Quarterly Journal of Economics articles from May 2000

Quarterly Journal of Economics archives from May 2000

EFFICIENT AUCTIONS [*].
May 1, 2000... We exhibit an efficient auction (an auction that maximizes surplus conditional on all available information). For private values, the Vickrey auction (for one good) or its Groves-Clarke extension (for multiple goods) is efficient. We show that...

LAND REFORM, POVERTY REDUCTION, AND GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM INDIA [*].
May 1, 2000... In recent times there has been a renewed interest in relationships between redistribution, growth, and welfare. Land reforms in developing countries are often aimed at improving the poor's access to land, although their effectiveness has often...

ESTIMATING THE LABOR MARKET SIGNALING VALUE OF THE GED [*].
May 1, 2000... This paper tests the labor market signaling hypothesis for the General Educational Development (GED) equivalency credential. Using a unique data set containing GED test scores and Social Security Administration (SSA) earnings data, we exploit...

ABILITY-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSITION, WAGE INEQUALITY, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH [*].
May 1, 2000... This paper develops a growth model characterized by ability-biased technological transition in which the evolution of technology, education attainment, and wage inequality is consistent with the observed pattern in the United States and other...

ELECTORAL COMPETITION UNDER THE THREAT OF POLITICAL UNREST [*].
May 1, 2000... We study elections in which one party (the strong party) controls a source of political unrest; e.g., this party could instigate riots if it lost the election. We show that the strong party is more likely to win the election when there is less...

THE DEMAND FOR MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES: THE CASE OF TRUCKING [*].
May 1, 2000... This paper examines the demand for on-board computers in trucking, distinguishing between their incentive- and resource-allocation-improving capabilities. I find that monitoring's incentive benefits are high when perquisite-taking is...

IN A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS: THE IMPACT OF TAXES ON INTERNET COMMERCE [*].
May 1, 2000... The rapid rise in sales over the Internet and the fact that most Internet buyers pay no sales tax has ignited a considerable debate over taxes and the Internet. This paper uses new data on the purchase decisions of approximately 25,000 online...

IS HOSPITAL COMPETITION SOCIALLY WASTEFUL? [*].
May 1, 2000... We study the consequences of hospital competition for Medicare beneficiaries' heart attack care from 1985 to 1994. We examine how relatively exogenous determinants of hospital choice such as travel distances influence the competitiveness of...

ARE RECESSIONS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH? [*].
May 1, 2000... This study investigates the relationship between economic conditions and health. Total mortality and eight of the ten sources of fatalities examined are shown to exhibit a procyclical fluctuation, with suicides representing an important...

SUBSTITUTION AND DROPOUT BIAS IN SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS: A STUDY OF AN INFLUENTIAL SOCIAL EXPERIMENT [*].
May 1, 2000... This paper considers the interpretation of evidence from social experiments when persons randomized out of a program being evaluated have good substitutes for it, and when persons randomized into a program drop out to pursue better...

INVESTMENT-CASH FLOW SENSITIVITIES ARE USEFUL: A COMMENT ON KAPLAN AND ZINGALES [*].
May 1, 2000... A recent paper in this Journal by Kaplan and Zingales reexamines a subset of firms from work of Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen and criticizes the usefulness of investment-cash flow sensitivities for detecting financing constraints. We show that...

INVESTMENT-CASH FLOW SENSITIVITIES ARE NOT VALID MEASURES OF FINANCING CONSTRAINTS [*].
May 1, 2000... Work by Kaplan and Zingales provides both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence that investment-cash flow sensitivities are not good indicators of financing constraints. Fazzari, Hubbard, and Petersen [this Journal] criticize those...

ERRATUM.
May 1, 2000... On page 142 of the February 2000 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics the affiliation is listed as the University of Chicago. It should be corrected to Stanford University.