American Economist articles from September 1996

American Economist archives from September 1996

Intellectual collaborative experiences.(Editorial)
September 22, 1996... Editorial Note In this issue a new series is being inaugurated by Paul Samuelson on collaborative experiences. Observers of the scientific enterprise note that joint authorship is increasing.(1) This is what I had to say about collaboration at...

The economics of the Welfare State.
September 22, 1996... 1. The Welfare State and Economists The subject which I have chosen for this Paper - the economic impact of the Welfare State - is a topic often considered as essentially European, but it is one which is increasingly being discussed in all...

On collaboration.
September 22, 1996... Asking me to write about joint authorship is rather like going to a vegetarian for a treatise on the proper cooking of steak. Mostly I have been a loner: out of half a thousand papers in my collected volumes, perhaps five percent have been...

Philosophy and my work life.
September 22, 1996... It is a privilege and a pleasure to write an essay in Michael Szenberg's fascinating series on philosophies of life of economists. I As a 17-year old starting college, I was anxious to study what the great philosophers taught about how to...

Ways I have worked. (steps in making a research project)
September 22, 1996... Perhaps because I had essentially no idea what academic life was like before I began graduate school, I came late to the realization that being a professor would suit me well. Even now, I find it almost impossible to explain to non-academics...

Controversy and change in the American economics curriculum.
September 22, 1996... Stability of Major Requirements Requirements for the typical undergraduate economics major are similar throughout American higher education. As shown in Table 1, universities normally require a core of economics courses, including Principles...

Football betting and the efficient market hypothesis.
September 22, 1996... The efficient market hypothesis asserts that investors cannot consistently "beat the market" because stocks reside in perpetual equilibrium. Supporters point to the 100,000+ analysts and traders whose collective actions ensure that the prices of...

The propensity to itemize in the context of a human capital model.
September 22, 1996... I. Introduction Currently, we face what is considered by many the greatest set of revisions in the Federal tax codes since the 1986 Tax Reform Act (TRA). Starting with the passage of the balanced - budget amendment in the House, the...

Do Japanese automakers maximize profits? A systems analysis of the pricing of automobile inventories.
September 22, 1996... Introduction This paper investigates the pricing practices of Japanese automakers on the U.S. market of the 1980s. Japanese companies are often pictured as seeking market share rather than profitability, and using pricing to achieve that goal....

On the U.S. budget deficit dilemma: has television contributed?
September 22, 1996... I. Introduction According to many writers and observers, television has become one of the most powerful vehicles ever invented to influence human behavior, [e.g., LaHaye (1979), Potter (1990), Morrow (1992), and Andersen (1993)]. They contend...

Resale price maintenance or dealer exclusive territories? Toward a theory of product distribution.
September 22, 1996... I. Introduction Despite the Supreme Court's narrowing during the last decade of the scope of illegal activity, vertical price restraints, including minimum resale price maintenance (RPM), remain per se violations of the antitrust laws.(1)...

M1 velocity and interest rate variability: a comment. (response to James E. Payne, The American Economist, Spring 1995, p. 89)
September 22, 1996... Introduction James E. Payne (1995) provides evidence in this journal that variability in interest yields Granger causes M1 velocity. His analysis leaves two major questions unanswered: (1) Why do other studies, such as Garner (1986) and...

M1 velocity and interest rates: a reply. (reply to article by Robert F. Stauffer in this issue, p. 85)
September 22, 1996... Two questions have been raised concerning my paper "Velocity and the Variability of Yields on Financial and Other Assets" published in the Spring 1995 issue of The American Economist: (1) Why do other studies, such as Garner (1986) and Falls and...

Crisis and Reform in Latin America: From Despair to Hope.
September 22, 1996... During the past two decades, Latin American countries have undergone major reforms attempting to bring stability to their economic structures. The purpose of the book Crisis and Reform in Latin America, as stated by Edwards, is two-fold. First,...