bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dynamics in cytokine responses during the development of occupational sensitization to rats
Authors: Krop E. J. M. , Van De Pol M. A. , Lutter R. , Heederik D. J. J. , Aalberse R. C. , Van Der Zee J. S.
Published: January 2010

To cite this article: Krop EJM, van de Pol MA, Lutter R, Heederik DJJ, Aalberse RC, van der Zee JS. Dynamics in cytokine responses during the development of occupational sensitization to rats. Allergy 2010; 65: 1227–1233.

Background:  Occupational allergy forms an attractive model to study the development of allergic responses, as in some occupations it has a high incidence and develops quickly. In a cohort of starting laboratory animal workers, we previously found 20% sensitization to animal allergens within 2 years.

Methods:  We compared cellular responses of incident laboratory animal workers who developed rat‐specific sensitization (cases, n = 18) during 2 years of follow‐up to control animal workers matched for atopic status but without sensitization after follow‐up (controls, n = 18). Practically, this is a case–control study, nested within the cohort. Rat‐specific IgE antibodies were measured in sera, and allergen‐specific and nonspecific cytokine responses were measured in whole blood and in isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Results:  Self‐reported allergic symptoms were related to the presence of rat‐specific IgE (P ≤ 0.01). Cases developed a rat allergen–specific interleukin (IL)‐4 response during sensitization, while controls did not show an increased IL‐4 response (at visit D: 33 vs 5 IL‐4 producing cells/106 cells, P < 0.001). The IL‐4 response was related to the levels of rat‐specific IgE in cases (visit D: rho = 0.706, P < 0.001). By contrast, allergen‐specific IL‐10 and interferon γ (IFNγ) responses as well as nonspecific cytokine responses were comparable between cases and controls.

Conclusion:  This study is the first to show the development of an allergen‐specific IL‐4 response in adult human subjects during allergen‐specific sensitization. This IL‐4 response was quantitatively associated with the development of the specific IgE antibodies. Allergen‐specific or nonspecific IL‐10 and IFNγ responses showed no protective effect on the development of allergic sensitization.
Long‐term remission of recurrent severe anemia as a result of parvovirus B19 infection in a pediatric renal transplant recipient
Authors: Shen Qian , Xu Hong , Cao Qi , Zhou Li‐Jun , Xu Jin , Fang Xiao‐Yan , Ge Jie
Published: January 2010

Shen Q, Xu H, Cao Q, Zhou L‐J, Xu J, Fang X‐Y, Ge J. Long‐term remission of recurrent severe anemia as a result of parvovirus B19 infection in a pediatric renal transplant recipient. Pediatr Transplantation 2011: 15: E76–E79. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Abstract:  We studied a case of recurrent PV‐B19‐associated anemia in a renal transplant child with long‐term remission induced by baseline immunosuppression adjusted and intensive IVIG therapy. This was a 15‐yr‐old boy. Seven wk after transplantation, he experienced acute rejection, which was treated with high‐dose steroids, ATG, and plasmapheresis. Ten wk after transplantation (three wk after rejection), his hemoglobin dropped to 54 g/L and serum PV‐B19 PCR was positive. After therapy with IVIG and conversion from mycophenolate mofetil to rapamycin, anemia resolved. But the patient had fever on the fourth day of IVIG with mild pulmonary edema and rise in serum creatinine. Two months after the first course of IVIG, anemia recurred and a second course of IVIG (preadministration methylprednisolone) was given, which was followed by the resolution of anemia without side effect and recurrence two months later again. Baseline immunosuppression was adjusted with dual immunosuppression and low doses including prednisolone and tacrolimus. At the same time, monthly course of IVIG was repeated four times. Within the next 23 months, anemia did not recur and renal function remained stable. In conclusion, PV‐B19‐associated anemia can be recurrent in immunocompromised children and baseline immunosuppression should be carefully adjusted to control PV‐B19 infection.
Consumer participation: Ensuring suicide postvention research counts for end users
Authors: Wilson Anne
Published: January 2010

Wilson A. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2010; 16: 7–13 Consumer participation: Ensuring suicide postvention research counts for end users

Primary health‐care research is about working with those who have a vested interest in the outcomes of that research, including consumers, service providers and service organizations. This article describes how consumers were included in the research processes of a South Australian study into suicide postvention services, and illustrates important principles to consider when including consumers in research. A concurrent mixed‐method approach facilitated the collection of mixed data through the application of questionnaires. The study was conducted in an Australian metropolitan area. Because of media releases, a large number of people rang to enquire and volunteer their participation. From over 200 expressions of interest, 161 individuals participated. The participation of consumers in the research process ensured the findings were relevant for end users. A number of recommendations for the care and support of those bereaved through suicide were developed as a result.
What is the matter with crushing pills and opening capsules?
Authors: Kirkevold Øyvind , Engedal Knut
Published: January 2010

Kirkevold Ø, Engedal K. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2010; 16: 81–85 What is the matter with crushing pills and opening capsules?

This study aims to map out to what degree medication is being crushed and mixed into the patients' food and beverages and how often this practice included medication, which has a statement in the Norwegian pharmaceutical compendium that this should not be done (inappropriately altered medication (IAM)). Data from a total of 2108 patients in 151 wards in 65 nursing homes were collected. The data contained information about the kind of drugs the patient received, in which form it was given and how it was given. Patient characteristics and ward characteristics were also recorded. Twenty‐three per cent were given at least one drug mixed into their food or beverages and 10% were given at least one IAM. This study shows a malpractice regarding one aspect of medication in nursing homes. Even though we need more knowledge, we know enough to take action to raise the quality of the administration of medicines in nursing homes.
Efficacy and safety of sitagliptin and metformin as initial combination therapy and as monotherapy over 2 years in patients with type 2 diabetes
Authors: Williams‐Herman D. , Johnson J. , Teng R. , Golm G. , Kaufman K. D. , Goldstein B. J. , Amatruda J. M.
Published: January 2010

Aim: To assess the 104‐week efficacy and safety of sitagliptin and metformin as initial combination therapy and as monotherapy in patients with type 2 diabetes and inadequate glycaemic control (HbA1c 7.5–11%) on diet and exercise.

Methods: This study was a 50‐week, double‐blind extension of a 54‐week, randomized, double‐blind, factorial study of the initial combination of sitagliptin and metformin, metformin monotherapy and sitagliptin monotherapy (104 weeks total duration). Patients assigned to active therapy in the 54‐week base study remained on those treatments in the extension study: sitagliptin 50 mg b.i.d. + metformin 1000 mg b.i.d. (higher dose combination), sitagliptin 50 mg b.i.d. + metformin 500 mg b.i.d. (lower dose combination), metformin 1000 mg b.i.d. (higher dose), metformin 500 mg b.i.d. (lower dose) and sitagliptin 100 mg q.d. Patients randomized to receive the sequence of placebo/metformin were switched, in a blinded manner, from placebo to metformin monotherapy uptitrated to 1000 mg b.i.d. beginning at week 24 and remained on higher dose metformin through the extension.

Results: Amongst patients who entered the extension study without having initiated glycaemic rescue therapy, least‐squares mean changes in HbA1c from baseline at week 104 were −1.7% (higher dose combination), −1.4% (lower dose combination), −1.3% (higher dose), −1.1% (lower dose) and −1.2% (sitagliptin). The proportions of patients with an HbA1c <7% at week 104 were 60% (higher dose combination), 45% (lower dose combination), 45% (higher dose), 28% (lower dose) and 32% (sitagliptin). Fasting and postmeal measures of glycaemic control and β‐cell function improved in all groups, with glycaemic responses generally maintained over the 104‐week treatment period. The incidence of hypoglycaemia was low across all groups. The incidences of gastrointestinal adverse experiences were generally lower in the sitagliptin group and similar between the metformin monotherapy and combination groups.

Conclusions: Initial combination therapy with sitagliptin and metformin and monotherapy with either drug alone provided substantial and sustained glycaemic improvements and were well tolerated over 104 weeks in patients with type 2 diabetes.
REEXAMINING THE BORDER TAX EFFECT: A CASE STUDY OF WASHINGTON STATE
Authors: WOOSTER ROSSITZA B. , LEHNER JOSHUA W.
Published: January 2010

Without an income tax, Washington State relies heavily upon its sales tax revenue to fund public goods and services. Bordering Idaho and especially Oregon, where the sales tax is substantially lower, the juxtaposition of the different tax structures generates the border tax effect in Washington's border counties. Controlling for unobservable county‐specific characteristics and spatial autocorrelation, we find that the price elasticity generated by the sales tax discrepancy over the years 1992–2006 is −3.11. We estimate that elimination of the sales tax differential between Washington and its neighboring states would generate tax revenue in excess of $145 million at the state level and over $21 million at the county level in border counties. (JEL C23, D12, E62, H71)
ECONOMIC INCENTIVES FOR DIETARY IMPROVEMENT AMONG FOOD STAMP RECIPIENTS
Authors: LIN BIING‐HWAN , YEN STEVEN T. , DONG DIANSHENG , SMALLWOOD DAVID M.
Published: January 2010

Most Americans need to consume more fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. This need is particularly acute among low‐income individuals. This study examines the cost‐effectiveness of two economic policies that use alternative policy levers available within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamp Program) to increase consumption of these under‐consumed foods. Data from three nationally representative surveys are used to estimate demand elasticities, marginal propensity to spend on food out of food stamp benefits, and consumption amount of and spending on under‐consumed foods among food stamp recipients. Results suggest that a 10% price subsidy would curtail consumption deficiencies by 4%–7% at an estimated cost of $734 million a year. When the same $734 million is used to finance food stamp benefits, consumption deficiencies are predicted to narrow by only 0.35%–0.40%. (JEL C34, D12, Q18)
MONETARY POLICY COMMITTEES: MEETINGS AND OUTCOMES
Authors: BERK JAN MARC , BIERUT BEATA K.
Published: January 2010

Monetary Policy Committees (MPCs) differ in the way the interest rate proposal is prepared and presented in the policy meeting. In this paper, we show analytically how different arrangements could affect the voting behavior of individual MPC members and therefore policy outcomes. We then apply our results to the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. A general finding is that when MPC members are not too diverse in terms of expertise and experience, policy discussions should not be based on preprepared policy options. Instead, interest rate proposals should arise endogenously as a majority of views expressed by the members, as is the case at the Bank of England and appears to be the case in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) under Chairman Bernanke. (JEL E58, D71, D78)
PHYSICIAN LICENSURE: A NEW APPROACH TO EXAMINING THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
Authors: SVORNY SHIRLEY V.
Published: January 2010

For years, economists have debated the extent to which organized medicine has benefited from medical licensing restrictions. This debate has been hampered by the lack of a viable alternative hypothesis. This paper provides an alternative hypothesis and suggests an empirical test which focuses on the relationship between licensure restrictions and the level of consumption of physician services across states. The evidence suggests that in the mid‐1960s the interests of organized medicine dominated those of consumers in influencing the medical regulatory supply process.
COMPARING MONOPOLY AND COMPETITION: THE INCREASING‐COST CASE
Authors: BROWNING EDGAR K.
Published: January 2010

When an increasing‐cost competitive industry becomes monopolized, the monopoly will possess some monopsony power in input markets. This paper presents a simple analysis comparing the performance of monopoly and competition in this case. It first assumes fixed input proportions, and then turns to the general case of variable input proportions. With variable proportions, it is shown that the monopoly's marginal cost curve lies above the competitive supply curve but the monopoly's average cost curve lies below it. The welfare cost of monopoly is not identified by the area between the monopoly's marginal cost curve and the demand curve in either case.
A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM EVALUATION OF CORPORATE INCOME TAX REFORM
Authors: HENDERSON YOLANDA KODRZYCKI
Published: January 2010

This study provides new insights into the effects of the corporate income tax by introducing a general equilibrium model in which households choose portfolios composed of housing and non‐housing assets, industries make investment decisions based on Hall‐Jorgenson cost‐of‐capital formulas, and the corporate‐noncorporate mix in each industry is endogenous. The annual efficiency cost of an unintegrated tax on corporations is found to be about 3 1/2 percent of expanded national income. This new estimate is intended to spur further investigation of individuals' demand for owner‐occupied housing and firms' decisions about incorporation.
AGGREGATE DEMAND CONTRACTIONS WITH NOMINAL DEBT COMMITMENTS: IS WAGE FLEXIBILITY STABILIZING?
Authors: CASKEY JOHN , FAZZARI STEVE
Published: January 2010

When nominal debt payments commitments exist, output losses following an aggregate demand contraction will be larger and more persistent. Paradoxically, output can be less stable if wages are more flexible. This occurs because falling wages and prices cause debtors' cash flow to deteriorate relative to their debt commitments. To reduce the chance of incurring bankruptcy costs, debtors cut expenditure. Creditor's wealth increases from an unexpected deflation but their gain does not offset debtors' loss because of the increased threat of bankruptcy and associated costs. Net wealth and aggregate demand fall, magnifying the effect of the initial contraction.
WHO BIDS THE MOST FOR MARKET POWER?
Authors: FORT RODNEY , HALLAGAN WILLIAM
Published: January 2010

In the traditional industrial organization literature market structure is an exogenous variable. However, sometimes market structure is a matter of choice. Firms can choose to operate as monopolists, but only if they pay for this right. When market structure is chosen a natural question is, “What types of firms will pay the price to operate as monopolists, and how will they differ from their competitive counterparts?” This paper develops a model which addresses this question and arrives at results that are novel when compared to the results of the traditional structure‐conduct‐performance paradigm.
AN EXTENSION OF LERNER'S MONOPOLY INDEX FOR MARKETS WITH A DISPARITY BETWEEN LONG‐ AND SHORT‐RUN DEMAND ELASTICITIES
Authors: JUSTMAN MOSHE
Published: January 2010

This paper develops a theoretical analysis of steady state monopoly pricing in markets with a disparity between long‐ and short‐run demand elasticities, based on a separation between the long‐run demand schedule and the adjustment process that underlies actual demand levels. This sheds light, in a practical context, on the impact of the speed of adjustment and the firm's discount rate on its equilibrium markup; and on the measurement of realized monopoly power. An illustrative application of the analysis to existing empirical data supplements the theoretical presentation.
REAL BUSINESS CYCLES AND THE LUCAS PARADIGM
Authors: Froyen Richard T. , Waud Roger N.
Published: January 2010

When the Lucas paradigm is generalized to include real effects, the effects of real factors and monetary factors on the business cycle are always interrelated. Furthermore, in such models monetary factors can affect the long‐run behavior of real output, contrary to the commonly held view that they cannot. Real business cycle models and Lucas‐type models are different paradigms, but not in the sense of real versus monetary. Rather, interrelationships between real and monetary factors are intrinsic to the Lucas paradigm, whereas the real business cycle literature implies a dichotomy between real and monetary factors.
REGULATION, THE OPEC OIL SUPPLY SHOCK, AND WEALTH EFFECTS FOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES
Authors: Norton Seth W.
Published: January 2010

A popular view among specialists in electric utility economics is that the regulatory process exacerbated the negative effects of the OPEC's oil price increases during the 1970s. In contrast, Peltzman's theory of regulation suggests that regulators should “buffer” a firm from cost increases. This paper examines these contending propositions by examining the stock returns for a sample of electric utilities during the OPEC oil shock of October 1973. The data are more consistent with a buffering effect than a regulatory lag.
FURTHER EVIDENCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEBT AND INFLATION
Authors: Hafer R. W. , Hein Scott E.
Published: January 2010

Does an increase in the federal debt cause inflation? Dwyer [1982] using a par value measure of debt, finds no support for such a causal link. Cox [1985] using a market value measure, finds evidence that increases in debt produce higher inflation rates. We reconcile these results by demonstrating that failure to capture the interest rate effects inherent in the market value measure accounts for the finding that debt “causes” inflation. Incorporating interest rates into our test equations using the market value series leads us to conclude that, like the par value series results, increases in federal debt do not cause higher rates of inflation.
REAGANOMICS AND REPUTATION REVISITED
Authors: Loewy Michael B.
Published: January 2010

This paper considers a reformulation of Backus and Driffill's model of credibility following a change in regime. Following Tabellini, we alter their model to better fit macroeconomic policymaking as it is formulated in the U.S. where monetary and fiscal policies are made by independent policymakers. By assuming that policymakers of divergent views have recently entered office and so have no track record, the game's equilibrium corresponds to the U.S. experience during the first years of the Reagan administration.
THE IMPACT OF DEREGULATION ON THE PRODUCTION STRUCTURE OF THE MOTOR CARRIER INDUSTRY
Authors: McMullen B. Starr , Stanley Linda R.
Published: January 2010

Empirical analysis of the motor carrier industry pre‐ and post‐regulatory reform reveals that deregulation resulted in significant changes in firm production structure and lower real average costs. Translog cost functions for firms operating in 1977 and 1983 were estimated and compared for “other specialized commodity” carriers. Fitted average costs were computed from these functions. The results indicate significant differences in the cost functions and real costs that cannot be attributed to technological changes but rather suggest efficiency gains. The results also suggest that it is inappropriate to predict outcomes of deregulation using empirical analyses of firms in the regulated environment.
STACKELBERG, COURNOT AND COLLUSIVE MONOPOLY: PERFORMANCE AND WELFARE COMPARISONS
Authors: Levin Dan
Published: January 2010

This article compares and evaluates performance and welfare in three classical oligopoly models: Stackelberg leader, Cournot, and collusive monopoly. Hahn's stability conditions render an unambiguous ranking of market price; the monopoly price is highest and the Stackelberg price is lowest. Welfare comparisons are less clear‐cut due to additional effects coming from reallocation of outputs among sellers. Conditions under which these reallocation effects will enhance or offset the unambiguous price effects on welfare are discussed and examples are given. Possible implications for antitrust policy, regarding constraints on market share of large producers in noncompetitive markets, are examined.
COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY EQUILIBRIUM UNDER UNCERTAINTY AND FREE ENTRY
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Pope Rulon D. , Leathers Howard
Published: January 2010

This paper investigates the properties of industry equilibrium under price uncertainty given free entry and exit. For any form of risk‐averse behavior, it is shown that an increase in demand uncertainty (as measured by a mean‐preserving spread) increases mean output price and reduces output of firms in long‐run equilibrium.
POLITICAL RISK, NATIONAL DEFENSE AND THE DOLLAR
Authors: Ayanian Robert
Published: January 2010

The Federal Reserve Board's trade‐weighted real exchange rate index is highly correlated with the U.S. defense budget share of GNP. This paper provides evidence that the correlation is not spurious. Political risk associated with holding wealth in the United States varies inversely with U.S. military security and, due to the Soviet military threat to the West, is a major argument in foreign asset demand functions.
AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE DEMAND FOR ABORTIONS
Authors: Medoff Marshall H.
Published: January 2010

This study uses an economic model of fertility control to estimate the demand for abortions. The results show that the fundamental law of demand holds for abortions, with the price elasticity of demand equal to –.81. Abortions are a normal good with an income elasticity of demand equal to .79. The demand for abortions is also positively related to the labor force participation of women and to being unmarried. Catholic religion, education and the poverty status of women were found to have no statistically significant impact on the demand for abortions.
THE QUANTITY‐ADJUSTED VALUE OF LIFE
Authors: Moore Michael J. , Viscusi W. Kip
Published: January 2010

The traditional compensating differential analysis is extended to reflect the effects on wages of the duration of life at risk and of insurance benefits to the surviving spouse and dependents. The implicit discount rate that workers use in making their life‐cycle employment decisions is also estimated. The revealed discount rate ranges from 10 to 12 percent, and the implicit value per year of life is 175,000. There is also evidence of significant wage reductions resulting from higher workers' compensation benefits for fatal and nonfatal injuries, suggesting an important tradeoff between ex ante and ex post compensation for risk.
INFORMATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF MONEY, INTEREST RATE, and PRICE RULES
Authors: Bradley Michael D. , Jansen Dennis W.
Published: January 2010

The information available to private agents determines the effectiveness of various types of monetary policy. In an economy in which private agents have differential information sets, the ranking of three classes of monetary policy rules critically depends on the specification of agents' information sets. A price rule, for example, minimizes the variance of output around its full information level when agents observe both the interest rate and money stock. More generally, if all three monetary policy variables (the money stock, the price level and the interest rate) are contemporaneously observed, the policy ranking is indeterminate.
HOW TO HAGGLE and TO STAY FIRM: BARTER AS HIDDEN PRICE DISCRIMINATION
Authors: Magenheim Ellen , Murrell Peter
Published: January 2010

Barter transactions, conducted openly by established corporations, play an increasingly significant role in the U.S. economy. The model developed here helps explain why firms use barter and yields predictions concerning the circumstances under which barter is likely to occur. It is shown that when two firms barter goods used as inputs, price discrimination occurs. This price discrimination is hidden from the firms' other customers because the real values of the transacted goods to the barterers are different from the accounting prices used in the transaction. Since price discrimination that is observed by potential customers might have an adverse effect on the selling firm's future bargaining power, barter will have value as a means of hiding price discrimination.
EXCHANGE RATE RISK and THE BID‐ASK SPREAD: A SEVEN COUNTRY COMPARISON
Authors: Boothe Paul
Published: January 2010

This paper studies the determination of exchange market transaction costs. Using a large data set including seven currencies, it provides empirical support for the theoretical prediction of a positive relationship between the level of uncertainty regarding future prices and current transaction costs. In contrast to most previous work, it considers explicitly the problem of omitted transactions volume, showing that while estimators are less efficient and potentially inconsistent in the absence of the unavailable variable, the direction of potential coefficient bias is such that hypothesis tests regarding the importance of uncertainty are rendered more conservative.
JOB SIGNALLING and WELFARE IMPROVING MINIMUM WAGE LAWS
Authors: West Edwin G.
Published: January 2010

Job market signalling (via education) models assume workers know their marginal productivities before accepting jobs, but employers do not. Yet modern theories of the firm predict positive cross partial derivatives among factors. Factor owners thus cannot know their marginal products before interacting with others. Any empirical claim that education is being used for socially wasteful signalling is therefore suspect. Exceptional but underpaid workers can in any case shirk down to the common level instead of obtaining education. The recent finding that minimum wage laws could curb wasteful signalling might thus be a solution in search of a problem.
SOME QUALMS ABOUT THE TEST OF THE INSTITUTIONALIST HYPOTHESIS OF THE LONG‐RUN BEHAVIOR OF VELOCITY
Authors: Raj Baldev , Siklos Pierre L.
Published: January 2010

This paper expresses econometric qualms about Bordo and Jonung's [1981] analysis of long‐run velocity. They did not recognize that, for U.S. and Canadian data, the log of velocity has a unit root. Hence, estimation of a log level regression may produce spurious regressions.

When Bordo and Jonung's velocity equation is reestimated in rate of change form, permanent income is significant, contrary to their earlier conclusion. Moreover, using this approach gives a stronger result for one of the institutional variables in the velocity function, in the sense that the remaining variables become more significant.
EFFICIENCY IN A PURE CURRENCY ECONOMY WITH INFLATION
Authors: Taub B.
Published: January 2010

Individuals who are buffeted by stochastic shocks will wish to substitute consumption intertemporally. To effect this substitution they can enter into insurance contracts, or they can use money. This paper investigates the connection between optimum insurance and Friedman's [1969] concept of the optimum quantity of money, using a simplified version of Lucas's [1980] pure currency economy. Monetary efficiency and efficient insurance are equivalent here. An example is presented in which an efficient monetary equilibrium exists. Contrary to Bewley's [1983] conjecture, in the example the efficient rate of return on real balances is less than the internal rate of discount.
COMMUNICATION and FREE‐RIDING BEHAVIOR: THE VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION MECHANISM
Authors: Isaac R. Mark , Walker James M.
Published: January 2010

We examine experimentally the role of active communication as a mechanism for improving economic efficiency in a voluntary contribution public goods environment. With no communication this environment has been shown to induce significant subop‐timality, approaching zero contributions with iteration of the decision environment. Communication is shown to improve group optimality significantly. We examine the robustness of our results in increasingly complex environments and in environments in which there has been a history of communication but active communication is no longer available.
A MODEL and SOME EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE INFLUENCE OF DISCRIMINATION ON WAGES
Authors: Lindsay Cotton M. , Maloney Michael T.
Published: January 2010

The observed wage gap between men and women is widely attributed to discrimination in the workplace. Yet within the context of the standard neoclassical framework, discrimination is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition. This paper presents a modified neoclassical model which supports equilibrium wage differentials and which has testable implications. The paper also surmounts a difficulty that has plagued many earlier assessments–separating prejudice from other explanations of the wage gap. By directing attention away from wages to other implied effects of discrimination, our model offers cleaner tests of the impact of prejudice in labor markets. Results of such tests are reported.
MONEY SUPPLY VARIABILITY IN A MACRO MODEL OF MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION
Authors: Balvers Ronald J.
Published: January 2010

The effects of changes in money supply variability are examined for a macro model of monopolistic competition. Increases in money supply variability raise demand uncertainty causing individual firms to produce more for inventory. In addition, expected profits decrease, inducing a number of firms to leave the economy. Aggregate income then falls in spite of an increase in firm‐level production. The result on aggregate income is standard, but the results on inventories and the number of firms in the economy distinguish this monopolistic macro model empirically from conventional macro models when changes in money supply variability occur.
PARENTAL CHOICE OF SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS: ESTIMATION USING STATE‐WIDE DATA
Authors: West Edwin G. , Palsson Halldor
Published: January 2010

This article attempts to proxy parental alienation from public schools across states in order to obtain measures of quality dispersion and of the educational characteristics to which families are most sensitive. The indicator of alienation is the choice of private schooling. Since the likelihood of such choice is known from published enrollment ratios, the task is to explain why they vary so widely across states. Of the newer hypotheses tested, that of teacher strike records is strongly significant and in the expected direction. Other novel findings concern the share of administration, teacher memberships of the National Education Association and the proportion of whites to nonwhites in the population.
THE OPTIMALITY OF PARTIAL PRICE ADJUSTMENT POLICIES
Authors: Naish Howard F.
Published: January 2010

This paper studies the optimal price adjustment policies of a monopolistically competitive firm whose profit‐maximizing price is subject to a serially correlated random disturbance. The firm chooses its price by comparing the expected cost of present and future price changes with the expected losses occurring when price deviates from its instantaneous profit‐maximizing value. Partial price adjustment often is the best way to minimize the sum of these losses. Prices tend to be more flexible both in response to large shocks to the firm's profit‐maximizing price and when much uncertainty exists about the future.
LABOR MARKET SHARE CONTRACTS WHEN THE FIRM HAS TWO VARIABLE INPUTS
Authors: Ellis Christopher J.
Published: January 2010

This paper extends Weitzman's analysis of share contracts. Firstly, a second variable input is introduced into a firm's production technology. Some share contracts give the firm an incentive to reduce worker compensation by manipulating the second variable input. This implies that contracts which possess this property cannot support the same long‐run equilibrium as would be achieved with a wage contract. Secondly, a positively sloped labor supply curve is introduced. It is shown that while share contracts reduce involuntary unemployment, they may not reduce total unemployment vis‐a‐vis wage contracts. The paper identifies the factors which determine relative employment variability.
RELATIVE PRICE DISPERSION, AGGREGATE PRICE MOVEMENT, AND THE NATURAL RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT
Authors: STOCKTON DAVID J.
Published: January 2010

This paper develops a model of relative price stickiness and examines its implications for the relationship between relative prices, inflation, and the natural rate of unemployment. Estimation of the model demonstrates that causality in the relationship between relative and aggregate prices runs in both directions. However, microeconomic disturbances have been the primary source of relative price change variance over the postwar period, and these micro disturbances have exerted a strong effect on inflation in the short run. It also is shown that micro relative price change dispersion has had a significant influence on the natural rate of unemployment.
DOES SEX STILL MATTER? NEW EVIDENCE FROM THE 1980s
Authors: RAYMOND RICHARD D. , SESNOWITZ MICHAEL L. , WILLIAMS DONALD R.
Published: January 2010

Recent analyses of gender based salary differentials among University faculty have focused on colleges and universities which are quite different from those used in earlier (pre‐1975) studies. To facilitate comparisons with previous studies we examine gender earnings differentials during the 1983–84 academic year at Kent State University, a school similar to those studied in the pre‐1975 period. Our results suggest that after controlling for differentials in productivity‐related characteristics and market influences, there is little evidence of gender based salary discrimination at Kent State during 1983–84.
MALE‐FEMALE DIFFERENCES IN OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE AND THE DEMAND FOR GENERAL AND OCCUPATION‐SPECIFIC HUMAN CAPITAL
Authors: ZALOKAR NADJA
Published: January 2010

A human capital model of occupational choice as demand for general and occupation‐specific human capital is developed to show how women's occupational choices vary with their lifetime labor force participation patterns. The model is tested using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women. The major empirical finding is that women who take less home time choose occupations which require more human capital, especially specific human capital. Women's occupations and wages are quite responsive to changes in their labor force participation patterns. If women worked continuously, their occupations and wages would be much closer to those of men.
ADDICTION AS EXTREME‐SEEKING
Authors: BARTHOLD THOMAS A. , HOCHMAN HAROLD M.
Published: January 2010

This paper examines addictive and compulsive behavior within a new framework, in an effort to establish a stronger link to the psychological and sociological literature on the subject. Individuals who suffer an addiction are not the classic homo economicus of textbooks, but are instead extreme‐seekers. Concavities in indifference curves provide a simple characterization of extreme‐seeking. The consequences of consumption which is physiologically or psychologically addicting and which threatens the individual's health are modeled in terms of capital and threshold effects. The model is then used, tentatively, to assess policies aimed at controlling substance abuse.
ECONOMIES OF SCALE IN A MULTIPLANT TECHNOLOGY: EVIDENCE FROM THE OILPATCH
Authors: GRIFFIN JAMES M. , JONES CLIFTON T.
Published: January 2010

A unique micro data set detailing operating costs and technical characteristics of 133 Texas oil leases was used to estimate an econometric cost function, yielding a number of interesting findings. First, evidence of economies of scale in crude extraction implies additional gains from oil field unitization and helps explain the paradox that voluntary unitization often occurs in the later stages of a field's life. Second, marginal operating costs per well were found to be about 30 percent below average costs, explaining why many wells remain operational despite falling crude oil prices. Finally, the results confirmed a number of plausible technical relationships. For example, operating costs rise sharply with depth, explaining the existence of shallow, low‐production stripper wells.
THE WELFARE COSTS OF RATIONING BY WAITING
Authors: DEACON ROBERT T. , SONSTELIE JON
Published: January 2010

With price controls and rationing by waiting, rational consumers increase the quantity bought per purchase. This individually rational response is socially wasteful and the cost of making it is a deadweight loss. This cost plus the value of time spent in queues may exceed the total rent transferred from suppliers to consumers by price controls; i.e., the value of resources spent competing for the rent may exceed the rent itself. This point is illustrated by an empirical application to gasoline price controls. Rent seeking exhausts an estimated 116 percent of the rent transferred.
ESTIMATING THE FISHER EFFECT AND THE STOCHASTIC MONEY GROWTH PROCESS
Authors: HUTCHISON MICHAEL M. , KEELEY MICHAEL C.
Published: January 2010

This paper demonstrates that a change in the stochastic process generating money can alter the relationships between money and inflation and between inflation and interest rates. The extent to which inflation is forecastable is shown to depend significantly on the extent to which money is forecastable. Thus, the greater the persistence and forecastability of money, the greater the likelihood of observing a statistically significant Fisher effect.

US. data over the 1953–86 period are used to demonstrate that instability in the Fisher effect coincides with changes in the stochastic process generating money. There is a significantly stronger Fisher effect during a subsample in which money—and hence inflation—are more predictable.
ARE ESTIMATES OF SEX DISCRIMINATION BY EMPLOYERS ROBUST? THE USE OF NEVER‐MARRIEDS
Authors: FISHBACK PRICE V. , TERZA JOSEPH V.
Published: January 2010

Current decomposition estimates of sex discrimination by employers are not robust. Many “unobservables,” like motivation and attitudes toward work, are left unmeasured. We estimate sex discrimination with two plausible methods of controlling for a major unobservable, acceptance of male and female traditional roles in the household. The methods offer enormously different estimates of sex discrimination. One estimates sex discrimination at over 61 percent of the female wage, the other finds little sex discrimination and possibly favoritism toward women. The range in estimates is so large that point estimates of sex discrimination by employers are of little use to policymakers.
COACHING TEAM PRODUCTION
Authors: CLEMENT ROBERT C. , MCCORMICK ROBERT E.
Published: January 2010

The actual function of managers is the subject of much debate. Using data on more than 3000 male college basketball players, their coaches, and their skill levels, we find a positive and significant relation between our ability to replicate an individual coach's allocation of playing time across players and his winning percentage. Although this result does not answer the central question of just what it is that managers contribute, the results do support the property rights paradigm: managers are the employees of workers; and more generally, sports data can be used to help understand related economic processes where quantifiable measures of inputs and outputs are more costly to obtain.

“What is meant by performance? Input energy, initiative, work attitude, perspiration, rate of exhaustion? Or output?…sometimes by inspecting a team member's input activity we can better judge his output effect…It is not always the case that watching input activity is the only or best means of detecting, measuring, or monitoring output effects of each team member, but in some cases it is a useful way.”
WHY DO WORKERS JOIN UNIONS? THE IMPORTANCE OF RENT SEEKING
Authors: BRONARS STEPHEN G. , LOT JOHN R.
Published: January 2010

Union status models ignore the fact that rent‐seeking prospective members have an incentive to bid up entry costs so that higher union wage gains make union jobs more costly to obtain. The standard presumption that higher union wages cause firms to substitute toward higher quality workers is shown to be incorrect under most plausible assumptions; the observed positive correlation between wage gains and the propensity to join a union underestimates the size of the true supply response. The union/nonunion wage differential reveals more about the social cost of unions than the gain to an individual worker from union membership.
MARKET FORCES AND AIRCRAFT SAFETY AN EXTENSION
Authors: KARELS GORDON V.
Published: January 2010

Recent work by Chalk focuses on whether market forces provide safe products via stock market reaction to unanticipated events. Chalk finds a $200 million decline in McDonnell Douglas stockholder wealth related to the 1979 DC‐10 crash in Chicago. That decline far exceeds reasonable estimates of regulatory and liability costs, suggesting a market penalty for unsafe products. His results, however, do not seem consistent with the notion of efficient markets, as American Airlines maintenance procedures were quickly identified as the likely cause of the crash. This study finds no resulting shareholder wealth loss for American Airlines or McDonnell Douglas.
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
Authors: TOWEY RICHARD E.
Published: January 2010

The microcomputer can accelerate the display of classroom material and enhance its visual clarity. Recent display methods have permitted viewing by classes of up to 100–150 students, and this size is increasing with improvements in display resolution. An electronic spreadsheet such as Lotus 1–2–3 enables instructors to prepare materials with relative ease and flexibility, and in‐class use facilitates the demonstration of interactions among changing economic variables. The preparation time for individual instructors is substantial, however. Computer assisted lectures could become more widespread if publishers were to provide textbook tables, figures, etc. formatted for computer input.
AN INTERNATIONAL ARBITRAGE PRICING MODEL WITH PPP DEVIATIONS
Authors: Levine ROSS
Published: January 2010

This paper derives an intertemporal, international arbitrage pricing model that relaxes more assumptions than previous asset pricing paradigms. The analysis shows how risk, risk premia, and the translation of these variables between all real and nominal numeraires depend upon a small number of stochastic state variables that define the economy's production and credit opportunities. When the model is applied to the forward exchange market, it highlights the potentially central role of real exchange rates in determining the evolution of forward exchange risk premia.
THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL PARTIES ON BRAND‐NAME CAPITAL: THE 1982 TYLENOL POISONINGS AND SUBSEQUENT CASES
Authors: Mitchell MARK L.
Published: January 2010

An examination of the 1982 Tylenol poisonings reveals stock market losses to Johnson & Johnson that far exceed direct costs and losses shared with other pain‐reliever producers; this evidence provides support for the Klein and Leffler [1981] theory of brand names as quality‐assuring mechanisms. Of the subsequent cases, only the 1986 Tylenol poisonings were associated with significant stock market losses. Prior to the 1982 and 1986 Tylenol poisonings, Tylenol was the number one pain reliever, whereas the other pain relievers that were poisoned had a much lower level of brand‐name capital to lose.
PARENTAL ALTRUISM AND SELF‐INTEREST: CHILD LABOR AMONG LATE NINETEENTH‐CENTURY AMERICAN FAMILIES
Authors: Parsons DONALD O. , Goldin CLAUDIA
Published: January 2010

Intergenerational relationships within late nineteenth‐century industrial families are analyzed using several large‐scale, contemporary household surveys. Nonaltruistic behavior by parents was pervasive. Even among families with positive assets, child labor was common in certain industrial settings, suggesting that child labor (or nonschooling) did not simply reflect parental borrowing constraints. Neither did physical asset transfers offset human capital losses among working youth. A quantitative estimate of parental nonaltruism is derived from an equilibrium labor market model: approximately 90 percent of all child earnings was implicitly competed away through lower adult wages as families migrated to areas with abundant child labor opportunities.
RACISM AS RENT SEEKING
Authors: Roback JENNIFER
Published: January 2010

Rules governing social and economic interactions among ethnic groups are modeled as public goods. The publicness of social rules can explain why race has been so consistently politicized. The potential gains from public provision attract political entrepreneurs into the field. In the absence of some constitutional restraints upon such rent seeking, race is bound to be politicized. In addition, the model can explain the existence of many government policies concerning race that are not apparently motivated by economic gain. Finally, government enforcement of ethnic economic cartels can explain some of the persistent differences in earnings across ethnic groups.
ISLANDS, INDEXATION AND MONETARY POLICY
Authors: Vanhoose DAVID D. , Waller CHRISTOPHER J.
Published: January 2010

This paper develops a synthesized macroeconomic model that incorporates the local‐global informational asymmetries of an “islands” economy into a setting characterized by endogenous wage indexation. In such an economy, agents are unable both to filter out the separate influences of demand and supply shocks on observed output prices and to distinguish between the separate price effects of local and aggregate disturbances, so that optimal wage indexation depends upon both the variances of supply and demand disturbances and the information‐conditioned forecasts of agents. As a result, optimal monetary policy generally depends upon the variances of local and aggregate supply and demand.
INTERNATIONAL DEBTS: WHAT'S FACT AND WHAT'S FICTION: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE WESTERN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, JULY 2, 1988
Authors: SCHWARTZ ANNA J.
Published: January 2010

From the vantage point of 1988, the 1982 judgment that the troubled foreign country debtors had a liquidity problem, not a solvency problem, appears to have been fiction. The fact is that troubled debtors did not use productively the resources they borrowed. Further loans to them only add to the burden of their existing debt. Retaining the loans at face value on the books of the creditor banks is a fiction that financial markets see though. Intervention by regulators and international lending agencies has impeded bilateral bargains between the debtors and the banks.
A TEST OF STEADY‐STATE GOVERNMENT‐DEBT NEUTRALITY
Authors: EVANS PAUL
Published: January 2010

This paper investigates whether in the steady state the real interest rate is an increasing function of both the government debt and government spending. Using data from the period between January 1981 and March 1986, the paper fin& no evidence of such a relationship. These data afford an especially powerful test because the ratio of federal debt to trend output, which had fallen from 93 to 33 percent between January 1948 and December 1980, reversed course after the enactment of the Economic Recovery Tax Act, reaching 47 percent in March 1986.
AN ECONOMIC THEORY OF APARTHEID
Authors: LOWENBERG ANTON D.
Published: January 2010

Apartheid is a regulatory system designed to effect redistributions in favor of white workers and farmers at the expense of black workers and white capitalists. This paper uses a competitive interest group theory of the apartheid state to formulize a collective choice analysis of apartheid as endogenous policy. The “level” of apartheid is conceived as a continuous variable that is determined by the relative influence of competing interest groups within the white polity and by the costs of maintaining and defending apartheid institutions. Some empirical implications of this approach are explored.