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Economics Faculty Publications

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Full-Text Articles in Economics

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics, Jonathan B. Wight Aug 2003

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Some economists consider their discipline a science, and thereby divorced from messy ethical details, the normative passions of right and wrong. They teach in a moral vacuum, perhaps even advocating economic agents' operating independently and avariciously, asserting that this magically produces the greatest good for society.

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U.S. Coins: Forecasting Change, Dean D. Croushore Apr 2003

U.S. Coins: Forecasting Change, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

Although the government annually produces about 70 new coins for every man, woman, and child, the economy’s need for coins can vary from year to year. So how do the U.S. Mint, which makes the coins, and the Federal Reserve, which distributes them, decide how many coins the economy needs? Dean Croushore highlights some facts about coins and describes how demand for change is forecast.

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The Impact Of A Large Wage Increase On The Workforce Stability Of Ihss Home Care Workers In San Francisco County, Candace Howes Nov 2002

The Impact Of A Large Wage Increase On The Workforce Stability Of Ihss Home Care Workers In San Francisco County, Candace Howes

Economics Faculty Publications

This study is one of the very few large-scale empirical investigations of the effect of wages on labor market outcomes in any direct care industry, and possibly the only such study specifically addressing conditions in the homecare industry. It records the impact of the nearly doubling of wages for IHSS homecare workers in San Francisco County over a 52 month period. The project is based on a unique database, which matches approximately 18,000 San Francisco County homecare workers in 26,115 unique matches to 15,500 service recipients between November 1997 and February 2002.

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Struggling To Provide: A Portrait Of Alameda County Homecare Workers, Candace Howes, Howard Greenwich, Laura Reif, Lea Grundy May 2002

Struggling To Provide: A Portrait Of Alameda County Homecare Workers, Candace Howes, Howard Greenwich, Laura Reif, Lea Grundy

Economics Faculty Publications

Alameda County employs nearly 8,000 homecare workers to help disabled and elderly persons live independently. Over one-third of these workers and their families—about 2,800—earn incomes that are below the official Federal poverty threshold. Many more struggle to meet basic daily needs and have to make difficult choices between caring for themselves and caring for others. Struggling to Provide is based on a recent survey of homecare workers in Alameda County that illustrates the insecure conditions in which many homecare workers live.

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Microfinance Among The Maya: Tracking The Progress Of Borrowers, Bruce Wydick Jan 2002

Microfinance Among The Maya: Tracking The Progress Of Borrowers, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

Microfinance has become an increasingly widespread tool for fostering economic growth among the poor in developing countries. This study tracks the progress of 239 borrowers in a Guatemalan microfinance institution from 1994 to 1999. Results from the study show that rapid gains in employment within the sample enterprises after initial credit access were followed by a protracted period of stagnation in employment growth. Other results highlight gender differences in response to credit access, showing — surprisingly — that the long–run growth in hired labour for female entrepreneurs was slightly greater than that for male entrepreneurs.

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Affirmative Action In College Admissions: Examining Labor Market Effects Of Four Alternative Policies, Bruce Wydick Jan 2002

Affirmative Action In College Admissions: Examining Labor Market Effects Of Four Alternative Policies, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

A rancorous debate continues to rage over the use of affirmative action policies in college admissions. This paper uses a simple signaling model to evaluate the labor market impacts of four types of affirmative action admissions policies. Race-based preferential policies and policies guaranteeing admission based on high school academic rank may induce discrimination in labor markets when there exists strong heterogeneity in socio-economic disadvantage within the under-represented minority group. Under such conditions, it may also be difficult to realize ethnic diversity with disadvantage-based preferential policies. The paper argues instead for affirmative action policies emphasizing intensive college preparation for targeted groups.

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How Efficient Are Africa’S Emerging Stock Markets?, Magnus Arni Magnusson, Bruce Wydick Jan 2002

How Efficient Are Africa’S Emerging Stock Markets?, Magnus Arni Magnusson, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

The development of financial institutions has been viewed in recent years as critical to the economic development process. This research uses recent data from the eight largest African stock markets to test whether these markets meet the criterion of weak-form stock market efficiency with returns characterised by a random walk. Results are then compared with similar tests on emerging stock markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Conclusions from the research indicate that test results for weak-form efficiency in the emerging African stock markets compare favorably with those performed on other emerging stock markets.

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How Do Forecasts Respond To Changes In Monetary Policy?, Laurence Ball, Dean D. Croushore Oct 2001

How Do Forecasts Respond To Changes In Monetary Policy?, Laurence Ball, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

Just as changes in atmospheric conditions affect weather forecasts, changes in monetary policy affect economic forecasts. When monetary policy shifts, forecasters change their predictions about growth and inflation. But does the economy change to the same extent that forecasts do? In this article, Laurence Ball and Dean Croushore examine forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters to determine if forecasts and the economy respond in tandem or if there are significant differences.

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Quantile Regression, Kevin F. Hallock, Roger Koenker Sep 2001

Quantile Regression, Kevin F. Hallock, Roger Koenker

Economics Faculty Publications

Quantile regression as introduced by Koenker and Bassett seeks to extend ideas of quantiles to the estimation of conditional quantile functions--models in which quantiles of the conditional distribution of the response variable are expressed as functions of observed covariates.

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Economists' Publication Patterns, James E. Hartley, James Monks, Michael D. Robinson Apr 2001

Economists' Publication Patterns, James E. Hartley, James Monks, Michael D. Robinson

Economics Faculty Publications

The results presented in this paper give a comprehensive picture of the extent of publishing by economists. While it is obvious that the traditional emphasis on refereed journal articles captures only a part of economists' research output, to date it has been difficult to determine how large a part of that output was not being measured. This note provides the necessary perspective and presents information on the relative productivity of faculty at different institutional types and with different years of experience.

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Group Lending Under Dynamic Incentives As A Borrower Discipline Device., Bruce Wydick Jan 2001

Group Lending Under Dynamic Incentives As A Borrower Discipline Device., Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

In recent years group lending has become an increasingly utilized tool for providing credit access to the poor in developing countries. Using empirical results from first-hand field research on Guatemalan borrowing groups, this paper develops a simple game-theoretic model of group lending. Results from the model show that through peer monitoring, the threat of group expulsion, and the safety net of intra-group credit insurance, group lending mitigates some risky investment behavior that would otherwise occur under an individual borrowing contract. The credible threat of social sanctions against group members who misallocate borrowed capital further reduces instances of such behavior.

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Microenterprise Lending To Female Entrepreneurs: Sacrificing Economic Growth For Poverty Alleviation?, Michael Kevane, Bruce Wydick Jan 2001

Microenterprise Lending To Female Entrepreneurs: Sacrificing Economic Growth For Poverty Alleviation?, Michael Kevane, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

This research compares the performance of female and male entrepreneurs in a microenterprise credit program in Guatemala. Previous research and field practice has suggested that targeting credit at female borrowers allows for more substantial increases in household welfare, but that male entrepreneurs may more aggressively expand enterprises when given access to credit. In this paper, we develop a model that shows that increases in value of home time during childbearing years for women may substantially account for gender differences in responses to credit access. Empirical results from Guatemalan survey data yield estimations consistent with the predictions from our model.

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Social Norms And The Time Allocation Of Women's Labor In Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane, Bruce Wydick Jan 2001

Social Norms And The Time Allocation Of Women's Labor In Burkina Faso, Michael Kevane, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper proposes that major determinants of allocation of women's time are social norms that regulate the economic activities of women. Our emphasis on norms contrasts with approaches that view time allocation as determined by household-level economic variables. Using data from Burkina Faso, we show that social norms significantly explain differences in patterns of time allocation between two ethnic groups: Mossi and Bwa. Econometric results show women from the two groups exhibiting different responses to changes in farm capital. Implications are that policies that foster changes in social norms may have more permanent effects on altering women's behavior.

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Culture, Development, And Government: Reservations In India, Evan W. Osborne Jan 2001

Culture, Development, And Government: Reservations In India, Evan W. Osborne

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2001

Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Voluntary free trade has the potential, slowly and gradually over time, to create "general opulence" because it allows workers to acquire greater competency and specialization: in a word, workers become more productive. The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand market areas and thereby potentially contribute to raising future living standards of workers. This paper seeks to analyze the theoretical basis for trade, provide an economic overview of FTAA countries, and analyze the winners and losers from trade.

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A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2001

A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Adam Smith was trying to counter medieval church theology, which held that any self-interested behavior was sinful and detrimental. Smith countered that self-interest could yield valuable outcomes for society as people pursued specialization and market trade. Much later these quotes would be used to justify the greedy and grasping personae of homo economicus, illustrating how a little Adam Smith can prove to be a dangerous thing. For example, Max Lerner in 1937 would say that Adam Smith "sanctified predatory impulses" and "gave a new dignity to greed." By the 1980s the movie Wall Street has the financial tycoon Gordon …

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Unpacking ‘Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?’, Spencer J. Pack Jan 2001

Unpacking ‘Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?’, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper responds to Keith Tribe's provocative Journal of Economic Literature article, “Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?” There Tribe argued that most people most of the time grossly misread Smith, due, among other things, to their quite inadequate appreciation of Smith's linguistic, social, moral, and theological context. Against Tribe, the paper argues that Smith can profitably be read as both an eighteenth-century moralist and a twenty-first century critic. Smith can be a source of inspiration, wisdom and profundity for contemporary economists. Moreover, Smith can be successfully employed by modern economists to change, deepen, and broaden contemporary economic theory.

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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Data Bank: A Real-Time Data Set For Macroeconomists, Dean D. Croushore, Tom Stark Sep 2000

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Data Bank: A Real-Time Data Set For Macroeconomists, Dean D. Croushore, Tom Stark

Economics Faculty Publications

Economic policies are set and forecasts are made based on data that policymakers and forecasters have available to them. But such data are often revised — at times significantly. As a result, when policies and forecasts are viewed from the perspective of today's data, they may not seem sensible. Recognizing this problem, the Research Department at the Philadelphia Fed created a real-time data set so that economists today have the same data that were available to policymakers and forecasters in the past. In this article, Dean Croushore and Tom Stark tell how the data set was constructed, show how large …

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State Of Ohio's Urban Regions Reports: Employment Change, Ziona Austrian, John P. Blair Jul 2000

State Of Ohio's Urban Regions Reports: Employment Change, Ziona Austrian, John P. Blair

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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(Review) Entrepreneurs, Institutions And Economic Change: The Economic Thought Of J. A. Schumpeter (1905-1925), Spencer J. Pack Apr 2000

(Review) Entrepreneurs, Institutions And Economic Change: The Economic Thought Of J. A. Schumpeter (1905-1925), Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Entrepreneurs, Institutions, and Economic Change: The Economic Thought of J. A. Schumpeter (l905-1925). By Nicolo De Vecchi. Translated by Anne Stone. Brookfield, Vt.: Edward Elgar, l995. 192 pp. $80.00

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(Review) Social Limits To Economic Theory, Spencer J. Pack Apr 2000

(Review) Social Limits To Economic Theory, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Reviews the book Social Limits to Economic Theory by Jon Mulberg. New York: Routledge, l995. 200 pp. $19.95.

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How Useful Are Forecasts Of Corporate Profits, Dean D. Croushore Sep 1999

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.

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The Effect Of Microenterprise Lending On Child Schooling In Guatemala, Bruce Wydick Jan 1999

The Effect Of Microenterprise Lending On Child Schooling In Guatemala, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Credit Access, Human Capital And Class Structure Mobility, Bruce Wydick Jan 1999

Credit Access, Human Capital And Class Structure Mobility, Bruce Wydick

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of microenterprise credit programs on class structure mobility in developing countries. The paper develops a model that endogenously generates an eight-fold class structure. Class membership is determined by optimal choice of labour activity, which is a function of access to credit and human capital endowments. Predictions from the model suggest that better access to credit will foster upward class mobility among self-employed entrepreneurs, and that this upward class mobility will be accentuated among entrepreneurs with high levels of human capital. Theoretical predictions from the model are compared with data on class structure mobility collected firsthand …

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Courts As Casinos? An Empirical Investigation Of Randomness And Efficiency In Civil Litigation, Evan W. Osborne Jan 1999

Courts As Casinos? An Empirical Investigation Of Randomness And Efficiency In Civil Litigation, Evan W. Osborne

Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Will The Real Adam Smith Please Stand Up?: Teaching Social Economics In The Principles Course, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 1999

Will The Real Adam Smith Please Stand Up?: Teaching Social Economics In The Principles Course, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Part of the difficulty of introducing social economics into the principles course is the perception that social economics is anathema to mainstream economics. As noted by Warren Samuels, however, "neoclassical economics is already a form of social economics" despite its "pretensions of methodological individualism and value-neutrality". Heilbroner also makes the case that the " ... the preponderance of great economists were aware of economics as explanation systems of particular socio-economic formations." Like it or not, economists err in omitting from their models what McCloskey calls "S" variables--variables representing the "social embeddedness" of values which direct human choices.

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(Review) The Myth Of Adam Smith, Spencer J. Pack Jan 1999

(Review) The Myth Of Adam Smith, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

The Myth of Adam Smith, By Salim Rashid. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp. X, 227. $80.00

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The Revolution In Higher Education, James V. Koch Oct 1998

The Revolution In Higher Education, James V. Koch

Economics Faculty Publications

Joseph Schumpeter, the Austrian born economist and social historian who spent a major part of his academic career at Harvard, was a cogent observer of how societies develop. His Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy is still considered a classic. Schumpeter spoke of "perennial gales of creative destruction" (often technological) that shock societies and force change. The advent of electricity and the coming of the automobile illustrate technologies that created new power arrangements and destroyed or modified existing institutions. Higher education is now in the midst of a Schumpeterian "gale of creative destruction"--a revolution, many say. After almost 150 years of reliance …

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Layoffs, Top Executive Pay, And Firm Performance, Kevin F. Hallock Sep 1998

Layoffs, Top Executive Pay, And Firm Performance, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines the connection between layoffs, executive pay, and stock prices. Firms that announce layoffs in the previous year pay their CEOs more, and give their CEOs larger percentage raises than firms which do not have at least one layoff announcement in the previous year. However, the likelihood of announcing a layoff varies dramatically along with other dimensions, for example firm size, which are also correlated with CEO pay. Once firm-specific fixed effects are controlled for, the CEO pay premium for laying off workers disappears. In addition, there is a small negative share price reaction to layoff announcements.

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Low Inflation: The Surprise Of The 1990s, Dean D. Croushore Jul 1998

Low Inflation: The Surprise Of The 1990s, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

For most of the 1990s, forecasters have been predicting an upturn in inflation. Yet, over that same period, the United States has experienced stable or declining inflation. Why have forecasts been at odds with reality? And why does it matter? In this article, Dean Croushore considers some answers to these questions and explains why inflation is the economic surprise of the decade.

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