State antitrust enforcement in the US and implications for small business entry and relocation

This article examines the impact of the important, yet little studied, state-level antitrust enforcement activity on entry and relocation behaviour by small US firms. Feinberg and Husted (2011) have shown that this enforcement, especially nonhorizontal cases, may be viewed by potential entrants as a negative aspect of the state business climate. However, they did not pursue a more disaggregate analysis of small firm entry behaviour; nor did they investigate different responses between manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing firms. Another related issue is the extent to which state cases filed in tandem with federal investigations have the same impact on establishment entry as do purely ‘independent’ cases. These considerations are dealt with in this article. The author uses annual state-level data from the Statistics of US Business to examine entry and relocation reactions to state antitrust enforcement by firms within three small-business categories: 1–19 employees; 20–99 employees; 100–499 employees. Generally speaking, the smallest retail and wholesale firms seem to favour vigorous antitrust activity, especially enforcement targeted against cartel behaviour by suppliers. The largest small-firm retailers and wholesalers (those with 100–499 employees) seem somewhat threatened by such activity, especially the more controversial nonhorizontal enforcement. However, it must be acknowledged that the effects on entry or relocation of small firms – both positive and negative – are quite small.     

Determinants of private health insurance coverage among Mexican American men 2010–2013

Abstract

Background: Private health insurance (PHI) represents the largest source of insurance for Americans. Hispanic Americans have one of the lowest rates of PHI coverage. The largest group in the US Hispanic population are Mexican Americans; they account for about two in every three Hispanics. One in every three Mexican Americans aged 64 years and under did not have health insurance coverage. Mexican Americans have the most unfavorable health insurance coverage of any population group in the nation.

Objectives: The objective is to determine the factors associated with the gap in PHI coverage between Mexican American and non-Hispanic American men.

Methods: This study used the National Health Interview Surveys (2010–2013) as the sample. A non-linear Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was run, estimating the explained and unexplained gap in PHI coverage between the groups. Several robustness tests of the model were also included.

Results: This study estimates that 44.4% of employed Mexican American men are covered by PHI compared to 79.5% of non-Hispanic American men. Nearly 60% of employed Mexican American men were found to be foreign born, 35% have an educational attainment less than a high school degree, and 40% are likely to have language barriers. Decomposition results show that income, low educational attainment, being foreign-born, and language barriers diminished the probability of private health insurance coverage for Mexican Americans, and that 10% of the gap is unexplained.

Conclusions: Most of the difference in the PHI rate between Mexican American men and non-Hispanic men is explained by observable differences in group characteristics: education, language, and immigration status. About 10% of the difference can be attributed to discrimination under the traditional interpretation of an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. The PHI rate gap is large and persistent for Mexican American men.     

The size and development of the shadow economy: An empirical investigation from states of India

Using the state level data from India, this paper investigates the size of the hidden economy in Indian states over the period 1974/75 to 1995/96. Our analysis has shown that after liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991/92, the growth in the size of the hidden economy has decreased on an average. Our results show that the growth in the size of the hidden economy is approximately 4% less in scheduled election years than in all other years. We also demonstrate that the growth is significantly lower in those states where the coalition government is in power. An increased growth of newspapers and the literacy rates translate to cleaner governance, e.g. to fewer amounts of shadow economy activities in the economy.     

科学技术在自然界演化状态中的作用探析

阐明科学和技术的本质,是科学哲学和技术哲学的基本问题。本文根据自然界演化的过程对其进行梳理,在演化论的视域下,对科学技术本质进行了重新解读。根据马克思解放观的思想,对自然界的演化过程进行了分析,说明了对各种演化态引入的具体的科学和技术以及人类是如何利用科技把非常态引入到常态的。通过这些思考更加明确了科学技术是人类争取自由、获得解放的重要工具,认为科学技术的本质是人类从自然界的各种演化状态中解放出来,即把非常态引入到常态环境的中介和手段。通过对自然演化状态中的每一个状态加以分析,肯定了科学技术在人类社会发展中的重要作用。本文从自然界的演化过程出发,具体探讨了科学技术在自然演化态向人类生存环境引入中的作用以及人类从各种演化态中解放的具体形式,进一步丰富了人工过程论的科学技术观,深化了对科学技术本质及相关问题的认识。     

员工满意度与敬业度的现状分析——以L公司为例

员工的敬业度是近年来人力资源管理领域研究的热点,特别是经济危机背景下如何保持员工的工作热情更是急需解决的问题。以往,公司为了保持高绩效在管理政策上往往偏向提高员工的满意度,然而L公司的调查发现满意的员工不一定带来持续的高绩效,相反在敬业度和满意度上存在四种状态组合。文章从现状出发,剖析L公司四种组合存在及内在相互转化的原因,在此基础上提出如何让员工既满意又敬业的对策。     

日本经验与东亚发展型国家

日本经济模式的显著特点就是政府主导,东亚其他国家和地区的发展模式又与日本发展模式极为相似,这就是通常所说的东亚"发展型国家"。那么,日本政府导向型经济的具体特征是什么?对其他东亚国家和地区有什么影响?发展型国家与比较优势是怎样结合的?日本主导的东亚经济格局正在发生那些变化?本文力图回答这些问题。     

Determinants of stock market volatility and risk premia

Summary. We show the dynamics of diverse beliefs is the primary propagation mechanism of volatility in asset markets. Hence, we treat the characteristics of the market beliefs as a primary, primitive, explanation of market volatility. We study an economy with stock and riskless bond markets and formulate a financial equilibrium model with diverse and time varying beliefs. Agents states of belief play a key role in the market, requiring an endogenous expansion of the state space. To forecast prices agents must forecast market states of belief which are beliefs of others hence our equilibrium embodies the Keynes Beauty Contest. A market state of belief is a vector which uniquely identifies the distribution of conditional probabilities of agents. Restricting beliefs to satisfy the rationality principle of Rational Belief (see Kurz, 1994, 1997) our economy replicates well the empirical record of the (i) moments of the price/dividend ratio, risky stock return, riskless interest rate and the equity premium; (ii) Sharpe ratio and the correlation between risky returns and consumption growth; (iii) predictability of stock returns and price/dividend ratio as expressed by: (I) Variance Ratio statistic for long lags, (II) autocorrelation of these variables, and (III) mean reversion of the risky returns and the predictive power of the price/dividend ratio. Also, our model explains the presence of stochastic volatility in asset prices and returns. Two properties of beliefs drive market volatility: (i) rationalizable over confidence implying belief densities with fat tails, and (ii) rationalizable asymmetry in frequencies of bull or bear states.This research was supported by a grant of the Smith Richardson Foundation to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). We thank Kenneth Judd for constant advice which was crucial at several points in the development of this work. We also thank Kenneth Arrow, Min Fan, Michael Magill, Carsten Nielsen, Manuel Santos, Nicholas Yannelis, Ho-Mou Wu and Woody Brock for comments on earlier drafts. The RBE model developed in this paper and the associated programs used to compute it are available to the public on Mordecai Kurzs web page at http://www.stanford.edu/ mordecai.This revised version was published online in January 2005 with corrections to the Cover date.     

Economic Cooperation Organization Member Countries＇ Economic Development： The Importance of Assessing Technoparks

Advanced technologies in the world, especially in the last quarter century of rapid change, radical innovation were required to compete in important decisions, triggered by the national network of cooperation structures which is a very significant changes in participates in the regional country or new technology generation and transfer systems to be released; starting from the most basic research on the effect of knowledge production, commercialization, distribution of the total well-being of society is an important dating ＂shining knowledge value chain＂. This important change has become the main formative element of the economies. Recent advances in the knowledge economy and the resulting new strategic theories, knowledge, technology transfer, and increased mobility at the long distances, the concept of regional development is a brand new technological cooperation aims and information focusing on the transformation processes of growth of the economies of developed nations, which is the most important technological innovation in the vision of the economic development advanced plays an important role, evolving processes trigger in all aspects of the right to read most threats and opportunities that might be the best analysis, by passing the appropriate policies for countries in their visions, and entrusted a vital importance. In this context, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Yajikistan, Yurkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in addition to research, technology development and production partner countries＇ and these countries sharing innovation structures with R＆D Center in technoparks and to serve together in the development of the total synergies ＂of the economic cooperation organization＂.     

Never on Sunday? Mexican tourists at the beach

This paper examines contemporary middle class Mexican recreational tourism through a micro-ethnographic study of tourist behavior at a small beach resort in the state of Chiapas. Majority behavior represents the inversion of aspects of normal behavior, particularly in the deregulation of meal-times, night and day activities, and the rules for play. It is hypothesized that the particular, and comparatively excessive, behaviors described may stem from both the historically antecendant Spanish and Indian cultures, with their baroque tendencies, and from the recent liberation of the new middle classes from the “Victorian-like” rules of daily behavior. Behavior at the beach resorts resembles earlier types of vacation in the U.S.A. and this suggests there may be an evolution of tourist behaviors characteristic of the historical situation of the national home cultures of the tourists.     

Ethnic factors and the use of public outdoor recreation areas: The case of Mexican Americans

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of subculture, marginality, and perceived discrimination on use of selected public outdoor recreation areas. The assimilation perspective from the sociology literature provided theoretical guidance for the study. These concepts were treated as different types of social distance (cultural distance, socioeconomic distance, and intergroup distance). Each was hypothesized to affect the use of outdoor recreation areas. Data for this analysis came from telephone interviews conducted with 1057 households in Maricopa and Gila counties in Arizona. The analysis was conducted using a subsample of respondents of Mexican ancestry. The results support the socioeconomic, or marginality, hypothesis. There was less support for the subcultural, or ethnicity, hypothesis. There was no support for the perceived discrimination hypothesis. Research implications and recommendations are discussed.