Economic Inquiry articles from April 2006

Economic Inquiry archives from April 2006

Returns to skills and personnel management: U.S. Department of Defense scientists and engineers.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Labor economics research has documented important changes in the structure of wages in the 1980s and 1990s. (1) Private-sector labor-market returns to various measures of skills increased dramatically. For example, the...

Birth order and risky adolescent behavior.(Statistical data)
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION There is a widespread belief that birth order is an important determinant of personality, intelligence, and economic success. This belief is supported by a number of recently published popular books, each with its own...

The effects of discretionary federal spending on parliamentary election results.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Three compelling reasons to expect that discretionary federal spending will have a different impact on incumbent majority and opposition candidates in the Canadian parliamentary system of government are: only the prime...

Do newly retired workers in the United States have sufficient resources to maintain well-being?
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION A persistent policy concern regarding the elderly is the extent to which available resources at the time of retirement are sufficient to enable the maintenance of economic well-being during the remaining years of life....

Did the euro foster online price competition? Evidence from an international price comparison site.(Kelkoo.com)
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION The Euro became a reality for consumers in 12 nations on 1 January 2002, when it was introduced for retail transactions in all the participating countries. (1) Prior to this, retail transactions were conducted in local...

Tracking customer search to price discriminate.
April 1, 2006... Suppose that every time you walked around the mall, somebody put a bar code on your shoulder and, as you walked into the shops in the mall, someone came up and scanned your shoulder and got the number... went to a database, saying, "Ah, yes,...

Poverty, prices, and place: how sensitive is the spatial distribution of poverty to cost of living adjustments?
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Estimates of poverty figure prominently in the criteria that determine the geographic distribution of large sums of cash and in-kind benefits from state and federal government programs. Citro and Michael (1995, 89-90) note...

Lessons from a failed airline auction.(US Airways Inc.)
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION In October 1995, USAir (the United States' fifth-largest airline at the time) approached American Airlines first and then United Airlines about a possible buyout. American declined to bid, as did United. However, Ziemba...

A time series test of innovation-driven endogenous growth.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION The proposition that the accumulation of physical capital alone cannot sustain growth indefinitely due to diminishing returns is well accepted among most, if not all, economists studying economic growth. This acceptance...

Smoke-free air laws, cigarette prices, and adult cigarette demand.(United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC 2002a), cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 430,000 premature deaths each year in the United States. As such, it represents the single largest...

Turns in consumer confidence: an information advantage linked to manufacturing.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Much effort has gone into the search for early signals of changes in economic activity. One focus has been on the role of consumer confidence indices. Although these indices have been shown to have predictive power for...

An experimental study of compliance and leverage in auditing and regulatory enforcement.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Regulatory policymakers have observed that many firms and individuals comply with regulations even when both the frequency of audits and the penalty for violations are low. This is seen in areas as diverse as income tax...

Sunk costs, profit variability, and turnover.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION The dynamic competitive approach to the study of industrial organization highlights the role of sunk costs and the associated hysteresis effects in determining how industries behave over time. The theoretical models are...

Simultaneous equation econometrics: the missing example.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Existing textbooks of econometrics, including several that are excellent in most respects, are marred by a surprising and rather disturbing omission relating to simultaneous equation estimation. Ever since the publication...