Contemporary Policy Issues articles from October 1993

Contemporary Policy Issues archives from October 1993

Returns Paid to Early Social Security Cohorts
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION The combined benefit and contribution structure of the U.S. Social Security program generates substantial income transfers within and across generations. A highly progressive benefit formula transfers income from high-wage to...

GATT Trade Rules and the Environment
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION This paper focuses on the relationship between trade rules contained in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the ability of the signatories to these...

Willingness to Pay for Air Quality: The Case of Outdoor Exercise
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently reviewed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone. The 1970 Clean Air Act requires setting national primary standards for ambient air quality at levels to...

Wage Mobility and Wage Inequality among Young Workers
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Individuals undergo a great deal of job mobility and wage variation during their early years in the labor market. Previous research indicates that about two-thirds of all lifetime job changes and nearly two-thirds of lifetime wage...

Effects of Price and Availability on Abortion Demand
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Following the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973, the rate of legal abortion in the United States increased from 16.3 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 1973 to 29.3 in 1981, but then declined to 27.3 by 1988....

Life Insurance Company Risk Exposure: Market Evidence and Policy Implications
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Failures of several large life insurance companies (LICs)--such as Mutual Benefit and Executive Life in 1991--raise the possibility of pervasive failures in yet another category of financial intermediaries that would require...

Youth Alcohol Use and Public Policy
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Between 1970 and 1975, 29 states lowered their minimum legal drinking ages for alcohol to comply with a change in the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1970. In 1976, concern about youth drinking and its consequences reversed this...

Valuing Effects of Climate Change and Fishery Enhancement on Chinook Salmon
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Recent considerations for listing some Pacific Northwest salmon stocks as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act highlight the numerous environmental threats to these stocks. To the traditional anthropogenic...

Gender Differences in Ph.D. Economists' Careers
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Previous studies of women's participation in traditionally male-dominated scientific and technical fields suggest that women are more likely than men to be placed in lower-ranked departments in academia, less likely to enter...

What Should Banks Really Do?: Comment
October 1, 1993... I. INTRODUCTION Lawrence J. White (1992) argues that the nature of financial intermediation and market competition makes banks susceptible to runs. Such bank runs naturally become banking panics when depositors at all banks, unable to distinguish...

What Should Banks Really Do?: Reply
October 1, 1993... In my original article (White, 1992), I tried to sharpen the focus of the current policy debate over the proper structure and activities of depository institutions ("banks") and the concomitant safety-and-soundness regulation that would be...