The Scope of the Grants Economy and Income Distribution: An Examination of Intergenerational Transfers of Income

A bstract . Private transfers of income between family members have had significant equalizing effects on the distribution of income in the United States but only recently have they become a subject of research and an element of analysis. Some of the major theoretical developments in the area of income distribution and intergenerational mobility in the rich literature of the grants economy are reviewed. Among the effects of family transfers on income distribution, the most critical considerations in intra-family transfers, tentative results indicate, are those that relate, directly or indirectly, to investments in children during their formative years. Estimates of the size of family transfers include one that in a single year their total was of the magnitude of 30.7 percent of gross national product and another that in 1980 they were 70 percent of total transfers, amounting at least to 1 trillion. Trends in their level and structure are projected.     

New product process activities and project outcomes

The new product process comprises the set of activities that move the product from idea to launch. The authors investigated the new product process activities of firms in Australia, England and Belgium. Objectives of the research were to determine—what activities are undertaken in the new product process? How proficiently are these activities performed and what improvements are needed? whether the sorts of activities undertaken and their proficiency affect project success or failure. Since these activities are largely under the control of management, the deeper is our understanding of new product process activities, the greater the scope for improved product innovation management.     

Optimality and consistency in a differential game with non-renewable resources

Imperfect competition amongst buyers for a non-renewable resource is modeled as a Stackelberg differential game. The buyers may act as a cartel or behave non-cooperatively in setting tariffs, which the sellers take as given. The buyer's optimal policy is not consistent when extraction costs depend on the stock level. Both optimal and consistent, unit and ad valorem tariff's are analyzed. When a buyers' cartel uses a consistent tariff, the sellers may prefer to behave as perfect competitors or a monopolist, depending on the functional form of demand and cost. Non-cooperative buyers who are constrained to act consistently are unable to extract any rent from competitive sellers.     

Assessing Student Perceptions of Real Estate Careers

In selecting a career, students seek to maximize expected satisfaction. Expected satisfaction is a function of perceptions of the relative level of critical attributes possessed by a career area. This paper uses multidimensional scaling to produce a perceptual space to analyze the perceived similarities and dissimilarities of eight business career areas for a group of students and identify the attributes critical to these perceptions. With respect to those attributes most critical to perceptions, real estate careers were perceived as providing relatively high economic potential, low prestige, low entry difficulty and little career predictability. Information such as in this study provides a baseline for career counseling as well as eliminating possible distortions in perceptions of real estate careers.     

Spatial analysis of the U.S. lodging industry, 1963–1977

Data from the U.S. Department of Commerce Census of Business in 1963, 1972, and 1977 were compared on a state by state basis and by standard metropolitan statistical areas in order to analyze the spatial growth points of the U.S. lodging industry. The results point to major lodging growth areas in the Sunbelt states with central Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada and Hawaii as outstanding nodes of development. Metropolitan lodging growth has taken place in the Sunbelt cities with populations of 100,000 to one million, with above average growth in those cities located in the coastal zone.