Testing hypotheses of ghetto morphology

Socioeconomic urban policy has generally treated the American black ghetto as a single community or neighborhood. A study of recent literature suggests that the socioeconomic structure of ghetto space may be developing a spatially systematic heterogeneity. The literature has suggested several hypotheses concerning the socioeconomic morphology of ghetto space, but heretofore these hypotheses have not been tested in any rigorous fashion. This is the objective of this study. The results of these tests suggest that the ghetto is indeed developing as a socioeconomically heterogeneous subsystem spatially parallel to the overall urban system. This implies that a multiplicity of communities or neighborhoods are developing over time. In order to be effective, the processes of urban planning and policy development must address this evolving pattern.     

Process,goal, and social interaction differences in recreation: What makes an activity substitutable

Abstract

In the present study two recreational activities, deer hunting and goose hunting, both similar in form, are compared. The study shows that the activity with the fewest perceived substitutes, deer hunting, also showed higher mean ratings on items measuring the importance of various elements of the experience, such as the process of participation, the goal of the activity, and the social interaction that accompanies the activity by the participants. Deer hunters also reported greater participation in the activity by peers and were more likely to be introduced to the activity by a family member. It is argued that these differences in the importance of the elements of the experiences influence the perceived substitutability of a recreational activity.     

The fundamentals of land prices and urban growth

In a very simple model in which capital is durable and landowners have perfect foresight, the price of urban land has four additive components: the value of agricultural land rent, the cost of conversion, the value of accessibility, and the value of expected future rent increases, a growth premium. In rapidly growing cities, the growth premium may easily account for half of the average price of land and may create a large gap between the price of land at the boundary (minus conversion cost) and the value of agricultural land rent.     

The Dubious Antitrust Argument for Breaking Up the Internet Giants

Recent calls for using the antitrust laws to break up the large Internet giants are misplaced for a number of reasons. First, similar efforts against oil, tobacco, motion-picture, and telecommunications monopolies have not proved to be beneficial to economic welfare. Second, the failure to break up Microsoft using Section 2 has not proved to be a mistake: competition in operating systems and Internet browsers has flourished recently. Finally, a Section 2 case against Amazon, Facebook, or Google could not succeed if it focused on the digital advertising market. Even in a case based on market power on the other side of their platforms, a structural remedy—a break-up—would not improve economic welfare in the long run.

     

Securitization,Risk‐Taking and the Option to Change Strategy

This article models the riskiness of structured securitization deals. The deals are put together by “banks,” which can exercise strategic options over the risk put into the deals. The banks face a trade‐off between the benefits of risk‐taking now and future franchise benefits if the deal pays off. The key insight is a convex relationship between the value of the bank's equity position and the risk in the deal. Although there is a continuum of possible risk, banks choose either the highest or lowest levels of risk open to them. Changes in strategy are discontinuous and unpredictable; a history of low risk‐taking may be a prelude to increased risk‐taking later. Competition, to the extent of reducing franchise value, can lead to more risk‐taking, as can more information in the market. The model provides insights into the risk‐taking that led up to the Great Recession and to institutions that are “Too Big to Fail.”     

Socially Useless Jobs

Recent research suggests that many workers in modern economies think that their job is socially useless, i.e., that it makes no or a negative contribution to society. However, the evidence so far is mainly anecdotal. We use a representative dataset comprising 100,000 workers from forty‐seven countries at four points in time. We find that approximately 8 percent of workers perceive their job as socially useless, while another 17 percent are doubtful about the usefulness of their job. There are sizeable differences among countries, sectors, occupations, and age groups, but no trend over time. A vast majority of workers cares about holding a socially useful job and we find that they suffer when they consider their job useless. We also explore possible causes of socially useless jobs, including bad management, strict job protection legislation, harmful economic activities, labor hoarding, and division of labor.     

There and Back Again: The De‐Licensing and Re‐Licensing of Barbers in Alabama

The economic effects of occupational licensing remain an understudied topic, but even less is known about the effects of the removal of licensing legislation. In this article, we take advantage of a natural experiment that occurred in the state of Alabama. Alabama was the last state to begin licensing barbers in 1973 and also the only state to de‐license barbers (in 1983). Relying on data from 1974 to 1994, we find evidence that barber de‐licensing reduced the average annual earnings of barbers as well as the number of cosmetologist employees per million residents in Alabama, although not all our results are statistically significant. We also find evidence that de‐licensing resulted in small increases in the number of barber shops and decreases in the number of cosmetology shops in Alabama. In recent decades, a number of attempts have been made to re‐license the occupation — most recently with a barber licensing bill that became law in September 2013. The result is that barbering in Alabama is once again a licensed occupation. Our limited evidence suggests that the re‐licensing of barbers in Alabama may already have had an effect on pay and on the number of barber shops.     

Working Time Mismatch and Subjective Well-being

This study uses nationally representative panel survey data for Australia to identify the role played by mismatches between hours actually worked and working time preferences in contributing to reported levels of job and life satisfaction. Three main conclusions emerge. First, it is not the number of hours worked that matters for subjective well-being, but working time mismatch. Second, overemployment is a more serious problem than is underemployment. Third, while the magnitude of the impact of overemployment may seem small in absolute terms, relative to other variables, such as disability, the effect is quite large.