The effect of the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act of 2000 on employer-provided pension and medical plans

On April 7, 2000 President Clinton signed the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act. The act reduces the Social Security retirement benefit penalties previously imposed on 65- through 69-year-old workers who earned more than nominal incomes after enrolling in the program. This article analyzes the impact that the act will have on retirement decisions of the affected cohorts of older workers and closes with an analysis of how the act may affect employer-provided pension, medical and paid leave plans.     

Mesenteric actinomycosis

We report a case of abdominal actinomycosis demonstrated on computed tomography (CT) as an isolated mesenteric mass with radiating linear and nodular densities. The lesion mimicked a mesenteric tumor with desmoplastic reaction. The clinical and radiological features of this uncommon entity are reviewed.     

Trade uncertainty and the two-step procedure: The choice of numeraire and exact indexation

Summary In a small open economy it is optimal to first maximize national income and second choose the best consumption point.The same two-step procedure under (quantitative) uncertainty is suboptimal if one of the goods is used as numéraire. Optimality is restored however, if nominal prices are deflated by the exact price index. Hence there is equivalence between the appropriate two-step procedure and the introduction of a stock market under uncertainty (Diamond 1967) under ideal circumstances.I would like to thank, without implicating, Peter van Bergeijk, Steven Brakman, Willem Buiter, Richard Gigengack, Jean-Marie, Viaene, Casper de Vries and an anonymous referee for useful comments and Angelique van Haasteren and Martijn Herrmann for graphical assistance.     

Some Reflections on the Interactions between the Bank of England's Forecasts and the MPC's Policy Decisions

This paper makes three main points. First, whereas the Monetary Policy Committee's forecasts of inflation and output growth in the UK are comparatively accurate, they cannot forecast deviations around trend, except at short horizons. Second, this is primarily because they adjust policy, the short-term interest rate, to drive inflation/output back to trend at their forecast horizon. This is not apparent when using a Taylor-rule using ex post forecasts, since these are published after taking account of policy changes. I use a rule of thumb to re-engineer estimates of the ex ante forecasts, upon which the policy decision was based. Also, because of the lengthy lags in the transmission mechanism, Central Bank decision-makers relate their interest decisions, not to current variables, but to forecast values for future inflation and output, with a forward-looking interest rate reaction function of the form:

Approaches to teleconferencing justification: Towards a general model

For organizations considering teleconferencing, five major justification perspectives are identified: the intuitive leaf; cost efficiency; timeless of decisions, improved work coordination; and reaching out. The perspectives are combined to form a model that charts their likely impacts on productivity. Proper planning through teleconferencing feasibility studies is advocated. That, and learning from others' experience, can help prospective users avert many pitfalls, avoid repeating past failures, and develop a teleconferencing system that will fulfill the promises of the justifications.     

Incorporating Prior Information into A GMM Objective For Mixed Logit Demand Systems

Random parameters demand system estimates can generate upward sloping demands and imply margins outside of the theoretical bounds for profit maximization. If such violations are numerous enough, they can confound merger simulation exercises. Using Lerner indices for multiproduct firms playing static Bertrand games, we find that up to 35 per cent of implied margins for beer are outside the bounds. We characterize downward sloping demand and the theoretical bounds for profit maximization as prior information and extend the GMM objective function, incorporating inequality moments for product‐level own‐elasticities and brand level or product level Lerner indices. Very few violations remain when an inequality constrained estimator is used.