A Comment on “The Consumer Impact of Alternative Allocation Plans: The Case of Gasoline”

This paper shows that the conclusions of a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs on consumer preferences among allocation schemes were not valid deductions. It is argued that an adaptation of index numbers of quantity can be used to deduce preferences and an illustrative case is presented for various plans to allocate gasoline.     

IMPLICATIONS OF LIBERALISED EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKETS

This paper reviews the alternative labour market scenarios open to European policymakers in the current movement towards enhanced economic and political integration. To clarify the various issues, the paper dichotomises the policy alternatives into two camps: "euro-liberalists" and "euro-regulators." The paper concludes that the latter offers the best path towards convergence, with the proviso that the subject of regulation is a Pan-European system of labour market objectives rather than institutions.     

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS IN BENEFIT COST ANALYSIS: A KEY TO INCREASED USE AND ACCEPTANCE

"We must insist that all empirical studies offer convincing evidence of inferential sturdiness."
Sensitivit     

HOW MUCH DO STUDENTS MATTER? APPLYING THE OAXACA DECOMPOSITION TO EXPLAIN DETERMINANTS OF ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS

The federal government and many state governments have recently passed legislation that punishes school districts for not showing consistent improvement in standardized test scores. This article measures the extent to which school performance reflects student characteristics. After splitting schools in the state of Washington based on adequate yearly progress, the authors find that an overwhelming percentage of the difference between high- and low-performing schools is explained by characteristics beyond the control of school administrators. Thus legislation designed to penalize poorly performing schools may hurt students who are most in need of academic aid. (JEL I2 )     

THE IMPACT OF TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS ON AUSTRALIA'S INWARD FDI FLOWS

International trade and investment agreements are one of the primary instruments of global financial liberalisation. They are enacted to enhance the flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) between signatories by reducing regulatory barriers to investment; promoting stable host investment environments; and guaranteeing investors against non‐commercial risk. As a net capital importer, Australia has sought to attract FDI through participation in such accords since the early 1980s. This paper examines the determinants of Australia's inward FDI flows—focussing specifically on the effects of trade and investment agreements. Using panel data, we find that both bilateral trade and bilateral and multilateral investment agreements attract FDI flows into Australia, thereby indicating that the policy of enticing FDI through participation in these accords is quite possibly effective.     

The Global Impact of Brexit Uncertainty

We propose a text-based method for measuring the cross-border propagation of large shocks at the firm level. We apply this method to estimate the expected costs, benefits, and risks of Brexit and find widespread reverberations in listed firms in 81 countries. International (i.e., non-U.K.) firms most exposed to Brexit uncertainty (the second moment) lost significant market value and reduced hiring and investment. International firms also overwhelmingly expected negative first-moment impacts from the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union (EU), particularly related to regulation, asset prices, and labor market impacts of Brexit.     

INEQUALITY COMPARISONS IN A MULTI‐PERIOD FRAMEWORK: THE ROLE OF ALTERNATIVE WELFARE METRICS

This paper considers the use of alternative welfare metrics in evaluations of income inequality in a multi‐period context. Using Norwegian longitudinal income data, it is found, as in many studies, that inequality is lower when each individual's annual average income is used as welfare metric, compared with the use of a single‐period accounting framework. However, this result does not necessarily hold when aversion to income fluctuations is introduced. Furthermore, when actual incomes are replaced by expected incomes (conditional on an initial period), using a model of income dynamics, higher values of inequality over longer periods are typically found, although comparisons depend on inequality and variability aversion parameters. The results are strongly influenced by the observed high degree of systematic regression toward the (geometric) mean, combined with a large extent of individual unexpected effects.