Urban Economic Development and Restorative Justice: Exploring the Relationship Between Creativity and Crime Control

This article examines the relationship between local economic development and a new approach to the problem of crime–i.e., ‘restorative justice.’ The latter concept is introduced and briefly explored, followed by a short review of Richard Florida's recently proposed theory of creative-class economic development. Against the backdrop of these theoretical innovations, an empirical question that arises is whether the specific character of creative-class economic growth enhances the probability that a given city will adopt a restorative justice paradigm in its efforts to reduce crime. Addressing this question using logistic regression analysis, the article provides preliminary evidence that creative-class economic development encourages experimentation with innovative approaches to social problems such as crime. Missouri Western State University—U.S.A. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 58th International Atlantic Economic Conference in Chicago, Illinois, October 8, 2004.     

On the price discriminating labour cooperative

This paper considers labor cooperatives selling in a competitive international product market and a monopolistic domestic market simultaneously. It is shown that output of the cooperative is smaller than that of a profit maximizing firm. Both firms have the same domestic sales. Output will decrease if domestic demand rises but it may rise or fall when foreign demand increases. These contrast with the single market comparative statics of Ward.     

Product Differentiation through Exclusivity: Is there a One‐Market‐Power‐Rent Theorem?

In systems industries, combinations of components are consumed together to generate user benefits. Arrangements among component providers sometimes limit consumers’ ability to mix‐and‐match components, and such exclusive arrangements have been highly controversial. We examine the competitive and welfare effects of exclusive arrangements among system components in a model of relatively differentiated applications that run on relatively undifferentiated platforms. We show that there is no “One‐Market‐Power‐Rent Theorem.” Specifically, exclusive deals with providers of differentiated applications can raise platforms’ margins without reducing applications’ margins, so that overall industry profits rise. Hence, for a given set of components and prices, exclusive arrangements can reduce consumer welfare by limiting consumer choice and raising equilibrium prices. In some cases, however, exclusivity can raise consumer welfare by increasing the equilibrium number of platforms, which leads to lower prices relative to the monopoly outcome that would prevail absent exclusivity.     

On the existence of franchise contracts and some of their implications

We characterize the franchising problem as a contractual agreement between a principal and multiple agents. The contract contains a revenue-sharing rule, the level of national expenditures by the franchisor and the number of units to be enfranchised. The franchisor offers the contract to a group of potential agents whose attitudes toward risk and effort differ. The revenue of a franchise unit is determined by decisions of both parties as well as a random perturbation. Under certain conditions, we establish the existence and uniqueness of an expected utility maximizing franchise contract with the property that the royalty payment to the franchisor never exceeds one-half the revenue. We provide an explanation for the use of a common contract and argue that, in reality, it is non-linear. We show that this common, non-linear contract attracts agents deemed desirable by the franchisor.     

Proposal for two model undergraduate curricula in entrepreneurship

This paper takes three important preliminary steps towards the development of undergraduate curricula in entrepreneurship. First, it provides one of the first analyses comparing the entrepreneurship education standards proposed by the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education and the European Commission’s Education and Training in Entrepreneurship initiative. Next, it presents an analysis of results of a workshop of entrepreneurship educators regarding development of an undergraduate entrepreneurship standard for business schools. With these two elements in place, the paper makes recommendations for model undergraduate entrepreneurship curricula for majors and concentrations, and concludes with a discussion of the issues in developing and implementing model curricula in a manner consistent with emerging standards in US business schools.     

How much do immigration and trade affect labor market outcomes?

"This paper provides new estimates of the impact of immigration and trade on the U.S. labor market.... We examine the relation between economic outcomes for native workers and immigrant flows to regional labor markets.... We...use the factor proportions approach to examine the contributions of immigration and trade to recent changes in U.S. educational wage differentials and attempt to provide a broader assessment of the impact of immigration on the incomes of U.S. natives." Comments and discussion by John DiNardo, John M. Abowd, and others are included (pp. 68-85).     

A simple test for distinguishing between internal reference price theories

A large literature demonstrates the empirical importance of internal reference price effects. There are several theories regarding how and why these effects arise. We offer a simple test that distinguishes between the two leading theories based on economically rational behavior: price as a signal of quality and price as a predictor of future prices. Our test builds on differences in how past consumer purchases interact with internal reference prices. We first validate the reliability of our test by applying it to synthetic data. We then apply our test to purchases of ketchup and diapers and find: (1) quality signaling is the dominant mechanism behind reference price effects in both categories; (2) consistent with the quality-signaling theory, reference price effects diminish as various measures of consumer experience increase; but (3) in both categories there are many individuals for whom price-prediction effects dominate quality-signaling effects.