Don't Tax the Net

Electronic commerce has the potential to reduce transaction costs drastically. It is the most dynamic sector of the world economy. Governments should restrain themselves from extending taxes to electronic commerce or they will reduce the gains from innovation.     

The Internet, Economic Growth and Governance

The Internet developed largely as a 'spontaneous order' without central co-ordination. Further development will increase the mobility of capital and labour and make tax collection more difficult. Attempts at self-regulation and government regulation are now under way but meddling is likely to be 'wealth destructive and counter productive.'     

Employee assistance plans in Canada

In Canada as in the United States, employee assistance plans have evolved from their early concentration on employees' alcohol-related problems to a much more comprehensive concern with employees' total well-being. Studies have documented the effectiveness of this approach.     

Bluffing in labor negotiations: Legal and ethical issues

This paper presents an analysis of bluffing in labor negotiations from legal, economic, and ethical perspectives. It is argued that many forms of bluffing in labor negotiations are legal and economically advantageous, but that they typically constitute lying. Nevertheless it is argued that it is generally morally acceptable to bluff given a typical labor-management relationship where one's negotiating partner is familiar with and most likely employing bluffing tactics him/herself. We also consider whether it is an indictment of our present negotiating practices and our economic system as a whole that, given the harsh realities of the marketplace, bluffing is usually morally acceptable.     

Amenities and Fringe Benefits: Omitted Variable Bias

ABSTRACT If labor is fairly mobile, as it is in the United States, one would expect that households would move from less desirable areas toward more desirable areas until all areas are equally desirable. The way that areas become equally desirable is through the impact of movers on wages and rents (and possibly endogenous disamenities, such as congestion or pollution). That is, as people move to desirable areas, they will increase the demand for land (raising rents) and increase the supply of labor (lowering wages); in equilibrium, the wage and rent compensation for the niceness of an area reveals, in dollar terms, just how nice the area is. Blomquist, Berger, and Hoehn 1988 demonstrated the empirical importance of such amenity compensation in estimates of the quality-of-life in urban areas. However, those authors were unable to include fringe benefits, which are about 40 percent of explicit wage payments, in their wage compensation. This matters greatly as amenities are seen here to be even more important than previously thought and the regional implications are pronounced, with the West and Southeast looking better when fringe benefits are included and the East North Central and Northeast looking substantially worse.     

Proactive performance measures.

Adoption of a process of careful selection and implementation generating the appropriate proactive (leading) performance measures will provide an important tool with which to progress. When used in combination with traditional financial performance measures, proactive performance measures contribute to our cache of competitive weapons.     

Designing automatic resupply systems.

This article outlines the process for designing and implementing autoresupply systems. The planning process includes determination of goals and appropriate participation. Different types of autoresupply mechanisms include kanban, breadman, consignment, systems contracts, and direct shipping from an MRP schedule.     

Street Children and Street Life in Urban Tanzania: The Culture of Surviving and its Implications for Children’s Health

This paper presents data from an in-depth study conducted among street children in an urban setting in Tanzania. It examines the reasons ‘children of the street’ leave their homes, how they survive and meet their daily needs, what problems they encounter whilst on the streets and how they surmount them. The paper also examines the implications of street life for children’s health. The findings show that general poverty lies at the center of the increasing number of street children in Tanzania. Street life makes the children vulnerable to a variety of problems including ill health. Policies in Tanzania have so far failed to solve this problem, particularly because social policies have been dealing with symptoms rather than essential causes. The paper ends by outlining short- and long-term policy solutions and also suggests directions for future research and early intervention. — Cet article présente les données d’une étude en profondeur conduite parmi les enfants des rues dans un cadre urbain en Tanzanie. Il explore les raisons pour lesquelles ‘les enfants des rues’ partent de chez eux, comment ils survivent et surviennent à leurs besoins quotidiens, les problèmes qu’ils rencontrent dans les rues et comment ils les surmontent. Cet article examine aussi les implications de la vie dans la rue pour la santé des enfants. Les résultats montrent que la pauvreté générale est la raison centrale du nombre croissant d’enfants dans les rues en Tanzanie. La vie dans les rues rend les enfants susceptibles à de nombreux problèmes, y compris la mauvaise santé. La politique de la Tanzanie n’a pas encore réussi à résoudre ce problème, en particulier parce que la politique sociale a adressé les symptômes plutôt que les causes essentielles. Cet article propose des solutions politiques à court et à long terme et suggère également des options pour les recherches futures et pour des interventions précoces.     

Of Course We Can Bootstrap DEA Scores! But Does It Mean Anything? Logic Trumps Wishful Thinking

Journal of Productivity Analysis -