Salary Distribution and Collective Bargaining Agreements: A Case Study of the NBA

Traditional non‐sports unions attempt to institutionalize pay between workers by reducing productivity‐related differences in wages and increasing pay differences based on seniority and other non‐productivity‐related characteristics. Recent changes made to the collective bargaining agreements of the NBA have mirrored those of unions that are more traditional. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the changes made in the bargaining agreements of the NBA affect the salary distributions of players over time.     

JOB CENTERS: ARE FINDERS KEEPERS? A NOTE FROM JAPAN

Do job centers help unemployed people to find and keep jobs? Using the results of a unique survey by the Japanese government, this note examines the employment success of job center clients. Success in finding and keeping jobs varies systematically across distinct subgroups. Moreover, job center clients were not particularly successful in finding work that fit their qualifications. (JEL J60, J68, J40)     

The FTC's Public Interest Requirement: An Anomoly in Consumer Protection*

Proposals for consumer class actions and individual law suits have been considered by Congress during its last two sessions. Both bills sponsored by the administration condition recovery by the consumer upon successful completion of action by the FTC. FTC action, under these proposals, would be an absolute prerequisite to private recovery. Since private recovery is made to depend upon FTC action, the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission becomes critical in determining whether or not a consumer will be entitled to relief. The “Public Interest Requirement” has long been viewed by the courts as a limitation upon Commission Jurisdiction. Thus, if the administration proposals are adopted, that requirement will have to be satisfied before individual consumer recovery will be available. This article seeks to identify the elements of the public interest requirement. Both judicial opinions and the Commission's criteria are considered and evaluated.     

Reputation and Performance Among Security Analysts

Members of the Institutional Investor All-American Research Team supply more accurate earnings forecasts than other analysts when forecasts are matched by the corporation followed and by the date of brokerage house issuance. This contemporaneous advantage is complemented by a timing advantage; All-Americans supply forecasts more often than other analysts. Stocks returns immediately following large upward forecast revisions suggest that All-Americans impact prices more than other analysts. However, there is virtually no difference in returns following large downward revisions. Nevertheless, the collective results suggest a positive relation between reputation and performance, and, assuming that All-Americans are better paid, pay and performance.     

Economic Policy - Fact and Ambition

For much of the postwar period, the consensus in British macroeconomics held that output and unemployment were determined by demand which could be managed by the government. Constraints on policy were set by inflation and the balance of payments. Despite the failure of this approach in the 1970s and its rejection in favour of a less ambitious approach since 1979, there are signs that the old consensus is returning. It would be surprising if the 1990s did not produce a shift away from the more hands-off monetarist approach towards greater intervention once again.     

BENEFITS OF PRESERVING OLD-GROWTH FORESTS AND THE SPOTTED OWL

This paper presents results from a national contingent-valuation study of the economic benefits of preserving old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. The study elicits "market-like" valuation responses from U.S. households concerning the benefits of a conservation policy for the northern spotted owl. These data provide a basis for estimating the benefits of preservation in terms of average household willingness to pay. Existing cost estimates are used to compute threshold prices that the benefits of the policy must exceed for the policy to be efficient. Benefit/cost ratios are calculated using "best" and "lower-bound" estimates of the benefits of preservation. Under all combinations of assumptions, the estimated benefits exceed the costs of the conservation policy.