An Ampirical Assessment of the Contribution of Small Business Employment to U.S. State Economic Performance

Small Business Economics - Small business proponents regularly couple their arguments for favorable government policies and reduced tax and regulatory burdens, to the presumed benefits of increased...     

US—Mexico fresh vegetable trade: the effects of trade liberalization and economic growth

Studies of US‐Mexico vegetable trade have generally emphasized the importance of US tariffs in determining the competitive advantage of US producers. Even so, research has identified at least four factors related primarily to the different levels of economic development in the US and Mexico that also have important effects on US‐Mexico agricultural trade in general and fresh vegetable trade in particular. These include the differential growth rates of US and Mexican real wages, production technology (yields), and per capita income as well as cyclical movements in the real Mexican Peso/US Dollar exchange rate. This study examines the relative contribution of NAFTA and the development‐related factors to likely future changes in US fresh vegetable imports from Mexico. The analysis employs an econometric simulation model of US and Mexican markets for five fresh vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, bell peppers, and onions) accounting for 80% of US fresh vegetable imports. The results suggest that the 1994–1995 Peso devaluation rather than NAFTA was primarily responsible for the sharp increase in US imports of Mexican vegetables observed in the first years following the implementation of NAFTA. Over time, however, the results suggest that differences in the growth rates of US and Mexican production yields and, to a lesser extent, of US and Mexican real incomes and/or real wage rates could plausibly contribute more to the future growth of US tomato, squash, and onion imports from Mexico than the trade liberalizing effects of NAFTA.     

Import Competition and Labor Productivity

The impact of import competition on labor productivity is examined using panel data for a sample of Australian manufacturing firms over the period 1984–1993. Import competition is found to interact with domestic competition; such the positive impact of import competition on the level and rate of growth of labor productivity rises with the degree of concentration among domestic producers. The results suggest that lowering border protection on manufactured imports into Australia has led to enhanced productivity from domestic producers, especially from those producers in highly concentrated industries.     

An experimental approach to valuing information

This article proposes a method to directly measure the value of information (VOI) conveyed in a label. Using data collected from a field experiment conducted in two grocery stores in Texas, we find the VOI contained in U.S. federally mandated country of origin labels for beef and pork is 36% lower using the new direct elicitation compared to the conventional approach. The mean value‐of‐origin information, in the context of our experiment, ranges from $0.016 to $1.08 per pound of steak/chop purchased, depending on the valuation method used and assumptions about labeling knowledge and average volume purchased per choice. The VOI is substantively influenced by ethnocentrism and meat consumption frequency.     

Getting Rich and Eating Out: Consumption of Food Away from Home in Urban China

The overall goal of this study is to better understand food‐away‐from‐home (FAFH) consumption in urban China. We use national statistical sources and our own data to examine the trends in FAFH during the late reform period and to analyze the determinants of FAFH demand, examining how different groups of consumers have participated in this new area of consumption. Besides the normal Tobit model for total food expenditure away from home, a system of multivariate Tobit equations was estimated simultaneously for three categories of foods consumed outside of the home. The results show that the rapid increase of FAFH demand, a rise that is fueled by higher incomes, is changing consumption patterns in China's post‐reform urban economy. We also use our findings to illustrate how omission of accounting for FAFH trends by China's official statisticians has affected the reported trends in national meat supply and demand statistics. La présente étude visait à mieux comprendre le phénomène de la consommation de repas à l'extérieur en Chine urbaine. Nous avons utilisé des données de sources nationales et nos propres données pour étudier le phénomène au cours de la dernière réforme et pour analyser les déterminants de la demande de repas à l'extérieur en examinant la participation de divers groupes de consommateurs à ce nouveau créneau. Outre le modèle Tobit simple pour évaluer les dépenses totales de repas à l'extérieur, nous avons estimé simultanément un système d'équations Tobit à plusieurs variables pour trois catégories d'aliments consommés à l'extérieur du foyer. Les résultats ont montré que la croissance rapide de la demande de repas à l'extérieur, alimentée par une hausse des revenus, est en train de modifier les habitudes de consommation dans l'économie urbaine de la Chine post‐réformiste. Nous avons également utilisé nos résultats pour illustrer de quelle façon le fait que les statisticiens officiels de la Chine ne tiennent pas compte des tendances de consommation de repas à l'extérieur a une influence sur l'évaluation des tendances dans les données nationales de l'offre et de la demande de viande.     

Assessing the returns to R&D on perennial crops: the costs and benefits of Pierce's disease research in the California winegrape industry

Several complicating issues arise in evaluating the returns to research into varietal improvements for perennial crops compared with annual crops. We elucidate and address these issues in the context of a case study of research aiming to develop varieties that are resistant to Pierce's disease (PD) of grapevines. PD imposes costs of over $100 million per year on the California grape industry, even with public PD control programs in place. Research projects to develop PD resistant varieties of grapevines are at various stages of completion. We describe the economic problems posed by PD, document the research programs undertaken to address the disease and present an economic assessment of the returns to the investment, which are conditional on other policies. Using a simulation model of the market for California winegrapes, we estimate the benefits from research, development and adoption of PD‐resistant vines as ranging from $4 million to $129 million annually over a 50‐year horizon, depending on the length of the R&D lag and the rate of adoption. In addition to these specific quantitative results the paper offers insight into the broader question of economic evaluation of damage‐mitigation technology for perennial crops.     

A Distributional Analysis of the FairTax Plan: Annual and Lifetime Income Considerations

Dissatisfaction with the current federal tax system is fostering serious interest in the FairTax Plan, which would replace most of the federal taxes with a national retail sales tax. The FairTax is promoted as being progressive, but there is considerable skepticism of this claim. We examine the distributional effects of the FairTax, as well as the current system it intends to replace, under both annual income and lifetime income approaches. Global measures of progressivity suggest that the current federal tax system is progressive while the FairTax is regressive. Our results are also robust to different assumptions used for estimation.     

The Mind of the Social Individual: A Comment on Sherman and Hodgson

In the Spring 1998 (56(1): 47-57) and Fall 1998 (56(3): 295-306, 307-310) issues of this review, Howard Sherman and Geoffrey Hodgson debated, inter alia , the extent to which Veblen-Ayres institutionalism is compatible with Marx and recent Marxist work. This paper argues that the differences between Hodgson and Sherman"s positions do not rely on assumptions of "illogical" behavior, individualist arguments or structural conceptions of the individual. Instead, the debate turns on the authors' respective conceptions of the formation and role of the human mind in what it is to be a social individual.     

The Jerome Levy Economic Institute Conference:

The Jerome Levy Economic Institute at Bard College presented a program arranged by Professor Kris Feder on “Land Wealth and Poverty,” on November 2-4,1995, Two of the talks presented are here reproduced with more to follow in subsequent issues of this Journal. J. Ted Gwartney, former senior appraisal officer of the Bank of America presented the view that a 4% tax on the value of land, as broadly defined, could provide revenue adequate for the removal of all other taxes. Professor Nicolaus Tideman argued the case of morality of taxation at the local level.