Flunking economics?

Economists are in revolt over President Clinton's health care reform proposal. Many contend that the Administration is abandoning free-market principles and embracing price controls that could have disastrous consequences. But others argue that traditional rules of supply and demand don't apply to the health care sector.     

Methods for estimating the population contribution to environmental change.

"This paper introduces general methods for quantitative analysis of the role of population in environmental change. The approach is applicable over a wide range of environmental issues, and arbitrary regions and time periods. First, a single region is considered, appropriate formulae derived, and the limitations to quantitative approaches discussed. The approach is contrasted to earlier formulations, and shown to avoid weaknesses in a common approximation. Next, the analysis is extended to the multiple region problem. An apparent paradox in aggregating regional estimates is illuminated, and the risk of misleading results is underscored. The methods are applied to the problem of climate change with two case studies, an historical period and a future scenario, used to illustrate the results. The contribution of change in population to change in green house gas emissions is shown to be significant, but not dominant in both industrialized and developing regions."     

The demographic cycle and optimal schooling choices

A model is developed that enables the authors to estimate the effects of demographic cycles on both earnings and schooling. The model is tested using data from the 1991 Korean Occupational Wage Survey. The results indicate that cohorts following large birth cohorts in the cycle choose relatively less formal schooling compared to pre-peak cohorts, and that post-peak cohorts also have lower incomes. This result concerning South Korea is consistent with findings from previous studies concerning the United States.     

Maximizing the potential of your systems

In the last two decades, manufacturing businesses throughout the United States have learned that an important factor affecting the productivity of their manufacturing systems when implementing manufacturing resource planning is the way they approach the implementation itself. Eighty percent of an implementation effort needs to be devoted to preparing people in the organization to use the system and only 20 percent should be devoted to purchasing the system.