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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Economic Incidence Of Smoking Laws, John Dunham, Michael L. Marlow
The Economic Incidence Of Smoking Laws, John Dunham, Michael L. Marlow
Economics
Although laws restricting smoking in restaurants are becoming commonplace, most research has focused on either the health benefits that laws may provide customers and workers or whether laws harm owners. But while smoking laws may directly alter profits, owners may alter prices, output, and other business attributes in ways that affect the welfare of customers and workers. This study examines whether restaurant and bar owners alter prices, entertainment, hours of operation and other business attributes in response to local smoking laws. Substantial support is found for these attribute changes in the Wisconsin hospitality industry. One implication is that an overall …
Likelihood-Based Specification Analysis Of Continuous-Time Models Of The Short-Term Interest Rate, Garland B. Durham
Likelihood-Based Specification Analysis Of Continuous-Time Models Of The Short-Term Interest Rate, Garland B. Durham
Finance
An extensive collection of continuous-time models of the short-term interest rate is evaluated over data sets that have appeared previously in the literature. The analysis, which uses the simulated maximum likelihood procedure proposed by Durham and Gallant (2002), provides new insights regarding several previously unresolved questions. For single factor models, I find that the volatility, not the drift, is the critical component in model specification. Allowing for additional flexibility beyond a constant term in the drift provides negligible benefit. While constant drift would appear to imply that the short rate is nonstationary, in fact, stationarity is volatility-induced. The simple constant …
Slotting Allowances As A Facilitating Practice By Food Processors In Wholesale Grocery Markets: Profitability And Welfare Effects, Stephen F. Hamilton
Slotting Allowances As A Facilitating Practice By Food Processors In Wholesale Grocery Markets: Profitability And Welfare Effects, Stephen F. Hamilton
Economics
Slotting allowances, which are lump-sum transfers paid by food manufacturers to grocery retailers in return for various retail concessions, are becoming increasingly common in wholesale grocery markets. This article extends the literature on slotting allowances by considering two features that previously have been ignored: the role of food processors in determining these pricing arrangements, and the effect of slotting allowances on the size and distribution of economic surplus. Slotting allowances motivated by food processors increase procurement quantities and farm prices, and this raises farm surplus, increases total producer surplus, and improves consumer welfare in the food system.
Comment On "Iterative And Recursive Estimation In Structural Nonadaptive Models Iterative And Recursive Estimation In Structural Nonadaptive Models" By S. Pastorello, V. Patilea, And E. Renault, Garland Durham, John Geweke
Comment On "Iterative And Recursive Estimation In Structural Nonadaptive Models Iterative And Recursive Estimation In Structural Nonadaptive Models" By S. Pastorello, V. Patilea, And E. Renault, Garland Durham, John Geweke
Finance
No abstract provided.
Funded Pensions, Labor Market Participation, And Economic Growth, Mark A. Roberts, Eric O'N. Fisher
Funded Pensions, Labor Market Participation, And Economic Growth, Mark A. Roberts, Eric O'N. Fisher
Economics
This paper analyses a model of overlapping generations in which agents who do not participate in the labor market are unable to borrow. Thus an increase in a fully funded pension raises aggregate savings even with a fixed participation rate since private savings are not crowded out one-for-one. When labor force participation is determined endogenously, a rise in the level of fully funded pensions increases the aggregate labor supply. This in turn increases aggregate savings and growth, directly by raising per capita savings and indirectly through tax and interest rate effects.
Public Goods And The Value Of Product Quality Regulations: The Case Of Food Safety, Stephen F. Hamilton, David L. Sunding, David Zilberman
Public Goods And The Value Of Product Quality Regulations: The Case Of Food Safety, Stephen F. Hamilton, David L. Sunding, David Zilberman
Economics
The paper examines preferences for product quality regulations. Our premise is that preferences for product quality regulations derive from preferences for both private and public goods. The model is used to explain public attitudes toward a referendum measure to eliminate pesticide residues on food. Results from a survey of consumers are consistent with the conceptual model and show that preferences for public goods influence support for the product quality regulation. The results help explain why consumption behavior is a poor predictor of political behavior, and have implications for methods that use voting and market behavior to value public goods.
Method To Their Madness: Dispelling The Myth Of Economic Rationality As A Behavioral Ideal, John Dobson
Method To Their Madness: Dispelling The Myth Of Economic Rationality As A Behavioral Ideal, John Dobson
Finance
Although not immediately apparent, the discipline of behavioral finance is rapidly adopting an implicit prescriptive agenda. Behavioral finance does not merely describe financial market reality, it shapes it. Economic rationality is taken as the ideal toward to which individuals 'should' strive. In this paper I show that, as a behavioral ideal, economic rationality is unjustified both from a strictly economic perspective, and from a moral perspective. In short, there is nothing inherently "wrong" with economically irrational participants in the business environment. Indeed such participants will actually enhance the efficiency, and the ethicality, of business.