On the dynamic response of a firm to an employment subsidy with a fmd threshold

During the last two decades, policy-makers have included employment subsidies among the tools of stabilization policy. Employment subsidy programs have been introduced in Japan, Great Britain, Europe and the United States. There has been some concern, however, about the effectiveness of such programs. In this paper, we analyze how a profit-maximizing firm will respond to a marginal subsidy program with a fixed threshold, focusing on the role of inventories. We show that, in some cases, the firm may have an incentive to manipulate inventories in a way that increases its profits but lowers the cost effectiveness of the program.     

From Experience: Demystify Creativity, Enhance Innovation

Creativity need not be a chance occurrence. The authors of this article believe there is a technology that facilitates creativity. It is a technology that can be learned and applied and managed. They describe the specific steps that they followed in helping a group of R&D professionals learn, apply, and manage the creative processes in the lab. It is a story of practical steps that dealt with the everyday realities of managing in a large corporation.     

A Global Approach to Identifying Expert System Applications in Compensation Practice

This paper reports the results of a study to determine the most cost-effective expert system application for the compensation practice of a large employee benefits consulting firm. The purpose of the expert system would be to help assure quality and consistency in practice and to assist in the training of less experienced experts. The study utilized a questionnaire to solicit input from experts in several locations. The questionnaire included a comprehensive listing of firm compensation tasks. Evaluation characteristics selected for the study emphasized business-related characteristics. Because of adverse economic circumstances in the consulting firm, the decision concerning an initial expert systems application was deferred.     

The Time Allocation and Earnings of Artists

This article presents the results of an investigation into the time allocation and earnings of artists. Artists are unique because theyspend substantial amounts of time both at art work and at nonart work while earning the majority of their income from the latter. In order to empirically examine this allocation of time between art and nonart work, we estimate a four-equation system. We find that artists respond to price signals in the directions predicted by economic theory.     

DIFFERENCES IN THE MEASUREMENT OF WEALTH, WEALTH INEQUALITY AND WEALTH COMPOSITION OBTAINED FROM ALTERNATIVE U.S. WEALTH SURVEYS

Since household wealth surveys have been widely used to study saving and other issues, it is important to examine the reliability of the various survey estimates of wealth. In this paper the authors assess the quality characteristics of the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Men and the Retirement History Survey, as compared to the 1983 Survey of Consumer Finances. We find that the NLS and especially the RHS underreport wealth and wealth concentration. The underestimates of wealth held in the form of common stock, business equity, and investment real estate equity are substantial. The principal problem lies in underrepresentation of both tails of the wealth and income distributions, with the consequences of underrepresenting the upper tail being especially serious for wealth measurement. We examine several potential reasons for the underrepresentation.     

Property price effects of a national wildlife refuge: Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts

The amenity value of proximity to a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in central Middlesex County, Massachusetts is estimated and compared to the values of proximity to five other open space types, including agricultural land, cemeteries, conservation land, golf courses, and sport/recreation parks. A hedonic model is used to explore the relationships among residential property values and proximity to these distinct types of open space. Open space characteristics in the empirical model include measures of continuous distance from each property to the nearest open space of each type and an index describing the diversity of open space types within neighborhoods of 100 and 1000 meters around a home. Results reveal that a property located 100 meters closer to the NWR than a neighboring property has a price premium of $984. Further, proximity to the NWR is valued more than proximity to agricultural land, cemeteries, and conservation land. No significant differences are found among the values of proximity to the NWR, golf courses, and sport/recreation parks.