Contemporary Economic Policy articles from April 2006

Contemporary Economic Policy archives from April 2006

Averting and insurance decisions in the wildland-urban interface: implications of survey and experimental data for wildfire risk reduction policy.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION The charred wreckage of homes incinerated by wildfires in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and elsewhere provides a compelling backdrop for investigating how homeowners living in wildland-urban interface (WUI)...

The decreasing influence of domestic market structure on racial earnings differentials: 1984 to 1996.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Earnings discrimination occurs when racial groups of equal productivity receive different returns to human capital attributes. Theories of discretionary power suggest that noncompetitive market structure provides a...

Welfare-improving privatization policy in the telecommunications industry.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION For decades, there has been a monopoly in telecommunications services controlled by a stable firm, a public enterprise in most of the world. The absence of competition was motivated by the existence of large fixed costs in...

Is there a case for low inflation-induced productivity growth in selected Asian economies?
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Double-digit inflation rates and declines in productivity growth in the 1970s spurred the economies of countries such as Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Israel to adopt an...

Privatization of public housing: did it cause the 1998 recession in Hong Kong?
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Privatization is often believed to be conducive to economic efficiency. Even though this effect is still controversial, any suggestion that privatization could lead to the erosion of wealth and economic inefficiency would...

Who bears the burden of U.S. nontariff measures?
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION Considerable attention has been devoted to the study of industrial nations' trade policies and their impacts on developing countries. Tariffs used by industrial nations have been found to bear more heavily on products of...

Ending restrictions to migration from the new EU member countries: sectoral trade and real wage effects.(European Union)
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION It is conventional wisdom that free migration damages advanced economies. When the May 2004 enlargement of the European Union was being negotiated, there were great fears of large flows of migrant workers pouring into the...

Has European Economic integration affected the functional composition of government expenditures?
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION The globalization process has led to a growing interdependence of fiscal policies affecting, inter alia, the composition of government expenditures. Sanz and Velazquez (2004) show that there was convergence in the structure...

Learning by association: micro credit in Chiapas, Mexico.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION The very poor have a difficult time accessing formal credit markets. They do not have collateral, payroll income, or a credit record. The inability to obtain credit contributes to a variety of problems, including...

What determines migration flows from low-income to high-income countries? An empirical investigation of Fiji-U.S. migration 1972-2001.
April 1, 2006... I. INTRODUCTION There are several studies that have examined the flow of migrants from low-income to high-income countries. These studies have considered the effect of the transfer of human capital on the countries of origin and...