Some Aggregate Effects of Heterogeneity in Information Processing

This paper analyzes the equilibrium of an economy where economic agents differ with respect to their information gathering and processing abilities. Our results depend on the magnitude of the relative risk aversion. We show that the unsophisticated (with respect to their information processing abilities) agents are disproportionately important in the cases of both large and small risk aversion. In the case of the relative risk aversion measure being greater than unity volatility of aggregate consumption is reduced. This supports the view that observed consumption in many countries fluctuates less than predicted by models with fully rational agents only.     

THE DEMAND FOR ENERGY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Interfuel substitution, a priori , seems to be of considerable importance in the economy of the United Kingdom. Consequently, an appropriate model is developed and estimated. All energy sources are demonstrated to be substitutable. Coal is the most price responsive with natural gas, oil and electrical following. The results are not inconsistent with other studies of energy substitution. Moreover, when the issue of the stability of the demand for energy types is considered, the suggestion that the demand for coal, oil, natural gas, and electrical energy have remained virtually constant over the past three decades.     

Entry,capacity, investment and oligopolistic pricing: A model of the U.S. fiberglass insulation industry

In this paper, a model is developed that suggests that entry into an industry selling a relatively homogeneous product can be deterred by investment decisions. The model characteristics are related to the institutional structure of the fiberglass insulation industry in the United States with the conclusion that the behavior of the industry closely emulates that behavior predicted by the analysis.     

Effects of U.S. equal employment opportunity and affirmative action programs on women's employment stability

An important labor market issue in the United States is the effect that the Equal Employment Opportunity and affirmative action programs that were implemented in 1965 have had on the employment of women relative to that of men. Using time series data covering the period 1947–1988, an analysis of this issue is undertaken. The results indicate that women in the 20–54 age group benefitted in terms of greater stability of employment (i.e., less sensitivity to short run variations in employment) over the period 1965–1980 while they lost some of these gains over the period 1981–1988 (corresponding to the tenure of the Reagan Administration). Men in the same age group, on the other hand, experienced the opposite effect. That is, men in the 20–54 age group became more sensitive to short run variations in employment over the period 1965–1980 and less sensitive over the period 1981–1988. The evidence also indicates that the EEO and affirmative action programs had the effect of increasing the share of projected employment of women in the 20–54 age group and in the 55–64 age group while decreasing the share of projected employment of men in the comparable age groups.     

A note on defining geographic markets

This paper offers an approach to delineating geographic markets and/or product markets based on the notion of instantaneous causality. After providing a brief review of the issue of concern and a discussion of the relevant statistical methodology the flour market in the United States is examined. It is concluded that the flour market in fact is national in scope.     

Planning the production of electrical energy

In the paper, an effort is made to answer many of the perplexing questions concerning pricing and investment decisions that must be faced if the development of the electrical energy industry in the United States is to be carried on within a fully integrated or at least partially integrated framework.By using an intertemporal-spatial equilibrium model, solutions are suggested to such problems as the efficient pricing, allocation, and additions to generating capacity facing the electrical energy industry when peak demands occur at different times in different regions, when regions have different kinds and sizes of generating plants and are endowed with resources of different costs and availabilities, when prices do not reflect marginal costs, and when there are restrictions on transmission capacity.     

The Impact of Incentive Regulation on Service Quality in Telecommunications in the United States

Incentive regulation in the form of price caps was adopted for interstate access servicein 1991 as a way to provide local exchange carriers with an incentive to improve theirproductive efficiency. An issue that has arisen with the adoption of price cap regulationis whether deterioration in service quality for interstate access service has been an unintended consequence. The analysis in this paper uses several different measures ofservice quality, including the average installation interval, the percent of commitmentsmet, total trouble reports, and the average repair interval for both switched access service and special access service, to investigate empirically whether there has been a decline in service quality between 1991 and 2000. The results are conclusive. Overall service quality has fallen. To rectify the situation, a proposal is offered to adjust the price cap index to penalize LECs who fail to provide an acceptable level of aggregate service quality.     

Regional forecasting of the demand for fossil fuels by electric utilities in the United States

The possibility of interfuel substitution in the generation of electrical energy exists. Given this fact, a demand model for various fossil fuels by electric utilities in the United States is developed. Using regional data, the results suggest that the responsiveness of the demand for coal, residual fuel oil, distillate fuel oil, and natural gas by electric utilities to relative price changes is significant. In a forecasting setting, the demand model performs remarkably well when actual and forecast values for 1979 are compared.