleton of a typical New England village, but has lost much of the identifiable character to post 1950 regulated development. (Town of Salisbury Local Partnership Committee Economic Development Plan, 1996) Today Salisbury has two identifiable centers. The historic town center, known as Salisbury Square, and the Salisbury Beach…

Town Of Groveland, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report takes a look at Groveland, Massachusetts. Groveland is a small residential community that retains all of the characteristics of a friendly rural town in the setting of a convenient suburb. The town was incorporated in 1850, and changed gradually from an agricultural community to one that is almost wholly residential.

Town Of Newburyport, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Newburyport is a diverse and thriving city that harmonizes commercial, residential and industrial needs. Nestled on the shores where the Merrimack River meets the Atlantic Ocean Newburyport is among the smallest cities in the state.

Moving Toward The Millennium With Open Space In Huntington, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report includes presentation and examination of community, environmental and conservation/recreation issues. The information is then analyzed according to the needs of the town and incorporated into recommendations for future action.

Laying The Groundwork: Preparing For A Master Plan In Deerfield, Ma, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

In April of 1998 a Master Plan Committee was established to start work toward the first Master Plan for Deerfield, Massachusetts. A major catalyst for this decision was chronic septic failure throughout much of Deerfield. This failure raised the question of whether or not Deerfield should expand its public sewer. Expanding the system would solve the immediate problem of septic failure, but could potentially encourage unwanted development and create a new cycle of problems.

Merrimack Valley Planning Commission Regional Assets Study, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report is intended to illuminate the region of the Merrimack River and its assets. The motivation for the study is simply this: The assets of the region have never been comprehensively compiled and, in an age of tremendous economic competition it is essential that this information be publicly distributed. The Merrimack River is located in the Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts.

Town Of North Andover, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

North Andover, Massachusetts lies along the banks of the Merrimack River and is surrounded by the Towns of Methuen, Haverhill, Boxford, Andover, Middleton, North Reading, and the City of Lawrence. The settlement of the town began in 1640 and was incorporated as Andover in 1646. North Andover is governed by an open Town Meeting form of government, a five-member Board of Selectmen and a Town Manager pursuant to a Home Rule Charter that went into effect in 1986.

Project Appraisal For The Keynesian Investment Planner, Greg Hill

Greg Hill

This paper outlines a theory of project appraisal wherein the neoclassical premises of conventional cost-benefit analysis are replaced by their Keynesian counterparts. The paper shows how the social rate of return on investment, the private and social rates of discount, and other concepts used in cost-benefit analysis may be modified to take account of the income externalities generated by the multiplier, mark-up pricing, and the causal priority of investment over saving.

Amenities And The Labor Earnings Function, Philip E. Graves, Robert L. Sexton

PHILIP E GRAVES

Desirable locations are, other things equal, expected to be characterized by a mix of higher rents or lower wages. That is, if one area is more attractive than others, inmigration would occur, driving up the demand for land (hence raising rents) and increasing the supply of labor (hence lowering wages). The in-movement will continue until utility is the same across locations in equilibrium. Failing to hold constant amenities in the traditional earnings functions employed by labor economists will result, then, in omitted-variable bias if worker characteristics (years of schooling, union membership, and so on) are correlated with amenities. By way …

Amenities And Fringe Benefits: Omitted Variable Bias, Philip E. Graves, Robert L. Sexton, Michelle M. Arthur

PHILIP E GRAVES

If labor is fairly mobile, as it is in the United States, one would expect that households would move from less desirable areas toward more desirable areas until all areas are equally desirable. The way that areas become equally desirable is through the impact of movers on wages and rents (and possibly "endogenous" disamenities, such as congestion or pollution). That is, as people move to desirable areas, they will increase the demand for land (raising rents) and increase the supply of labor (lowering wages); in equilibrium, the wage and rent "compensation" for the niceness of an area reveals, in dollar …

An Analysis Of The Economic And Social Issues Associated With Restructuring The Port Of Port-Au-Prince (Haiti), Ginelle Lambert Noel

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Deadweight Costs And Intrinsic Wrongs Of Nativism: Economics, Freedom, And Legal Suppression Of Spanish, William W. Bratton, Drucilla L. Cornell

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Amenities And Fringe Benefits: Omitted Variable Bias, Philip E. Graves, Robert L. Sexton, Michelle M. Arthur

Robert L Sexton

If labor is fairly mobile, as it is in the United States, one would expect that households would move from less desirable areas toward more desirable areas until all areas are equally desirable. The way that areas become equally desirable is through the impact of movers on wages and rents (and possibly "endogenous" disamenities, such as congestion or pollution). That is, as people move to desirable areas, they will increase the demand for land (raising rents) and increase the supply of labor (lowering wages); in equilibrium, the wage and rent "compensation" for the niceness of an area reveals, in dollar …

Distributional Impacts Of Proposed Changes To The Social Security System, Julia Coronado, Don Fullerton, Thomas Glass

Don Fullerton

In this paper we assess the degree to which the current social security system redistributes income from rich to poor. We then estimate the impact of various proposed changes to social security on the overall redistributive effect of the system. Our analysis takes a steady-state approach in which we assume participants work their entire lives and retire under a given system. Redistribution is measured on a lifetime basis using estimated earnings profiles for a sample of people taken from the PSID. We allow for differential mortality, not only by gender and race, but also by lifetime income. Our results indicate …

A Comparison Of Welfare Estimates From Four Models For Linking Seasonal Recreational Trips To Multinomial Models Of Site Choice, George R. Parsons, Ted Tomasi, Paul Jakus

George Parsons

Familiar And Favorite Sites In A Random Utility Model Of Beach Recreation, George R. Parsons, Daniel Mathew Massey, Ted Tomasi

George Parsons

No abstract provided.

Measures Of Welfare Effects In Multiproduct Industries: The Case Of Multispecies Individual Quota Fisheries, Niels Vestergaard

Niels Vestergaard

A framework is developed to measure the welfare effects of individual quota reforms in multiproduct industries using the multimarket welfare measure techniques suggested by Just, Hueth, and Schmitz (1982) and the concept of virtual price in the production theory literature (Neary 1995; Squires and Kirkley 1996). Under joint in input production it shown that quasirent under a single quota can be measured by the producer surplus either in the output market for quota output or in the quota market. Under multiple quotas the welfare effects of quota policies can be measured in one of the quota markets using inverse derived …