How Do Female Spouses’ Political Interests Affect Male Spouses’ Views About a Women’s Issue?

This paper explores how the degree of female spouses’ political interest affects male spouses’ views about women’s empowerment using individual level data in Japan. Controlling for unobserved area-specific fixed effects, results show that males are likely to consider women’s empowerment important if their spouses are interested in politics. This spouse effect is observed for conservative males but not for progressive-neutral males. Results were unchanged when the endogeneity bias caused by spouses’ political interests were controlled for. These findings suggest that female family members’ political interests and views play an important role in determining male views regarding women’s issues.     

Weak Form Efficiency of the Nigerian Stock Market: Further Evidence

This study provides further evidence on the weak form efficiency of the Nigerian stock market, that is, whether security prices on the Nigerian stock market adjust to historical price information. Using correlation analysis, monthly stock returns data over the period January 1981–December 1992 were employed in the analysis. The results provided support for the work of Samuels and Yacout (1981) and Ayadi (1983), that is, the Nigerian stock market appears to be efficient in the weak form. — Cet article traite de la faible efficacité de la Bourse des valeurs du Nigeria, à savoir que, à partir de nouveaux éléments, il cherche àétablir si les cours des titres cotés à la Bourse du Nigeria sont réajustés pour tenir compte des données chronologiques. A l’aide d’une analyse de corrélation, un examen des données mensuelles sur le rendement des titres, pour la période allant de janvier 1981 à décembre 1992, a été réalisé. Les résultats corroborent les travaux de Samuels et Yacout (1981) et ceux de Ayadi (1983), à savoir que la Bourse des valeurs du Nigeria semble être faiblement efficace.     

A re-examination of the demand for money in Nigeria

Summary and Conclusion This paper reexamines the demand for money in Nigeria and finds the real income and the expected rate of inflation to be important independent variables that explain over 80 percent of the variation in the real cash balance. The study shows that, in view of the low per capita income of Nigerians, permanent income and measure income are largely the same. An important finding of this study is that, because their price level is (in large part) exogenously determined, the monetary authorities in Nigeria should be more desirous of following the constant growth rate rule. A very substantial part of the country's export (that is, oil) is especially prone to inflationary pressures due to the ease with which international inflation can be transmitted. Since the authorities can control money stock, this ‘rule’ is indicated from both the theoretical and the empirical standpoint.     

Dynamics of Environmental Regulation and Voters’ Biased Beliefs: A Political Economy Approach

This paper develops a political economy model which determines the conditions of cycles in environmental regulation. It analyzes the impact of both interest groups and voters who have biased political beliefs. Such biased beliefs are the result of the influence of activist interest groups that strategically use the beliefs formation process among ignorant voters (cascade effect). The cascade effect biases the perception of the efficiency of regulatory instruments and affects the behavior of the politician. Our model seems particularly relevant to explain the evolution of environmental policies, which are characterized by scientific controversies, such as climate change policies. The high media coverage of climate issues, as well as persistent debates among experts, is a favorable context for the influence of activist interest groups that use the public’s cognitive biases.     

Damaged exports: Dynamics and limits of governance reform in Southeast Asia

Governance reform is the main policy for a number of international and domestic aid agencies. Under the rubric of governance reform are diverse programs ranging from those for anti‐corruption to those for civil society promotion programs. Although these programs have had limited success, governance programs are continually being promoted and implemented byinternational organizations and political forces in developing, newly industrialized states. Why? One reason for this persistence is that these programs—despite failing in their erstwhile objectives—nevertheless constitute a shift in modes through which power is exercised. These programs often create new modalities of political rule, which form the basis of new state strategies. This paper draws particular attention to the importance of governance programs in nurturing new forms of political rule through a process of depoliticization.     

Chinese Bilateral Intra-Industry Trade: A Panel Data Study for 50 Countries in the 1992–2001 Period

This study examines the features and determinants of Chinese intra-industry trade during the 1992–2001 transition period for 50 of China’s trade partners. We disentangle total intra-industry trade (TIIT) into vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT) vis-à-vis horizontal intra-industry trade (HIIT), using data at the four-digit SITC level. The findings indicate that Chinese bilateral intra-industry trade, particularly VIIT, increased significantly during this transition period. VIIT appears to be positively related to differences in consumer patterns. HIIT is negatively related to these differences. In addition, we find that FDI has played an important role in determining IIT, especially VIIT. Other significant intra-industry trade drivers are geographical distance, economic size, trade openness and trade composition. Finally, the impact of China’s liberalization policies and the special role of Hong Kong are demonstrated. We discuss a number of important business and political implications that can be drawn from our findings. JEL no. F14     

The Legacy of Black Lynching and Contemporary Segregation in the South

Wacquant (2001) and others have argued that social control efforts directed at racial and ethnic minorities frequently shift institutional form and become more nuanced as societies modernize, even as the underlying function persists. This study examines the connection between southern lynching and housing segregation. We argue that legal, political, social and demographic changes in the south made lynching dysfunctional as a means of control. Among other more nuanced control mechanisms, modern housing segregation helped serve as a replacement. We test this proposition by relating historical southern black lynching rates to recent levels of segregation in southern MSAs. We find that an MSA’s historical lynching rate is positively and significantly linked to the MSA’s current segregation levels after accounting for standard determinants of segregation. Thus, segregation does not just occur generally throughout the south, but follows a very particular pattern based on past lynching rates. Our findings add to a growing literature on the legacy of lynching, such as studies examining contemporaneous variation in support for and use of capital punishment.     

Consequences of the inertial development of the labor potential in the Russian Federation

The inertial trends of the dynamics of balance indices of labor force of the Russian Federation are considered in this article, and their characteristics are given. The main trends behind the increase in the labor potential of the country and the increase in the efficiency of its usage are proposed here. The deficit values of the national labor power at different ratios of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rate and labor capacity that can be interpreted as values describing Russia’s economy’s need for international labor power are evaluated.     

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Freedman’s Savings Bank

The experiences of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during and prior to the Financial Crisis of 2007–09 call to mind the history of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, a prominent bank founded for the benefit of former slaves just after the Civil War. This paper notes similarities concerning the initial motivation for the creation of all three institutions and draws parallels between their mismanagement and subsequent failures. The paper also discusses the government’s response to the institutions’ downfalls and the legacies that the institutions left behind.     

Inter-group Disparities in the Distributional Analysis of Human Development: Concepts,Measurement, and Illustrative Applications

An important feature of most segmented societies is that deprivations and well-being achievements are unequally distributed across well-defined sub-groups of the population, when the latter is partitioned according to a variety of social or geographical categories, such as gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, occupation, sector of origin, or region of domicile. Group disparities are a matter of both instrumental interest in assessing the nature of a society (such as in terms of its propensity for conflict) and intrinsic concern in evaluations of a society’s record of ‘horizontal’ distributive justice. One aspect of a study of population heterogeneity would reside in the measurement of inter-group inequalities in the distribution of a society’s burdens and benefits. It is this aspect of the problem that is reviewed in the present paper. It is useful to note that group inequality can be categorized into different types (which are nevertheless mutually linked by certain commonalities of purpose and motivation), and a particularly instructive taxonomy is available in a recent paper by Arjun Jayadev and Sanjay Reddy (‘Inequalities and Identities’, which is available on the website of the Social Science Research Network, at ). The present paper also presents taxonomy of alternative approaches to reckoning group inequality, and discusses a number of real-valued measures of group disparity, mainly based on work in which this author has earlier engaged, by himself or in collaboration.     

Rural employment and rural-urban differences in employment in Zaire: A comparative perspective

This article provides evidence on the extent of de-agrarianization, the nature of rural employment, and rural-urban differences in employment in Zaire. The composition of employment by industry is examined using data from Zaire’s 1984 Census. Increased schooling was associated with a greater propensity to be involved in nonagricultural employment. Since 1990, Zaire’s chronic economic crisis has become acute and is intertwined with the political crisis resulting from President Mobutu’s resistance to popular calls for democratization. In these circumstances, de-agrarianization is effectively put on hold. Nonagricultural employment opportunities have diminished considerably, and an increasing proportion of the country’s population is being pushed back to subsistence agriculture. An earlier version of this article was presented at the African Studies Centre-International Labour Organization workshop on “De-agrarianization and Rural Employment,” May 10–12, 1994, Leiden, The Netherlands.     

The case for rules in the conduct of monetary policy: A critique on a paper by B.T. McCallum

Conclusion Certainly these last comments lead to the question what should be targeted: the growth rate [as for example in Gordon’s 1985 work] or the level as in Hall [1983] or McCallum [1988] or no targeting at all [like in Friedman 1960; 1968; 1985] or Meltzer [1984; 1987]. Since targeting GNP growth rates might lead to instability and overshooting effects as Taylor [1985] points out, altering rule (1) in that way is not appropriate. But targeting on the levels may not reduce fluctuations in growth rates or prevent cycles at all. If the latter are, however, more important in public opinion, a policy problem emerges. To summarize the last comment in a figurative way: McCallum’s rule prevents inflation in the long run and may prevent fluctuations in terms of half a Kondratieff cycle, but it preserves and intensifies Juglar and shorter cycles.     

Struggling against apartheid: The use of economic sanctions on South Africa

Conclusion It is clear that the United States is in a dominant position in relation to South Africa’s economy, which has an economic climate working against its decision to be isolated from world opinion. The apartheid policies have produced an economy that is severely distorted by its having a restricted market for its industrial products, a critical shortage of skilled labor, a high level of structural unemployment, a high and increasing military budget, and by its support of an economically unviable Bantustan system. These distortions, combined with record balance of payments deficits and a net disinvestment of foreign funds, have resulted in currency outflows that were covered by the United States providing decisive support for a $1.1 billion loan from the IMF. Contrary to the impression that has been promoted by the South African government, S.A. mineral exports are not crucial to the United States. However, South Africa does depend upon the United States for its export market of these minerals, which are essential for providing the necessary funds for governmental expenditures and foreign exchange that are needed in order to support its high import content industries. The large percentage that exports have in S.A.’s gross national product increases this vulnerability. Thus, if we look at the evidence, it is clear that the United States has viable sanctions that it can implement against South Africa’s inhuman political and social policies. Although the United States has these leverages it refuses to utilize them, even though it would be in its interest to do so. It is vital that those persons who are genuinely concerned about human rights and the apartheid system apply whatever pressure is necessary to force the U.S. government to immediately utilize these leverages in the form of sanctions that would force the S.A. government to change its policies. The black community must take the responsibility for leading this effort.     

State-Building in Resource-Rich Economies

One of the most significant differences between developing countries and today’s advanced states is the fact that many developing countries rely heavily on one or several natural resources. That such dependence shapes the state’s ability to tax—its fiscal capacity—is commonly argued in the political science and applied development literatures. This paper approaches the issue from an economic angle. Our analytical foundation builds upon a novel theoretical framework, and allows us to model fiscal capacity as an ex ante investment under uncertainty. For our panel of 30 hydrocarbon-rich economies, instrumental-variables results provide strong empirical support for our theoretical proposition: resource intensification weakens state-building by impeding the state’s fiscal capacity. This result provides an inaugural validation of the economic analytics of state-capacity determinants: understanding these determinants serves to build stronger states and support sustainable paths of development. Our result also suggests that one of the main tools of fiscal policy-analysis in resource-rich economies, namely optimal taxation, could gain in practical relevance by incorporating capacity-constraints into the analytical fiscal-framework.     

McCallum’s base growth rule: Results for the United States,West Germany,Japan, and Canada

Conclusions The results presented here suggest that McCallum’s rule for base growth deserves serious consideration by policymakers. The rule is extremely simple and the results here indicate that the growth rule may go a long way towards prescribing a policy that can reduce inflation without inducing additional nominal GNP variability, especially for the United States and Canada. Our results also demonstrate that the rule is not a precondition to achieving stable prices and nominal GNP growth. The fact that the Bundesbank and the Bank of Japan have outperformed the growth rule during the 1980s suggests that a fruitful area of future research would be a comprehensive investigation of monetary policy in West Germany and Japan. This task has already been undertaken by Fischer [1988], Neumann [1990], and Suzuki et al. [1990].

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Zusammenfassung McCallums Regel für das Wachstum der monet?ren Basis. Ergebnisse für die Vereinigten Staaten, Westdeutschland, Japan und Kanada. — Der Autor kombiniert McCallums Regel mit Einzelgleichungsmodellen sowie mit VAR-Modellen zur Bestimmung des nominalen BSP und führt Simulationen durch mit Daten aus den Vereinigten Staaten, Westdeutschland, Japan und Kanada. Es zeigt sich, da? sich McCallums Regel positiv ausgewirkt h?tte, wenn sie in allen vier L?ndern angewandt worden w?re. Deutschland und Japan verzeichneten seit 1974 ein Wachstum der monet?ren Basis, das der Regel noch am besten entsprach, und hatten die niedrigsten Inflationsraten und geringere Schwankungen des nominalen BSP um den Wachstumstrend als die Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada.

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Résumé La règle de l’accroissement de la base monétaire de McCallum: Des résultats pour les Etats Unis, l’Allemagne de l’Ouest, le Japon et le Canada. — La règle de McCallum de l’accroissement de la base monétaire est combinée avec des modèles à une équation et aux ?vector-auto-regressions? développés pour déterminer le PNB nominal et est simulée avec des données pour les Etats Unis, l’Allemagne de l’Ouest, le Japon et le Canada. L’évidence est que la règle de McCallum aurait donné des résultats positifs si l’on aur ait adopté la règle dans tous les quatre pays. De plus, l’Allemagne et le Japon ont poursuivi la règle dès 1974 le plus proche et ont réalisé un taux d’inflation et un taux de divergence entre le PNB nominal et son tendance qui est plus bas que dans les Etats Unis et le Canada.

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Resumen La regla de crecimiento de la base de McCallum: resultados para los EE UU, Alemania Occidental, Japón y Canadá. - En este trabajo se combina la regla de crecimiento de la base de McCallum con ecuaciones individuates y modelos VAR para la determinación del PBI nominal y se simula con datos para los EE UU, Alemania Occidental, Japón y Canadá. Los resultados demuestran que la regla de McCallum funcionaria bien si se adoptara en los cuatro países. Alemania y Japón presentan desde 1974 un crecimiento de la base similar al de la regla, además de registrar las tasas de inflatión más bajas y una variabilidad del PBI con respecto a la tendencia del crecimiento del producto más baja que la de los EE UU y del Canadá.

     

Financing minority economic development

Conclusions A close analysis of the capital-asset pricing model’s assumptions and implications for efficient allocation of resources to investment in capital assets can form the basis for changes in the way capital markets are regulated by the federal government and in taxing policy of the government. In particular, our analysis indicates that the value of currently marketed assets can be increased by the inclusion in portfolios of currently nonmarketed assets.Moreover, the value of nonmarketed assets emerges as a significant instrumental variable for policy makers.The government can increase the value of all currently marketed assets by increasing positive changes in the value of nonmarketed assets.This might be accomplished by requiring by legislation or rule, for example, that a certain proportion of the listed securities on any exchange be comprised of the securities of black firms and other firms whose securities are not now marketed.The government might want, by tax incentive, to promote investment in firms with nonmarketed assets.It might want to increase the funding level of institutions such as MESBIC’S supplying equality finance to small black firms.     

Do Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Expenditures by Firms Create “Political” Capital?

We examine the relation between a firm’s campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures and its Tobin’s q. We follow other studies that use q to measure the value of the firm’s intangible capital (e.g., the value of advertising, R&D, or environmental performance). Researchers have found a positive and significant relation between intangible assets and q. If political capital exists, it is an intangible asset. However, we find little relation between q and political contributions, suggesting that campaign contributions may not have long term effects on political markets. This is consistent with the view that contributions are done by firms as a response to a short term opportunity not as a way of building long-term political capital.

Zinssatz,preisniveau und »optimale inflationsrate« in einer wachsenden wirtschaft

Summary Interest Rates, Price Level and Optimum Inflation Rate in a Growing Economy. — Following Wicksell, this paper is concerned with the dependence, in a growing economy, of the inflation rate on the difference between capital interest and money rates. A neoclassical growth model is developed in which deviations of capital interest from the central bank money rate lead to deviations of investment demand from savings, which, in turn, induce changes in the price level. On the other hand, capital interest is itself determined, among other things, by investments. It appears that the deductions Wicksell made for a stationary economy can be applied to a balanced growth. By means of the so-called golden rule of accumulation it is possible to calculate any money rate that will maximize the long-term development of consumption, while a simultaneous secular inflation cannot be excluded.

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Résumé Taux d’intérêts, niveau des prix et taux d’inflation optimal dans une économie croissante. — En suivant Wicksell, cet article étudie la dépendance, dans une économie croissante, du taux d’inflation de la différence entre l’intérêt du capital et le taux de l’argent. Un modèle néoclassique d’accroissement est développé, oú les déviations de l’intérêt du capital du taux d’argent de banque centrale entrainent une déviation de la demande d’investissement des épargnes, déviation qui, à son tour, cause des changements dans le niveau des prix. D’autre part, l’intérêt même du capital est déterminé, entre autres, par l’investissement. Il est évident que les déductions de Wicksell, faites pour une économie stationnaire, s’appliquent également à un accroissement équilibré. Au moyen de la dite ?golden rule of accumulation? il est possible de calculer tout taux d’argent qui saura maximiser le développement à long terme de la consommation, mais en même temps il sera impossible d’exclure une inflation séculaire.

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Resumen Tipo de interés, nivel de precios y ?tasa optima de inflation? en una economfa creciente. — En el présente articulo se analiza, en complemento de la teoria de Wicksell, cómo dépende la tasa de inflation de la diferencia entre la rentabilidad del capital y el interés monetario en una economfa creciente. El au tor desarrolla una modelo de crecimiento neoclásico, en el cual diferencias entre la rentabilidad del capital y la tasa de interés, fijada por el Banco Central, inducen diferencias entre la demanda de inversion y el ahorro disponible para la inversion, lo cual a su vez provoca variaciones del nivel de precios. Por otro lado, la rentabilidad del capital esta determinada, entre otras cosas, por el volumen de inversion. El autor demuestra que las formulaciones de Wicksell respecto a una economia estacionaria son perfectamente transferibles a una economia con crecimiento equilibrado. Mediante la aplicación de la ?régla de oro de acumulación? se puede determinar la tasa de interés, que permite el máximo consumo a largo plazo, no pudiéndose descartar la posibilidad de una inflation secular.

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Riassunto Tasso d’intéressé, livello dei prezzi e ?ottimale rata d’inflazione? in un’economia in crescenza. — L’articolo discute, rapportandosi a Wicksell, la dipen-Zinssatz, Preisniveau und ?optimale Inflationsrate? in einer wachsenden Wirtschaft denza délia rata d’inflazione dalla differenza tra remunerazione del capitale e tasso d’intéressé del denaro in un’economia in crescenza. è sviluppato un modello di crescita neoclassico, in cui deviazioni della remunerazione del capitale dal tasso d’intéressé del denaro determinato dalle banche d’emissione conducono a deviazioni della domanda di capitale dal risparmio che a loro volta inducono a modificazioni del livello dei prezzi. D’altra parte la stessa remunerazione di capitale tra l’altro è determinata dagli investimenti. Risulta che le asserzioni derivate da Wickseil per un’economia stazionaria si lasciano trasferire ad un equilibrio in crescenza. Applicando il cosiddetto ?golden rule of accumulation? si puó determinare quell’interesse di denaro che massitnizza il ?sentiero? di consumo a lungo termine, laddove non puó essere esclusa una simultanea secolare inflazione.

     

Do free-market economists practice what they teach?

Conclusion There is then a fundamental inconsistency between theory and application for political economists who both rely on standard microeconomics for their support of the free market and scorn government intervention. Theory matters in free-market critiques of public policy. It matters, however, not only in determining the content of those critiques, but also, from a methodological standpoint, in the sense of whether the world-view presupposed by theory is one that leaves room for any meaningful critique to take place at all. It should not be news that the authorities in charge of public policy are ignorant. Surprisingly, if we start from the presumptions of perfect-knowledge economics we would be logically led to conclude that those authorities indeed never make mistakes, or if they do that it must have been planned that way all along. Fortunately, political economists working in the Austrian tradition are, as they have been since B?hm-Bawerk’s and Mises’s devastating critiques of Marxian economics and socialism, free from having to maintain this curious point of view. He also studied with Professor Sennholz at Grove City College.