A spatial merger estimator with an application to school district consolidation

This paper develops a spatial merger estimator to explain political integration generally and then applies this method to a wave of school district mergers in the state of Iowa during the 1990s. Our estimator is rooted in the economics of matching and thus accounts for three important features of typical merger protocol: two-sided decision making, multiple potential partners, and spatial interdependence. Rather than simply explaining when a particular region is likely to experience a wave of political integration, our method allows us to explore the factors driving which specific subregional mergers take place. This allows us to explore how those districts that merge choose with which of their neighbors to do so. Our results highlight the importance of state financial incentives for consolidation, economies of scale, diseconomies of scale, and a variety of heterogeneity measures in this particular application. We also demonstrate the power of our estimator, relative to existing estimators, to detect a statistically significant role for heterogeneity factors. While our application is limited to school district consolidation, our method can be adapted to include the salient features of many spatial integration problems.     

Profiling exporting and nonexporting service firms: Critical differences to decision-makers

The internationalization of services has become a critical element in the global marketplace. While the internationalization of services has increased in importance, the lack of empirically based research has been a shortcoming. This article empirically examines key characteristics (i.e., total sales, number of employees, age of firm, management's desire to export, perceived profit potential from internationalization, top management's foreign language skills, and international work experience) separating exporting from nonexporting domestic-based service firms. It provides a profile for the exporting service firm that is distinctly different than that of the nonexporting service provider. These differences suggest important policy considerations for federal and state export promotion agencies and strategy considerations for service firm owners and management. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Political,Economic, and Social Aspects of Katrina

In this paper, we examine the resiliency of community recovery after a natural disaster. We argue that a resilient recovery requires robust economic/financial institutions, political/legal institutions, and social/cultural institutions. We explore how politically and privately created disaster preconditions and responses have contributed to or undermined institutional robustness in the context of the Gulf Coast's recovery after Hurricane Katrina. We find that where postdisaster resiliency has been observed, private-sector responses contributing to the health of these institutional arenas are largely responsible. Where postdisaster fragility and slowness has been observed, public-sector responses contributing to the frailty of these institutional arenas are largely the cause. In other words, we engage in a comparative institutional analysis of civil society, entrepreneurial commercial society, and government agencies and political actors in the wake of a natural disaster.     

Business orientation: Cliche or substance?

This paper reviews the orthodox treatment of production, product, sales and marketing business orientations in introductory marketing texts and suggests changes. Orientation is an important issue which has a profound effect on long run business success, particularly on the effectiveness of business strategy. It is recommended that the orthodox orientations should be revised to the following: marketing/customer orientation; accounting/cost orientation; production/technology orientation; R&D/innovation orientation. The examination of orientation suggests they should not be regarded as mutually exclusive, but rather that organizations need, to some extent, to be oriented to all four. This treatment of orientation may be a little more complex than the former but it remains simple enough for inclusion in introductory texts.     

Dealing with consumer default: Bankruptcy vs garnishment

What are the positive and normative implications of eliminating bankruptcy protection for indebted individuals? Without bankruptcy protection, creditors can collect on defaulted debt to the extent permitted by wage garnishment laws. The elimination lowers the default premium on unsecured debt and permits low-net-worth individuals suffering bad earnings shocks to smooth consumption by borrowing. There is a large increase in consumer debt financed essentially by super-wealthy individuals, a modest drop in capital per worker, and a higher frequency of consumer default. Average welfare rises by 1% of consumption in perpetuity, with about 90% of households favoring the change.     

Non-fatal violence-related injuries in Kingston,Jamaica: a preventable drain on resources

Using data for a one-year period from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) in Jamaica, we describe patterns of non-fatal violence-related injuries, and carry out simulation analysis to estimate rates of hospital admission under various injury reduction scenarios, and the potential savings that can be realized by reducing violent crimes. In this period there were 6107 registered violence-related visits to the KPH representing 11.5% of all recorded visits. Of these 16.6% (1001) were admitted. The most common methods of inflicting injury was by stabbing (52.1%), blunt injuries (37.9%) and gunshot wounds (7.3%). Multivariate analyses indicated that gunshot injuries, stab injuries, being male between the ages of 15 and 44 years, receiving the injury in November or December, and being injured by a stranger or unknown assailant, were significant correlates of a higher probability of admission. Simulation analysis with various injury reduction scenarios indicated decreases in the probability of admission ranging from 12% to 44%, with estimated savings of up to 31% of the annual supplies budget of KPH.     

Wealth Affirming Policies for Women of Color

There are a range of solutions that address asset building challenges for low-wealth women. Here we highlight some solutions that focus on basic needs (child care, child support) and creating economic stability with disposable income (income available after basic needs are met); solutions that address predatory lending and the housing crisis; and solutions that focus on joint ownership of assets and community-based asset building.