Economic Inquiry articles from October 1996

Economic Inquiry archives from October 1996

The effect of maternal drug use on birth weight: measurement error in binary variables.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION The adverse consequences of maternal drug use on birth outcomes is a serious public health issue. Clinical data have clearly established that use of illicit drugs during pregnancy is significantly correlated with the incidence...

Altruism, matching, and nonmarket insurance.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Nonmarket transactions are commonplace, even in situations in which market substitutes are available. The provision of insurance is one such case in which both market and nonmarket products coexist. Spousal support and income...

Wage discrimination across ethnic groups: evidence from Israel.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Wage differentials and occupational segregation have been intensively studied and well documented in the economic literature. Empirical analyses have demonstrated differences by gender and ethnicity and theoretical studies have...

Monopoly, monopsony and contestability in health insurance: a study of Blue Cross plans.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans (the "Plans") have historically occupied a unique niche in health care. Pauly [1987] notes that the Plans serve both as sellers of health insurance and as buyers of health services. Marmor...

Use, esteem, and profit in voluntary provision: toll roads in California, 1850-1902.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Sometimes individuals form an enterprise not in anticipation of handsome residual returns, but rather for their own use. If the user group is large and the project requires numerous contributors, there may be an incentive to...

The spatial distribution of black employment between the central city and the suburbs.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Smock [1968], Kain [1968], and Leonard [1987] have shown that the share of jobs held by blacks is smaller in the suburbs in comparison to the central city. Little is known concerning the factors accounting for this skewness in...

Political and economic determinants of interest rate behavior: are central banks different?
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Do politicians manipulate the instruments of macroeconomic policy to improve their electoral prospects or in response to the preferences of their own party? These questions are addressed, but not yet resolved, by the literature...

Potential competition and possible collusion in forest service timber auctions.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Potential entrants to an imperfectly competitive market, in theory, limit the ability of existing firms to charge high prices. This claim has rarely been tested, due mainly to the problems of identifying potential entrants and...

Cumulation and ITC decision-making: the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. (International Trade Commission)
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION In recent decades, the rise in international competition has led many U.S. firms to seek protection from foreign imports. Particularly noteworthy in the 1980s was the increased use of the U.S. "unfair" trade laws. Two popular...

Does the per se rule deter vertical price-fixing?
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION Beginning with the wide-scale introduction of branded goods in the late nineteenth century, manufacturers have often tried to dictate minimum resale prices to the retail outlets carrying their products. And since roughly the...

The effect of the food stamp program on nutrient intake.
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION One of the goals of the Food Stamp Program, as stated in the preamble of the law, is to ensure that low-income households have the opportunity to attain a nutritionally adequate diet. Previous economic studies evaluating the...

Friedman's 'plucking model': comment. (response to Milton Friedman's business cycle theory)
October 1, 1996... I. INTRODUCTION In a report on research in progress issued more than a quarter-century ago and again in a recent article consisting largely of excerpts from the earlier report, Milton Friedman [1969a; 1993] calls into question an entire class...