Price-Cap Regulation and Inefficiency in Relative Pricing

The allocative efficiency properties of three price-cap schemes are compared. The scheme that uses lagged quantities in the price index and has a fixed cap works well when the firm is myopic but generates inefficient relative prices otherwise. With myopia prices are efficient and welfare is higher than with equal pricing, but the gain to the firm comes at the expense of lower consumer surplus. When the firm is not myopic pricing can be so inefficient that steady-state welfare is below the no-regulation level.     

Hitting the Jackpot or Hitting the Skids: Entertainment, Poverty, and the Demand for State Lotteries

A bstract .   State-sponsored lotteries are a lucrative source of revenue. Despite their low payout rates, lotteries are extremely popular, particularly among low-income citizens. State officials laud the benefits of lottery proceeds and promote the fun and excitement of participation. This entertainment value is one explanation for lottery demand by the poor: individuals with lower incomes substitute lottery play for other entertainment. Alternatively, low-income consumers may view lotteries as a convenient and otherwise rare opportunity for radically improving their standard of living. Bad times may cause desperation, and the desperate may turn to lotteries in an effort to escape hardship. This study tests these competing explanations. We examine lottery sales data from 39 states over 10 years and find a strong and positive relationship between sales and poverty rates. In contrast, we find no relationship between movie ticket sales, another inexpensive form of entertainment, and poverty rates.     

The demand for game day attendance in college football: an analysis of the 1997 Division 1‐A season

This paper develops a predictive model which includes game, team and university specific factors that are likely to influence game day demand for Division 1‐A college football. Attendance during the 1997 regular season is used as the dependent variable. Tobit estimates of two separate equations reveal that the quality of both teams, traditional rivalry and membership of specific conferences have a significant influence on demand. In addition, colleges with lower enrollments and a higher percentage of off‐campus students attract smaller crowds. The presence of a nearby professional football team also detracts from a college team's drawing power. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

STICKY WAGE, EFFICIENCY WAGE AND KEYNESIAN UNEMPLOYMENT

Abstract.  This paper provides a model of involuntary unemployment by combining the insights of the sticky wage theory and the efficiency wage theory. It implies that employed workers tend to supply more effort in response to economic downturns. Thus, a negative shock to an economy has intriguing impacts on the unemployment. The model also shows that a negative demand shock may have a relatively small effect on output since changes in work effort serve to partially mitigate the effects of the shock. Moreover, it yields some implications that complement the existing 'work sharing' literature.     

The effect of a magazine’s free digital content on its print circulation: Cannibalization or complementarity?

We examine how offering digital content affects demand for print magazines. Using a searchable website archive, we measure the digital content offered by a sample of US consumer magazines from 1996 to 2001. We find strong evidence that digital content cannibalizes print sales. On average, a magazine’s print circulation declines about 3–4% when it offers a website. However, the effect varies with the type of digital content offered. Offering digital access to the entire contents of the current print magazine reduces print sales by about 9%. We find no evidence that digital content complements print magazines. These results are robust to including controls for unobserved magazine, category, and time effects, as well as controls for the impact of contemporaneous price changes and other factors.     

Ideology, markets and money

Contemporary economic theory is considered in terms of the science/ideologydistinction. Marx's critique of Hegel is then used to derivea demarcation criterion that sharply separates scientific knowledgefrom ideology. This critique interprets Hegelian methodologyas fundamentally ideological because it understands realityin terms of abstract thought and then hypostatises that thoughtas reality. This process is more generally treated in termsof Marx's theory of value and money, in which money really doesdo what Hegelian logic purports to do. The consequences of consideringMarxian theory in this way provide some purchase on the logicand limitations of contemporary economic theory.     

Bank Risk, Capitalization, and Operating Efficiency

A simultaneous equation framework is used to test hypotheses about the interrelationships among bank interest rate and credit risk-taking, capitalization, and operating efficiency. A positive effect of inefficiency on risk-taking was found and supports the moral hazard hypothesis that poor performers are more vulnerable to risk-taking than high performance banking organizations. A positive effect of inefficiency on the level of capital is attributable to regulatory pressure on underperforming institutions. At the same time, firms with more capital are found to operate more efficiently than less well-capitalized banking organizations. A U-shaped relationship is detected between inefficiency and loan growth, indicating that operating efficiency improves at a decreasing rate as loan growth rate increases. This supports the hypothesis that entrenched managers who pursue a growth objective to enhance their own wealth tend to operate inefficiently.     

关于铁矿产品合理价位的研究与建议

铁矿石是钢铁工业的重要原料,其价格一方面伴随钢铁产品价格升降同时起伏,另一方面其供求状况又对钢铁产品价格的变化起着重要的制约作用。所以,研究铁矿产品合理价位,保持市场供应相对稳定,不仅对保持矿山企业可持续发展具有重要作用,同时,也是稳定钢铁工业原料供应,维护钢铁产品合理价位和市场稳定的基础,值得认真研究。因此,冶金价格协会、冶金矿山价格研究会、《冶金财会》编辑部组织专家、学者和矿山实际工作者组成联合调研组,对这个问题进行了专题研究,现将研究结果报告如下。一、建国以来我国铁矿产品价格变动的基本情况建国50多年来…