World food prospects to the year 2000

Declining rates of growth are indicated for total food demand as well as import demand. Real world prices are likely to continue on their downward trend. Increased attention to agricultural development will help ensure that average food consumption levels will rise in all developing regions except Sub- Saharan Africa. Market instability remains a problem but developing countries are now better protected against it. The dark side of the picture: chronic undernutrition among the poorest of the poor is not likely to be eradicated in this century.     

Diversification in local government tax structures

Fiscal problems of local governments, particularly urban centers, have been widespread during recent periods of general economic recession. These problems have resulted from a decline in the growth of revenues and hence an inability to keep pace with rapidly rising expenditures to cover public welfare and inflation. Increased reliance on fast growing but unstable revenues aggravates these problems. It may be possible, however, through proper selection of taxes to diversify away some of the instability in revenue. This paper develops a method to be used in analyzing tax diversification for local governments.     

The Effect of Mortgage Rate Buydowns on Housing Prices:

The model developed in this paper analyzes the effect of builder-financed FHA-VA mortgage subsidies or buydowns on the price of housing. Hedonic pricing equations are estimated for a locationally and qualitatively uniform sample of new tract development homes. The explanatory variables are vectors of physical and financial characteristics. The latter include a continuous variable for discount points paid by builders which is indicative of the magnitude of prepaid finance charges. The results indicate that a substantial portion of mortgage subsidy costs are shifted to buyers in the form of inflated housing prices.     

US farm policy in perspective

At the end of 1981 the US Congress passed new farm legislation which was widely hailed as a success for the Reagan administration's efforts to contain the escalation of farm supports, it now appears, however, that it has created serious problems in a situation of rapid agricultural productivity growth in the face of slower growth of domestic and foreign demand. Despite subsequent amendments to limit budget outlays, farm support costs are now estimated at $12 billion each in FY 1982 and 1983 and $7 billion in FY 1984, as compared with original projections of less than $3 billion annually.     

Comparisons between small business data base (USEEM) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data: 1978–1986

Summary and conclusion The BLS versus USEEM comparison generally points out some major classification differences in the data sets particularly in the classification and growth of larger establishments. USEEM and BLS data generally agree as to the direction of employment growth over the 1978 to 1986 period. Differences occur in 7 of the 63 comparisons of employment growth — but BLS attributes a greater proportion of growth to larger reporting units, USEEM to smaller establishments. BLS and USEEM data have concurring positive or negative growth rates for all size classes in the construction, wholesale trade, services, and finance, insurance, and real estate industries.The fundamental question — in which size classes or units did employment growth primarily occur between 1978 and 1986 — has only indirectly been answered. Some industries — such as construction — produced similar results. Other sectors — such as wholesale trade — produced differences by size category. Clearly some combination of industry restructuring and different classification and collection procedures have affected the results.Researchers, once aware of procedural differences between the data sets, can cite USEEM data for a variety of dynamic uses, particularly in light of these new comparative tabulations available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For comparative static analysis, the BLS dataset is more comprehensive and better maintained.     

Gender and race as factors in health care utilization

The National Medical Care Utilization and Expenditure Survey of 1980 was employed to investigate gender and racial differences in the utilization of physicians and hospitals. Regression results indicate more physician contact for women in the post-childbearing years (45–65) than for comparable men. Caucasian, but not African-American, women were found to have lower probabilities of hospitalization than comparable men. Caucasian women over 65 years of age were also found to have significantly fewer nights in hospital than comparable men. A life-cycle hypothesis about gender differences in behavior was tested, using physician contact as a proxy variable for investment in health and number of nights in hospital as a proxy for morbidity. The use of hospitalization as a proxy variable for ill health was called into question by the findings that poverty and lack of health insurance were associated with fewer nights in hospital. College education, known to be correlated with better health, was positively associated with nights in hospital.     

Industrial tribunals: is there an ideological background?

Fred Boothman and David Denham argue that because of the entrenched support for managerial prerogatives in industrial tribunals, the legislation on unfair dismissal for trade union activities has not significantly extended job protection for trade union members.