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The article reports on conversion clause in the United States. American monetary history is full of strange happenings and queer events beginning with the resolution of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1690 explaining the issue of the first paper money. It referred to "the sundry considerable debts" which had been contracted "for maintaining their Majesties" interests against hostile invasions of their French and Indian enemies," the actual fact being that the colony had sent an expedition against Quebec in the expectation that plunder would pay the costs thereof. It is true that the highest prices at which the five-twenty bonds sold on the New York market never exceeded 14 points above par in 1864 and 12 points above in 1865, whereas at the same time the premiums on gold were in the ranges 77-85 and 98-105, respectively. In the years following the war the gap between the premium on the bonds and on gold steadily narrowed. By late 1869 the gap had disappeared and from 1870 on the advantage clearly lay with the bonds, their market premium over par persistently exceeding the gold premium. Senator John Sherman pointed out on the floor of the Senate, March 6, 1876, that even the government's 5 per cent bonds had been "at par with gold for the past five years" while the greenbacks had been "from 6 to 22 per cent below gold."

As population increases land rises in value and this causes greater and greater payments to land owners without any contribution to production by them This wrongly deprives producers of increasing amounts of income that they produced and are entitled to As the process proceeds, it threatens the viability of capitalism itself as it lowers profits for the prime movers in the economic system Home ownership in the US is becoming increasingly difficult for young people as the price of land keeps rising Economic progress has been very fast in countries that tax land and seek its equitable distribution and is lagging in those that do not. The high unemployment rates in Europe are related to this unfair distribution of income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a survey on the demand for higher education in the U.S. A survey of studies on the demand for higher education circa 1975, made at the University of South Carolina, shows that two approaches have been taken in attempts to assess its magnitudes, one sociological and the other economic. In the investigation, a synthesis of the two approaches is presented and the information from the studies is supplemented by additional evidence from cross-section and time-series data for the U.S. and for South Carolina. The survey of some 18 studies, spanning the period 1965-75, is presented in chronological order, with the main results of the various studies provided in tabular form. The survey occupies the first section of Working Paper No. 76-6 of the Center for Studies in Human Resource Economics, College of Business Administration, University of South Carolina. The working paper gives a detailed report of the investigation. The second section of the paper examines additional cross-sectional data for all South Carolina counties and for the 50 states.

The article focuses on the changing pattern of the newspaper publishing industry. The newspaper supplies the average American with entertainment and information, and helps him to buy intelligently. The cost of newspaper publishing has risen steadily and still higher costs appear in prospect. Competing media has siphoned off advertising revenues. The number of daily newspapers has declined rather persistently since 1909 as a result of mergers and suspensions. With a strong, free press so important to the preservation of democracy, it appears of paramount importance to obtain a clear understanding of the economic problems of newspaper publishing and of the economic trends which have caused these profound changes in the industry. In general, the metropolitan newspaper has only two things to sell, namely, advertising and circulation. The principal operating expenditures of the newspaper fall into four groups labor, raw material, equipment and news and other services. Improved transportation has widened the competitive area of most papers, but this in turn has probably been a factor in reducing the number of papers published in the United States.

Global price increases have reached their highest levels in recent times. Finding the reasons for the price increase is very important for economic stabilization. In this paper, it has been estimated that exorbitant price increases may be related to a free market economy. For this purpose, unlike other studies, a comparative analysis of the impact of the free market economy on prices was conducted. The study covers the period 1990–2020, and using the U.S. economy, which is a free market economy, the relationship between property rights, the size of government in the economy, and prices were examined using the autoregressive distributed lag model. The results show that the free market model has a positive effect on the price increase, while the size of the government's economy does not affect the price increase in the same direction. This study aims to provide a different perspective to policymakers in the fight against price instability, which is one of the most important problems facing the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Economic Association in North America (CEANA), consisting of Chinese American and Chinese economists and other economists interested in the economy of China, held a joint session with the American Economic Association and allied scholarly groups on December 29, 1987 in Chicago. In preparation for the session and other sessions of the CEANA in New York, the new group has issued a call for papers.

The article the "American Journal of Economics and Sociology" and the diverse range of topics that is presented in the current issue. The first article focuses on a study conducted by C. Wright Mills and Melville Ulmer who were commissioned by the United States Congress to review large corporations and their impact on society. Another paper focuses on the growth of special interest protectionism during the early 19th century. The last paper discusses and defends the position that economic writer Max Weber deserves the title "economic sociologist."

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the development of a separate economic niche for black entrepreneurs in Chicago's ethnic beauty aids industry. It argues that this economic niche developed in response to advantages black entrepreneurs had in mobilizing ethnic resources in the black community. The paper's findings lend support to general theoretical arguments stating that ethnicity, race, and other symbols for identity function as low-cost screening devices for evaluating the likelihood that trading partners will honor economic contracts, particularly in a market setting where formal market mechanisms are not fully developed. The findings are based on a series of in-person interviews with Korean, Jewish and black distributors of ethnic beauty aids in Chicago. Although this paper focuses on a single market niche, its conclusions indicate that greater attention needs to be paid to the effects of social, political, economic and structural factors on minority business development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effort to categorize nature dates at least to Aristotle and is still ongoing. The study of categories is termed "ontology"-a field Whose use in the philosophy' of social science has most recently been revived. Last April 1998, the State University of New York at Buffalo hosted a conference on "Applied Ontology: A Marvin Farber Conference in Law and Institutions in Society." The following papers were selected from the group of papers presented at the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces various reports published within the issue, including one on intergenerational earnings mobility in the U.S., one on economic methodology and Ludwig Lachmann, and one on developments in medical technology.

There have been a number of studies analyzing the impact of unions on labor's share of income. Most have relied on either time series or cross-section data. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of unions on labor's share of income in the U.S. This study adds to the understanding of this topic by developing an analytical model of imperfect competition and estimating the model using panel data for the manufacturing sector. This study finds that unions have a positive impact on labor's share of income. Specifically, this paper finds that labor's share declined 17.9 percent between 1997 and 2006 whereas, if unionization density had remained at its 1997 level, labor's share would have declined only 13.9 percent. Thus, the decline in unionization explains about 29 percent of the decline in labor's share of income. This paper is important for three reasons. First, this paper sheds light on whether social and institutional forces play an important role in determining the distribution of income between labor and capital. Second, it helps to explain recent increases in wage inequality. Third, it has implications for understanding the potential impact of legislation, such as the Employee Free Choice Act, that would make it easier for workers in the U.S. to unionize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT . This paper examines alternative hypotheses as to why French Canadians are underrepresented on National Hockey League teams based in English Canada relative to their representation on teams based in the United States. Using panel data, the paper accounts for the idiosyncratic behavior of specific teams by using a fixed-effects model. With these fixed-effects accounted for, the paper tests the degree to which the representation of French Canadians on a team is related to that team's location—either in English Canada or the United States—versus the degree to which the representation is related to the ethnic origin of that team's coach and general manager. It finds the ethnic origin variables to be unable to explain the representational patterns, leaving the team location variable as the only significant explanatory variable. These statistical findings thus support a “customer discrimination” explanation of the underrepresentation, as opposed to an “employer discrimination” explanation. Identifying this source of any potential discrimination is important, since different sources will have different implications for the prospects of reducing such discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native American Gaming currently is perceived as the economic development strategy that will help reduce Indian Reservations' high rates of family poverty There is, however, considerable legislative activity at the state and federal level which is aimed at reducing this opportunity The paper examines three decades of economic development activity on the reservations in an attempt to explore what alternative strategies tribal governments have available in the event that Indian gambling falls short in its objective Using Census data, the paper concludes that strategies based on the promotion of government or private employment, the promotion of natural resources or manufacturing have fallen short Education, as an indirect approach to economic development, appears to consistently be one of the more important priorities that tribal leaders can stress in their attempts to reduce family poverty rates [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses economic policies of agencies of the Federal government of the United States. The use by the federal government of semi-autonomous corporations and agencies to accomplish certain quasi-commercial tasks has always been controversial. Many of the quasi-commercial and revenue-producing operations of government should be put in the hands of semi-independent, self-financing agencies and kept completely out of the unified Federal budget. This would reduce the size of the budget and, since the expenditures thus made extra-budgetary would very probably exceed the revenues similarly affected, it would also make for a budget surplus. Administratively, there seem to be some major drawbacks to the extra-budgetary idea in general and to the security issuing process in particular. Unfortunate effects on the government securities market may occur when issues are allowed to reach the market from several sources. When the extra-budgetary paper is sold to about the same group of investors as the regular Treasury issues, a certain element of competition could arise. Real financial independence for an agency of the Federal government seems unlikely.

The Allied Social Science Associations is a marketing name for an annual three-day, citywide conference of about 9,000 economists that is organized, managed, and controlled by the American Economic Association (AEA). AEA invites the participation of about 50 additional (i.e., allied) economics-related societies that organize the scholarly content of a portion of the ASSA meetings. It is this broader meeting that operates under the ASSA flag. Although the AEA has met periodically with other social science associations since the 19th century, the current format dates back to the 1960s. The convention rotates among approximately 10 large U.S. cities. A centralized staff at AEA headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee has managed the convention since 1986. The ASSA name was first used on the conference program in 1952. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some nonparticipants support lotteries because they expect the lottery will shift a portion of their tax burden to participants. The principal-agent model suggests that lotteries will result in an above normal increase in state expenditures. This paper finds that 77 percent of net lottery proceeds are utilized for above normal spending increases, suggesting that tax benefits to nonparticipants are greatly diminished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces and summarizes the contents of the April 2007 issue. Topics include an analysis of economics as a profession and potential improvements. Economists express their dissatisfaction with the current state of their field. Another section speculates on the increasing occurrence collaboration in economic research papers. A comparison is made between markets where sellers and buyers have distinct roles and markets where people play both roles. Other topics include the linguistic aspects of economics, voter participation and turnout, impact of Congressional Black Caucus membership on U.S. Democratic house committee membership, public housing projects in Louisville, Kentucky and a study of duration in the New Orleans, Louisiana housing market.

Late 1990s claims of a shift toward a new economy in the United States and other developed economies were said to accelerate earlier trends reducing the material content of production. The shift toward a postindustrial services economy is said to have been accentuated by application of new information and communications technologies, dramatically reducing the material content of production. This offers the possibility for continuous economic expansion unconstrained by resources supply. This paper provides a critical analysis of these trends in relation to resource use by developed economies. It shows that trends toward a lower material content of production are occurring, and this has led to poor demand conditions for primary producers. Nevertheless, these trends fall well short of eliminating Western economies’ dependence on key resources. This paper shows the changing role of resources in economic activity among developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Supreme Court has ruled that asking for money is a form of protected speech. However, it has also ruled that restrictions on the time, place, and manner of begging are constitutional. This paper examines 71 U.S. cities to determine what factors influence a city's propensity to enact anti-begging regulations. The logistic regression results indicate that cities with higher welfare benefits are less likely to regulate begging. Cities with higher crime rates, higher proportions of disabled citizens, and higher proportions of college-educated citizens, and cities that are more densely populated are more likely to regulate begging.While historians, ethnographers, and legal scholars have studied issues related to begging, economists generally have not. This paper uses the traditional economic model of rational choice to examine why some U.S. cities regulate begging and others do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper treats the development of public choice as an academic enterprise that originated at the University of Virginia and that grew to maturity at VPI. It seeks to distinguish between the particularistic and personal sources of programmatic success on the one hand, and institutional and organizational sources on the other. Only to the extent the success is institutional or organizational is there something that potentially can be duplicated through the adoption of an appropriate institutional framework. Otherwise the success is idiosyncratic, and must be attributed to the particular qualities of James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, independently of the institutional and organizational framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the preferences of manufacturers in deciding whether to locate in metropolitan or nonmetropolitan (rural) areas. Using 1997 state-level data and OLS regression estimation, it was determined that nondurable goods manufacturers prefer rural areas, while durable goods manufacturers are indifferent as to area. However, both sets of manufacturers prefer to locate in larger states. Wage rates are not significant in the regressions, while durable manufacturers appear sensitive to state taxes. Some policy conclusions for local economic developers are derived from these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. Through a case study of Phoenix, Arizona, this paper examines how urban sprawl is linked to opportunities for capital gains. It focuses on "leapfrogging," in which developers skip over properties to obtain land at a lower price further out despite the existence of utilities and other infrastructure that could serve the bypassed parcels. The paper examines patterns of growth since 1950 and planners' efforts to structure that growth. It discusses two programs that addressed consequences of leapfrogging: development impact fees to help pay for infrastructure costs of new development and an Infill Housing Program to encourage residential development on vacant land. It concludes with a brief discussion of the future of growth management in Phoenix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes data on aggregate concentration in the United States economy for the years 1978 to 1987. This paper expands upon the previous literature in two respects. First, the issue of the appropriate manner of assessing aggregate concentration is dealt with, by presenting a broad assortment of data. Second, the paper presents an updated look at aggregate concentration in the United States economy by examining the period 1978 to 1987. Data from previous studies are also reported to provide a better picture of the long-run concentration trend. In examining the manufacturing sector, Julie A. Caswell et al (1987) make the claim that the Census of Manufactures data are the "best." The reason, as explained by White, is that these data include domestic operations only (and thus avoid any bias that might occur with the inclusion of foreign data). The various non-manufacturing sectors of the economy examined were chosen so as to be able to update the work presented by other authors.

Despite the rapid increase in families headed by single mothers, sufficient attention has not been paid to the living arrangements of these families. Most prior research has generally relied on Bureau of the Census definitions as household bead and subfamily head to categorize single mothers' living arrangements. This two-part grouping, however, obscures the actual diversity of living arrangements undertaken, including cohabitation with unrelated males. This paper moves beyond the standard two pan grouping of single mothers and instead provides a detailed taxonomy of single mothers' living arrangements using data from the Current Population Survey. Among the findings, the economic status of families headed by single mothers varies tremendously by living arrangement, a fact which has been entirely overlooked in earlier research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier studies by Liu on Quality of Life (QOL) indicators have pointed out the problems of concentration and interregional inequality among the fifty states in U.S.A. Noting that the interregional inequality problem has been gradually alleviated over the past two decades, this paper attempts to provide some rudimentary explanations about this converging phenomenon through a labor market adjusting process towards social, economic and spatial equilibrium. Published state data and QOL indicators developed by Liu for 1960, 1970 and 1978 tend to support the hypothesis that investment in human resources, especially through improved elementary and secondary education, would enhance social mobility which would in turn improve labor and capital productivity. The reduced regional inequality in economic QOL seemed to be more a response than a cause when compared to that in social QOL, because variations in educational expenditures were found to be more significantly related to the social QOL indicators than to the economic ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration model presented in this paper indicates that the academic quality of public schools, independent of their racial composition, is an important determinant of in-migration in North Carolina counties. The failure to control for school quality is shown to lead to a significant overestimate of the negative impact of school racial mix. These results accord with the Tiebout Hypothesis and with a growing body of other research which suggests that the distributions of public services and other amenities are the principal determinants of recent migration patterns in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The speculative demand for money has occupied an important role in Keynes' General Theory. Since then it has received only sporadic attention. The lack of sustained interest among specialists in monetary theory is largely due to the fact that the theory, in its original form, has usually failed to survive the empirical tests. In this paper, an attempt is made to estimate the speculative demand for money using the general framework of the "Efficient Markets Theory." The study uses the United States seasonally adjusted monthly data for the period 1952-72. The results strongly indicate the existence of the speculative demand for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper is an attempt to study critically the legal framework encompassing water-resource development in the western U.S. First, the doctrine of prior appropriation, the basic water law employed by the 17 states west of the Mississippi, is described in historical perspective. A section of the paper studies the actual operation of the doctrine of prior appropriation in a number of western states and to point up the modifications that have been effected by these states to enhance its operational efficiency. The paper also discusses the principal features of the prior appropriation doctrine and a brief analysis of some of their implications for the economy and the society. Another section deals with surface water laws and ground water laws separately and presents supportive evidence to the conclusion that the doctrine of prior appropriation has through the years evolved into a fairly dynamic body of laws whose operational efficiency has increased considerably in the context of the fast-expanding water needs of the western U.S. Almost all of the western states are either arid or semi-arid in nature. The overall water supply in these states is always insufficient to grow crops on all the land available.

A considerable number of people have maintained that unemployment of youth is one of the significant factors, which cause juvenile delinquency, and some have gone so far as to argue that a program to provide employment for adolescent boys will reduce delinquency to half its present rate. This article attempts to provide empirical support for these contentions by examining the relationship between delinquency and unemployment in a large metropolitan area in the United States. The results suggests that at current levels of unemployment a cut in the unemployment rate of 1 percent will lead to a reduction in delinquency rates of from one-fourth to one-sixth of 1 percent. An attempt has been made in this paper to access quantitatively the expected reduction in juvenile delinquency that would result horn a reduction in the unemployment rate. Although caution must be exercised in the estimation, the data suggest that at current levels of youth unemployment a cut in the rate of unemployment by 1 percent would lead to a cut in delinquency rates of from one-fourth to one-sixth of 1 percent. The results seem significant enough to excite honest hopes for corrective action.

The main purpose of this article is to present an empirical study which is noteworthy because it accentuates and illuminates certain important aspects of inflation that are often subordinated when this leading economic problem is discussed in the United States, viz, foreign trade and the structure of international prices, supply, and physical controls. Another object of this paper is to advance the hypothesis that, given full employment and a permissive monetary policy, a mutual dependence approach to inflation transcends the "single cause" approach. As a means of organizing and interpreting the multitude of events, which lead to the several goals of this paper, an analytical framework, called the four operators of inflation, is constructed. The four operators are: the letters S. D, F, and W symbolizes supply, demand, foreign trade, and wage-price; and them, respectively. The considerations from the analysis of the 1946-48 Swedish inflation suggest that an interdependence orientation to inflation should be further developed, and that the multifarious connections among S, D, F, and F should be more systematically explored.

Why is the German foundations model different from the U.S. model? Does it have to do with the long and surprisingly unbroken history of foundations in Germany or rather with differences in the role of the state? Whatever the answer, this has enormous repercussions on what foundations may achieve in helping to shape public debates. Using Hirschman's model of loyalty, voice, and exit, and a definition of foundations based on seven different functions, the article explores the history of foundations in Germany and assesses their public role, both as contributors of arguments and policy papers, and as objects of public debate. It describes the amazing revival the concept of philanthropy has encountered over the last 15 years, and discusses whether this is due to long-term political convictions or rather to short-term political needs. Using examples taken from the 19th and 20th centuries, the article highlights a number of aspects that serve to illustrate the theoretical dilemma as to whether and to what extent highly hierarchical organisms may legitimately exist in an open heterarchical society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper "The Dynamics of North American Trade and Investment Canada, Mexico and the United States," edited by Clark W. Reynolds, Jeonard Waverman and Gerardo Bueno. It informs that contributions from the three countries are carefully balanced and a broad range of problems is examined. Canada and the U.S., with annual trade in excess of 200 billions of dollars, provide the most important example of bilateral trade in the contemporary world. Their similar per capita incomes, banking systems provisions for the enforcement of contracts and common language (apart from Quebec) make adjustments easier for both parties. But in case of Mexico, differences are greater, required adjustments more fundamental and their implementation will take longer. Mexico's history of inflation, capital flight, collapse of security prices, and record levels of external debt, led to the Economic Solidarity Pact of late 1987. It included measures to restrain wages and prices reduce the budgetary deficit and, otherwise, to tighten be its. It was successful to the extent that inflation was reduced to an annual rate of tighten belts.

Do economists reach a conclusion on a given policy issue? One way to answer the question is to survey economists at large. Another is to look at the published judgments of economists who have gone on the record. Relative to an anonymous survey, going on the record makes for much greater accountability, and presumably more personal responsibility. I discuss 11 studies of economists' published judgments. Several of them show greater support for liberalization than found among economists at large. This is offered as evidence of what I call the forsaken-liberty syndrome. I discuss the nature of this test of such syndrome and point to some of the larger questions to which it relates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines Henry George's perspective on war and peace. With justice added to the foundation in the way that Henry George proposes, the conditions of inequality and conflict that lead to war will no longer prevail. George saw that trade prohibitions furthered elite rule, militarization, and a worldview of 'them' versus 'us.' George's great contribution was to see how these big issues of War and Peace bore directly upon the constellation of rules governing the relationship of people to planet, humans to humus, earthlings to earth. Social arrangements not based on the fundamental and equal human right to the earth lead inevitably to a gross imbalance of political power and thus to government corruption, odious public debt, war, and preparations for further war. Although he warned us of what might befall the United States if it took the imperialist path, George seemed hopeful that the highest and best moral purpose of our nation would prevail. The paper concludes with an assessment of contemporary devices that protect the interests of the few over the many-subsidies, the ballooning national debt, the ever-widening wealth gap, megacities, and the full-spectrum-dominance objective of U.S. imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the past 30 years, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the proliferation of new forms of health care delivery organizations that challenge and compete with general NFP community hospitals. Traditionally, the health care system in the United States has been dominated by general NFP (NFP) voluntary hospitals. With the number of for-profit general hospitals, physician-owned specialty hospitals, and ambulatory surgical centers increasing, a question arises: 'Why is the general NFP community hospital the dominant model?' In order to address this question, this paper reexamines the history of the hospital industry. By understanding how the 'general NFP hospital' model emerged and dominated, we attempt to explain the current dominance of general NFP hospitals in the ever changing hospital industry in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ideal of the democratic peace and the recent misuse of this ideal in the war on terrorism. It argues against the idea that aggressive military force can be employed to bring about the ideal of the democratic peace. By looking at John Stuart Mill's utilitarian justification of benevolent despotism for “barbarians,” it examines how idealism can lead to a defense of aggressive intervention. And it considers how idealistic zeal can lead to violations of just war principles, as in the case of Hiroshima. It concludes by arguing that Kant's deontological approach is better. Kant provides us with a reason to hope that as democracy spreads, peace will spread as well. But Kant also prohibits us from using force to actualize this ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With globalization, plus the ongoing wars and political problems facing many countries, immigration has lately been accentuated. It is very common for immigrants to move to countries where it is perceived that their economic and political possibilities might be enhanced. In light of this, many foreigners tend to see the United States as their destination. However, sometimes these new additions to the economy face an uphill battle to fit in and make their abilities be valued in the new country. This paper tries to measure and quantify these problems faced by newcomers. It also addresses the question of who will most probably fare better in the United States. These two issues are measured through data obtained in the Current Population Survey published in March 1999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of charitable giving only examine total charitable contributions. This paper finds that contributions to religious organizations should be studied separately from contributions to nonreligious organizations. The results are consistent with theoretical predictions that religious giving is fundamentally different from nonreligious giving. Religious giving is assumed to directly influence after-life consumption, while nonreligious giving is not related to after-life consumption. While contributions to both increase with income, contributions to religious organizations also increase with age. There is no relationship between age and contributions to nonreligious organizations. Also, as income rises, religious contributions fall as a share of total giving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with two issues. By linking culture and political systems, we develop alternatives to the "Developmental State" approach and propose, among other types, the "Bureaucratic State" for explaining the case of Japan. We extend the Laffont-Tirole (L-T) model of regulatory capture and propose a "bureaucratic capture" model. Variations of capture are shown to apply, given particular cultural predispositions. The case of atomic energy in Japan and the United States is then studied to assess the predictive efficacy of the extended L-T model. We conclude that cultural predispositions and the corresponding state types affect the degree to which capture takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native Americans suffer some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment and the lowest rates of human capital attainment among racial minority groups in the United States, but economists understand very little about the impact these conditions have on the migration patterns of Native Americans. In 1994, a seminal article on this topic appeared in this journal (Cebula and Belton 1994). In their article, the authors suggest that the low levels of human capital and poor conditions in Native American reservations should make Native American migration sensitive to interstate differences in AFDC spending levels. Their hypothesis is confirmed for Native American migration over the 19851990 period. This paper refines their analysis by using micro-level rather than aggregate data, and by controlling for reservation residence and the impact of informal social safety nets in the source region. It is found that human capital factors and expected wage differences overwhelm interstate differences in public welfare spending and that informal safety nets in the source region dampen off-reservation migration. These findings suggest that state AFDC spending levels cannot explain contemporary Native American migration patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. This paper analyzes the relationship between income inequality and economic growth within the United States using state level data. It describes income inequality in the U.S. since 1960, then employs a two-step causal model to test the institutionalist contention that income inequality leads to socio-political instability, which has a negative impact on economic progress. The empirical results offer support for the institutionalist view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. Despite recent progress in reducing poverty, the fight against hunger remains a challenge in the United States. Charities have set up soup kitchens in order to reach out to the poor and hungry. Unfortunately, the way in which some soup kitchens are run is not appealing. One may wonder if waiting in line for a bowl of soup provided out of a van contributes to self-esteem. Beyond hunger, the poor suffer from isolation and a lack of respect from society. It may be worth looking at the experience of other countries that provide hunger relief in a more humane manner. In this paper, we analyze the experience of a soup kitchen in Namur, Belgium, whose cozy atmosphere has led its customers to come as much for socialization as for food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many world views and complicated laws within a society have evolved from simpler forms. In general, this process works well. However, on occasion the original basis, no matter how well it worked at inception, does not work well in later, more complex, or different societies. One such case is that of the current law of intellectual property, which does not seem to adapt well to the introduction of new technologies. This paper explores this problem and its causes, and then proposes some possible changes that might, with minimal disruption, minimize many of these difficulties in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the book "The Dollar Crisis and Other Papers," by Xenophon Zolotas. The book opens with the title essay in which professor Zolotas proposes an ingenious solution for the U.S. short-term balance of payments problem, borrowing by the U.S. Treasury in dollars from the Eurodollar market and conceivably from foreign central banks on the basis of non-marketable securities with various maturities and a floating interest rate linked to the 3-or 6-month London Interbank Offer Rate.

The article comments on the impact of colleges and universities on local rental housing markets in the U.S. The study consists of the development and testing of a model of rental housing service demand. In this model, demand is assumed to vary positively with income, the percentage of total population which is enrolled in a college or university, and population density. A negative relationship is assumed between demand and the percentage of total employment which is in manufacturing. The first relationship defines a positive income elasticity of demand for rental housing services. The manufacturing variable is assumed to measure the effects of such external diseconomies of spatially concentrated industry as air pollution, ugliness, and noise. The population density variable is included to reflect the influence of differing numbers of rental housing service buyers in a given market area. It is believed that the college and university variable expresses the impact of this unmeasured component of student income which tends to increase student demand relative to non-student demand. Unmeasured student income consists of transfers from outside the local housing market area and relatively high permanent income.

This paper presents the results of a recently conducted survey of 1500 professional economists living in the United States and Canada The study was undertaken in an attempt to ascertain professional economists' views of the worth and usefulness of their own scientific research. The response rate of the survey was 49 percent (734 respondents) yielding statistical results which suggest that economists do believe their research has some social value. Economists in this survey believe, however, that the spillover benefits from that research are not substantial and are probably limited to certain groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On December 8, 1993 President Bill Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement and in doing so he brought to a close the lengthy political process that produced the trade agreement This paper combines information for individual legislators with state-level economic data to conduct an empirical analysis of the House and Senate voting patterns on NAFTA Results from the logit model estimation confirm that expected job gains/ losses, the presence of organized labor and political ideology (as represented by political party) were significant predictors of a legislator's vote on NAFTA In addition, the expected impact of NAFTA on the environment was found to be somewhat important in explaining Congressional voting patterns for a free trade agreement with Mexico [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in "Webster verses Reproductive Health Services," on the voting behavior of legislators on abortion related issues. This paper examines the extent to which representatives appear to vote to satisfy their personal policy preferences on abortion funding issues, and whether voting behavior was affected by the Webster decision. The influence of a representative's personal characteristics and the characteristics, of his or her geographic constituency on voting behavior is analyzed for two types of abortion funding issues amendments to a bill for funding for the District of Columbia and bills dealing with abortion funding in conjunction with appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services. These, amendments effectively prohibit the use of public funds for abortions.

Credit Unions in the United States have grown significantly in recent years. This paper identifies and analyzes the unique characteristics of the credit union industry contributing to this growth. The consolidation of smaller institutions and product diversification among target credit unions in the environment of financial deregulation in recent years has resulted in enhanced services for credit union members. The industry is expected to continue its growth in membership and assets relative to other depository intermediaries. INSET: Meeting challenges of the market.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intoxication of recreational boaters has become a serious problem. The usual policy prescription to this type of problem is to step up monitoring efforts to deter excessive drinking. However, this may be too expensive. This paper examines an alternative strategy — substituting lower blood alcohol limits for monitoring blood alcohol levels. Statutes that lower blood alcohol limits would be especially useful in areas such as recreational boating "where monitoring would be very costly. This same policy could be used to curtail socially excessive blood alcohol levels in air, bus and rail transportation and recreational activities such as snowmobiling and skiing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]