Economic Inquiry articles from January 1994

Economic Inquiry archives from January 1994

The dark side of the force: Western Economic Association International 1993 Presidential Address. (Jack Hirshleifer speech) (Transcript)
January 1, 1994... ... /T/he age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded: and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.[1] Edmund Burke wrote that accusation against our profession back in the year 1790. Yet, 200...

Errors in output deflators revisited: unit values and the producer price index.
January 1, 1994... Output prices are mismeasured because of inadequate adjustments for changes in product quality. Thus, when quality improves, inflation will be systematically overstated. In this study, I find that the most commonly used indicator of the rate...

The rising cost of time of females, the growth of national brands and the supply of retail services. (includes appendices)
January 1, 1994... A rise in the relative cost of time of women has increased the demand for brand names and reduced the demand for information traditionally supplied by retailers. A theory of the optimal allocation of shopping responsibilities in a two-earner...

Shaping the institutional infrastructure.
January 1, 1994... Certain types of laws and institutions shape economic behavior in market economies. In Eastern Europe these general rules and market institutions are often nonexistent, and a major problem is to create market economies while simultaneously...

An analysis of the impact of congressional term limits.
January 1, 1994... We examine the impact of a six-term tenure limit on members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The first part of this study develops a methodological framework for simulating the quantitative impact of term limits. The second part of this...

Voting and imitative behavior.
January 1, 1994... Political behavior generates private benefits by helping people fit in with desired friends. A voter imitates other voters, but at the same time they imitate him. An equilibrium solution requires exogenous variables: the narrow self-interest...

The effect of the Medicaid home care benefit on long-term care choices of the elderly. (includes appendix)
January 1, 1994... This paper analyses the impact of Medicaid home care benefits on the probability of nursing home entry and the use of formal and informal home care by disabled elderly remaining in the community. Using data from the National Long-Term Care...

Firm specific human capital as an employer discipline device. (includes appendix)
January 1, 1994... The inability of employers to monitor perfectly the level of effort of their employees is a potentially serious impediment to labor market efficacy. Indeed, a number of recent studies have concluded that this may lead to involuntary...

The metrics of style: Adam Smith teaches efficient rhetoric.
January 1, 1994... I. QUANTIFYING CLARITY: ADAM SMITH AND RUDOLF FLESCH Teachers of English rhetoric often give lists of rules to follow. What is not so often done is to give reasons for the rules, to help one determine which rules are hard and fast and which are...

The political economy of Heinrich von Stackelberg.
January 1, 1994... I. INTRODUCTION The early twentieth century economist Baron Heinrich von Stackelberg occupies a prominent place in the history of economics due to such innovations as "Stackelberg indifference curves," "Stackelberg leadership" and "Stackelberg...

In search of Giffen behavior: comment.
January 1, 1994... A recent article by Gilley and Karels |1991~ develops a theory of Giffen behavior. Gilley and Karels consider a consumer in an economy with two goods, meat and potatoes. In addition to meeting a binding budget constraint, the consumer must...

Focusing the search for Giffen behavior.
January 1, 1994... I. INTRODUCTION In the neoclassical theory of consumer choice, Giffen behavior can exist only if a positive income effect outweighs an always-negative substitution effect. It is a phenomenon, then, associated with highly restrictive--and,...

More on the search for Giffen goods.
January 1, 1994... In a recent paper in this journal (Gilley and Karels |1991~), we showed that observed behavior consistent with the Giffen paradox can occur largely independent of the form of the utility function. Our model took the potatoes and meat fable of the...

Dealing with arguably legitimate exam gripes: a possible Pareto improvement.
January 1, 1994... "But Professor Grump, the way I read choice b, it's right and I DESERVE full credit." "But Professor Grump, now that you explained it, I know what you meant by the question. But you didn't state it clearly, so it was ambiguous, and I...