Poverty in America 1970–1990: who did gain ground? An application of stochastic dominance criteria employing simultaneous inequality tests in a partial panel

Atkinson ( 1987 ) proposed stochastic dominance criteria for analysing poverty which, under certain conditions, establish orderings of states for any poverty line and any poverty measure within given class, refocusing debate on the nature of the income distribution of the poor. Employing new empirical techniques, these criteria are implemented for the United States from 1970 to 1990 using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Results highlight the pivotal role of family size scale economies in consumption, indicate different experiences for white versus non‐white groups and suggest that optimism over the progress of the poor is not warranted. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on odds in the cattle futures market

This paper investigates the odds of generating a 100-fold return in the cattle futures market. We employ cattle futures data for the period October 11, 1978, through July 31, 1979, to compute the probability of obtaining such a return. The tests are constructed to give the investor the benefit of the doubt whenever doubt exists. The most conservative finding is that the probability is one in approximately thirty-one trillion. Assuming that the return is made in the most efficient way possible, this probability falls to approximately 1.5×10⁻¹⁶.     

Design and valuation of debt contracts

This articles studies the design and valuation of debt contractsin a general dynamic setting under uncertainty. We incorporatesome insights of the recent corporate finance literature intoa valuation framework. The basic framework is an extensive form game determined bythe terms of a debt contract and applicable bankruptcy laws.Debtholders and equityholders behave noncooperatively. The firm'sreorganization boundary is determined endogenously. Strategic debt service results in significantly higher defaultpremia at even small liquidation costs. Deviations from absolutepriority and forced liquidations occur along the equilibriumpath. The design tends to stress higher coupons and sinkingfunds when firms have a higher cash payout ratio.     

Property taxes and the timing of urban land development

This paper develops an optimal timing model which extends our understanding of the effects which property taxes have on the timing of land development. Comparative static effects of changes in property tax rates are investigated and policy rules are developed for the use of differential pre- and post-development tax rates to affect the timing of development. Changes in the property tax rate are found to be non-neutral with respect to the timing of development in most cases, accelerating or delaying development depending upon specific market conditions.     

On the individual moving average inequality

Summary A very simple deduction of a recently treated inequality is presented and some variations on this proof, drawing together various properties, are discussed. Closure of moving average processes undermultiplication is also mentioned.     

Relationships in business markets: Exchange episodes,value creation,and their empirical assessment

Conclusion David Wilson (1995) has provided us with much grist for thought with his integrated framework for customer-supplier relationship development. In focusing on which constructs are “active” and therefore most meaningful at each stage, he has opened a new vista for research in this area. Our models and empirical research ought to reflect this, but to date they largely have not. I have suggested qualitative, longitudinal research as a preferred next step in gaining the knowledge that we will need to make field-survey, longitudinal research worthwhile. Wilson also is to be lauded for drawing greater attention to value creation as a central undertaking in customer-supplier relationships. Understanding and actualizing value creation (and value sharing) are critical aspects of the market-sensing and customer-linking capabilities in market-driven organizations (Day 1994), yet the mechanisms underlying them and the methodologies for accurately assessing them remain largely unknown. Here, particularly for tool development research, it would seem to be an opportune time for business marketing academics and practitioners to form their own collaborative relationships for mutual gain. His research interests are in working relationships between firms in business markets and measurement techniques. His articles have appeared inHarvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Psychological Bulletin, andPsychometrika, among others. He has been vice president of the Business Marketing Division of the American Marketing Association and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association.     

Handling health-care costs in the '90s

Managed-care programs with utilization reviews may be the best approach to cost cutting. But to really curb costs, providers, insurers, employers and employees must form partnerships to overcome the outrageous inflation in the U.S. health-care system.     

Socioeconomic predictors of forest use values in the Peruvian Amazon: A potential tool for biodiversity conservation

Conservation is a crisis discipline requiring rapid action with limited funds. This study examines the potential of socioeconomic variables to predict forest use values. If natural resource use can be predicted from socioeconomic data, conservation planners could rapidly identify and focus conservation programs on the sectors of local populations that most intensively utilize local flora and fauna. Families in three communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon were surveyed over a 6-month period. Data were collected on use of flora and fauna from six locally determined use categories (food, medicine and poisons, wood, weavings, adornments, and “other”) in forest types of three age classes (fallow fields—very young forests, young secondary forests, and old secondary forests). Forest use values were the dependant variables calculated in $/ha/year. Socioeconomic variables included: age, education, family size, residence time, land worked, land owned, number of fishing nets, chickens, pigs, cows, and/or mules owned (all proxies for productive assets), and level of ecological knowledge (ability of informants to correctly identify forest species and answer basic questions about their biology). Ordinary least square multiple regressions were run independently for each forest type. Regressions were also run separately for the two most valuable use categories, food and wood. Low R² adjusted values (all < 0.3) reflect the difficulty in predicting human behavior due to confounding variables and complex interactions. Residence time and a household's community of residence were the most significant predictors of forest use values. Households in Vista Alegre, the community with the highest density of people and smallest landholdings per household, extracted the highest value of forest products per hectare. The longer a family stayed in any community the higher the value of forest goods they extracted. If families that lived in an area longest are the most intensive extractors of forest products, they should be a major focus for conservation programming. In addition, the higher value of products extracted from forests by some families may make them more open to strategies seeking to protect long-term viability of the resources they utilize. The importance of residence time also indicates that planners need to account for changes in the resource use patterns of stakeholders over time.     

Implementing continuous improvement in the North American mining industry

This study identifies key factors required to successfully change a mining organization's culture to that mandated by a continuous improvement (CI) philosophy. Guided by a change-oriented model of CI implementation and the Malcolm Baldridge criteria, a survey was conducted involving mining firms operating in North America with annual revenues over $100 million. Twenty-four firms participated and resulted in 268 usable questionnaires. A principal component factor analysis followed by linear regression revealed that four factors accounted for success in implementing CI; employee involvement was the most important one. This dominant factor proved to be complex and had elements of the context of change (e.g., acceptance of company goals), the content of change (teamwork, new ways of working, and supportive HRM policies), and the process of change (leadership and access to information). Other predictors included, in order of importance, corporate presence, customer-oriented strategy, and adoption of practical goals. The article concludes with a discussion of employee involvement and the trend toward a productivity gap, with firms pursuing CI in the lead.     

The stability of generalised stackelberg equilibria in heterogeneous oligopoly

Conclusions In this paper we have derived sufficient conditions for the stability of the G. S. E. These conditions follow from the condition on the stability of the G. C. E., given by Okuguchi (1978).When the conditions for asymptotic stability are fulfilled, the existence of the G. S. E. may be demonstrated in the same way as the existence of the G. C. E. has been demonstrated by Okuguchi (1978), that is: the G. S. E. is the fixpoint of a contracting mapping. In the case of linear demand functions and quadratic cost functions we have found the rather strong result that the sufficient conditions for (asymptotic) stability of the G. C. E. imply the (asymptotic) stability of the G. S. E. as well.This conclusion may be surprising to followers of Stackelberg. Mostly the outcome of a Stackelberg oligopoly is considered as adisequilibrium.In this paper we have made clear that a firm maximizing expected profit and using a generalised Stackelberg strategy, like a firm using a generalised Cournot strategy, only correctly predicts inequilibrium the price of the other firms. (See also on this point Heertje and Furth (1979)).When the outcome of a G. S. E. gives one or more firms less profit than in a G. C. E. then they expect, any price change, under-taken by them, will lower their expected profit even more.I would like to thank Prof. Dr. A. Heertje and an anonymous referee for their useful comments on earlier drafts of this paper and D. Weatherall for his remarks on the english of the text.