Distortions in world trade: Recent developments

The functioning of the world trading system is seriously distorted by a multitude of protectionist measures that impede a possible expansion in world trade and national product. Hans Joachim Hochstrate and Ralf Zeppernick analyse the latest developments against the background of the current Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations.     

Land reform in developing countries

There are signs indicating that in many developing countries land ownership has become more concentrated in the past decade. This is all the more significant as in developing countries the large majority of the population derives its income from farming. Land reforms are needed to ensure a more equitable distribution of agricultural income.     

Regular competitive equilibria in disequilibrium economics

Regular competitive equilibria, in the sense of Guy Laroque, play an important role in disequilibrium economics. In this paper it is shown that the set of economies with only regular competitive equilibria, is open and dense in the set of all economies with respect to the strong Whitney-topology.     

Transaction costs and the small firm effect

Recent empirical work by Banz (1981) and Reinganum (1981) documents abnormally large risk-adjusted returns for small firms listed on the NYSE and the AMEX. The strength and persistence with which the returns appear lead both authors to conclude the single-period, two-parameter capital asset pricing model is misspecified. This study (1) confirms that total market value of common stock equity varies inversely with risk-adjusted returns, (2) demonstrates that price per share does also, and (3) finds that transaction costs at least partially account for the abnormality.     

Sales force budgeting

There is no magic budget formula for sales forces that works for every firm under every circumstance. The traditional approaches provide a good starting place, but a number of additional factors need to be taken into account by those deciding on the budget.     

Zur Frage der wissenschaftlichen Fundierung wirtschaftspolitischer Maßnahmen

Ohne ZusammenfassungXI, 115 S. Basel: Kyklos-Verlag, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck). 1961. Ln. DM 15,—, Fr. 16,80, brosch. DM 12,—, Fr. 13,60.     

Development aid taxation act amendment

One of the important tasks which the new Federal Government will have to tackle during 1973 is the amendment of the Entwicklungshilfe-Steuergesetz (Development Aid Taxation Act). The following article reviews the aims of the Act and suggests modifications necessary for improving its effectiveness.     

ESTIMATES OF THE VALUE OF HOUSEHOLD WORK CANADA, 1961 and 1971*

The paper presents some estimates of the imputed dollar value of household work (HW)for Canada in 1961 and 1971, finding this to be about $16 and $38 billion respectively, equal to 40 percent of GNP. From the results we derive some implications about five questions raised in the relevant literature. First, no clear evidence of a downward trend for the ratio HW/GNP is found, contrary to U.S. results. Second, addition of HW to GNP as a welfare measure does not affect the general pattern of past growth estimates. Third, a cost–by-function method of estimating HW is found superior in its theoretical support and the detail it provides, but the opportunity-cost method, despite doubts on its theoretical validity, gives a good approximation in the aggregate, and, being simpler, is likely to remain popular. Fourth, disaggregation does matter if detail by region or family type is required, in which case data by number and ages of children and market-employment status of females are needed; for the total, a reasonable estimate (6–7 percent error)is given by further aggregated data. Fifth, sensitivity of HW to accuracy in the data used is large only for female wages chosen, in particular for the function “cooking”. Finally, though available data must be manipulated to fit the needs of HW, especially for earlier years, the extent of this is not all that much more than is commonly found for GNP estimations.