Economic Inquiry articles from April 2009

Economic Inquiry archives from April 2009

The slippery slope of concession.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION Given that conflict is costly, why does it occur? When both parties believe that they are the probable winner, and the winner captures a positive surplus, conflict is the obvious consequence. Should we, then, observe...

Uncertainty and monetary policy rules in the United States.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION "Uncertainty is not just an important feature of the monetary policy landscape; it is the defining characteristic of that landscape" (Greenspan 2003). Uncertainty is a central issue in monetary policy, as the quote...

The effects of uncertainty on the leverage of nonfinancial firms.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION The determinants of capital structure have always attracted considerable attention in the literature. In their seminal work, Modigliani and Miller (1958) derive the theoretical result that under the assumption of perfect...

Productivity growth and technological diffusion through foreign direct investment.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION The recent surge in cross-border financial flows has generated an intense debate among economists and policymakers on the benefits and costs of the ongoing international financial integration. In principle, financial...

Population growth and industrialization.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION What are the impacts of population growth on a country's possibility of achieving industrialization? On the one hand, if population growth always leads to higher economic activities, why did China before 1840, the country...

Risk taking in contests and the role of carrots and sticks.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION When individuals compete for promotions, bonuses, or other rewards tied to their relative performance ranking vis-a-vis other contestants, competition is likely to drive not just work effort but, where imperfect monitoring...

Managers' compensation and misreporting: a costly state verification approach.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION The use of stock options in compensation packages as a way of providing the firm management with the right incentives has been quite popular in the 1990s. The favor encountered by options started, however, to decrease in...

Fishes, ponds, and productivity: student-advisor matching and early career publishing success for economics PHDS.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION Research productivity is an important concern for members of the academe. Publishing success is important for individual departments because more productive faculty increases the department's research profile, which in turn...

White-knuckle externalities.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION Urban motorists are well acquainted with the frustrations of traffic congestion. As Calfee and Winston (1998) put it, "Everyone knows the toll congestion can take on drivers' nerves. And everyone knows how costly it can be...

Does the minimum legal drinking age save lives?
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION The Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act (FUDAA), signed by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984, threatened to withhold highway construction funds from states that failed to increase their minimum legal drinking age (MLDA)...

Fraternity membership and drinking behavior.
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION Fraternities and sororities are an integral part of life for many college students. In the Harvard College Alcohol Study (CAS), which sampled nationally representative groups of full-time undergraduates at 4-yr colleges on...

Paternity deferments and the timing of births: U.S. natality during the Vietnam war.
April 1, 2009... I. BACKGROUND During the conflict in Vietnam, men between 18.5 and 25 yr of age were subject to the draft. Several exemptions to this rule existed. For example, students were exempt. Importantly for the purposes of this study, married men...

Have efforts to reduce smoking really contributed to the obesity epidemic?
April 1, 2009... I. INTRODUCTION Two of the most notable trends in public health over the past 30 yr are the reductions in smoking rates and the rapid increase in obesity rates. Based on data from the National Health Interview Survey, the smoking rate...