Taxes,Tuition Fees,and Education for Pleasure

The fact that education provides both a productive and a consumptive (nonproductive) return has important and, in some cases, dramatic implications for optimal taxes and tuition fees. Using a simple model, we show that when the consumption share in education is endogenous and tuition fees are unconstrained, the optimal tax/fee system involves regressive income taxes and high tuition fees. A progressive labor income tax system may, on the other hand, be a second‐best response to politically constrained, low tuition fees. Finally, the existence of individuals with different abilities will also move the optimal income tax system toward progressivity.     

Alternatives for Increasing Media Choice in Concentrated Markets

The nature of market concentration in the mass media industries and its implications for diversity of consumer choice are examined. Criteria for evaluating policy alternatives that might increase consumer choice are developed. The policy alternatives evaluated using these criteria are: breaking up large media corporations; growth of cable television; government assistance in financing alternative media; an excise tax on media “excess profits” for alternative media; regulating to ensure greater content diversity; de-regulation; de-regulation with community control; and, increasing diversity through media labor union contracts.     

Complex Samples and Regression‐Based Inference: Considerations for Consumer Researchers

This article demonstrates that researchers who treat data collected via complex sampling procedures as if they were collected via simple random sample (SRS) may draw improper inferences when estimating regression models. Using complex sample data from the 2004 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) two models—one ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and one logistic regression—were estimated using three methods: SRS with and without population weights, Taylor series linearization, and Fay's Balanced Repeated Replication (BRR). The results of the alternative models demonstrate that depending on the variables of interest, authors who fail to incorporate sample design information or fail to consider the effects of weighting may draw improper inferences from their regression models. Reasons why researchers continue to neglect complex sample‐based variance are proposed and discussed, and example SAS and Stata code is offered to encourage adoption by the consumer research community.     

EFFECTS OF WORKFARE SATURATION ON AFDC CASELOADS

The Family Support Act (FSA) requires states to raise welfare/work program participation rates to unprecedented levels in the 1990s. This study analyzes Ohio's welfare/work demonstration to estimate the impact of mandated high participation on welfare caseloads. The estimated caseload reductions are larger than earlier estimates due to high participation rates, an emphasis on workfare, and a multi-year observation period.     

FINANCIAL INTEGRATION IN THE COMMON MONETARY AREA*

This paper assesses the level of financial integration within the CMA countries, using the concept of the uncovered interest rate parity. The impact of foreign interest rates on the domestic interest rates, in this case the South African rates on the rates of the LNS countries, is analysed. For comparative purposes, other neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe are brought into the analysis. The results from the uncovered interest rate parity approach show that Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland can be considered to be well financially integrated with the South African market, while for Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe it shows the contrary.     

Panel data, cointegration, causality and Wagner's law: Empirical evidence from Chinese provinces

This paper tests Wagner's law of increasing state activity using panels of Chinese provinces. The paper's main methodological contribution is in that we employ for the first time in the literature on Wagner's law a panel unit root, panel cointegration and Granger causality testing approach. Overall, we find mixed evidence in support of Wagner's law for China's central and western provinces, but no support for Wagner's law for the full panel of provinces or for the panel of China's eastern provinces.