Tax Reform,Sector‐specific Labor Supply and Welfare Effects*

This paper focuses in particular on the 1992 tax reform in Norway. In this reform the top marginal tax rates were cut considerably. We find that the impact on overall labor supply is rather modest, but these modest changes shadow for stronger sectoral changes. The tax reform stimulated the women to shift their labor from the public to the private sector and to work longer hours. A calculation of mean compensated variation, calculated within the framework of a random utility model, shows that the richest households benefited far more from the 1992 tax reform than did the poorest households.     

Political Pressure and Government Inaction

The origin of the decision to abandon the education voucher in 1983 can be found in objections to the scheme by Department of Education officials and political cold feet in the governing Party. John Barnes, Lecturer in Government of the London Schoof of Economics, now Vice-Chairman of Kent County Council, orgues that, with the requisite political will, these obstacles could have been overcome much sooner.     

An Assessment of Privatization

Mounting empirical evidence of privatization's benefits coincideswith increasing dissatisfaction and opposition among citizensand policymakers. This dissatisfaction reflects the growingquestioning of the benefits of privatization, the general downturnof global markets in the past few years and the resulting swingof the pendulum back toward increased governmental supervision,the overselling of privatization as a panacea for all economicproblems, and the concern that privatization does not producemacroeconomic and distributional gains equivalent to its microeconomicbenefits. This article takes stock of the empirical evidenceand shows that in competitive sectors privatization has beena resounding success in improving firm performance. In infrastructuresectors, privatization improves welfare, a broader and crucialobjective, when it is accompanied by proper policy and regulatoryframeworks. The article argues that despite the growing concernsprivatization should be neither abandoned nor reversed. Rather,there should be a strengthening of efforts to privatize correctly:by better tailoring privatization to local conditions, deepeningefforts to promote competition and regulatory frameworks, enforcingtransparency in sales processes, and introducing mechanismsto ensure that the poor have access to affordable essentialservices.      

A Perspective on Canadian Wheat Board Exports, Price Pooling, and West Coast Capacity Constraints

This paper illustrates that Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) price pooling provides an important function in western Canada, which is to redistribute returns from the scarce resource of west coast capacity to all western grain producers. The manner in which this distribution occurs has equity implications. A corollary is that the need for prairie wide price pooling by the CWB for distributional considerations diminishes as the west coast export constraint is eliminated. The analysis suggests another conclusion which is that the current set of grains should continue to be exported through only the CWB. Failing that, non-CWB grain exports through the private market should share in the export constraint. Another distributional implication is that reductions in the capacity constraint disadvantages the western livestock industry. Cette étude démontre que l'établissement de la tarification par la Commission canadienne de blé exerce une fonction importante dans l'ouest canadien, qui est de redistribuer les revenues tirés des ressources réduites de la côte du ouest à tous les producteurs de grain dans l'ouest. La manière que cette distribution a lieu a des répercussions en matière d'équité. Un corollaire est que le besoin d'un établissement de la tarification dans les prairies par la Commission canadienne de blé pour des considérations de distribution diminue à mesure que la contrainte d'exportation de la côte de l'ouest est éliminée. L'analyse suggère une autre conclusion selon laquelle les variétés de grains actuelles devraient continuer à être exportées a travers la Commission canadienne de blé seulement. Sinon, les exportations de grains qui ne sont pas visées par la Commission canadienne de blé et que passent à travers le marché privé devraient assumer leur part dans la contrainte d'exportation. Une autre implication sur la distribution est que les réductions dans les contraintes de capacité désavantagent l'industrie d'élevage de l'ouest.     

Homo Cricketus?

Should overseas players be banned from playing county cricket? Has the one-day game damaged England's international performances? Is a third umpire required in cricket games? As the English cricket establishment considers radical changes to the future organisation of the sport, John Blundell, of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, Virginia, orgues that the predictive insights of economics have much to offer the administrators of the game at Lord's, the headquarters of cricket, and around the world.     

Social structures that promote change in a complex world: The complementary roles of strangers and acquaintances in innovation

In this paper we offer insights about the type of societies that are more likely to generate and promote innovation. In particular, we present results from a study of innovation through computational social simulations to focus on a structural aspect of societies: their degree of separation and how this social characteristic may be related to what, how and why new ideas and solutions can replace existing wide-spread practices in a society. We focus on the work of design practitioners and sustainable design as an example to illustrate these insights.     

Ethnicity,acculturation, and the importance of product attributes

This investigation examined the relationship between subcultural group membership and the importance of various product attributes in purchase decisions. Subcultural group membership was defined on the basis of Hispanic ethnicity and level of assessed acculturation. The results indicate that cost considerations such as price and the availability of credit best distinguish these groups. This is particularly meaningful, given that these results persist even when income level is statistically controlled. The second major purpose of the investigation was to test the appropriateness of the traditional progressive learning model of acculturation within the specific buyer behavioral context of product attribute importance. The findings clearly indicate support for this model.     

An exploratory study of strategic acquisition factors relating to performance

This study investigated the relationship of seven common factors of acquisition strategy to the long run financial performance of acquiring firms: relative size, acquisition rate, industry commonality, timing, type of consideration, acquiree profitability and price paid. The factors were analysed individually and in concert using a database of 138 active acquiring firms which had accomplished some 3500 acquisitions during the 1967-1976 study time period. All factors except price paid were found to be individually significantly statistically related to the performance measures. Also, these factors together accounted for most of the post-merger financial performance which can be attributed to the acquisition programme. These results indicate that six key acquisition variables, on the average, largely determine the success of acquisition strategy. Therefore, by means of those variables, guidelines are provided that should improve the effectiveness of an acquisition programme.