An economic analysis of local inducements for business

This paper presents a theoretical and preliminary empirical examination of various local real estate subsidies to business. Local governments can subsidize the structure capital, land, or both at a particular urban site. Standard microeconomic theory is used to investigate the effects of subsidy programs on the structure-land ratio, the employment-land ratio, and the amount of real estate taxes collected at the site in question. It is concluded that municipalities may benefit from subsidies to businesses even if those businesses would have located in the municipality without the subsidy.     

An analysis of the bounds for the Gini coefficient

The bounds on the Gini coefficient obtained by Gastwirth for the case of grouped data are considered. While the population bounds will always include the value of the population Gini coefficient and the estimated bounds will always include a suitably chosen estimate of the Gini coefficient, estimated bounds need not include the value of the population Gini coefficient.The distributions of the estimators of the bounds are considered and it is shown that a failure to take account of sampling variation can lead to very misleading results. In fact, increasing the number of income groups used tends to decrease the difference between the bounds, but the relative frequency with which the estimated bounds includes the population Gini coefficient decreases. The relationship between sample size, the nature of income groups and estimator precision is considered.     

Capital-land substitution in urban housing: A survey of empirical estimates

Recent empirical studies of capital-land substitution in urban housing are examined to determine the best estimate of the elasticity of substitution parameter σ. Studies based upon a cross section of metropolitan areas produce a rather narrow range for σ. Studies of individual metropolitan areas produce a wide range of estimates for σ, suggesting that a may vary across metropolitan areas. However, all estimates of σ are probably biased toward zero by errors in the measurement of land values.     

Import Competition and Labor Productivity

The impact of import competition on labor productivity is examined using panel data for a sample of Australian manufacturing firms over the period 1984–1993. Import competition is found to interact with domestic competition; such the positive impact of import competition on the level and rate of growth of labor productivity rises with the degree of concentration among domestic producers. The results suggest that lowering border protection on manufactured imports into Australia has led to enhanced productivity from domestic producers, especially from those producers in highly concentrated industries.     

Parenthood and wildland recreation consumption: An unexplored phenomenon

The effects of parenthood on consumer decision making have not been systematically studied in prior research of the wildland recreation phenomenon. The present study utilizes data from the most recent National Survey of Recreation to assess the direct effects of parenthood on wilderness-related or wildland outdoor recreation behavior. Additionally, a framework for the conceptualization of the interrelationship between human values, demographics, attitudes toward the environment, wildland management policy variables, attitudes toward wildland recreation, and wildland recreation consumption is proposed. The findings suggest that parenthood is an important variable in understanding wildland outdoor recreation consumption. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.