Economic Inquiry articles from July 2001

Economic Inquiry archives from July 2001

THE RATE OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN WINE.(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... JOYCE P. JACOBSEN [*] Is wine an investment alternative to stocks and bonds? First, we review prior studies regarding the pecuniary rate of return to wine and other alternatives to financial assets. Next, we calculate the rate of return...

GAVEL-TO-GAVEL CONGRESSIONAL TELEVISION COVERAGE AS POLITICAL ADVERTISING: THE IMPACT OF C-SPAN ON LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS.
July 1, 2001... KAMAL P. UPADHYAYA [*] This article examines the effect of television on the length of legislative sessions at the federal level in the United States. Data from the U.S. Congress during the period 1972-96 are employed, during part of which...

HABITUAL AND OCCASIONAL LOBBYERS IN THE U.S. STEEL INDUSTRY: AN EM ALGORITHM POOLING APPROACH.
July 1, 2001... BERNARD YEUNG [*] Using U.S. steel firm data, we find that lobbying for import protection appears to be habit-forming. To identify heterogeneity in lobbying behavior among firms, we use an expectation-maximization algorithm to sort our...

A THEORY OF TIME PREFERENCE.
July 1, 2001... GRANT A. TAYLOR [*] This article proposes that people generally prefer present consumption to future consumption because their expected utility from consumption (eventually) falls as their mental and physical abilities (eventually) decline...

MAJORITARIAN MANAGEMENT OF THE COMMONS.
July 1, 2001... YONG J. YOON [*] This article analyzes usage of a common property resource, "the commons," under collectivization as compared with more familiar privatization institutional arrangements. Particular emphasis is on majority decision rules....

WAGE DIFFERENTIALS OF TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRIES: DEREGULATION VERSUS REGULATION.
July 1, 2001... This article investigates the wage differentials of similar occupations in three for-hire transportation carrier industries, railroad, truck and motor bus, under regulation and deregulation. The estimation results indicate that the union wage...

FREE AGENCY, COMPETITIVE BALANCE, AND DIMINISHING RETURNS TO PENNANT CONTENTION.(Major League Baseball)
July 1, 2001... E. WOODROW ECKARD [*] This article argues that the 1976 introduction of free agency increased competitive balance in Major League Baseball. The evidence is based on a new empirical measure that captures the key dynamic element of balance:...

A QUALITY-OF-PLAY MODEL OF A PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUE.
July 1, 2001... PHILIPPE CYRENNE [*] Assuming that consumers value both the absolute and relative quality of play, I compare the choice of ticket prices, team qualities, and number of games played in a noncooperative outcome versus that chosen by a social...

BEQUEST MOTIVES, SOCIAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH.
July 1, 2001... JUNXI ZHANG [*] This article conducts a systematic analysis of four bequest motives in a simple model of endogenous growth. It analyzes how bequest motives affect fertility savings, growth, and the effects of pay-as-you-go Social Security....

SOME COMMENTS ON FREE-RIDING IN LEONTIEF PARTNERSHIPS.
July 1, 2001... HANS K. HVIDE [*] Holmstrom (Bell Journal of Economics, 13, 1982 324-40) showed that freeriding is inevitable in partnerships where inputs are substitutes. Legros and Matthews (Review of Economic Studies, 68, 1993, 599-611) and Vislie...

FIRM SIZE, EARNINGS, AND DISPLACEMENT RISK.
July 1, 2001... RUDOLF WINTER-EBMER [*] Analogous to the well-documented firm size-wage differential, there also exists a differential in layoff risk according to firm size. Using Austrian data I discuss several reasons for this puzzle, including...

PHYSICIAN MARKET POWER--EVIDENCE FROM THE ALLOCATION OF MALPRACTICE PREMIUMS.(Industry Overview)(Technical)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... NORMAN K. THURSTON [*] Based on evidence from variations in malpractice premiums, physicians have local market power, at least in some dimensions. It is observed that higher-cost physicians pass on a significant portion of idiosyncratic...