CHILD SUPPORT IN THE U.S.: CAN FATHERS AFFORD TO PAY MORE?

This paper presents up-to-date estimates of the ability of non-resident fathers to pay child support. While no nationally representative data exist on the incomes of fathers, this issue has become more pertinent in recent years, as child support has become an important national issue. We find that fathers on average are able to pay nearly five times more in child support than they currently pay, and also that low income fathers can afford to pay substantially more than they actually pay. We also find that changes in nonmarital childbearing and the returns to education have had only minimal effects on trends in fathers' incomes.     

美国反倾销诉讼案上升的历史透视

原载:http://www.nber.org/papers/w10582一、引言反倾销条款作为美国贸易法的一个组成部分虽然已有80多年的历史,但只是在近20年间才格外引人注目。在美国的贸易政策中,反倾销在过去一直不引人注意,实际上,直到Finger,Hall和Nelso(1982)写出了开拓性的论文之后,才有这方面的经济研究。从此,对反倾销政策的研究几乎全都集中在1980年以来的这段时间里。因此,我们对1980年以前的反倾销法规的运用知之甚少,对逐渐转向更频繁地运用反倾销补救措施的程度亦知之甚少。本文旨在用历史的观点研究美国近来的反倾销,特别关注二战以来这段时间。这一…     

Consumer coping strategies: a study of consumers committed to eating local

This paper deals with consumer coping strategies when consumers experience difficulties in implementing an innovation. The particular setting for exploring this issue is a group of consumers in Michigan who are committed to eating local. The paper explores how these consumers cope or balance their commitment to eating local with the constraints they face on buying and preparing local food Following a literature review of coping strategy and consumer coping strategies in relation to innovations, the paper presents the results of three focus groups conducted with members of a Student Organic Farm, a food cooperative and a Slow Food Convivium. The consumers we interviewed mostly adopt problem‐centred, confrontative strategies: they change their food‐consumption habits including shopping, purchasing, cooking, storing and obviously, eating. None of these changes are easy to implement, and most require re‐allocations of time as well as trade‐offs to overcome time and cost barriers. In return, some of these consumers feel empowered. This study allows us to offer a working hypothesis that the process is dynamic: the more committed consumers are, the more they adopt problem‐centred, confrontative strategies and forget more fatalist emotion‐centred or avoidance strategies. These findings contribute to literature on consumers' coping strategies and suggest future research avenues.     

Accounting for Spatial Effects in Economic Models of Land Use: Recent Developments and Challenges Ahead

The marked increase in the availability of spatial data has forced researchers engaged in land use modeling to directly confront the question of space and the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in developing spatial models. Advances have come from multiple disciplines, most notably through the development and application of spatial theory and methods from regional science, geography, urban economics and more recently, theoretical and applied econometrics. The main goal of this paper is to summarize the econometric challenges of spatial data and to highlight spatial models and methods with a particular focus on models of land markets and land use change. We also discuss the data and modeling challenges associated with modeling the underlying spatial economic mechanisms that give rise to land use patterns and the complexities involved in modeling land use as a coupled economic-ecological system.     

Optimal Land Development with Endogenous Environmental Amenities

A spatially explicit model of the optimal timing and location of land development is presented that incorporates dynamic interactions between land development and water quality. Ignoring two-way interactions leads to a lower level of water quality, more development, and lower social welfare. The optimal pace and pattern of development can be achieved through the assessment of an impact fee that internalizes pollution damages and irreversibility costs. Our results demonstrate the importance of accounting for the spatial dimension of land use, the interdependence between land use and environmental quality, and development irreversibility in models of urbanization and amenity-driven growth.     

Economics at the FTC: Deceptive Claims,Market Definition,and Patent Assertion Entities

In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed common carriage regulation—so-called Title II requirements—on previously unregulated broadband Internet service providers. The regime shift was premised on the FCC’s findings that such rules had demonstrably yielded economic gains. This paper evaluates the FCC’s empirical arguments and finds them uncompelling. Adjustments for inflation or general economic trends eliminate the effects cited by the FCC. Moreover, contrary to the Commission’s assessment, mobile services and broadband markets have shown notable growth in response to deregulatory events that reduce Title II requirements.