American Economist articles from March 1996

American Economist archives from March 1996

An accidental Schumpeterian. (on economist Joseph A. Schumpeter)
March 22, 1996... My research program as an economist has emphasized two intersecting themes: the causes and consequences of technological innovations; and how business firms' behavior varies with the structural environment (e.g., competitive, oligopolistic, or...

My rules of thumb. (how an economist works)
March 22, 1996... My assignment is to describe how I work. I take on this task with mixed feelings. One can easily become vain in the process of public introspection, and vanity is a trait best left private. It is not entirely clear to me why anyone should care...

A class of utility functions yielding linear demand functions.
March 22, 1996... I. Introduction Linear demand functions are often used in the economic literature as a convenient form for deriving important properties of complex economic models. Likewise, they are also used in many microeconomic textbooks for...

Socioeconomic and political determinants of state spending on environmental programs.
March 22, 1996... A median voter-taxpayer mode is estimated to examine the impact of several socioeconomic and political variables on the demand for per capita expenditures on environmental programs and the quality of environmental programs. A two equation...

Are big hospitals the best medicine.
March 22, 1996... 1.0 Introduction The health care issue has exploded to the top of the American political agenda. In the process, attention has increasingly focused on health care providers, especially hospitals, as centerpieces in the supply of...

Testing increasing sensitivity of enrollment at private institutions to tuition and other costs.
March 22, 1996... 1. Introduction One of the major concerns of attending private colleges and universities is the increasing tuition and other costs. For instance, total cost of tuition, room and board went up from $1,907 in FY 196-65 to $10,910 in FY...

A citation-based analysis of economists and economics programs.
March 22, 1996... Introduction The focus of this paper is to rank academic economists in terms of their research quality. A ranking of top economists serves several functions. First, it provides to economics departments, seeking to improve their...

A case study of the supply and demand for morning kindergarten.
March 22, 1996... I. Background I became interested in this topic when I prepared to register my older son for kindergarten in the public school. Currently, in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, kindergarten is half day, with a morning and an afternoon...

Profitability of credit unions, commercial banks and savings banks: a comparative analysis.
March 22, 1996... I. Introduction The liberalization of product and price competition among depository intermediaries in the United States has tended to make them more similar since enactment of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary...

The historical continuum of financial illusion.
March 22, 1996... Introduction Financial illusions are almost as old as finances, and since evil (or what is perceived as evil) is often more interesting than good, their telling has always been fascinating. The term "financial illusion" simply refers...

The effects of domestic policies and external factors on the real exchange rate and economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa.
March 22, 1996... I. Introduction The past decade has seen an increase in focus on exchange rate policy, and the effects of real exchange rate misalignment on economic performance. This emphasis is evident in ongoing discussions about the causes of the...

Our Global Neighborhood.
March 22, 1996... Our Global Neighborhood is a comprehensive study resulting from several years of research on current world issues by the 28 members of the Commission on Global Governance. It touches ground on all the front-page political and economic problems...

Executive Economics: Ten Essential Tools for Managers.
March 22, 1996... By Shlomo Maital. New York: Free Press, 1994. Pp. ix, 286. $24.95. What do economists know that can help business managers make their companies more competitive and profitable? This question was posed to Shlomo Maital when he began teaching...