THE ROOTS OF MODERN ‘SOCIAL COST OF GAMBLING’ ESTIMATES

We discuss some critical issues in social cost of gambling methodologies which suggest that many social cost estimates are arbitrary. Rather than using monetary estimates of costs and benefits, we argue policy‐makers should focus on fundamental issues: consumer sovereignty, property rights and the role of government in free societies.     

GAMBLING AND REGULATION: WHY THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR FROM LIBERALISATION

There could be significant benefits from the liberalisation of gambling in the UK. It would lead to a more efficient allocation of economic resource and could legalise activities that are currently extra‐legal. The case against liberalisation is not well founded on evidence and there are, indeed, some ‘social benefits’ from gambling.     

PRICE-LEVEL TARGETING AND STABILISATION POLICY: A SURVEY

Abstract.  This paper surveys recent articles on the costs and benefits of price-level targeting, focusing its use as a tool for stabilisation policy. It discusses how price-level targeting can affect the short-run trade-off between output and inflation variability by influencing inflation expectations. It reviews how assigning an explicit price-level target to a central bank that is unable to commit to its future policies can improve economic performance. It surveys other potential benefits and costs. Among the costs, it underlines the importance of perfectly rational expectations for the optimality of price-level targeting, and an exacerbation of the time inconsistency problem.     

PROMETHEUS BOUND: RELEASING THE CHAINS ON PARI‐MUTUEL GAMBLING

This paper argues that although there is some evidence that pari‐mutuel gambling may have efficiency, transparency and other significant benefits over and above bookmaking, the fact that most pari‐mutuel systems exist as protected national monopolies has restricted consumer choice in many of the world's gambling markets. It has also artificially restricted the size of these markets to the disadvantage of both consumers and tax authorities.     

Do Casinos Cause Economic Growth?

A bstract .   Casino gambling is a popular form of entertainment and is purported to have positive effects on host economies. The industry surely affects local labor markets and tax revenues. However, there has been little evidence on the effects of casino gambling on state economic growth. This paper examines that relationship using Granger-causality analysis modified for use with panel data. Our results indicate that there is no Granger-causal relationship between real casino revenues and real per capita income at the state level. The results are based on annual data from 1991 to 2005. These findings contradict an earlier study that found that casino revenues Granger-cause economic growth, using quarterly data from 1991 to 1996. Possible explanations for the differences in short- and long-run effects are discussed.     

Future‐Oriented Gang Members?

A bstract    Two prominent theories of crime ( Wilson and Herrnstein 1985 ; Gottfredson and Hirshi 1990 ) rely heavily on the notion that criminals are impatient or "present-oriented." In brief, the theories posit that present-oriented individuals will be predisposed to crime because the "costs" of crime (e.g., prison time) lag behind crime's benefits. While the theory has intuitive appeal, it remains controversial. This study considers a data set first presented by Levitt and Venkatesh (2000 ) that details a drug-selling gang's activities. In this gang, low-ranking criminals accept low initial wages in the hope of receiving high future remunerations. As demonstrated in the note, this wage structure is exceedingly difficult to reconcile (both theoretically and empirically) with the notion of present-oriented criminals. In sum, the study suggests that present orientation is at best an incomplete and idiosyncratic explanation of the causes of crime.     

Offshoring: Value Creation through Economic Change

abstract    In this essay, I analyse the economic and managerial dimensions of offshoring, drawing from recent research by the McKinsey Global Institute. I argue that offshoring, like other forms of trade, creates enormous value for both companies and the economy as a whole. However, in the case of countries with less flexible labour markets such as Germany, findings are more nuanced. While the potential cost savings for companies from offshoring appear impressive, our research suggests that companies are leaving billions of dollars behind when they offshore. We propose several ways companies could make capital-labour trade-offs to create new markets and services. By maximizing gains from offshoring, companies can both cut costs and generate revenue. Given the benefits offshoring, the challenge is how to make the transition to a global economy less painful for workers and increase the participation in the wealth creation. Hence, I also identify options to help policymakers and companies manage the changes offshoring requires.     

Contributing Factors to the Spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

A bstract .   Economists have long studied the determinants and effects of income transfers. This article examines an indirect effect of welfare payments on participating individuals: an increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted disease ( STD ) rates.
Several studies have found a significant and positive link between the size of welfare benefits and out-of-wedlock fertility rates. Higher welfare payments reduce the cost of bearing and raising a child, and thus reduce the full cost of engaging in unprotected sex. An unintended consequence of unprotected sex is exposure to contagious diseases. This implies that states with higher welfare payments per child will experience higher rates of STDs.
We test this hypothesis using statewide data on the incidence of three types of bacterial STDs, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, for the years 1994 through 1998. The empirical specification is based on the standard microeconomic model of utility-maximizing behavior. The included explanatory variables are demographic proxies reflecting differences in state population characteristics. These characteristics capture unobservable or intrinsically unmeasureable differences in the perceived costs and benefits of engaging in unprotected sex.
The explanatory variable of primary interest is the size of the real welfare payment per recipient. Our empirical results indicate that states with higher real welfare payments are associated with greater rates of STDs.     

Policy modes,firms and the natural environment

This paper examines how different environmental policy types differentially impact firms and why firms vary in their responses to such policies. Based on the mechanisms embedded in policy instruments to create incentives for firms to comply, the characteristics of benefits/costs that policies impose on firms and the institutional context in which policy instruments were created and are sustained, the paper identifies five policy categories. These are category I (command and control), category II (market based), category III (mandatory information disclosures), category IV (business–government partnerships) and category V (private voluntary codes). Different policy types often bestow asymmetrical benefits/costs on firms. Some benefits/costs may constitute ‘private/club goods’ while others may constitute ‘public goods’. Drawing insights from public policy literature, the paper argues that firms can be expected to favor policies whose benefits have the characteristics of private/club goods but the costs of public goods. Thus, understanding the nature of benefits/costs (private/club versus public) and the magnitude of their excludability is critical in explaining the variations in firms' responses. To understand how managers perceive the nature of benefits/costs (monetary as well as non‐monetary), the paper draws on theories and perspectives in the business and public policy field. In doing so, the paper examines the ‘demand’ and the ‘supply’ sides as well as the market and non‐market environments of a given policy. Thus, the paper makes a case for a multi‐theoretic approach to understand variations in managerial assessments of benefits/costs, and consequently variations in their responses to various policy types. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

工程管理Partnering模式的合作博弈分析

工程管理Partnering模式是项目利益相关者相互博弈并最终形成"合作博弈"的均衡战略组合。本文结合合作博弈理论模型,分析了Partnering模式各利益相关者间的合作博弈,指出:Partnering模式的各利益相关者合作的充分条件是在有效磋商的基础上签署有约束力的Partnering协议;工程管理Partnering模式利益相关者的合作博弈具有凸性,能提高利益相关者的利益;并提出基于Shapley值建立合理的Partnering模式利益相关者的收益分配机制。     

The Dangers of Automobile Travel: A Reconsideration

A bstract .   America's reliance on automobile transportation has attracted the scorn of academics for decades. Automobiles, it is said, are dangerous to life and limb, environmentally unfriendly, and wasteful of space and resources. Moreover, say the critics, automobiles produce inefficient individualistic social behavior that balkanizes communities and shatters the otherwise cohesive nature of American life.
This article examines the costs and benefits of U.S. automobile travel from a historic perspective. First, it compares the safety of automobile travel with the horse and steam-powered travel that preceded it. It then briefly addresses the changes wrought by American automobiles in terms of their impact on American life, economics, social mobility, and ecology. It concludes that the dangers of automobile use are substantially lower than the dangers posed by early horse-driven and steam-driven transportation methods, especially in terms of fatalities per mile. It finds that on a per-mile or per-trip basis, automobile travel is safer than virtually any other means of travel used popularly in U.S. history, and that the other contributions of automobile transportation have been seriously overlooked by transportation scholars.     

Mapping the benefits and costs associated with process innovation: The case of RFID adoption

The successful implementation of any innovation requires an understanding of its benefits and costs. This study examines the changes in the magnitude of costs and benefits associated with technology process innovation adoption as the innovation diffuses across different industries. Using RFID as an exemplar technology, the study shows that the magnitude of benefits and costs associated with technological process innovation adoption within different industries varies as technology diffuses beyond early adopters to the early majority. During the early stages of technology evolution, the development cost, the cost of capital, ethical costs and simple direct implementation costs (in the form of the cost of tags) predominate. As a dominant design emerges the profile of costs changes with the emphasis on initiation costs, more holistic direct implementation costs and indirect implementation costs. A similar change in the emphasis of benefits is observed, with a shift from direct to indirect benefits being noticeable as the technology moves from early adopters to early majority adopters. Our findings help to explain the difficulties in consistently measuring innovation outcomes observed in the innovation implementation literature, and emphasize the need to take into consideration the stage of technology development as a significant factor that influences the realised outcomes from innovation implementation.     

Household mobility in New York City’s regulated rental housing market

This study analyzes the effect New York City’s rent regulation regime has on household mobility. Using a panel dataset from the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, we estimate the costs and benefits to a particular household of remaining in a regulated unit each period; then in a second stage, we include the benefits of regulations (lowered rent) and the corresponding costs (from disequilibrium in consumption) as explanatory variables in two mobility models. Both logit and survival models confirm that larger benefits in one period are associated with a lower probability of moving in a second period. Similarly, larger costs (distortions in housing consumption) in one period are associated with a higher probability of moving later. While these effects are modest, they are statistically significant. The benefit and cost effects are, however, not symmetric; the pro-mobility effects of costs are roughly twice as large as the anti-mobility effects of benefits. This provides limited support for the relative loss aversion hypothesis of behavioral economics. This support is limited due to the lack of robustness of the result.     

The private costs and benefits of environmental self‐regulation: which firms have most to gain?

A (correctly designed) voluntary self‐regulatory scheme can – in theory – improve social welfare if the benefits to society outweigh the costs. However, businesses may not choose to participate in a voluntary scheme if their private benefits do not outweigh their costs; external benefits are irrelevant to the profit maximizing firm. This paper reviews literature on self‐regulation, primarily focusing on factors that influence the net private benefits of environmental programmes. The literature is summarized in a manner that allows one to identify characteristics of firms that are most likely to accrue positive net benefit from environmental programmes, and to determine ways in which self‐regulatory bodies might raise those benefits, thereby increasing participation rates. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

THE BENEFITS AND COSTS OF MONETARY UNION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: A CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract.  With the 14 members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) having set the objective of adopting a common currency for the year 2018, an expanding empirical literature has emerged evaluating the benefits and costs of a common-currency area in Southern Africa. This paper reviews that literature, focusing on two categories of studies: (1) those that assume that a country's characteristics are invariant to the adoption of a common currency and (2) those that assume that a monetary union alters an economy's structure, resulting in trade creation and credibility gains. The literature reviewed suggests that a relatively small group of countries, typically including South Africa, satisfies the criteria necessary for monetary unification. The literature also suggests that, in a monetary union comprising all SADC countries and a regional central bank that sets monetary policy to reflect the average economic conditions (e.g. fiscal balances) in the region, the potential losses (i.e. higher inflation) from giving up an existing credible national central bank, a relevant consideration for South Africa, could outweigh any potential benefits of trade creation resulting from a common currency.     

两种联盟知识共享机制博弈模型的比较研究

知识联盟成员在参与知识创新过程中需要共享知识,而知识共享需要付出一定的成本并获得一定的收益,成本及收益的具体规则对联盟成员参与知识创新的积极性和知识共享的有效性具有重要的影响。本文对两种知识共享成本及收益的组合机制,建立了相应的博弈模型并进行了比较分析,并得到结论,即联盟成员参与知识共享所得的收益与其付出的成本必须成正比。     

Voting with a Hand on the Bible and Not on the Wallet: The 1996 Video Poker Referendum in Louisiana

Abstract . The 1996 gambling referendum in Louisiana provided a unique opportunity to study voters' preferences. At the time of the referendum, video poker machines legally operated in all of Louisiana's 64 parishes (counties). Video poker was voted down in 31 parishes and retained in 33 parishes. Voters also allowed the New Orleans land‐based casino and 15 riverboat casinos to continue their operations. The extant horse racing and pari‐mutuel betting were not voted on. We examine the economic, demographic, and religious factors that influenced how people voted on the issue of legalized video poker. This study is of interest because in recent years, legalized gambling has been expanding around the world. We know of no other referendum on gambling that covered an area as large as an entire U.S. state—all of Louisiana—and offered voters control over gambling in their locality. Months before the 1996 referendum, the news media suggested several factors that might determine the outcome of the vote. The media concluded that concern over jobs would be the major influence on the outcome. Other important factors included a campaign against gambling by Southern Baptist churches and the simultaneous national presidential election. We investigate whether these factors, along with demographic factors such as age and education, influenced the results of the gambling referendum. Surprisingly, we found no clear evidence that the economic health of a parish or the preexisting size of its gambling industry determined the vote. The presence of Southern Baptists in a parish increased the likelihood that gambling would be voted down. Democratic voters tended to vote for gambling, as did black voters. Age and education levels of voters did not appear to influence their votes on gambling. Voters in parishes that bordered other states were more likely to retain gambling. Overall, it appeared that personal values were more important in determining voter behavior than financial considerations. People were voting with their hearts, not their pocketbooks.     

On the interpretation of cointegration in the linear–quadratic inventory model

The traditional formulation of the linear–quadratic inventory model with unit roots predicts cointegration between inventories and sales. That formulation implies that marginal production costs and the marginal benefits of inventories are both tending to ∞, and the cointegrating coefficient reflects the optimal trade-off between these competing factors. This paper suggests a reformulation of the problem in which marginal production costs and marginal inventory benefits are both stationary and in which the cointegrating coefficient is the same as the value that characterizes the target inventory level in the cost function.     

The effects of city size and moving costs on public project benefits

This paper uses a simulation model to investigate the benefits of an urban public project when the size of the system of cities (or regions) in which migration occurs can vary and when moving costs impede migration. The model captures the range of possibilities between the perfectly open and closed city cases. We find that the total number of households migrating between cities declines sharply as moving costs rise. Also the level and distribution of project benefits between renters and landowners in the project city and other cities is sensitive to both the level of moving costs and the size of the urban system. The total benefits of the project fall by half or more when moving costs are introduced, even when moving costs themselves are netted out.