Further analysis of cross-country comparison of consumer expenditure patterns

The present paper analyzes consumer expenditure pattern within the framework of classical demand theory. We compare the linear expenditure system (LES) with two other demand systems based on utility-maximizing behavior: a generalized linear expenditure system (GLES) and the indirect addilog expenditure system (IAES). Our data consists of annual time series, 1950–1965, for 11 OECD member countries.The main results of this paper are that consumer expenditure patterns can be explained by emperical demand models based on utility-maximizing behavior. Furthermore the GLES model, while not without its share of weaknesses, seems to be more attractive than the IAES and LES models.     

Producing state of the future indexes using the international futures model

This paper reports on the introduction of the State of the Future Index (SOFI) into the University of Denver's International Futures (IFs) modeling system, a synthesis that will permit the calculation and comparison of the SOFI for all nations covered in the model. The SOFI is an index designed to show whether the future outlook is improving or not; it is also useful in policy analysis since it can be used to demonstrate whether contemplated policies appear to change the future, overall, for the better. It is one of the few indexes that are forecasted.The capability to calculate SOFI has been added to the IFs model; this addition now permits the model to calculate SOFI for all of the countries in the model. With this capability national SOFIs can be computed by anyone and for any country, set of countries, region, or globally. The model, its database, and now the SOFI calculation are available online at no cost to the users. This opens the opportunity to produce an annual or biennial publication that tracks and ranks the State of the Future Index for countries, regions, and the world as a whole.     

Spatial agent-based modeling of household and firm location with endogenous transport costs

The paper describes a spatial economic agent-based model (ABM), consistent with the principles of new economic geography (NEG), which allows the discrete-time evolutionary simulation of complex interactions of household and firm location choices. In contrast with the current ABM approaches, it considers a multi-regional (multi-urban) setting to enable a more realistic representation of decisions related to commuting, migration and firm (re)location. The model allows simulating spatially differentiated, multi-commodity markets for land and labor in a system of cities and the behavior of profit-maximizing firms with multi-regional asset investment decisions, incorporating endogenous transport costs with congestion effects. It also accounts for the impact of agglomeration forces on industrial location choices and the formation of urban development patterns. The conceptual framework and main components of the spatial ABM are presented and several implementation issues are discussed with regard to possible case-specific applications and policy scenarios.     

“Hayekian Socialism,Post Critics”

An economic system with labor cooperatives, private ownership, and a basic capital grant or universal basic income is a form of market socialism that can withstand Hayek's critique.     

A new test for deficit sustainability and its application to US data

In this paper, we define deficit sustainability by requiring formally that both the discounted debt vanish asymptotically and the undiscounted debt be bounded. Thus, a new necessary condition and a new testing procedure emerge. We propose a new test statistic and prove that its limiting distribution is standard normal, N(0, 1). Its finite- sample distribution differs from N(0, 1), however, mainly because it has fat tails, so we derive empirical critical values using simulations. Using the new test and United States (US) quarterly data, the conclusions of three earlier papers that fail to reject the sustainability of the US budget or current-account deficit are reversed.     

Money,output and income velocity

This paper attempts to assess empirically the contribution of three structural shocks – monetary, institutional (financial and fiscal), and technological – to output and velocity fluctuations in the national bank era and the post-1973 period. To identify these shocks we impose only long–run restrictions, derived from a monetary growth model. We find that higher money growth increases (decreases) velocity in the first (second) period, depending crucially on the resulting changes in the transactions frequency. Credit–enhancing financial or expansionary fiscal shocks have a permanent positive effect on velocity and a himp–shaped effect on output, whereas technological shocks cause velocity to decrease in the short run and output to move to a permanently higher level.     

Organizational Surveillance of Computer-Mediated Workplace Communication: Employee Privacy Concerns and Responses

Email, social media, and other types of computer-mediated workplace communication tools can enhance flexibility in how employees perform their jobs, expand networking opportunities, increase profits, cut costs, and enable collaboration among diverse groups across the globe. Despite their advantages, these technology tools can also cause security breaches, financial loss, employee distraction, and lawsuits. To prevent such damaging consequences, many companies monitor their employees’ computer-mediated workplace communication. However, this surveillance is often met with resistance from employees as it taps into concerns over workers’ privacy rights, due process, and fairness. We examine these employee concerns through an empirical study of full-time working adults’ beliefs about their computer-mediated workplace communication privacy and their evaluations of organizational justice, trust in upper management, and commitment to the organization. Our results suggest that employees who perceive less computer-mediated workplace communication privacy tend to view their organization’s policies as less fair, trust upper management less, and demonstrate less commitment to their organizations. Furthermore, results indicate that procedural justice mediated the relationship between privacy and organizational commitment and moderated the relationship between privacy and organizational trust.