bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ENERGY INTENSITY IMPROVEMENTS IN STEEL MINIMILLS
Authors: Boyd GALE , Karlson STEPHEN H. , Neifer MARK , Ross MARC
Published: January 2010

Over the past 20 years, U.S. steel manufacturing has experienced an episode of creative destruction. Iron‐ore based plants closed, and new electric arc furnace (EAF) plants–the “minimills”–opened. The steel industry is an energy intensive segment of manufacturing, and the changeover causes major change in energy use. The analysis here links a plant‐level database from the Bureau of the Census with publicly available sources and obtains measures of the best practice energy use in minimills. The analysis examines how technical efficiency, vintage, and capacity utilization affect plant‐level electricity use per ton of steel. This measure of electricity use gives a plant's “energy intensity.” Plants in the sample keep operating even during deep recessions, suggesting that energy, e.g., BTU, taxes may fall short of the fullest potential for reducing energy use. During recession, plants actually may continue to operate at lower output rates and higher energy intensities rather than close down. Substantial potential exists for energy improvements of as much as 1 billion kWh per year. New facilities exhibit energy intensity improvement of 6.2 kWh/ton per year. This finding is consistent with engineering estimates. Realizing this potential among all plants would require policies that assist capital turnover.
IMPACT OF PRICING STRUCTURE SELECTIVITY ON URBAN WATER DEMAND
Authors: Nieswiadomy MICHAEL , Cobb STEVEN L.
Published: January 2010

Interest in demand management policies has intensified as residential water demand has grown in the United States. Using data from the 1984 American Water Works Association (AWWA) survey, the study here provides an empirical analysis of the differences in price elasticities of demand across water pricing block structures and examines these structures' “conservation‐orientedness.” However, a potential sample selection bias exists. That is, in cities where people are more interested in conservation, utility managers may be more likely to select a rate structure that they believe is conservation‐oriented–an increasing block structure, for example. Managers' selectivity bias may cause research results either to understate or to overstate a particular block structure's impact on water conservation. The analysis here corrects for this selectivity bias in estimating water demand and tests whether consumers respond to average prices or to marginal prices. Correcting for selectivity bias involves an explicit analysis of the factors that influence utility managers' selection of rate structures. Estimating water demand under increasing and decreasing block structures suggests that sample selection bias remains a problem worthy of further investigation.
GATT TRADE RULES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Authors: MIKESELL RAYMOND F.
Published: January 2010

This paper addresses the alleged conflict between the GATT trade rules and the protection of the environment by GATT members. The author contends that the principal objective of the GATT rules on nontariff trade restrictions is to eliminate government interventions that promote the commercial interests of domestic producers and consumers in a manner that discriminates against foreign producers and consumers in either domestic or international markets. He further contends that this objective fundamentally does not conflict with protecting GATT members' domestic environment or the global environment. The GATT should explicitly recognize the objectives of environmental protection and natural resource consemation, either by an amendment to the GATT Articles or by resolution of the GATT Council. GATT members, in the interest of protecting their national and the global environment, should be free to impose restrictions on imports or exports so long as the interventions conform to the following conditions: (i) restrictions do not have the intent or signficant effect of discriminating against foreign producers or consumers in favor of domestic ones, (ii) restrictions are in the interest of protecting the global environment where the concerns are widely shared by other nations and do not simply reflect unique and parochial views of the individual member, and (iii) restrictions do not constitute an effort to force trading partners to adopt environmental standards of production that have no global or trans‐border pollution implications.
DETERMINANTS OF THE SAVING RATE: AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON
Authors: DOSHI KOKILA
Published: January 2010

Economists have extensively analyzed the interactions between economic‐demographic factors and saving. Fertility rates and the dependency ratio have received considerable attention, but the effect of life expectancy improvements have not been analyzed explicitly. This paper provides an added dimension to the existing literature by empirically examining the role of life expectancy as a determinant of saving. Recent data demonstrate that life expectancy is a statistically significant and quantitatively important factor affecting less developed countries' saving performance. One must consider human capital investments when assessing population growth's impact on saving. The analysis here is one of few that incorporate human capital in defining saving. The overall results are sensitive to level of development and regional diversity.
IMPACT OF TRADE ON SERVICE SECTOR EMPLOYMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN AND MINORITIES
Authors: ARMAH BARTHOLOMEW K.
Published: January 2010

Trade data from 1977 and 1985 suggest that, on average, service industries with the greatest trade‐related employment gains tend to be more skill‐intensive and that such industries employ relatively more women and minorities than do service industries experiencing the least trade‐related employment gains. Three important qualifiers temper these findings: (i) Compared to whites, minorities—particularly blacks—have lower probability of increased employment in trade‐enhanced service industries. (ii) Unlike whites or Hispanics, skilled black workers are more likely to be employed in service industries experiencing the least trade‐related employment gains. (iii) On an industry by industry basis, no consistent relationship appears to exist between skill intensity and level of trade‐related employment. The latter finding supports the view that service industry comparative advantage is industry‐specific.
CASELOAD IMPACTS OF WELFARE REFORM
Authors: JOHNSON TERRY R. , KLEPINGER DANIEL H. , DONG FRED B.
Published: January 2010

A welfare reform demonstration program designed to reduce Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recidivism through increased employment and training services resulted in significantly higher short‐term caseload growth. Demonstration sites attracted proportionally more households onto assistance early in the demonstration than did comparison sites. These entrants tended to have more extensive previous employment histories. This result suggests that the demonstration attracted individuals who previously qualified for AFDC but did not apply for benefits and/or individuals who reduced their employment to qualify for AFDC. Exits from AFDC also were delayed under the demonstration, suggesting that the more intensive services provided through the demonstration required more time to complete. Finally, certain groups—nonwhites and those with language problems, for example—apparently avoided the demonstration by not migrating into demonstration sites or by migrating out of demonstration sites. These results have important implications for the likely costs of state welfare reform efforts under the Family Support Act of 1988.
IMPACT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON GENETIC DIVERSITY: THE CASE OF U.S. WHEAT
Authors: PRAY CARL E. , KNUDSON MARY
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the link between passage of the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA), private R&D, public R&D, and genetic diversity in farmers' fields. PVPA did have a limited positive impact on private wheat breeding but did not lead to a decrease in public wheat research. Instead, public wheat research increased rapidly after PVPA passed. The trends in wheat diversity over time for the entire United States suggest that private research has undergone minor increases in diversity. Regression analysis of genetic diversity in Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana indicates that public sector research has increased diversity in farmers' wheat fields and that PVPA has had a small positive impact on diversity.
CHANGES IN WATER ALLOCATION MECHANISMS FOR CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE
Authors: ZILBERMAN DAVID , MACDOUGALL NEAL , SHAH FARHED
Published: January 2010

Existing institutions allocating water in California reflect prior appropriation water rights established when water was abundant. These allocation rules queue users and do not encourage water conservation. Increased water scarcity and growing valuation of water's environmental benefits are inducing a transition to water allocation mechanisms that increase water efficiency in agriculture. Transferable rights systems will lead to market‐like water allocation, induce farmers to adopt water conservation technology, and may not face strong objection from senior water rights holders. One must weigh the efficiency gains associated with transition from water rights to water markets against the transaction costs associated with installing facilities that enable water exchange and trading.

Transition to water markets may preserve the agricultural sector's well‐being while allowing the transfer of some water outside of agriculture—in particular, for environmental benefit. The cost of policies proposed to reduce agricultural water supply while encouraging water trading are inversely related to the extent of trading allowed. The more farmers trade water, the less costly reducing water supply is to agriculture. Policies reducing water supply to Central Valley Project contractors and allowing trading only among these contractors are much more expensive than are policies encouraging trading among all agricultural water users in California.
STABILIZING THE EXPECTED PRICE LEVEL IN A BFH PAYMENTS SYSTEM
Authors: WOOLSEY W. WILLIAM
Published: January 2010

The Black‐Fama‐Hall system of free banking promises improved macroeconomic performance through the use of a common unit of account defined in terms of a bundle of goods and services and indirectly convertible means of payment. This paper shows how BFH can operate when the actual market price of the dollar‐defining bundle is measured only periodically. The proposed version of BFH would require banks to calculate the amount of redemption medium (gold or securities) needed to redeem money using the subsequent measurement of the bundle's market price. The procedure in effect would make checks, banknotes, and token coins of given face value directly convertible into redemption medium of equal market value and into an index futures contract on the bundle's market price. The paper explains how the system would tend to stabilize the expected price of the dollar‐defining bundle and uses a dynamic stochastic model to illustrate the consequences for the actual price level, real income, and interest rates.
COLLEGE MAJOR CHOICE AND CHANGES IN THE GENDER WAGE GAP
Authors: EIDE ERIC
Published: January 2010

The distribution of college majors changed markedly between the 1970s and 1980s as fewer students completed degrees in low‐skill fields such as education and letters and more graduated in high‐skill fields such as engineering and business. This shift was most dramatic for females, who previously were concentrated in low‐skill fields relative to those of males. This paper examines how this education‐related skill upgrade, as represented by changes in the major distribution, affected the gender wage gap for college graduates during the 1980s. The results show that convergence in major distribution between males and females contributed to a decline in the gender wage gap for college graduates.
DO PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT LAWS REDUCE ADOLESCENT ABORTION RATES?
Authors: OHSFELDT ROBERT L. , GOHMANN STEPHAN F.
Published: January 2010

This study assesses the impact of parental involvement laws on adolescent abortion rates and pregnancy rates. The analysis estimates abortion rate and pregnancy rate models using state‐level data pooled over time for adolescents aged 15–17 compared to older teens aged 18–19 and adults aged 20–44. The results indicate that parental involvement laws reduce adolescent abortion rates and may, to a lessor degree, reduce adolescent pregnancy rates. Thus, the findings imply that enforcement of parental involvement laws will increase adolescent fertility rates.
WATER SUBSIDIES, WATER TRANSFERS, AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY
Authors: KANAZAWA MARK T.
Published: January 2010

Water pricing subsidies and restrictions on water transfers are integral features of federal water supply policies in the western United States. Critics claim that these features discourage efficient use of water. However, current analyses ignore an important feature of federal water supply contracts: entitlement ceilings. This paper analyzes the implications of entitlement ceilings for federal water policies and several proposals for policy reform, including eliminating transfer restrictions, reducing pricing subsidies, and imposing groundwater pump taxes. Analysts may overstate both the efficiency losses resulting from Bureau policies and the amount of water that would be freed up from agriculture if the proposed policy reforms were instituted.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND BIOTECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS
Authors: FRISVOLD GEORGE B. , CONDON PETER
Published: January 2010

This paper assesses the role of Biotechnology Development Agreements (BDAs) in creating incentives to conserve biodiversity. A major cause of species loss is the conversion of tropical forests to crop and pasture land. Biodiversity conservation, therefore, fundamentally depends on the economics of agricultural land use in developing countries. BDAs can play only a limited role in a comprehensive strategy to increase incentives for biodiversity conservation. Policymakers must examine biodiversity policies in the broader context of land tenure, rural poverty, and agricultural development in tropical countries.
COMMON PROPERTY AS AN INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY
Authors: THOMPSON GARY D. , WILSON PAUL N.
Published: January 2010

Relationships between the potential productivity of land and property rights generally are couched in terms of measures of central tendency or means. However, risk or variance as a measure of uncertainty also is critical in relating property rights and organizational arrangements developed within various property regimes. Meteorological and hydrological research results support the appropriateness of risk‐spreading property regimes, especially in semi‐arid and arid lands. Spatial diversification models indicate that common property regimes can be a rational response to environmental variability. Efforts by the public sector to privatize and fence grazing lands on the extensive margin may have limited appeal to pastoralists throughout the world.
THE ECONOMIC COST OF U.S. OIL CONSERVATION
Authors: BROWN STEPHEN P. A. , HUNTINGTON HILLARD G.
Published: January 2010

This article examines the costs of U.S. oil conservation by using parameters of five world oil models from a recent Energy Modeling Forum study. Variation in the estimated cost of oil conservation across the models suggests that achieving oil conservation through flexible policies that adjust to market conditions would better serve economic efficiency than would setting government‐mandated levels of oil consumption. Additionally, net world oil conservation is likely to be somewhat less than gross U.S. conservation. U.S. oil conservation lowers the world oil price and stimulates non‐U.S. oil consumption. Including the gains in non‐U.S. oil consumption raises the estimated costs of achieving a given conservation level.
MONETARY OVERHANG: DO CENTRALLY PLANNED ECONOMIES HAVE EXCESSIVE MONEY STOCKS?
Authors: CHANG GENE HSIN
Published: January 2010

This paper investigates the issue of monetary overhang in centrally planned economies (CPEs). The analysis compares the money stocks in CPEs with those in market economy counterparts. Contrary to conventional belief, the findings here suggest that the money stocks in traditional CPEs do not tend to be excessive. This implies that CPEs suffer more from structural distortion than from monetary overhang in their traditional stage.
IMPACTS OF PRIVATISATION POLICY IN EUROPE
Authors: BUTTON KENNETH , WEYMAN‐JONES THOMAS
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the economic implications of the privatisation that has been occurring in Europe. Different sectors and different countries have developed separately, but policymakers can learn common lessons. Considerable experience of privatisation has produced a mounting body of empirical evidence. Developing more powerful analytical tools also permits greater rigour in studying the behaviour of newly privatised undertakings. This paper examines the nature of privatisation processes and looks at the forms of adjustment to regulatory regimes that have occurred to accommodate the newly privatised undertakings. It draws upon new empirical evidence and previous econometric studies to consider privatisation's efficiency effects, especially regarding technical or X‐efficiency.1
GROWTH OF U.S. HEALTH CARE SPENDING
Authors: BRADLEY RALPH
Published: January 2010

The share of output allocated to health care has more than doubled since 1960. This paper models the growth in this ratio and finds that the increase in the elderly population whose medical spending is heavily subsidized is a key factor behind this growth. Technological change is a symptom of the medical market structure rather than a cause of medical spending growth. The econometric model in the analysis here is based on a micro model composed of two groups. The first group is a healthier group that makes income transfers in order to finance the sicker group's health insurance premiums. In this model, a technical constraint places an upper bound on the healing ability of the medical good. This upper bound changes through an unobservable endogenous process. Estimating the health care model involves using estimation techniques that bypass the need to make any a priori assumptions about the functional form of the regressions or about the distribution of the residuals. The results suggest that technical change cannot indefinitely induce health care spending growth if no subsidies exist that provide full health care coverage with premiums fully paid by the subsidy. If subsidies provide full coverage and pay the entire premium, then new technical discoveries can induce constantly expanding medical expenditures.
EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION: AN EVALUATION OF LABOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Authors: MARANTO CHERYL L.
Published: January 2010

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on employee participation (EP) and the legal status of EP programs. The effect of EP on firm performance theoretically is indeterminate. However, properly implemented, EP can increase productivity and advance employee interests. Read literally, the National Labor Relations Act's (NLRA) prohibition of company‐dominated unions prohibits EP in nonunion workplaces. This paper critiques four proposals to amend the NLRA based on the EP literature. EP is most likely to increase productivity if employees receive decision‐making power. Two policies would accomplish this: (i) government mandated employee participation committees or (ii) increased legal protection of unions. The latter policy promotes power‐sharing in a voluntary system. A third approach, abolishing the prohibition of company‐dominated unions without otherwise changing labor laws, would encourage all forms of EP and union decline.
DESIGNING POLLUTION MARKET INSTRUMENTS: CASES OF UNCERTAINTY
Authors: CARLSON DALE A. , SHOLTZ ANNE M.
Published: January 2010

This paper examines design alternatives for emissions trading credits and assesses their relative performance given several sources of uncertainty endemic to market‐based environmental regulatory programs. Facilities regulated in such programs face significant uncertainty about their total emissions. Uncertainty arises due to changes in production‐demand schedules for their product, imperfect knowledge of abatement efficiency, and other informational lags. Depending on the design of the trading credit, this uncertainty can result in significant market price volatility and undesirable increases in peak emissions (in the absence of additional costly market institutions, such as contingent contracts and brokered insurance). In addition to the design alternatives, the paper considers allocation alternatives to alleviate these unintended effects and also discusses the value of properly designed reconciliation markets.
CHINA'S ECONOMIC REFORM: THE NEXT STEP
Authors: Wong Yue‐Chim Richard
Published: January 2010

China's economic reforms succeeded in decentralizing decision making power down to the local and enterprise level. This decentralization has permitted a vibrant non‐state sector to emerge alongside the state sector. Growing out of the state plan accounts for much of China's spectacular economic growth. However, productivity in the state sector has experienced little improvement. One can trace recurrent macroeconomic imbalances and inflation to the state policy to provide cheap credit to cover the huge losses sustained by state‐owned enterprises. Attempts to reimpose controls to cool down an overheated economy repeatedly have halted the momentum for economic reform. Failure to introduce banking and financial reforms threatens future growth of the non‐state sector. The success of such reforms depends critically on efforts to restructure and privatize state‐owned enterprises. Growing out of the state plan requires officials to adopt an explicit policy to stop supporting the losses in the state owned enterprises.
ASIAN DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL DILEMMAS
Authors: Tisdell Clement A.
Published: January 2010

Rapid economic growth in the Asian‐Pacific region provides economic hope for the region's low‐income countries but raises international environmental dilemmas and could be unsustainable. The strong international and Asian political support for Asia's economic growth often makes little mention of the environmental issues involved. The natural resources water, air, and soils as well as Asia's conservation of living resources and maintenance of biodiversity are important environmental issues. Tourism development—especially ecotourism—could combine economic development and conservation, but as Asian examples illustrate, it has limitations. Other environmental influences include the rapid urbanisation of Asia and the likelihood of increased international and transboundary conflicts over use of natural resources as economic growth in Asia proceeds. Markets and market reforms are not sufficient to deal with Asia's economic problems. Institutional and other reforms also are needed. One must reject the view that economic growth neglecting the environment is acceptable even in low‐income countries. Polluting and degrading the environment now and repairing it later is a dangerous policy to follow, particularly for larger Asian countries. In fact, a strong case exists for high‐income countries to support the environmental conservation efforts of low‐income countries.
VEHICULAR EMISSIONS AND CONTROL POLICIES IN HONG KONG
Authors: Rusco Frank W. , Walls W. David
Published: January 2010

This paper briefly analyzes the state of vehicular pollution and control measures in Hong Kong. Vehicular emissions contribute largely to Hong Kong's air pollution and will become more important as the vehicle fleet expands. Hong Kong is unique in that a large fraction of its vehicles use diesel engines. The analysis here explicitly accounts for the composition of emissions and quantifies the relative magnitude of emissions by each of the five main sources: private cars, taxis, light buses, heavy buses, and lorries. The paper analyzes alternative pollution control policies with respect to effectiveness and efficiency.
ELECTRIC UTILITY DEMAND‐SIDE MANAGEMENT IN POLAND
Authors: Sowis…Ski Janusz , Rothwell Geoffrey , Shirey Don
Published: January 2010

Demand‐Side Management (DSM) improves load factors and energy efficiency and reduces emissions. DSM methods are understood in the United States, but using DSM in Poland poses problems related to constraints in the power sector and the economic environment. This paper discusses the reorganization of the Polish energy sector and Polish energy policy during in the transition since 1989 and discusses the obstacles to implementing DSM programs.
VALUE OF IMPROVED LONG‐RANGE WEATHER INFORMATION
Authors: Adams Richard M. , Bryant Kelly J. , Mccarl Bruce A. , Legler David M. , O'Brien James , Solow Andrew , Weiher Rodney
Published: January 2010

An important human welfare implication of climate involves effects of interannual variation in temperature and precipitation on agriculture. Year‐to‐year variations in U.S. climate result from El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a quasi‐periodic redistribution of heat and momentum in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The study described here represents a preliminary assessment of the value to the entire U.S. agricultural sector of improved ENSO forecasts in the southeastern United States. This interdisciplinary assessment combines data and models from meteorology, plant sciences, and economics under a value of information framework based on Bayesian decision theory. An economic model of the U.S. agricultural sector uses changes in yields for various ENSO phases to translate physical (yield) effects of ENSO changes into economic effects on producers and on domestic and foreign consumers. The value of perfect information to agriculture is approximately $145 million. The economic value of an imperfect forecast is $96 million. These results suggest that increases in forecast accuracy have substantial economic value to agriculture.
PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC HOUSING: AN ANALYSIS OF POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Authors: Ho Lok Sang
Published: January 2010

This paper discusses alternative privatization schemes for public housing in light of economic efficiency, “policy efficiency,” and equity. The analysis shows that removing restrictions to resale by the purchasers is the key to improving economic efficiency and that restricting resales to target group members is the key to achieving policy efficiency. Further, removing restrictions to bidding (viz. open competition) among eligible households is essential for both economic efficiency and equity. The paper discusses the trade‐off between various policy objectives inherent in some of the schemes. It recommends the “eligibility model” of privatization, under which households can resell their public housing units any time offer purchase to any household within the group targeted by the government for assistance as determined by the gzovernment.
PICKING WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY RACE
Authors: Niman Neil B.
Published: January 2010

Fears that the United States is losing its leadership position in technology have prompted the Clinton administration to develop an activist policy position that supports private sector research and development activities. Tantamount to picking “winners and losers,” the government, whether by mandate or by establishing a set of parameters guiding some type of competitive application process, would decide which technologies warrant future development with taxpayer supported funding. However, government subsidies designed to promote the development of new technologies often come at the expense of the diffusion of those same technologies. By limiting diffusion, these policies can impose substantial costs on society. Eliminating problems associated with current government policies and fostering the diffusion of new technologies requires limiting the assignment of property rights and restructuring the rewards associated with inventive activity. Such a system would promote the diffusion (and ultimately) the creation of new technologies. This paper proposes a forced royalty system as a potential alternate.
MONETARY POLICY AND LONG‐TERM INTEREST RATES: A SURVEY OF EMPIRICAL LITERATURE
Authors: Akhtar M. A.
Published: January 2010

This paper surveys recent empirical literature on effects of monetary policy on long‐term interest rates. Most studies reviewed here suggest that tightening monetary policy results in higher long‐term interest rates. But available evidence suffers from conceptual and empirical problems and fails to indicate the magnitude of short‐run and long‐run policy effects on long rates. Also, recent studies have not investigated the possibility of shifts in recent‐year effects of monetary policy on long rates. Finally, the paper offers a policy perspective on limitations of existing evidence and suggests future research on monetary policy effects on long rates.
PACIFIC RIM TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT: HISTORICAL ENVIRONMENT AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
Authors: Hou Jack W. , Ichimura Shinichi , Naya Seiji , Werin Lars , Young Leslie
Published: January 2010

Pacific Asia is deep rooted in its cultural heritage and historical background, which have set the tone for regions success. These same factors also have created rather different trading practices, compared with those of the West — practices that are less transparent and full of hidden private trade barriers.

Interdependence within the region suggests integration, but Pacific Asia has taken a course of non‐exclusive cooperation rather than following the exclusive course of the European Community (EC) and of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The latter two trade blocs threaten the continued success and development of Pacific Asia. Although the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) sends relief, fostering a cooperative rather than a retaliative Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization offers the most promise.
IN SEARCH OF AN OPTIMAL DEBT RATIO FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH
Authors: Smyth David J. , Hsing Yu
Published: January 2010

This paper extends the work of Barro (1979), Eisner (1992), foines (1991), Sawhney and DiPietro (1994), and others and examines whether an optimal debt ratio exists that will maximize economic growth. The growth rate of real GDP is specified as a function of the debt ratio, the debt ratio squared, the growth rates of labor employment, capital services, money stock, and a trend variable. The sample ranges from 1960 to 1991. Hypothesis tests show that economic growth and its determinants, including the debt ratio are cointegrated and have a long‐run stable relationship. Results also indicate that the optimal debt ratio is 38.4 percent for debt held by the public and 48.9 percent for total debt. Thus, the current (1993) debt ratios of 50.9 percent for the debt held by the public and 68.2 percent for total debt are far greater than the desirable levels.
WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR DESERT PROTECTION
Authors: Richer Jerrell
Published: January 2010

This paper uses a referendum‐style survey approach known as dichotomous‐choice contingent valuation to estimate the benefits of restricting the uses of 6.9 million acres of desert land. Statistical techniques estimate the value to California residents of creating three new national parks and 76 new wilderness areas in the high and low deserts of eastern California. The total amount that California residents would be willing to pay to enact desert protection legislation ranges from $177 million to $448 million per year. This estimate hinges on the assumptions that (i) the residents who did not complete and return the survey questionnaire (“nonrespondents”) would receive no benefits from desert protection and (ii) the estimate of willingness to pay for the “respondents” is unbiased.
EXTERNAL HEALTH COSTS OF A STEEL MILL
Authors: RANSOM MICHAEL R , III C. ARDEN POPE
Published: January 2010

Intermittent operation of a steel mill in a mountain valley in central Utah provides a unique opportunity to measure the external health costs of air pollution. A nearby valley provides a control. This paper analyzes data on hospital admissions and daily deaths for the two valleys, using negative binomial regression models of daily hospital admissions and deaths. Hospital admissions for respiratory diseases increase significantly when the mill is in operation. Mortality also increases during mill operation. Estimated excess hospitalization costs are about 2 million dollars per year, and the increased cost of mortality exceeds 40 million dollars per year.
ELECTRICITY CONSERVATION: CONSUMER RATIONALITY VERSUS PROSPECT THEORY
Authors: MAYER PETER C.
Published: January 2010

Research supports the efficacy of prospect theory over utility maximization for consumer investment in electricity saving equipment. The findings have implications for designing electric utility programs to promote electricity conservation. Prospect theory describes, explains and organizes consumer behavior that is contrary to consumers maximizing a stable utility function. The results are similar across three ethnic groups.
GRAZING ON PUBLIC RANGELANDS: AN EVOLVING PROBLEM OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
Authors: LAMBERT DAVID K.
Published: January 2010

Competition for publicly owned natural resources may be intensified when property rights are incomplete. Incomplete delineation of these rights among claimants to the various resource attributes of the public rangelands of the western United States has resulted in high transaction costs for capturing and/or protecting unassigned rights. This paper addresses how changes in the values society places on the public land resources have resulted in changes in the relative positions of various interest groups with respect to resource allocation decisions. The paper concludes by discussing implications of the property right approach for land management policies and grazing fees.
NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BILATERAL TRADE EFFECTS
Authors: CASARIO MICHELLE
Published: January 2010

This study evaluates the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on bilateral trade between the United States and Canada and between the United States and Mexico. Trade flow estimates are from a vector autoregression (VAR) model. The VAR methodology allows modeling bilateral trade in a flexible manner that incorporates both the interaction between different variables and the dynamics of trade, output, prices, and the exchange rate. After testing the outside sample forecasting ability of the models, the study produces dynamic forecasts of bilateral trade. It then compares forecasts incorporating the effects of the NAFTA with baseline forecasts. The results suggest expanded trade for all three countries and an improvement in the U.S. trade position with both Canada and Mexico.
EC INTEGRATION AND JAPANESE FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN THE EC
Authors: YAMADA TADASHI , YAMADA TETSUJI
Published: January 2010

This study proposes two hypotheses to identify the cause(s) behind the short‐term cyclical Japanese manufacturing foreign direct investment in the European Community (EC) in the late 1980s and early 1990s: (i) a catch‐up process of Japanese firms in anticipation of EC single market integration in 1993 and (ii) the so‐called bubble economic phenomenon caused by the overheated economy following expansionary monetary policy in Japan in the late 1980s. Applying multinomial logit models to the data on parent firms of 283 Japanese manufacturing subsidiaries established in the EC from 1988 to 1992 reveals strong support for the bubble economy hypothesis but not for the catch‐up hypothesis. Results also show that under a bubble economy situation, tax‐related incentive policies in host countries—e.g., an investment tax allowance for foreign direct investment—are quite important in attracting Japanese firms.
TRANSACTION COST IMPAIRMENTS TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE: LESSONS FROM EGYPT
Authors: ABDEL‐LATIF ABLA M. , NUGENT JEFFREY B.
Published: January 2010

Increasing evidence indicates the relative importance of transaction costs in international market penetration by LDC manufactured goods exporters. This paper identifies the sources and nature of these costs and recommends policies capable of helping LDC exporters overcome transaction cost‐based obstacles to such exports. Data for the analysis are from questionnaires addressed to samples of manufactures exporters and trading intermediaries in Egypt.
EMU, MAASTRICHT, AND THE 1996 INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE
Authors: CROWLEY PATRICK M.
Published: January 2010

This paper presents various economic approaches to achieving monetary union, particularly in the context of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as envisaged in the 1991 Maastricht Treaty. It evaluates the implications of Maastricht, given the economic convergence criteria embodied in the Treaty, in terms of economic policy for individual Member States and for the European Union (EU) as a whole. The paper assesses the EU's options for amending the Maastricht Treaty at its scheduled inter‐governmental conference (IGC).
CORRUPTION THEORY AND PRACTICE
Authors: TULLOCK GORDON
Published: January 2010

Corruption is a very widespread phenomenon with most governments having a least some. While corruption usually meets with disapproval, it may have some redeeming features. It may make possible smaller or no salary payments to officials who, if carefully supervised, will still carry out their functions on a fee‐for‐service basis. The purchase of government jobs usually is thought to be corrupt, but in some cases, it has worked out quite well.
DOLLARIZATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: RATIONAL REMEDY OR DOMESTIC DILEMMA?
Authors: MELVIN MICHAEL , PEIERS BETTINA
Published: January 2010

This paper reviews the policy implications of dollarization in developing economies. It outlines channels of U.S. currency access abroad and illustrates progressing stages of dollarization for various country examples. It analyzes the costs of large seigniorage losses facing domestic governments vis‐a‐vis the U.S. issuer. Finally, it provides three explanations for the observed inertia in dedollarization following domestic stabilization policies: (i) high transactions costs of switching monies, (ii) dollar revenues related to illegal commercial activities, and (iii) network externalities associated with foreign currency usage.
DEPOSIT GUARANTEES AND THE BURST OF THE JAPANESE BUBBLE ECONOMY
Authors: CARGILL THOMAS F. , HUTCHISON MICHAEL M. , ITO TAKATOSHI
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the current status of deposit guarantees in Japan and how they have functioned during the burst of the bubble economy in the first half of the 1990s. During this period, the Ministry of Finance has had to depart from its “no failure” policy and declare depository institutions insolvent. The resources of Japan's most important deposit insurance agency—the Deposit Insurance Corporation—were exhausted as of late 1995. The other deposit insurance agency for small specialized depositories also is technically insolvent. Many of the problems that Japan's deposit guarantee system experienced are similar to those experienced in the United States during the 1980s.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN MEXICO
Authors: NAZMI NADER , RAMIREZ MIGUEL D.
Published: January 2010

This paper analyzes the impact on economic growth of public and private investment spending in Mexico. Public investment expenditures had a positive and significant effect on output growth. Public investment's impact on economic growth was statistically identical to the impact of private capital spending. The contribution of public investment to output expansion came at the expense of private investment as indicating a significant crowding out effect.
TRANSACTION COSTS AND EXPORT CHANNELS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM‐SIZED ENTERPRISES: THE CASE OF KOREA
Authors: KIM LINSU , NUGENT JEFFREY B. , YHEE SEUNG‐JAE
Published: January 2010

This paper develops hypotheses concerning firm‐ and industry‐specific factors determining the relative importance to manufacturing exporters of different export channels in relatively high transaction cost Korean small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Data from a Korean SME survey demonstrate the validity of several hypotheses and reveal that most sample SMEs rate the external support for international marketing rather low. The paper offers recommendations for reforming such support.
SCALE ECONOMIES AND POLICE DEPARTMENT CONSOLIDATION: EVIDENCE FROM LOS ANGELES
Authors: FINNEY MILES
Published: January 2010

This paper tests for scale economies for police departments operating in Los Angeles County. Intergovernmental sharing in providing police services prevails within the county, suggesting that scale economies exist in producing this public good. Empirical analysis here rejects the hypothesis that police output is produced under increasing returns, which would be an efficiency explanation for the large degree of consolidation found within the county.
SPEED AND SEQUENCING OF MARKET REFORMS: THE CASE OF BANKING IN LATVIA
Authors: HALLAGAN WILLIAM
Published: January 2010

After gaining its independence from the former Soviet Union, Latvia's banking sector initiated free market reforms. Initially, severál apparent disequilibria existed in the market for banking services. This paper reports on the processes that generated these disequilibria as well as on the events that transpired as the market approached equilibria over time.
MANAGING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAND THROUGH PARTIAL INTERESTS
Authors: WIEBE KEITH , TEGENE ABEBAYEHU , KUHN BETSEY
Published: January 2010

As property rights concerns grow along with budget pressures, government agencies charged with balancing resource policy objectives need to consider institutional alternatives to regulation and land purchase. This paper examines how public agencies participate in markets for partial interests in public and private land as a means of influencing resource use and conservation. The paper also reviews the application of real option theory to the valuation of conservation easements and considers potential extensions to other partial interests.
USING INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS TO REGULATE VEHICLE EMISSIONS
Authors: HUBBARD THOMAS N.
Published: January 2010

Policymakers have hoped that vehicle inspection and maintenance programs would generate air quality improvements at low cost. Existing programs have been unsuccessful because they have failed to provide consumers with incentives to maintain their vehicles so as to have low in‐use emissions. This paper examines the reasons why existing inspection and maintenance programs have failed and investigates how they might be improved.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, FACTOR SUBSTITUTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Authors: CRONIN FRANCIS J. , COLLERAN ELISABETH , GOLD MARK
Published: January 2010

De La Grandville (1989) suggests that large elasticities of substitution between factor inputs and a change in relative prices might (i) explain historical economic growth in developing countries and (ii) account for the varying growth among sectors within economies undergoing technological change. Yuhn (1991) supports de La Grandvilles first hypothesis in his finding that Korea's economic growth relative to the United States, over a given interval, could be explained by the higher elasticities of substitution between labor and capital in Korea relative to those of the United States. This paper explores de La Grandville's second hypothesis with respect to telecommunications.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Authors: PARK WALTER G. , GINARTE JUAN CARLOS
Published: January 2010

This paper studies the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and economic growth for a cross‐section of countries for the period 1960–1990. The analysis focuses on effects of IPRs on growth using a quantitative index of IPRs. The paper finds that IPRs affect economic growth indirectly by stimulating the accumulation of factor inputs like R&D and physical capital. The positive effects of IPRs on factor accumulation, particularly of R&D capital, are present even when the analysis controls for a more general measure of property rights
STRUCTURAL INFLATION AND THE 1994 ‘MONETARY’ CRISIS IN CHINA
Authors: CHANG GENE HSIN , HOU JACK
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the 1994 inflation in China, which occurred at a time when the government was vigorously conducting macroeconomic contraction. The event deserves more attention for both academic and policy research reasons. The paper shows that the inflation was led by food price increases, a step of price reform intended to adjust relative price ratios to the equilibrium level. The nature of the inflation was structural rather than monetary. This kind of structural inflation is common in transitional economies. Indeed, it largely characterizes chronic price increases that have occurred in such countries. A proper monetary policy curbing inflation should take into account the structural factor. Monetary growth should be targeted to the extent that it accommodates structural adjustment but does not cause pure monetary inflation.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND COMPENSATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND NATURAL RESOURCE USE
Authors: SEGERSON KATHLEEN
Published: January 2010

A collection of papers in this issue of Contemporary Economic Policy addresses compensation issues that arise from environmental policies. Goldstein and Waston, Bromley, Stroup, and Polasky et al. discuss whether or not government should compensate private property owners whose property values are reduced by regulatory restrictions. Dunford et al., Randall, Duffield, and Jones and Pease discuss the complexities of determining who should be compensated and by how much when public property is damaged by environmental contamination. This paper provides an overview of these studies and highlights the importance of the ongoing debate over compensation policy.
CONSTITUTIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY: PROPERTY CLAIMS IN A DYNAMIC WORLD
Authors: BROMLEY DANIEL W.
Published: January 2010

Constitutional political economy concerns the legal foundations of the market. One central component of that legal infrastructure relates to property rights over objects and circumstances. The idea of “takings” causes one to focus on the conditions under which regulatory actions call for compensation to those who imagine that their property rights have been taken. A dynamic economy is alleged here to be one in which legal processes must carry the burden of discovering when particular parties have an interest that can be said to constitute a property right requiring compensation. That is, objects and circumstances are not protected because they are “property.” Rather, those objects and circumstances that are protected become, by virtue of that protection, “property.” The task for the economist is to understand the perverse incentives to flow from a compensation requirement on all instances of institutional change concerning landed property. A further task is to incorporate a dynamic concept of property rights into general equilibrium models of economic systems.
THE ECONOMICS OF COMPENSATING PROPERTY OWNERS
Authors: STROUP RICHARD L.
Published: January 2010

Using command‐and‐control regulation of land use to produce a public good (as opposed to preventing physical off‐property harms) without compensating the landowner can be expected to produce two unintended consequences: (i) management actions by landowners to reduce the land's attractiveness for production of the public good being sought and (ii) regulatory decisions made as though more costly regulation were costless. Higher costs imposed by the second consequence feed back to worsen the first. Examples from enforcement of current Endangered Species Act regulations provide illustrations. The paper uses a graphical framework to emphasize the qualitative difference between regulatory control without compensation on one hand and the rental or purchase of results on the other. Some low‐cost, highly successful habitat preservation programs utilizing voluntary action would be more difficult to sustain if the habitat were for listed species under the current ESA.