Grants structure in an intergovernmental fiscal game

Abstract. Systems of intergovernmental grants change over time. We explain this observation in terms of political and economic shocks in a noncooperative game between federal and provincial governments. The effects on the equilibrium grants structure arising from political disagreement, fiscal burden, increased revenue instability, and federalistic behaviour are examined. Our results provide a new theoretical perspective on grants. We show that the role of matching grants may be to influence the pattern of social spending by provincial or state governments, while conditional lump-sum grants are used simultaneously to determine the composition of the tax burden across the levels of government. Received: January 2001 / accepted: April 2002 We are grateful for the helpful comments received from Richard Bird, Amihai Glazer, and two anonymous referees.     

Four themes in fertility research

This study is concerned with four main themes that have been combined to describe U.S. fertility trends since 1920. These themes are identified as a time adjustment mechanism, income, the wife's labor force activities, and some intergenerational factor. "In order to obtain an unambiguous picture each theme will be represented by only one variable. After selecting the variables and estimating a model, an examination of the changing role these variables have had in explaining changes in fertility (the total fertility rate) throughout much of this century will be made. Finally, the implications these themes have for future fertility will be examined." The authors conclude that "in interpreting historical U.S. fertility rates, the results seem to indicate that much of the early decline in U.S. fertility was due to falling infant mortality. After the Second World War, fertility rose sharply as the age-structure variable declined and income rose. Eventually both women's labor force participation rates and the age-structure variable rose and, consequently, fertility fell." They also suggest that the age structure variable may cause a temporary upward swing in fertility in the near future.     

Contesting Dishonesty: When and Why Perspective-Taking Decreases Ethical Tolerance of Marketplace Deception

Journal of Business Ethics - Deception is common in the marketplace where individuals pursue self-interests from their perspectives. Extant research suggests that perspective-taking, a cognitive...     

The Moderating Effects of Resident Characteristics on Perceived Gaming Impacts and Gaming Industry Support: The Case of Macao

Based on a joint use of social exchange and social representation theories, this study examined the moderating effects of resident characteristics on the relationships between perceived gaming impacts, gaming benefits, and industry support. The findings demonstrated that the relationships changed when the resident characteristics (age, education, tourism industry dependence, and community attachment) were introduced to the structural model as moderators. The study provides a better understanding of which subgroup of people within a community are more or less disposed to certain impacts of gaming. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

Preferences for environmental quality under uncertainty

Although the expected effects of environmental policies and interventions are rarely known with certainty, stated preference surveys rarely elicit preferences over uncertain environmental outcomes. This article presents empirical results challenging the view that ignoring such uncertainty during preference elicitation is of no consequence so long as people only care about final environmental states. We show that measured preferences for final environmental states, water quality in this case, depend on whether people choose between final states or between lotteries over final states. In contrast to the typical finding for monetary lotteries, we find significant under-weighting of low probability events related to water quality.     

Identity Distancing and Targeted Advertisements: The Black Sheep Effect

ABSTRACT

This research examines the effect of target marketing using the black sheep effect, which occurs when individuals judge likable ingroup members more positively than similar outgroup members, while judging unlikable ingroup members more negatively than similar outgroup members. The results of two experiments show that individuals feel more targeted by ads that feature members of their ingroup that are more prototypical and likeable, and feel less targeted by advertisements featuring models who violate the group's positive image on some trait, making them nonprototypical and unlikeable. Theoretical implications regarding the impact of intragroup processes in consumer persuasion effects and target marketing are discussed.     

The Protected Area Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM) Framework: A Simplified Process for Making Management Decisions

Ecotourism and protected area visitation in Central and South America have resulted in ecological impacts, which some protected areas managers have addressed by employing visitor impact management frameworks. In this paper, we propose the Protected Area Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM) framework as an alternative to carrying capacity and other frameworks such as Limits of Acceptable Change. We use a set of evaluation criteria to compare the relative positive and negative attributes of carrying capacity, other decision-making frameworks and the new framework, within the context of their actual and potential use in Central and South America. Positive attributes of PAVIM include simplicity, flexibility, cost effectiveness, timeliness and incorporating input from stakeholders and local residents. Negative attributes include diminished objectivity and cultural sensitivity issues. Further research and application of PAVIM are recommended.     

US—Mexico employment effects of repealing the US offshore assembly provision

The [OAPs] are contributing to the actual displacement – and impending displacement in the next few years – of scores of thousands of unskilled and semi-skilled factory production workers who are in the economy' mainstream.

Nathaniel Goldfinger, AFL-CIO, 1970

We believe that the only benefits derived from the existence of [the OAP] are reached by transnational enterprises through increases in profits. This, however, cannot offset the harm done to the thousands of American's whose livelihoods have been sacrificed in the pursuit of those profits.

Mark Anderson, AFL-CIO, 1987

What my well-intentioned but misinformed colleagues fail to realise is that without provisions like [the OAP], products [assembled in Mexico] would be 100 per cent made in Asia. The loss, therefore, would equal not only the jobs used in the assembly process in Mexico, but those used to manufacture the components produced here in the United States.

Hon. Jim Kolbe, 1987

The employment effects of the Offshore Assembly Provision (OAP) are highly controversial. Organized labour strongly opposes the provision because they believe it shifts assembly jobs offshore. In constrast, US business contends that in order to compete with imports, domestic components must be assembled abroad. Thus, the OAP preserves jobs in components industries. Mexico favours the provision, believing that it is an important cause of the growth in assembly employment in its northers border region. In this paper, we contribute to the debate over the OAP by supplying estimates of its employment effects in the United States and Mexico for disaggregate industries. We find the claims of both proponents and opponents of the OAP to be greatly exaggerated.     

The Kornai Effect and Soft Budget Constraints

The Kornai effect refers to situations where soft budget constraints lead to higher input demands. This paper studies the Kornai effect under different scenarios: nonrandom subsidy rate, random subsidy rate, and random and endogenous subsidy rate; and gives sufficient, sometimes necessary and sufficient, conditions for the Kornai effect to exist.