Institutionalism and Fiscal Policy at Midcentury

This article analyzes the career and contributions of Roy Blough (1901–2000) as a case study of Wisconsin institutionalism in government policy-making at midcentury. As a faculty member at Cincinnati, Chicago and Columbia, editor of the National Tax Journal, director of the research division of the U.S. Treasury and member of the Council of Economic Advisors, Blough played a significant role in the development of fiscal policy. The article also considers Blough’s contributions to tax policy and his views on Keynesian public finance. It further identifies the contributions of Wisconsin institutionalism to modern fiscal policy.     

Customers of performing arts organisations: are subscribers different from nonsubscribers?

The subscribing customers of performing arts organisations are an indispensable, but frequently maligned source of patronage for the arts. This paper reviews some of these criticisms in the arts literature and assesses previous research on subscribers. Audience studies of the customers of cultural organisations have generally focused on usage differences (eg nonusers, frequent users) rather than subscriber/nonsubscriber differences. Based on theories of relationship marketing, the paper describes how relational subscribers may differ from nonsubscribing customers who frequent the arts but are more transactional in their exchanges with the cultural organisation. The results of a survey of subscribing and nonsubscribing customers of a repertory theatre company are presented to show differences between these two types of customer. Subscribers have higher levels of satisfaction, trust and commitment, and have more positive intentions of supporting and donating to the organisation. The arts patronage goals of subscribers are more congruent with the goals of the cultural organisation. Subscribers are more satisfied with familiar than with famous performers, and are comfortable with diversity in the choice of repertoire. Other factors examined include differences in overall involvement with the category of theatre, perceptions of risk and value, use of information sources, and reasons why some customers choose not to subscribe. The paper concludes with discussion of the importance of relationship marketing and subscribing customers for the performing arts organisation. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

What is a strategic acquisition? Decision modeling in support of foreclosed housing redevelopment

This paper describes and develops a model for calculating location-based strategic values of foreclosed properties considered for acquisition and redevelopment by community development corporations (CDCs). A property’s strategic value refers to its proximity to site-specific neighborhood amenities and disamenities (e.g. schools, public transit, distressed properties), given the relative importance of that proximity to CDC organizational and community objectives. We operationalize the concept of strategic value, and apply this concept to a salient public sector decision problem. Using data and value assessments from a CDC engaged in foreclosed housing redevelopment, we compute measures of strategic value for a set of acquisition candidates. We show that strategic values can differ in systematic ways depending on the types of amenities and disamenities identified as relevant for CDC acquisition decisions, the relative importance assigned to those amenities and disamenities, and the utility maximization objectives of the CDC. We conclude by proposing a multi-criteria decision model for foreclosed housing acquisition and redevelopment which incorporates a theory of residential housing impacts for which strategic value measures are a special case.     

The Economics of Grain Cleaning on the Prairies

In the Canadian grain marketing system, grains have typically been cleaned to very tight levels at port elevators. In recent years, changes in rail rates, livestock production and grain handling technology are pressuring the system for change. A mathematical programming model of vertical marketing functions in western Canada is developed to determine optimal locations for cleaning. Cleaning margins are positive in all regions of the prairies. Grain cleaning is found generally to be more efficient on the prairies than at the ports. However, grain cleaning will continue at ports to some extent because of inadequate capacity at country positions and sunk costs at port facilities and because primary elevators will likely clean only the dominant grains. Dans le système canadien de commercialisation des céreales, les grains passent généralement par un nettoyage très rigoureux aux silos portuaires. Ces dernières années, les changements affectant les tarifs ferroviaires, les productions animales et la technologie de manutention des céréales rendent cependant nécessaire un changement du système. Les auteurs utilisent un modéle mathématique de programmation des fonctions verticales de mise en marché pour déterminer les emplacements idéaux pour le nettoyage du grain. Les marges commerciales des nettoyeurs étaient positives dans toutes les régions des Prairies et le nettoyage était généralement plus efficient dans cette partie di pays qu'aux situations portuaires. Il continuera cependant à sefaire à ces derniers endroits dans une certaine mesure, en raison du manque de capacités suffisantes aux emplacements de campagne, des coûts irrécupérabies aux installations portuaires et du fait que les élévateurs primaires ne nettoieront vraisemblablement que les céréales commercialement le plus importantes.     

Fragmentation and Embeddedness: An Alternative Approach to the Analysis of Rural Financial Markets

Political economy approaches to analysing the efficiency of rural financial markets have focused on the role of power and social relations. Neo-classical institutional economics, on the other hand, has used information and transaction costs to explain performance. Recognizing the limitations of both approaches, this paper presents an alternative that focuses on the institutional form of financial intermediaries, that is, the governance structure of rules, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms that enable them to operate. This structure is supported by both formal and informal rules, norms and sanctions. As a result, the ways in which transaction costs are affected by governance structures can be identified and the embeddedness of financial intermediaries in social relations can be theorized. The application of this approach in Central Kenya demonstrates the insights that it offers into explaining borrower preferences in the financial market.     

Leader Ethical Decision-Making in Organizations: Strategies for Sensemaking

Organizational leaders face environmental challenges and pressures that put them under ethical risk. Navigating this ethical risk is demanding given the dynamics of contemporary organizations. Traditional models of ethical decision-making (EDM) are an inadequate framework for understanding how leaders respond to ethical dilemmas under conditions of uncertainty and equivocality. Sensemaking models more accurately illustrate leader EDM and account for individual, social, and environmental constraints. Using the sensemaking approach as a foundation, previous EDM models are revised and extended to comprise a conceptual model of leader EDM. Moreover, the underlying factors in the model are highlighted—constraints and strategies. Four trainable, compensatory strategies (emotion regulation, self-reflection, forecasting, and information integration) are proposed and described that aid leaders in navigating ethical dilemmas in organizations. Empirical examinations demonstrate that tactical application of the strategies may aid leaders in making sense of complex and ambiguous ethical dilemmas and promote ethical behavior. Compensatory tactics such as these should be central to organizational ethics initiatives at the leader level.     

Rent Paying Ability and Racial Settlement Patterns

A bstract . Based on the belief that the major remaining hurdle to integration is economic , the proposition has frequently been advanced that if minority households could afford decent housing outside their current communities , many would move from their ghettoes into society at large. Evidence from two housing allowance demonstration projects and the recently completed Experimental Housing Allowance Program raises doubts as to the validity of this contention. While recipients of housing allowances frequently moved to better neighborhoods , only rarely were they able to break free of traditional settlement patterns . Findings suggest that while it may be necessary to increase the rent paying abilities of low-income minority households as a precondition of integration, that segregation is not likely to be eliminated until the social, psychological, and remaining legal issues associated with it are addressed as well.     

Homeownership and mixed-asset portfolio allocations

Homeownership represents both a consumption and an investment decision for individuals. Considering the investment benefits of the home, we estimate the total returns and risk associated with the investment in single-family homes. Then, using a mean–variance utility function, we consider the impact of homeownership and mortgage loan financing on the optimal asset allocation decisions of individuals and contrast this with advice that does not include the home as part of the portfolio. While optimal portfolio weights are dependant upon both the degree of risk aversion of the individual investor and the relative importance of the home in the overall net worth picture, we show that, in general, the higher the home-to-net worth ratio, the higher the optimal portfolio allocation to stock. For most investors, including the home in the optimization decision leads to higher allocations to risky stock than suggested by traditional advice that ignores the home.