Economic Inquiry articles from January 1998

Economic Inquiry archives from January 1998

Honoring Eldon J. Dvorak. (Executive Vice President, Western Economic Association International)
January 1, 1998... Executive Vice President, WEA International Eldon J. Dvorak is stepping down from his post as Executive Vice President of the Western Economic Association International, a job he has filled for the better part of 30 years. Presidents and board...

Mortgage lending to minorities: where's the bias?
January 1, 1998... The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) was designed to make it possible to determine whether or not banks discriminate against any sectors of the population when making mortgage lending decisions. The raw data showed that the denial rate for...

Mortgage lending in Boston: a reconsideration of the evidence.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION Discrimination in the marketplace is often measured using statistical methods. In order for the results to be interpretable as some form of discrimination it is necessary that these methods be firmly based on economic theories...

An empirical analysis of alcohol addiction: results from monitoring the future panels.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION This paper aims to refine and enrich the empirical literature dealing with the price sensitivity of alcohol consumption by incorporating insights provided by Becker and Murphy's [1988] theoretical model of rational addictive...

The duration of the smoking habit.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION Most smokers smoke out of habit. Once the habit is ended, many of smoking's most harmful effects decline rather quickly. Preventing and ending cigarette addiction is, therefore, the straightest path toward preventing the health...

Geographically localized knowledge: spillovers or markets?
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION Knowledge spillovers - positive externalities of scientific discoveries on the productivity of firms which neither made the discovery themselves nor licensed its use from the holder of intellectual property rights - play a...

Experimental comparisons of auctions under single- and multi-unit demand.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION The study of multiple-unit auctions is important because of their widespread use and the high value of goods sold. Examples include auctions of U.S. treasury debt, cut flowers, wine, foreign exchange, and other financial and...

An evolutionary explanation for rotten kids.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION Scholars like Becker [1976], Hirshleifer [1988], Bergstrom and Stark [1993], and Rogers [1994] have developed the idea that evolutionary theory can enrich our understanding of economics. The studies in this field have mainly...

Inference using qualitative and quantitative information with an application to monetary policy/.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION There has been a revival of interest in the use of qualitative information in macroeconomic analysis recently. An impetus for this revival is the apparent inability of modern statistical analyses that use only quantitative...

The relative stickiness of wages and prices.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION A continuing challenge to macroeconomics is to explain how a purely nominal disturbance produces short-term aggregate real effects. In the classical paradigm, in which wages and prices are perfectly flexible, a positive nominal...

Monetary integration, inflation convergence and output shocks in the European monetary system.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION The Maastricht treaty of 1992 outlines a plan for the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) of members of the European Monetary System (EMS). The treaty provides for a European central bank, and ultimately a single monetary unit....

Do employers pay for consistent performance?: evidence from the NBA. (National Basketball Association)
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION There are many economic models of labor contracting that feature job performance monitoring by employers when there is asymmetric information about worker behavior. These models focus on a variety of agency issues and generate...

Experience-dependent information diffusion and product quality.
January 1, 1998... I. INTRODUCTION When consumers have little or no history with an experience good, expectations about quality are often based on the experiences of others. Information about others' experiences is available from sources such as word-of-mouth,...

The past lies behind. (history of the Western Economic Association)
January 1, 1998... I add my belated welcome to this gathering of the Western Economic Association International. A friend of mine who did his doctoral work at the University of Washington has warned me that attending a matinee in Seattle in July means running the...