Private contracts for durable local public good provision

This paper presents a model of imperfectly durable local public good provision in a dynamic development framework. The private provision of these goods under contracts between developers and residents of condominium and homeowners' associations is examined. An optimal trajectory of public goods is determined and compared to time consistent contractual trajectories. This comparison is used to explain why developers typically transfer control of maintenance of these goods to residents before the development process ends. The optimal date to transfer control is determined and compared to existing contracts and recommendations in the industry literature. The optimal transfer date is nondecreasing in community size and length of the development process.     

Institutional framing and perceptions of fairness

This paper's goal is to construct a positive theory of economic fairness. Using the theoretical schema developed by Hurwicz and others, the paper makes precise the notions of an “institution,” “fairness fraiming,” and “institutional framing.” Four fairness propositions yield an important corollary: the economic environment, the operative institution and history give meaning to the often used FORMAL PRINCIPLE OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE (“equals should be treated equally, and unequals unequellay, in proportion to relevant similarities and differences”). We support these four propositions and corollary by an analysis of laboratory, survey, and anecdotal evidence. Finally we describe a number of areas for future research. The authors would like to thank Allen Buchanan, James Buchanan, Joel Feinberg, Elizabeth Hoffman, David Schmitz, Linda Schnabel Stizer, Vernon Smith, Richard Wagner, the participants in the Aspen Institute's Conference on “Local Justice and Fair Allocation”, the members of the Industrial Organization Workshop of the Department of Economics at the University of Arizona, and panel participants at the Public Choice Society Meeting for their help and comments at various stages of this paper's preparation. Responsibility for errors is the authors' alone.     

Drainwater Management for Salinity Mitigation in Irrigated Agriculture

Salinity and drainage management options include source control, reuse, and evaporation ponds. This article identifies efficient strategies to maintain hydrologic balance in closed drainage basins and evaluates their impact on regional agricultural profits. Theoretical analysis suggests that economic efficiency requires acknowledgment of the nonseparability between water use and land value. Empirically, our solution involves a modest amount of source control, a substantial amount of reuse, and the elimination of evaporation ponds often associated with large environmental damages, while maintaining grower income. Various policy instruments and options are introduced and discussed, including a system of drainwater charges, marketable permits, and land retirement.     

Country Competition and US Overseas Assembly

To examine the role of international competition in outsourcing production decisions, I study the decisions of producers who used the U.S. Overseas Assembly Program (OAP) to conduct assembly operations in developing countries. The evidence, which is based on U.S. OAP imports between 1991 to 2000, shows that production costs and corporate tax policies both shaped production decisions. While increases in own country costs reduced the size of a developing country's OAP shipments, increases in competitor costs helped to increase a country's shipments. The effects of competitor country cost changes were relatively large, as the analysis suggests that a ten percent increase in competing country costs would increase a country's OAP outsourcing activities by 5.8 percent, while a ten percent increase in competitor country taxes would increase a country's OAP exports by 1.6 percent.     

A Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm Based on the Analogy with Mechanical Physics: MeccFuz

This paper presents a new algorithm of fuzzy clustering, based on analogy withmechanics physics. The vectors x_i are compared with `material points' and the clusters can be looked on as material points clouds, that are characterized byspecific units. The choice is based on a study of potential energy. Once a specificunit is chosen, we calculated the membership of the other units whit respect it.A study of a sociology test is performed and the results are very encouraging,though an further deepening is needed like a thermodynamics analogy application.     

“Damn with faint praise” The legal,practical, and ethical implications of providing and not providing employee references

In the past decade, there has been a multiplicity of lawsuits by employees against former employers based on defamatory references. Many of these lawsuits have proven to be successful and have caused wary employers to use great care in providing references. A number have gone so far as to refuse to provide references at all, instead adopting a “no-comment” policy, often on the advice of legal counsel. This article reviews defamation laws within the context of employee references. Recent cases and trends are analyzed, guidelines to avoid liability are suggested, and a critique of the traditional legal advice of “no-comment” is provided. Finally, business-related and socioethical aspects of the problem are considered.     

Attendees’ needs and service priorities in a large convention center: Application of the importance–performance theory

The study identified attendees’ needs and service priorities when attending an exhibition at a large convention center. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires from 566 subjects attending five different exhibitions. The results indicated that overall cleanliness of the convention center, a well-maintained facility, and helpfulness of guest services personnel were top priorities for attendees regarding the convention center's facility services. Attendees also attributed high importance to the following features of the convention facility: directional signage within the convention center, availability of high quality lodging near the convention center, sufficient restrooms throughout the facility, and ability to get cell phone signal. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found between the level of importance and performance of the majority of the facility services and features of the convention center. Implications for decision makers regarding these importance–performance gaps are discussed.