Contemporary Policy Issues articles from July 1993

Contemporary Policy Issues archives from July 1993

Medical research and genetic resources management: the case of taxol.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Cancer treatment is a major focus of biotechnology research in the United States. In 1988, over two-thirds of U.S. biotechnology patents were in the health care field and half of biotechnology medicines tested on humans...

Limiting U.S. oil imports: cost estimates.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION U.S. concern about limiting oil imports had its root in the late 1950s when the possibility that inexpensive Middle East crude oil would replace domestic supply first became a real threat (Bohi and Russell, 1978). The...

The minimum wage, wage subsidies, and poverty.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION April 1, 1991 marked the first day of a significant rise in the minimum wage, from $3.80 to $4.25 an hour. Critics charge that a minimum-wage earner still is consigned to poverty. The 1991 poverty thresholds for families...

Impact of child quality on earnings: the productivity-of-schooling hypothesis.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Discussion concerning discrimination against non-whites in the educational system and in the work place has moved from a concentration on the black experience to a more general consideration of multiple minority groups....

Prohibition versus taxation: reconsidering the legal drinking age.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION In 1972, ratification of the 26th amendment extended the right to vote to 18-year-olds. In its wake, 29 states also lowered their legal drinking ages. By 1988, however, all states had returned to the legal drinking age...

Motivating recycling: a marginal cost analysis.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION As landfill space becomes increasingly scarce, many solid waste management areas (SWMA) have turned to recycling programs as a means of diverting waste from landfills. A SWMA is a geographical, political, and legal...

Ocean shipping economics: free trade and antitrust implications.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION This paper argues that, contrary to much conventional wisdom, ocean shipping economics closely resembles airline, trucking, and railroad economics. All employ some variation on hub-and-spoke networks to achieve...

Ocean shipping economics: comment. (response to article by David A. Butz in this issue, p. 69)(includes reply)
July 1, 1993... The international ocean shipping industry is one of the few remaining bastions of regulation, having escaped the deregulation process in transportation during the past two decades. Ocean shipping on U.S. international trade lanes has been...

Energy intensity improvements in steel minimills.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Over the past 20 years, U.S. steel manufacturing has experienced an episode of creative destruction. Iron-ore based steel plants closed over 50 million tons of annual capacity while scrap-based steel plants concurrently...

Impact of pricing structure selectivity on urban water demand.
July 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Interest in demand management policies has intensified as the demand for residential water has grown in the United States. While municipal utilities historically have emphasized education and conservation programs, they...