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The large landholder remains an economic and political force in Latin America today. While his once almost absolute power to control and establish the patterns of the Latin American socioeconomic structure must increasingly be shared with other groups—military, industrial and commercial, not to mention foreign—the degree to which he still influences these nations as they strive for development is of major significance. In this paper an attempt is made to study the latifundista's impact upon the economic development of Latin American countries by the examination of the effect of his income and expenditure patterns on the key determinants of national product—investment, consumption, and foreign trade balances. This approach largely ignores such economic questions as the effects of the latifundista, except by investment, on agricultural production and resource allocation, his impact on economic incentives for others engaged in agriculture, as well as crucial social and political concomitants. These questions, undoubtedly as important as those studied, cannot be ignored in an overall assessment of the effect of latifundismo, and should be borne in mind by readers. That those controlling much of the agricultural wealth may also share in the industrial and commercial wealth of the nation is likely ignored, thus understating the total influence which members of this landed aristocracy actually have on the economy. Nonetheless, the aspects being examined are significant and the conclusions should increase our understanding of problems related to income distribution and the availability of domestic financing for economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on various issues related to governmental expenditures. The article begins with brief vignettes of hypotheses which have been offered by various authors. One bit of ephemera which triggered response in the late 1950's was the claim of under-consumption in the public sector, which is now part of the folklore of the educated. A second class of work which is related to the present study, is concerned with externalities and their effects upon expenditure levels. The study under survey consists of a comparative analysis, by means of various cross-sectional techniques, of voting performance under two different voting structures.

Examines the hypothesis that separation of the consuming and producing units will result in lower average costs of production for comparable quantity-quality output levels compared to situations where the consuming and producing units are identical, with respect to the provision of fire services. Nature of fire protection services; Estimation of the empirical cost function for supply of fire services by bureaucratic producers; Description of the Rural-Metropolitan Fire Protection Co., a private firm serving Scottsdale, Arizona; Comparison of the estimated costs of supply for Scottsdale vis-a-vis the actual costs.

Analyzes the effects generated by governmental organization of the supply of goods and services fully divisible into separate and distinguishable units of consumption. Consequences of governmental or collective organization; Policy norms with respect to the organization of the supply of partially-divisible goods and services; Economic theory of socialism.

The article presents an analysis that deals directly with the level of fertility and, while not attempting an analysis of the long-term primary trend itself, does introduce one factor believed relevant thereto, namely, the desired consumption level of those in early childbearing ages. For the last few years, insight into the experience of a somewhat more homogeneous segment of the younger population--new high school graduates who did not go on to college--is provided by recent surveys of their employment status four months after graduation. Although the size of the group is small and sampling variability consequently greater, there is a striking rise in the employment and labor force figures for married females in this group, a finding at a more microscopic level consistent with the view just expressed. In recent years young persons' incomes have grown only hesitantly, and their unemployment rates have risen. The situation has been most severe among the lowest income segments of these groups.

Deals with the revolution of taxpayers and economic rationality in the U.S. Reason taxpayers are satisfied when the government maximizes his total utility by providing the optimum quantity of collective-consumption goods; Effect of increased public spending on the disequilibrium of taxpayers; Production of collective-consumption goods.

Offers a model in which a rational individual may be induced to reveal partially his preference for a public good, via the amount he is willing to bid for the right to consume it. Subjective probability distribution relating the amount the individual might bid for the good; Argument that the individual's decision regarding the size of his bid for the good is motivated by a desire to maximize expected utility; Application of the model.

This study relates fertility behavior to modern economic behavior, namely, saving and consumption of modern durables, for a sample of couples in Taiwan. It uses only couples who say they want no more children, and these couples are further classified by current use of contraception and by whether or not they already had excess fertility. Couples who are successful fertility planners, i.e., those who have no unwanted children and are current users of contraception, are distinctive with regard to modem economic behavior as compared to couples who do not use contraception or have excess fertility. Successful planners are more likely to save and to have more modern durables; these differentials remain when adjustments are made for the effects of family income, wife's age, wife's education, and duration of marriage. It seems that the kind of planning behavior which enables a couple to successfully plan their family size also enables them to manage their economic affairs so that they can save and enjoy more modem consumption goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Focuses on the use of economic assistance during the 1957 to1966 in Ghana. Analysis on the social and political developments; Evaluation of the degree of modernization through consumption patterns, literacy levels and occupational structure; Contribution of economic assistance to development.

Comments on the views of William H. Riker on the nature of collective-consumption payoff to a winning political coalition. Assumptions of Riker on the behavior of political coalitions; Definition of the characteristics function according to Riker; Concept of a collective-consumption payoff in politics.