bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
FUEL TAXES AND COINTEGRATION OF ENERGY PRICES
Authors: VÜCEL MINE K. , GUO SHENGYI
Published: January 2010

Creating a successful energy tax policy requires understanding the markets that the energy policy targets. This paper analyzes coal, natural gas, and oil markets to determine the extent to which these fuel prices move together. Results indicate that a stable long‐run relationship between coal and oil prices existed until 1974 and that this relationship changed after 1974. The long‐run relationship between coal, natural gas, and oil prices implies that a single fuel tax in these markets would not be effective as a single tax policy. Similarly, an equal percentage tax on these energy sources, which does not change relative prices initially, would not keep relative prices unchanged in the long run. Energy policy must take account of the long‐run relationship between different energy prices. Otherwise, the long‐run results of energy policy could be quite different than intended.
MEASURING NON‐TARIFF BARRIERS TO DIFFERENTIATED IMPORT PRODUCTS
Authors: PAPILLON BENOIT‐M.
Published: January 2010

Trade policy analysts frequently use the price‐gap method to measure non‐tariff barriers (NTB). A very recent example is the tariffication of NTBs following the Uruguay Round. This paper discusses the limitations of applying the price‐gap method to differentiated products and introduces a modified price‐gap method. This modified price‐gap method is a less frequently used generalization of the original one. Using the modified price‐gap method to estimate the tariff equivalent of the Canadian cheese import quotas produces a substantially lower estimate than does the original method.
SOME EMPIRICAL EFFECTS OF USING PERMANENT STRIKER REPLACEMENTS
Authors: GRAMM CYNTHIA L. , SCHNELL JOHN F.
Published: January 2010

This study uses survey data to examine issues related to legislation that would bar employers from permanently replacing striking workers. Hiring permanent replacements does not significantly affect the proportion of full capacity at which the employer operates struck facilities but significantly decreases the proportion of bargaining unit members who get back their jobs after a strike. More controversially, firms hiring permanent replacements obtain less favorable collective bargaining contracts than do firms that do not hire permanent replacements.
POLLUTION PREVENTION AS PUBLIC POLICY: AN ASSESSMENT
Authors: HELFAND GLORIA E.
Published: January 2010

In recent years, both the public and private sectors have become increasingly interested in pollution prevention—avoiding creation of pollution—as an alternative to treatment or disposal. Observers cite a number of advantages for this approach, such as eliminating the problem of switching pollution from one medium to another and reducing environmental problems by avoiding pollutants in the first place. This paper assesses the advantages of pollution prevention and contrasts them with a performance standard that restricts pollution but gives businesses maximum discretion in how to meet the restriction. In most situations, a performance standard can be less costly and equally effective. However, pollution prevention may be more desirable in the case of nonpoint source pollution or when a pollutant affects a number of media.
CHINA'S ECONOMIC REFORM: THE TROIKA
Authors: Sheng Andrew
Published: January 2010

My perspective of China's economic reform is in the context of a so‐called transitional socialist economy, i.e., a centrally planned economy moving to a market‐based economy. Extensive literature on this covers theories on the big‐bang approach as opposed to the gradualist approach, etc. But the issue is much more subtle than these approaches suggest. It involves what I call the troika, which comprises budgetary reform, enterprise reform, and banking reform.
ROLLING DICE FOR THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET
Authors: Chapman Duane , Suri Vivek , Hall Steven G.
Published: January 2010

In an influential paper published in Science, Nordhaus employs an integrated climate‐economy model to study climate change. He finds that optimizing climate change policy requires low levels of controls on emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper follows his pioneering methodology but challenges his conclusions. Nordhaus's results depend crucially on certain parameters such as the discount rate and the autonomous decline in energy intensity of production. However, choosing a set of different though equally plausible values for these parameters causes the control rate to rise substantially. This translates into a greater level of action for slowing climate change.
EFFECTS OF IMMIGRANTS ON THE 1980–1990 U.S. WAGE EXPERIENCE
Authors: Enchautegui Maria E.
Published: January 2010

This paper questions the claim that U.S. immigration should be reduced because the economy can no longer absorb immigrants as it has in the past. Analysis of male hourly wages shows that the effect of immigration on wages did not change between 1980 and 1990. Further, immigration had no negative effects on wages in 1980 or 1990. These results suggest that the capacity of the labor market to absorb immigrants has not been reduced. Additional analysis shows that, controlling for personal characteristics, the hourly wages of the average native and immigrant worker in areas of high and medium immigration relative to areas of low immigration increased between 1980 and 1990. However, Latino immigrants are affected negatively by immigration.
A QUALITY POLICY FOR AMERICA
Authors: LEVINE DAVID I. , HELPER SUSAN
Published: January 2010

This paper describes Total Quality Management (TQM) and its benefits. It then outlines a three‐point proposal for a national quality policy: (i) implementing TQM throughout the U.S. government, (ii) creating a set of nationally recognized certifications for employees' quality skills, (Hi) creating a set of nationally recognized supplier quality certifications.
IDENTIFYING CREDIT CRUNCHES
Authors: OWENS RAYMOND E. , SCHREFT STACEY L.
Published: January 2010

This article identifies four U.S. credit crunches—periods of sharply increased non‐price credit rationing—between 1960 and 1992. Extreme intimidation of banks by the Federal Reserve and U.S. federal government through jawboning and credible threats of increased regulatory oversight caused the crunches of 1966 and 1969. Thus, this article overturns the conventional wisdom that Regulation Q produced the 1960s credit crunches. The 1980 crunch was the unintended effect of direct regulatory limits on credit extensions. More recently, a market‐induced crunch occurred from early 1990 through 1992 when a collapse of commercial real estate values made pricing risk on real estate‐collateralized loans extremely difficult.
MARKET STRUCTURE, PROGRAM DIVERSITY, AND RADIO AUDIENCE SIZE
Authors: ROGERS ROBERT P. , WOODBURY JOHN R.
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the relationships among radio station listenership, the number of program formats, and the number of stations. These relationships are statistically significant and consistent with theory, but the interrelationships are numerically small. The results imply that proposals by the federal Communications Commission and Congress to relax ownership restrictions must induce substantial changes in station numbers in order to noticeably increase programming diversity. Merely modest changes in these numbers will have only small diversity effects. The paper's results also imply that merely mandating the number of formats in a market may not be in the interests of listeners.
DO‐IT‐YOURSELF AND ENERGY CONSERVATION
Authors: MAYER PETER C.
Published: January 2010

Buyer‐installation of household equipment appears to reduce the inclination to purchase energy‐saving equipment. The finding demonstrates the need for special promotional effort to sell energy‐saving equipment to the do‐it‐yourself market. The finding may provide a new explanation for the inverse relation between family income and purchase of energy‐saving investment.
A SIMPLISTIC GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM THEORY OF CORRUPTION
Authors: CHEUNG STEVEN N. S.
Published: January 2010

The author's simplistic view of corruption is that all politicians and government officials—like everyone else—are constrained self‐maximizers. They therefore establish or maintain regulations and controls with the intent to facilitate corruption, which then becomes a source of income for them. Under private enterprise, where resources are transferable and movable, competition limits the ability to corrupt. However, in state enterprises, limiting corruption through competition is difficult. Corruption can help offset the inefficiencies of a communist or hierarchical system, as the economy makes a transition toward private property. But the danger is that corruption will become institutionalized and develop well‐defined, transferable rights. Once that happens, the economy gets stuck there, as it has in India. Thus, in reforming a communist system—as that of China—into a private property system, gradualism will not do.
PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS AND CRISES IN WORLD FISHERIES: TURNING THE TIDE?
Authors: GRAFTON R. QUENTIN , SQUIRES DALE , KIRKLEY JAMES E.
Published: January 2010

This paper addresses the crises in the world's fisheries involving dwindling stocks, overcapitalization, and jurisdiction disputes from a property rights perspective. In particular, it examines the causes of the problems fishers face and explores the potential of privatizing the right to catch fish as a means to address the crises. The analysis assesses experiences of private harvesting rights with reference to monitoring and enforcement, allocating rights, economic benefits, adjustments in the fishery, and resource rents. It also examines issues such as fluctuating fish stocks, straddling stocks and high seas fisheries, and the endemic poverty of many artisanal fisheries in the context of current fisheries practice.
TAX REFORM
Authors: O'DRISCOLL GERALD P. , SAVING THOMAS R. , GRUBEL HERBERT C. , HARBERGER ARNOLD C. , FRIEDMAN MILTON , HOSKINS W. LEE
Published: January 2010

After brief individual presentations, panelists discuss among themselves and with the audience a broad spectrum of issues regarding various taxes and tax reform proposals. The discussion includes such issues as privatizing Social Security and Medicare, eliminating income tax withholding, and the merits and demerits of income taxes, consumption taxes, value added taxes, sales taxes, and taxes on resources that have an inelastic supply. One panelist relates his recent experiences using his tools as an economist to deal with tax and related issues as a current member of the Canadian Parliament. Another cites practical problems of implementing tax reform from his long experience advising governments, especially in Latin America. A major focus of the exchange of views is on public choice problems involved in passing and implementing a so‐called flat tax. However, the discussion also deals with economic efficiency and equity considerations and with nearly all other types of taxes. The discussion includes not only the impact on the country within which tax reform occurs, but international implications, as well.
A BENEFIT‐COST ANALYSIS OF DISINFLATION
Authors: NEELY CHRISTOPHER J. , WALLER CHRISTOPHER J.
Published: January 2010

This paper contains a benefit‐cost analysis of disinflation. The analysis measures the costs of disinflation by “sacrifice ratios”—the output lost during a disinflation‐induced recession. The benefits of disinflation are from recent research that associates lower inflation with higher GDP growth rates. The analysis calculates sacrifice ratios and the growth effects of disinflation and critiques the methods that economists typically use to calculate these benefits and costs. The estimates are quite fragile but nevertheless show that the lost output from a disinflation‐induced recession typically will be recouped in 10 to 15 years.
DISINVESTMENT FROM SOUTH AFRICA: THEY DID WELL BY DOING GOOD
Authors: POSNIKOFF JUDITH F.
Published: January 2010

This paper uses standard event‐study methodology to analyze the effect of announcing disinvestment or withdrawal of U.S. firms from South Africa during the 1980s on those firms' returns. Several different measures of abnormal return indicate a consistent and significant positive announcement effect, particularly for the two‐ and three‐day periods surrounding the public announcement. With one exception, these results hold even when the variables are normalized by their respective standard deviations to account for possible changes in variance due to the announcement. Using the “ordinary cross‐sectional” test statistic rather than the usual t‐statistic explicitly accounts for a change in variance at announcement throughout the analysis.
COMPETITION POLICY FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A LONG‐RUN, ENTRY‐BASED APPROACH
Authors: SINGLETON ROSS C.
Published: January 2010

This paper describes key aspects of a long‐run, entry‐based approach to the design of competition policy for developing countries. A competition policy with the sole purpose of mitigating governmental, natural, and artificial barriers to entry best serves the goals of promoting the competitive process and fostering democracy. Freedom of entry is the sine qua non of the competitive process. Freedom of entry promotes the development of efficient, innovative firms capable of competing in international markets and ensures that market reforms will enhance social welfare.
NORTH PACIFIC FISHERIES ENVIRONMENT: INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
Authors: MARSH JAMES BARNEY
Published: January 2010

The extension of economic jurisdiction to 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zones or Fishing Limits enabled coastal and island nations to add vast wealth to their exclusively owned natural resource portfolios. Simultaneously, the rights of nations to distant water fisheries were, at best, reduced to privileges. The motives for enclosure were economic, political, and strategic. However, simple economic theory suggests certain potential outcomes. First, if fishery stocks remained constant, restrictions and charges would make fishing in foreign zones relatively more costly, fishing in the remaining high seas less costly, and fishing in the domestic zone possibly less costly. Relative costs also may favor exploitation of coastal and fresh water regions for aquaculture. Second, because stocks do not remain constant, depletion in some areas will alter relative costs. Investments in conservation will be limited to claimed areas, where investors capture the benefits. Third, wherever maritime claims overlap or otherwise are unsettled, international tension will mount. The analysis here demonstrates that these expectations have become reality in the North Pacific.
FEDERAL WATER POLICY REFORM: IMPLICATIONS FOR IRRIGATED FARMS IN CALIFORNIA
Authors: WEINBERG MARCA
Published: January 2010

The Central Valley Project Improvement Act dramatically changes federal water policies in California and may serve as a model for reforms throughout the western United States. This paper details key CVPIA provisions, including water markets, tiered prices, and water for environmental uses, and analyzes potential implications for a subset of affected farmers.
SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM IN CHINA: THE CASE OF OLD‐AGE INSURANCE
Authors: SONG SHUNFENG , CHU GEORGE S‐F
Published: January 2010

The social security system in the People's Republic of China is experiencing dramatic changes. This paper examines the characteristics of the pre‐reform social security system in the People's Republic of China with respect to the old‐age insurance, discusses and comments on the recent efforts towards old‐age insurance reform, and proposes recommendations for the current reform, such as raising the official retirement ages, changing funding system, and investing pension funds to appreciate their values.
WHO GETS MATERNITY LEAVE?: THE CASE OF MALAYSIA
Authors: BERNASEK ALEXANDRA , GALLAWAY JULIE HAGEN
Published: January 2010

This paper evaluates a maternity leave policy designed to reduce gender inequality in the labor market. It examines the extent to which Malaysia's paid maternity leave policy provides working women with leave as a condition of their employment. Since all women are not the same, a policy may benefit some women and not others. Using data from the Second Malaysian Family Life Survey, the paper estimates the likelihood of a woman's receiving maternity leave as a function of demographic, employment, and occupational variables. The results show that being Indian, having higher education, holding jobs that are full‐time and all‐year, holding jobs with higher earnings at the start, and holding professional and clerical occupations increase the likelihood that a woman will receive maternity leave. These results imply that Malaysia's maternity leave policy does not provide broad coverage to working women—that is, only some women under some conditions in some occupations tend to receive leave. The evidence suggests that women in the primary sector of the labor market receive leave while women in the secondary sector do not.
THE DUNLOP COMMISSION'S OMISSIONS ON AMERICAN LABOR MARKET POLICY
Authors: MITCHELL DANIEL J. B. , ZAIDI MAHMOOD A.
Published: January 2010

In 1994 and 1995, a U.S. presidential task force called the “Dunlop Commission” issued reports on the labor market and made various public policy recommendations. The commission's fact‐finding report identified a variety of problems, primarily economic, such as widening wage inequality, lagging productivity, and unemployment. However, the commission's recommendation report limited its focus primarily to collective bargaining labor law and proposed solutions that appeared unlikely to have a significant impact on the problems identified in the first report. The commission's narrow charge, its insistence on maintaining a consensus among its members, and the limited range of views represented by its membership explain these inconsistencies.
A UNIVERSAL FULLY FUNDED PENSION SCHEME
Authors: HO LOK SANG
Published: January 2010

This paper puts forward a public pension scheme that is fully funded for each cohort and covers everybody. The scheme is an application of the generational accounting concept. As compared to pay‐as‐you‐go schemes, it is free of the vagaries of uncertain demographic changes. Because payouts for each cohort are directly related to contributions, it is also free of political pressures to increase benefits. The paper looks at various refinements to the scheme and compares it with the Mandatory Private Provident Fund, which has become popular in recent years.
THE LOOMING U.S. EXTERNAL DEBT: HOW SERIOUS IS IT?
Authors: HUNG JUANN , CHARRETTE SUSAN
Published: January 2010

This article examines the state of U.S. external debt accumulation, especially the rising burden of interest payments. It points out that the favorable yield differential between U.S. external assets and liabilities may be declining at the same time the United States has become the world's largest international debtor. The favorable yield differential has enabled the United States, which became a net debtor in 1987, to avoid making net interest payments on its international debt until 1994. However, servicing the increasing U.S. net international debt is likely to be a much greater burden in the future as the favorable yield gap wanes while net debt continues to grow.
INTEREST RATES, RATE SPREADS, AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Authors: LAPP JOHN S.
Published: January 2010

Interest rates and the spreads between interest rates are widely regarded as useful indicators of the future level of economic activity. This paper shows that when these series are divided into (i) an ordinary time series process and (ii) the effects of extraordinary disturbances, only the extraordinary disturbances predict economic activity. These disturbances are associated with periods of monetary policy intervention. Most of the predictive power is in contractionary disturbances that have persistent effects over time. The results imply that the predictive power of interest rates comes primarily from periods of contractionary monetary policy and is not due to ordinary movements in interest rates.
EFFECT OF MULTI‐FIBER ARRANGEMENT TRADE RESTRICTIONS ON TEXTILE INDUSTRY PROFIT MARGINS
Authors: XU PENG
Published: January 2010

This article tests the anti‐competitive effect of trade restrictions under the Multi‐Fiber Arrangement in the U.S. textile industry. The modeling approach differs from that of traditional empirical studies. That is, it allows for non‐competitive behavior by domestic firms and therefore permits estimating the effect of trade policy on domestic firms' conduct, market power, and profit margins. The model is estimated for several selected product categories of the U.S. textile industry. Empirical results indicate that trade restrictions enabled domestic producers to behave less competitively and raise their profit margins. The empirical evidence is significant in the man‐made fiber sub‐sectors. The anti‐competitive effect, however, tended to taper off over time, suggesting that higher profits might have induced new entry and hence boosted competition.
WHOSE LOSSES COUNT IN NATURAL RESOURCE DAMAGES?
Authors: DUNFORD RICHARD W. , JOHNSON F. REED , WEST EMILY S.
Published: January 2010

This article examines economic and legal constraints that determine whose losses are included in natural resource damages as a result of an oil spill or hazardous‐substance release. For example, the article describes the circumstances under which use losses experienced by young children would not be included in natural resource damages. With respect to nonuse damages, the article advocates excluding the expressed losses of people who have no knowledge of the specific natural resources affected by a spill/release and who are unaware that the natural resources were injured. In the absence of such knowledge and awareness, these people could not have experienced a welfare loss. Finally, the article discusses legal constraints on whose losses count in natural resource damages with respect to statutory exclusions, public versus private uses of natural resources, uses of natural resources by foreigners, and damages in the absence of injuries.
WHOSE LOSSES COUNT? EXAMINING SOME CLAIMS ABOUT AGGREGATION RULES FOR NATURAL RESOURCES DAMAGES
Authors: RANDALL ALAN
Published: January 2010

Compensation for natural resources damage may be provided, in principle, by a payment equal to the value of damage, a compensating restoration project, or partial restoration plus a compensating payment. Applicable laws have a pronounced tilt toward restoration. When determining the value of damage, no welfare‐economic reason exists to count as an offsetting benefit any utility enjoyed by rubberneckers; nor should damages be excluded when incurred by those unaware of the injury, those whose motivations are thought “non‐economic,” those who are resource‐loving passive users, or those who are parentalistic altruists. Money compensation required on behalf of nonparentalistic altruists drops to zero as active users are fully compensated. However, if (for whatever reason) active users cannot sustain a claim for full compensation, nonparentalistic altruists will suffer compensable losses.
INDEXED BONDS AND HETEROGENEOUS AGENTS
Authors: MAYER THOMAS
Published: January 2010

The widespread belief that one can read off the public's expectations of inflation from the yield differential between indexed and conventional bonds ignores the fact that indexed bonds are held largely by those who expect the most inflation. However, holding indexed bonds as a hedge against inflation implies that such bonds have the advantage of being a relatively cheap source of funds.
DEMOCRACY IN REFORMING COLLAPSED COMMUNIST ECONOMIES: BLESSING OR CURSE?
Authors: INTRILIGATOR MICHAEL D.
Published: January 2010

From a political standpoint, post‐communists systems include both democratic and non‐democratic nations. From an economic standpoint, they include both collapsing and expanding economies. All four logical possibilities exist for post‐communist political and economic systems. The Czech Republic is an example of a democratic political system and an expanding economic system. Russia is an example of a democratic political system and a collapsing economic system. China is an example of a non‐democratic political system and an expanding economic system. North Korea is an example of a non‐democratic political system and a collapsing economic system. The fact that all four logical possibilities exist suggests that democracy is neither necessary nor sufficient for good economic performance. However, democracy is certainly a value in itself that requires certain basic institutions, including free and fair elections, the orderly transfer of power to those elected, the rule of law and the separation of powers, and the protection of individual freedoms and basic liberties, including those of speech, press, religion, assembly, property, and economic opportunity.

Economic policies, rather than the form of government, determine the results for an economy. Russia and China, the two largest socialist economies, followed very different economic policies and experienced radically different outcomes. The failure of “shock therapy” economic policies for transition to a market economy in Russia is related to its use of the Washington Consensus SLP package of stabilization, liberalization, and privatization, as recommended by the World Bank and the IMF. The success of Deng's economic policies for transition to a market economy in China is related to its rejection of the SLP in favor of the ICG approach of institutions, competition, and government. Other interesting cases are those of the Czech Republic and North Korea.

Those nations in which both political and economic reforms have been simultaneously successful, such as the Czech Republic, are generally small, homogeneous European nations with a historic work ethic, with a relatively short period of socialism, and with support from neighboring advanced industrialized nations. There is great difficulty in simultaneously establishing both democracy and a market economy without a very special set of circumstances. Thus, it is necessary to determine a sequence for political and economic reform. Ultimately, however, the ideal of both democracy and a market economy may be attained even in nations without special circumstances and external assistance, with Russia eventually turning its economy around and with China eventually reforming politically into a democratic nation.
ALCOHOL REGULATION AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TOWARDS CHILDREN
Authors: MARKOWITZ SARA , GROSSMAN MICHAEL
Published: January 2010

In recent years, economists have paid much attention to the demand for alcohol and the negative externalities associated with excessive drinking. Largely ignored in the literature is the link between alcohol use and domestic violence. Given the established positive relationship between alcohol consumption and acts of violence, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role that changes in the determinants of the demand for alcohol may play in reducing the incidence of violence aimed at children. Data on violence come from the 1976 Physical Violence in American Families survey. We estimate a model in which violent outcomes are affected by the state excise tax rate on beer; illegal drug prices, and other regulatory variables such as availability measures and laws restricting the advertising of alcohol. Results show that increasing the tax on beer can be an effective policy tool in reducing violence. Laws designed to make obtaining beer more difficult also may be effective in reducing violence, while restrictions on advertising and increases in illegal drug prices have no effects.
DOES INDIAN CASINO GAMBLING REDUCE STATE REVENUES? EVIDENCE FROM ARIZONA
Authors: ANDERS GARY C. , SIEGEL DONALD , YACOUB MUNTHER
Published: January 2010

Critics of Indian gaming contend that reservation casinos have a negative impact on state economies. This paper tests the hypothesis that the introduction of Indian casinos caused a structural change in the formation of Arizona state revenues. Data are from Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona. Findings suggest that Indian casinos may divert funds from taxable to non‐taxable sectors. The growth in tax revenue from non‐gaming sectors of the economy has masked these displacement effects. However, given the trend toward increasing the proportion of state funds from sales taxes, a diminution in the rate of economic growth could have serious implications for future state budgets.
ASSESSING INCENTIVE‐BASED ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES FOR REDUCING HOUSEHOLD WASTE DISPOSAL
Authors: NESTOR DEBORAH VAUGHN , PODOLSKY MICHAEL J.
Published: January 2010

In residential solid waste management, the United States has a great deal of experience in applying incentive‐based environmental policy in the form of unit pricing. This study examines the two most common forms of unit pricing practiced in the United States. It offers intuition and empirical evidence suggesting divergence of theoretical expectations and actual outcomes regarding the effects of switching to unit pricing. Data collected from households in Marietta, Ga. during a solid waste pricing experiment serve as the basis for the analysis.
WATERSHED‐BASED EFFLUENT TRADING: THE NONPOINT SOURCE CHALLENGE
Authors: STEPHENSON KURT , NORRIS PATRICIA , SHABMAN LEONARD
Published: January 2010

In 1996 the Environmental Protection Agency released draft guidelines intended to encourage the development of watershed‐based effluent trading systems. Effluent trading systems allow dischargers the opportunity to transfer legal and financial requirements for effluent control in order to lower control costs. To assure that equivalent control is being exchanged, accurate measurement (quantification) of effluent load is necessary. Many argue that measurement of nonpoint source load represents a significant challenge for designing and implementing effluent trading systems. A nonpoint source delivers effluent over a diffuse area. This paper argues that the physical properties of nonpoint source discharge may not offer as significant a barrier to trading as often is presumed. Many measurement challenges are not unique to nonpoint sources, and measurement issues are successfully addressed within a number of local and regional water quality programs. Trading system design can stimulate institutional and technical innovations in nonpoint source measurement.
FARM PROFITABILITY AND BUREC WATER SUBSIDIES: AN LP LOOK AT A REGION
Authors: ULIBARRI CARLOS A. , SEELY HARRY S. , WILLIS DAVID B.
Published: January 2010

Most studies of irrigation water subsidies focus on farmers' “ability‐to‐pay” for irrigation‐related construction costs without questioning the methods used to subsidize these costs. This article shows how BUREC water subsidies could be eliminated by increasing federal water and power rates on long‐term irrigation contracts. The welfare effects of this “desubsidization” are examined for California's San Joaquin Valley, which uses federal power for groundwater pumping and the conveyance of surface water. A linear programming model provides estimates of the change in farm profitability from imposing full‐cost federal water and power rates. The desubsidization has a disproportionate impact on growers of water intensive crops while benefiting non‐agricultural power users and the U.S. Treasury. This points to the conclusion that charging full‐cost rates would redistribute $4.58 million of profit‐income per year without significant regional impacts on growers.
LONG‐RUN GROWTH PROJECTIONS AND THE AGGREGATE PRODUCTION FUNCTION: A SURVEY OF MODELS USED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
Authors: STIROH KEVIN J.
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the theory and method behind the long‐run growth projections of four prominent models used within the U.S. government. The growth models of the Congressional Budget Ofice, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Accounting Office are all firmly based on the neoclassical framework of an aggregate production function, but several practical dfferences exist. Most notably, the CBO and GAO models endogenize capital accumulation, while the SSA and OMB simply assume that labor productivity growth will continue at historical rates. Although recent endogenous growth theory and the expanding empirical literature on cross‐sectional variation emphasize alternative factors, the US. government agencies remain appropriately committed to the traditional, neoclassical framework as a tool for projecting long‐run growth.
COMPARING POST‐COLD WAR MILITARY CONVERSION IN THE UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA
Authors: ALEXEEV MICHAEL V. , SIKORRA RAYMOND C.
Published: January 2010

According to the conventional wisdom, military conversion in Russia would be more difficult than in the United States because Russia does not have the developed market infrastructure and institutions that help western defense firms redeploy resources for civilian production. A closer look raises doubts about these arguments. Western defense firms have had difficulties with conversion because they cannot compete with the existing relatively efficient civilian firms. Meanwhile, the principal competitors of the Russian defense firms, the large Russian civilian enterprises, are closer in nature to defense enterprises than to efficient market firms. While this does not bode well for the Russian economy in general, the defense enterprises should not find themselves at a significant disadvantage in the civilian markets. Two effects can be distinguished. On the one hand, due to the more developed market infrastructure, the U.S. economy is presumably good at redeploying defense‐related resources across firm boundaries. On the other hand, the large and efficient civilian sector in the United States makes the marginal “civilian” value of the redeployed resources low. It is the interaction of these factors, rather than the degree of development of market infrastructure alone, that determines the relative difficulty of military conversion. Additionally, empirical evidence based on regional data indicates that despite enormous defense expenditure cuts, the economic performance of Russia's regions is only relatively weakly correlated with the regions' dependency on defense industry.
MONEY AGGREGATES MANAGEMENT: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS IN CHINA'S ECONOMIC TRANSITION
Authors: YU QIAO , XIE PING
Published: January 2010

This study discusses China's money supply management in its economic transition. Institutional analysis and empirical evidence suggest (i) the People's Bank of China is capable of conducting indirect monetary policy in the central banking system, (ii) integral financial reforms in the areas of legislation, management, regulation, supervision, governance, and structure are required to overcome difficulties of the monetary base control, (iii) the money multipliers are technically predictable. These results provide ways for the central bank to improve the effectiveness of monetary policy enforcement. (JEL E51, E58, G21, P21)
THE DETERMINANTS OF JAPANESE LOCAL‐BENEFIT SEEKING
Authors: MEYER STEVEN A. , NAKA SHIGETO
Published: January 2010

This paper examines the determinants of the allocation of Japan's central government spending across its prefectures. Using the framework developed by Atlas et al. (American Economic Review, 85:3, June 1995, 624–629), the paper examines whether over‐represented Japanese prefectures receive larger real per capita transfers than under‐represented prefectures. A broad concern of the paper is whether institutions matter. Per capita representation of prefectures, party affiliation, and intra‐party characteristics are found to be determinants of Japan's central government transfers. The results suggest that institutions do matter. (JEL H3, H5, H6, H7)
TAXES AND GROWTH: TESTING THE NEOCLASSICAL AND ENDOGENOUS GROWTH MODELS
Authors: KARRAS GEORGIOS
Published: January 2010

Changes in the tax rate alter real growth permanently in an endogenous growth model, but only temporarily in a neoclassical model, where the only permanent effect is a decrease in the steady‐state level of output per capita. Using data from the 1960'1992 period for a panel of 11 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development economies, this paper's empirical results support the following conclusions. First, consistent with the tax smoothing hypothesis, tax rates have exhibited significant persistent changes while output growth rates have not. Second, a higher tax rate permanently reduces the level of output but has no permanent effects on the output growth rate. These findings are inconsistent with endogenous growth mechanisms and suggest that the relationship between output and the tax rate is best described by the neoclassical growth model. (JEL E62, 041)
AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STUDENT PERFORMANCE: A FRESH APPROACH TO AN OLD DEBATE
Authors: JAGGIA SANJIV , KELLY‐HAWKE ALISON
Published: January 2010

There is a general consensus that student performance at all levels has been deteriorating. Despite numerous attempts by researchers to link school expenditures with student performance, a clear relationship does not exist. Since a number of difficulties plague earlier studies, this paper attempts to remedy these problems by offering a better data design and a sounder methodology. This study uses the J 992 Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test scores from 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students to measure student performance. Since each student's grade falls into one of five possible categories, the application of an ordered logit model incorporates the natural ordering of the MEAP scores. The results indicate that family background and the stability of a community are the main factors affecting student performance. The data suggest that higher levels of spending have no consistent or systematic relation with student performance. (JEL 12, C25)
THE DEMAND FOR CIGARETTES IN TAIWAN: DOMESTIC VERSUS IMPORTED CIGARETTES
Authors: HSIEH CHEE‐RUEY , HU TEH‐WEI , LIN CHIEN‐FU JEFF
Published: January 2010

This paper uses annual time series data from Taiwan to empirically estimate the demand for cigarettes, in consideration of the import liberation of foreign cigarettes and of antismoking campaigns. The results indicate that the price elasticities for domestic and imported cigarettes are ‐0.6 and‐1.1, respectively. The cross‐price elasticities are 0.08 for domestic and 2.78 for imported cigarettes. The spread of cigarette health information has had a significantly negative effect on cigarette consumption. In addition, this study offers mild support to the argument that opening the market to imported cigarettes has resulted in significant increases in overall cigarette consumption. (JEL D12, 118)
TOWARD BEHAVIORAL MODELING OF ALASKA GROUNDFISH FISHERIES: A DISCRETE CHOICE APPROACH TO BERING SEA/ALEUTIAN ISLANDS TRAWL FISHERIES
Authors: LARSON DOUGLAS M. , SUTTON WILLIAM R. , TERRY JOSEPH M.
Published: January 2010

This article implements a discrete choice model of fishery participation in the multispecies trawl fisheries of the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Region off Alaska. Nonparametric estimates of the operation‐specific moments of quasirent by fishery and week are used to explain probabilities of choosing different target fisheries. There are pronounced risk aversion, seasonal, and relative performance effects. Notably, the model runs with regularly collected data, so this type of discrete choice modeling can be used routinely in the management and policy evaluation process. Improvements are needed, though, in both the quality and the extent of economic data on fisheries in Alaska and elsewhere in the United States. (JEL Q22, C25, Q28)
THE KYOTO PROTOCOL, CAFE STANDARDS, AND GASOLINE TAXES
Authors: AGRAS JEAN , CHAPMAN DUANE
Published: January 2010

The Kyoto Protocol mandates that the U.S. reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 93% of their 1990 levels by the period 2008–2012. This paper explores the possibility of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector to 7% below their 1990 level by 2010. This paper examines two policies to achieve these reductions Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency standards and gasoline taxes. The introduction of these policies individually makes the task seem daunting, yet when using the policies jointly the objective is achievable.(JELQ38, Q48, R48)
THE DETERMINANTS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL CHOICE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF HALOGENATED SOLVENT WASTE SHIPMENTS
Authors: ALBERINI ANNA , BARTHOLOMEW JOHN
Published: January 2010

Disposal of hazardous waste is more complex than simply choosing the option with the lowest price: Legislation may hold a waste generator responsible for cleaning up a badly contaminated waste disposal site if the operator of that site goes bankrupt. This paper estimates conditional logit models of a generator's choice of waste management facility (TSDF) for shipments of halogenated solvent waste originating in California in 1995. The probability that a facility is selected as the destination of a shipment depends on the cost of shipping to and disposal at the facility, on existing contamination at the site, and on the track record of the facility, suggesting that generators do seem to balance current disposal costs with the likelihood of future liability. There is no evidence that generators prefer facilities owned by publicly traded firms, but when generators do choose TSDFs belonging to a publicly traded company, they prefer wealthier companies. (JEL Q21)
E‐MONEY AND PAYMENT SYSTEM RISKS
Authors: McANDREWS JAMES J.
Published: January 2010

The rapid development of new electronic systems of payment, or e‐money, offers society many potential benefits even as it poses new types of risk for system operators. The risks to which e‐money is most subject–operational, fraud, and legal risk–pose new challenges to payment system risk control. A review of instances of failures in similar systems suggests some useful lessons for the successful development of e‐money. (JEL E42, G2)
EXCHANGE RATE‐BASED STABILIZATION IN WESTERN EUROPE: GREECE, IRELAND, ITALY, AND PORTUGAL
Authors: DETRAGIACHE ENRICA , HAMANN A. JAVIER
Published: January 2010

This paper reviews the experience with exchange rate‐based stabilization of four Western European countries–Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Greece–in 1980–1996 and compares it with the experience of high‐inflation developing countries. We find that inflation stabilization was contractionary, in contrast with the expansionary cycle observed in high‐inflation countries, although some real exchange rate appreciation took place. Also, frequent adjustments of the exchange rate peg or even its abandonment did not lead to a resumption of inflation, so stabilization programs were successful in all four countries. (JEL E31, F41)
DOES FEDERAL FUNDING “CROWD IN” PRIVATE FUNDING OF SCIENCE?
Authors: DIAMOND ARTHUR M.
Published: January 2010

Proposed cutbacks in government science funding have caused many to expect that the rate of scientific progress will significantly decline. Before the magnitude of the decline can be estimated, a preliminary question must be answered: what is the extent to which private funding of science may be expected to fill the gap left by the declining government funding? Using data on government and private funding of science, preliminary estimation indicates that past government funding of science has not “crowded out” private funding of science. If this finding is supported by further research, it would indicate that private funding could not be expected to replace lost federal funding of science. (JEL H4, HI, 03, D6, L3)
IS THE DEMISE OF M2 GREATLY EXAGGERATED?
Authors: LAURENT ROBERT D.
Published: January 2010

The early 1990s in the United States were years of sluggish economic growth alongside a sharply lowered federal funds rate, leading analysts to conclude that monetary policy must have been rendered ineffective by external influences. One previously popular monetary policy indicator not used to analyze the period was real M2, as it was widely considered to have been distorted since the early 1980s. This paper argues that it was a serious mistake to ignore M2 in the early 1990s since it never forecast (relatively or absolutely) better and helps explains this otherwise puzzling period very well. (JEL E32, E51, E52)
REAL ESTATE TAX IN URBAN CHINA
Authors: SONG SHUNFENG , CHU GEORGE S.‐F. , CAO RONGQING
Published: January 2010

Since its foundation in 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has adopted several contrasting policies to address the urban housing problem. Among them have been changes in real estate tax law. The first real estate tax laws in the PRC were promulgated in January 1950. Amended several times, they became ineffective after 1973. In September 1986, the State Council promulgated a new real estate tax law affecting all urban properties. According to this new law, real estate taxes are to be levied on owners, so that most real estate taxes have been paid by enterprises rather than households. However, with the recent drive to privatize housing in urban China, property rights are being transferred from public to private ownership, and in conjunction with real estate taxes, this is producing undesired inequalities. This paper investigates the development of real estate taxation, examines the role of property tax in the ongoing housing reform, and recommends changes in real estate taxes that would better achieve the government's egalitarian goals. (JEL H20, R31)
Who pays for minor league training costs?
Authors: Krautmann AC. , Gustafson E. , Hadley L.
Published: January 2010

As an alternative to monopsonistic exploitation, the underpayment of players in major league baseball may be explained as the attempt by owners to recoup general training expenses. In this article, a method is proffered for estimating the ‘surplus’ extracted from those players restricted by the reserve clause, where this surplus is defined as the difference between what the player is actually paid and what he would have received if he were a free agent. These estimates are then used to examine how the surplus varies across players. The results suggest a number of interesting aspects of the recovery of minor league training costs, monopsony exploitation, and the distribution of the surplus across players. First, owners only extract a surplus from ‘apprentices’ (i.e., those young players who are ineligible for salary arbitration). Second, the largest surpluses are extracted from those who cost the least to train. In fact, the surplus generated by star apprentices is about twice that of mediocre apprentices. Finally, the results suggest that the surplus extracted from minority apprentices is 10–15% higher than that extracted from white apprentices.
Integration of rice markets: the case of southern China
Authors: Zhou ZY. , Wan GH. , Chen LB.
Published: January 2010

In this article, integration of rice markets in southern China is analyzed using the cointegration technique and monthly price data. Results show that there is a general lack of integration among the indica rice markets in China. Poor transport facilities, government interventions, and the limited amount of grain available for arbitrage are identified as the major impediments to market integration. Policy implications are discussed.