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2005

Economics

Economics

Articles 61 - 83 of 83

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keeping Score: The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll Feb 2005

Keeping Score: The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll

ExpressO

Inspired by the passionate contemporary debates about music copyright, this Article investigates how, when, and why music first came within copyright's domain. Although music publishers and recording companies are among the most aggressive advocates for strong copyright protection today, when copyright law was first invented in eighteenth-century England, music publishers resisted its extension to music. This Article sheds light on a series of early legal disputes concerning printed music that yield important insights into original understandings of copyright law and music's role in society. By focusing attention on this understudied episode, this Article demonstrates that the concept of copyright was …

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The "Duty" To Be A Rational Shareholder, David A. Hoffman Feb 2005

The "Duty" To Be A Rational Shareholder, David A. Hoffman

ExpressO

How and when do courts determine that corporate disclosures are actionable under the federal securities laws? The applicable standard is materiality: would a (mythical) "reasonable investor" have considered the disclosures important. As I establish through empirical and statistical testing of 500 cases analyzing the materiality standard, judicial findings of immateriality are remarkably common, and have been stable over time. Materiality's scope results in the dismissal of a large number of claims, and creates a set of cases in which courts attempt to explain and defend their vision of who is, and is not, a "reasonable investor." Thus, materiality provides an …

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The Missing Preferred Return, Victor Fleischer Feb 2005

The Missing Preferred Return, Victor Fleischer

ExpressO

Managers of buyout funds typically offer their investors an 8% preferred return on their investment before they take a share of any additional profits. Venture capitalists, on the other hand, rarely offer a preferred return. Instead, VCs take their cut from the first dollar of nominal profits. This disparity between venture funds and buyout funds is especially striking because the contracts that determine fund organization and compensation are otherwise very similar. The missing preferred return might suggest that agency costs pose a larger problem in venture capital than previously thought. Is the missing preferred return evidence, perhaps, that VCs are …

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Taxing Utility, Terrence Chorvat Feb 2005

Taxing Utility, Terrence Chorvat

George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series

In order to assess the efficiency of a tax, we should examine its effect on the behavior of individuals. In general, the less a tax affects behavior, the more efficient it is thought to be. The standard example of a non-distorting tax is a lump-sum tax, which does not change with the behavior of the taxpayer. However, this article demonstrates that behavioral distortions can and do arise from a change in even a lump-sum tax. The only truly non-distortionary tax would be one based on utility itself. Utility, which has been used as a norm for distributional analysis, is also …

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What Is A Tragedy Of The Commons? Overfishing And The Campaign Spending Problem, Shi-Ling Hsu Feb 2005

What Is A Tragedy Of The Commons? Overfishing And The Campaign Spending Problem, Shi-Ling Hsu

ExpressO

Over the thirty-seven years since its publication, Garden Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" has clearly become one of the most influential writings of all time. The tragedy of the commons is one of those rare scholarly ideas that has had an enormous impact in academia and is also commonly used outside of academia. In legal scholarship, the tragedy of the commons has been used to characterize a wide variety of resource problems, including intellectual property rights, overcrowding of telecommunications spectra, air and water pollution, and of course, the classic environmental commons problem, overfishing. But I suggest this embarrassment of citation …

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Jurisdictional Competition For Trust Funds: An Empirical Analysis Of Perpetuities And Taxes, Robert H. Sitkoff, Max Matthew Schanzenbach Feb 2005

Jurisdictional Competition For Trust Funds: An Empirical Analysis Of Perpetuities And Taxes, Robert H. Sitkoff, Max Matthew Schanzenbach

Law and Economics Papers

This paper presents the results of the first empirical study of the domestic jurisdictional competition for trust funds. In order to open a loophole in the federal estate tax, a rash of states have abolished the Rule Against Perpetuities. Based on reports to federal banking authorities, we find that through 2003 a state's abolition of the Rule increased its trust assets by $6 billion (a 20 percent increase on average) and increased its average trust account size by $200,000. These estimates imply that roughly $100 billion in trust funds have moved to take advantage of the abolition of the Rule. …

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Western Institution Building: The War, Hayek’S Cosmos And The Wto, M. Ulric Killion Feb 2005

Western Institution Building: The War, Hayek’S Cosmos And The Wto, M. Ulric Killion

ExpressO

Despite the shortcomings of Hayek’s spontaneous order, there is a positive side, perhaps even a positive feedback. Hayek left us with a “what if” question and returns us to that initial opening of Pandora’s Box, or perhaps the initial onset of neo-realism, neo-liberalism, developmentalism, globalism, transnationalism and other concepts, precepts and adjectives justifying institution building by bargaining and military force. In terms of new world order, institution building by necessity requires fundamental changes in governmental structures in non-western cultures and nation-states such as China, Afghanistan and Iraq. Such changes are being prompted by means of political, economic and military powers …

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The New Dividend Puzzle, William W. Bratton Jan 2005

The New Dividend Puzzle, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Determinants Of Poverty In Kenya: A Household Level Analysis, Alemayehu Geda, Niek De Jong, Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Germano Mwabu Jan 2005

Determinants Of Poverty In Kenya: A Household Level Analysis, Alemayehu Geda, Niek De Jong, Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Germano Mwabu

Economics Working Papers

Strategies aimed at poverty reduction need to identify factors that are strongly associated with poverty and that are amenable to modification by policy. This article uses household level data collected in 1994 to examine probable determinants of poverty status, employing both binomial and polychotomous logit models. The study shows that poverty status is strongly associated with the level of education, household size and engagement in agricultural activity, both in rural and urban areas. In general, those factors that are closely associated with overall poverty according to the binomial model are also important in the ordered-logit model, but they appear to …

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Three (Potential) Pillars Of Transnational Economic Justice: The Bretton Woods Institutions As Guarantors Of Global Equal Treatment And Market Completion, Robert C. Hockett Jan 2005

Three (Potential) Pillars Of Transnational Economic Justice: The Bretton Woods Institutions As Guarantors Of Global Equal Treatment And Market Completion, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This essay aims to bring two important lines of inquiry and criticism together. It first lays out an institutionally enriched account of what a just world economic order will look like. That account prescribes, via the requisites to that mechanism which most directly instantiate the account, three realms of equal treatment and market completion - the global products, services, and labor markets; the global investment/financial markets; and the global preparticipation opportunity allocation. The essay then suggests how, with minimal if any departure from familiar canons of traditional international legal mandate interpretation, each of the Bretton Woods institutions - particularly the …

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Are Two Knaves Better Than One? Every Man A Knave: Hume, Buchanan, And Musgrave's View On Economics And Government, Andrew Farrant, Maria Pia Paganelli Jan 2005

Are Two Knaves Better Than One? Every Man A Knave: Hume, Buchanan, And Musgrave's View On Economics And Government, Andrew Farrant, Maria Pia Paganelli

Economics Faculty Research

It is commonplace to view market agents as self-interested knaves, while government agents are either as knaves or public-spirited angels. What are the consequences of these different motivational assumptions in modeling governmental and market behavior? We compare David Hume, James M. Buchanan, and Richard Musgrave. We claim that Hume, the only one thinking consistently in terms of the worst-case, offers a second best solution for both the government and the economy, which may turn out to be the best possible solution given human nature. Because of the reciprocal check, two knaves are better than one. More is preferred to less …

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Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 1st Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis Jan 2005

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 1st Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Coastal Empire Economic Indicators are designed to provide continuously updating quarterly snapshots of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index provides a short term forecast of the region’s economic activity in six to nine months.

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Agglomeration Effects And Strategic Orientations: Evidence From The U.S. Lodging Industry, Linda Canina, Cathy A. Enz, Jeffrey S. Harrison Jan 2005

Agglomeration Effects And Strategic Orientations: Evidence From The U.S. Lodging Industry, Linda Canina, Cathy A. Enz, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

This study provides evidence regarding the strategic dynamics of competitive clusters. Firms that agglomerate (co-locate) may benefit from the differentiation of competitors without making similar differentiating investments themselves. Alternatively, co-locating with a high percentage of firms with low-cost strategic orientations reduces performance for firms pursuing high levels of differentiation. Further, the lowest-cost providers with the greatest strategic distance from the norm of the competitive cluster reap the greatest benefit from co-location with differentiated firms. We find empirical support for these ideas using a sample of 14,995 U.S. lodging establishments, and controlling for a number of key demand-shaping factors.

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Adam Smith And Greed, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2005

Adam Smith And Greed, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

The virtues of greed have been widely promoted by some economists in the 20th century. Allegedly it is Adam Smith who provides this new dignity to greed (Lerner, 1937, ix). Kenneth Arrow and Frank Hahn in the General Equilibrium Analysis (1971), for example, implicitly assume that Adam Smith's self-interest is the greed that promotes economic efficiency (quoted in Evensky, 1993, 203). Walter Williams (1999), a devoted follower of Smith, writes in his column that, "Free markets, private property rights, voluntary exchange, and greed produce preferable outcomes most times and under most conditions." These pronouncements have become part of the cultural …

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Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 4th Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis Jan 2005

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 4th Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Coastal Empire Economic Indicators are designed to provide continuously updating quarterly snapshots of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index provides a short term forecast of the region’s economic activity in six to nine months.

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The Microfoundations Of Standard Form Contracts: Price Discrimination Vs. Behavioral Bias, Jonathan Klick Jan 2005

The Microfoundations Of Standard Form Contracts: Price Discrimination Vs. Behavioral Bias, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

Standard form contracts, or contracts of adhesion, appear to provide contradictory evidence for the operation of bargaining in the markets where they are common. Non-negotiated contract terms that seemingly benefit sellers to the detriment of buyers call into question the efficiency implications of the Coase Theorem, which forms the foundation of positive law and economics. Proponents of the behavioral school of law and economics have suggested that behavioral biases, observed in experimental contexts, provide the most plausible explanation for standard form contracts. However, price discrimination might provide a more parsimonious explanation for abusive terms in contracts. If there is heterogeneity …

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Wealth, Utility, And The Human Dimension, Jonathan Klick, Francesco Parisi Jan 2005

Wealth, Utility, And The Human Dimension, Jonathan Klick, Francesco Parisi

All Faculty Scholarship

Functional law and economics, which draws its influence from the public choice school of economic thought, stands in stark contrast to both the Chicago and Yale schools of law and economics. While the Chicago school emphasizes the inherent efficiency of legal rules, and the Yale school views law as a solution to market failure and distributional inequality, functional law and economics recognizes the possibility for both market and legal failure. That is, while there are economic forces that lead to failures in the market, there are also structural forces that limit the law’s ability to remedy those failures on an …

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Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 2nd Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis Jan 2005

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 2nd Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Coastal Empire Economic Indicators are designed to provide continuously updating quarterly snapshots of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index provides a short term forecast of the region’s economic activity in six to nine months.

Go to article

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 3rd Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis Jan 2005

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, 3rd Quarter, 2005, Armstrong Atlantic State University Center For Regional Analysis

Coastal Empire Economic Monitor

The Coastal Empire Economic Indicators are designed to provide continuously updating quarterly snapshots of the Savannah Metropolitan Statistical Area economy. The coincident index measures the current economic heartbeat of the region. The leading index provides a short term forecast of the region’s economic activity in six to nine months.

Go to article

Auction Markets For Evaluations, Cary Deck, Bart J. Wilson Jan 2005

Auction Markets For Evaluations, Cary Deck, Bart J. Wilson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

When the value of a product or service is uncertain, outcomes can be inefficient. A market for evaluations can theoretically increase efficiency by voluntarily eliciting an evaluation that would otherwise not be provided. This paper uses a controlled laboratory experiment to test the performance of four market mechanisms to provide product evaluations. The mechanisms considered are derived from the oft studied uniform price sealed bid, discriminatory price sealed bid, English clock auction, and Dutch clock auction. Our results indicate for this nonrivalrous product that (i) each of these institutions improves social welfare and (ii) the performances of the four mechanisms …

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Assessing The State Of Black America In Terms Of Black Buying Power From 1990 To Present, Samina J. Mcgill Jan 2005

Assessing The State Of Black America In Terms Of Black Buying Power From 1990 To Present, Samina J. Mcgill

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Retirement Plans, Attitudes, And Expectations Of Kansas Board Of Regents Faculty, Carl Parker, Bill Rickman, Rory Terry, Tom Johansen Jan 2005

Retirement Plans, Attitudes, And Expectations Of Kansas Board Of Regents Faculty, Carl Parker, Bill Rickman, Rory Terry, Tom Johansen

Fort Hays Studies Series

This data set enables the examination of investment choices of a mature group of faculty, where saving for retirement is a major investment objective. Consideration of future retirement-related policy proposals by universities should be evaluated with an understanding of the relative importance of economic and non-economic influences upon the retirement decision by university faculty.

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Importing Exotic Plants And The Risk Of Invasion: Are Market-Based Instruments Adequate?, Duncan Knowler, Edward Barbier Dec 2004

Importing Exotic Plants And The Risk Of Invasion: Are Market-Based Instruments Adequate?, Duncan Knowler, Edward Barbier

Edward B Barbier

No abstract provided.

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