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The self‐sacrifice of suicide terrorists is subject to sophisticated models of altruistic sacrifice. Yet, a simpler account is that it reflects common suicidal tendencies. This paper offers new micro and macro evidence supportive of this hypothesis. At the micro level, the paper compares a sample of suicide and non‐suicide terrorists in the United States from 1948 to 2017. Results indicate that suicide terrorists are more likely to display various established suicidal risk factors including history of child abuse, absent parent/s, and relationship troubles. Results from Bayesian Model Averaging indicate that suicide risk factors outperform other individual factors (e.g., ideology and lone‐actor terrorism) in explaining suicide terrorism. At the macro level, the paper takes advantage of the cross‐national variations in suicidal tendencies to explain the incidence of suicide and non‐suicide terrorist attacks worldwide from 1991 to 2014. Results reveal that countries with higher share of deaths from suicide display higher incidences of suicide attacks but similar incidences of non‐suicide attacks. However, other contextual factors such as the share of Muslims also predict the incidence of suicide terrorism. The decision of some terrorists to sacrifice their life may well have been subject to over‐theorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been almost no research into what makes an effective chairperson in a university department. This paper constructs a historical longitudinal dataset on economics departments in 58 US research universities. It documents evidence that a department's research output tends to improve substantially when the incoming department Chair is himself or herself an outstanding scholar (in particular, is highly cited). The analysis adjusts for a set of other possible influences, including the standing of the department, university resources, the previous Chair, the trend in the department's productivity, and time-lags. Possible interpretations, and implications for future research, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment incentives targeted at attracting multinational firms have been extensively researched, and empirical evidence has shown them to be influential. The same is not true of exit restrictions. Yet, as recent theory suggests, there may be a trade-off between entry incentives and ease of exit. This paper focuses on that trade-off in the case of US multinationals in 33 host countries. An indicator of labour market regulations is used as a measure of ease of exit. Results suggest that both entry incentives and labour market regulations are important and ignoring the latter neglects an important dimension in firms' location decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY This paper suggests a simple way of developing a continuous capital coefficient series based on potential output estimates. The use of the potential output estimates in the denominator of the coefficient eliminates, the distortions to the relationship between capital and output caused by cyclical fluctuations. With the influence of cyclical fluctuations eliminated, the secular trends of the coefficient are revealed for analysis. The series developed in this study is for the private business sector of the United States Economy in the period 1909-1959. T erborgh's study of gross capital in the private business sector serves as the basis of the capital side of the coefficient, while in the denominator, the potential gross private domestic business product is derived from K nowles' potential GNP estimates. However, it is emphasized that other studies of gross capital and potential output could be substituted for the ones used in this paper. Some alternative series of the capital coefficient, based on several methods of estimating potential gross product in the business sector, are given for the postwar period. The resulting series shows a significant decrease in the capital coefficient from 2.203 in 1909 to 1.944 in 1941 with a distinct secular decline since 1922. There is a sharp once-over decrease in the coefficient during World War II. Although there is an interruption in the secular trend in the early postwar period, with a peak of 1.799 in 1951, the overall trend of the coefficient for the 1946-1959 period is downward. The change in the coefficient is from 1.719 in 1946 to 1.620 in 1959. The rates of decrease, in compound interest terms, for the two periods, 1909-1941 and 1946-1959, are approximately the same. The rates are just short of one-half and one per cent per annum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses regression analysis to investigate the relationship between military expenditure and stock market performance for the United States and the United Kingdom. Specifically, the study applies the Bierens-Guo unit root procedures to ascertain the time series properties of the variables in the study. The standard OLS technique is employed to determine the influence of military expenditure on stock markets for the period 1914 through 2001. The results from the unit root tests indicate that the military expenditure, military personnel, stock market, and energy consumption series are level stationary. The results from the OLS equations suggest that military expenditure has significantly positive effect on stock market performance for the United States and the United Kingdom. The implication of this finding is that high-income class and people in power are less likely to oppose increases in military spending even though such expenditures are not in the best interest of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence during the nineties about the response of real wages to shocks highlights that this response is substantially lower in European countries than in the United States and that there are important differences among European countries. Which are the reasons that explain these different reactions? In this paper, we apply meta-analytical techniques in order to provide a quantitative summary of the available evidence regarding the influence of labour market institutions on real wage flexibility. We find that the design of the study affects the obtained results, and that in more deregulated labour markets with a lower presence of trade unions, this response is particularly larger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kyklos is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses how certain electoral settings affect the activity of special interest groups within US state politics. The main result of cross-sectional regression analyses suggests that informed and educated voters prevent political parties from catering to special interests, diminishing the number of lobby registrations, the total amount of campaign contributions as well as groups' overall influence. Electoral competition is believed to exert a curvilinear effect on groups' importance within the political decision making process of each state. Another finding indicates that, in a situation of high electoral competition, voters' level of information plays a pivotal role in determining interest groups' activities. Parties seem to increasingly value median voter's concerns whenever the electorate is informed and political races are expected to be close. An environment of competitive elections and uninformed voters, in contrast, furthers interest groups' activity and strengthens their position within the political arena. This is explained by the rationale that, under such circumstances, politicians increasingly exchange narrowly targeted policies for campaign contributions in order to buy the votes of impressionable citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an economic analysis of infidelity concentrating on the question of how cheating behavior differs between men and women. We develop an expected utility model that borrows from evolutionary biology to form expectations regarding behavior towards infidelity. We use U.S. data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and a Probit model to assess some characteristics of the respondent and his or her spouse that determine the probability of having an extramarital affair. While biology may form basic preferences, some of our results are consistent with the view that people are able to act on more than their base biological instincts alone. Hence, economic theory has a role to play in the understanding of behavior relating to infidelity. More specifically, this study identifies age, social class, individual's own education and the spouse's educational attainment as underlying factors affecting infidelity behavior depending on gender. In general, we find that men and women respond differently to the costs and benefits of having an affair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a game theoretic model to explain empirical research which has revealed higher relational satisfaction among married couples than cohabiting couples, as well as among married couples who did not cohabit before marriage. Despite these findings, in recent decades cohabitation rates have dramatically increased in both Europe and the United States. Instrumental variables estimations on data from 28 industrialized countries and 50 U.S. states show cohabitation strongly correlated with increases in women's labor force participation, where a 10 percent increase in women's labor force participation results in a 6.4 to 14.6 percent increase in cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to provide an explanation for the finding that 'employed American adults have had no net gain in their leisure time in 30 years' [OWEN, 1976, p. 3], a finding which OWEN goes on to describe as 'somewhat surprising'. Our explanation is sought in the intensity of advertising, which is shown to influence the income-leisure decisions of the labour force. We focus on the workweek and the workyear of production workers in U.S. manufacturing industries, which provide long time series for a group which has remained relatively homogenous over time[1].
Previous studies of the workweek or workyear find that the real wage exerts a negative influence. But no satisfactory analysis has been put forward to explain why hours of work have virtually stopped falling in the post-war period. We suggest that the answer lies in the growth in advertising, which has exercised a cumulative impact on the desire to acquire goods and in consequence has created a reluctance to substitute leisure for income as the real wage rises.
The long-run decline in the workweek in U.S. manufacturing appears to have been arrested in the 1940's, even though the real wage rose continuously over the next 30 years. This paper argues that advertising, by creating a stronger desire for goods, tilts the long-run supply-side decision about work and leisure towards longer hours. It is frequently suggested that the workweek is a poor measure of the leisure choice because leisure is increasingly taken in the form of longer vacations. But whether or not vacation time is allowed for, we find that the negative effect of a rising real wage upon hours of work has been offset by the strong positive impact of aggregate advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I seek to facilitate the further extension of economic analysis to political participation by estimating the income elasticity for another form of participation, namely, contributing to the general fund used to publicly subsidize the campaign costs of Presidential candidates in the United States.
In this paper I have attempted to extend further the application of economic analysis to political participation by the empirical estimation of an income elasticity. Previous research has not provided such an estimate because it has concentrated on the act of voting which does not allow the necessary empirical conditions to be met.
The particular elasticity obtained, with regard to income and contributing the dollar amount to the funding of Presidential campaigns, can perhaps be usefully employed in controlling for the income effect in the context of other participation settings (e. g., voting) and, hence, allow a more precise investigation of the relative prices facing different income groups. Such an investigation would place the act of political participation squarely into the analytical framework of standard consumer-demand theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kyklos is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Presents a theoretical explanation of the behavior of the Deutschmark/dollar-exchange rate over the 1980s in the article entitled `Explaining the Rise and Decline Of the Dollar.' Argument of Menckhoff on the article; Information on the exchange rate behavior and bilateral current accounts; Sufficient explanations of the dollar exchange rate; Data presented to confront the model.

SUMMARY Social psychological factors affecting prices on markets are of two orders: The non-economic but objective influences, such as propaganda, rumors, incorrect news, etc. which affect the individual buyer or seller; the 'subjective' definition of the situation with which the individual integrates all the relevant 'information' and which provides him motivation for his actions. These are analyzed and exemplified in this paper, based on informal interviews with persons participating in two American exchanges and on the published literature. The setting of the brokers' offices and of the 'floor' of the exchange is also considered as a source of social psychological influences on the market participants. Special consideration is given to booms and panics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY This paper examines the source of variation in the capital coefficient for the United States private business sector during the 1909-1959 period. These sources are the composition of capital, the age of capital, and the nature of technological progress. In the multiple regression and correlation analysis, these sources are measured by the ratio of plant to equipment, the weighted average age of the stock of capital, and a proxy time trend, respectively. The regression equations provide a high degree of explanation of the variation in the capital coefficient. The significant correlations involve the average age and the nature of technological progress in the 1923-1941 period and the plant-equipment ratio and the nature of technological progress in the 1946-1959 period. In both periods the correlations between the time trend and the capital coefficient indicate that capital-saving technological progress is the most impor-tant factor contributing to the secular decline of the coefficient. In the earlier period, the capital-saving bias to technological progress is reinforced by factors associated with the rising age of capital, while in the postwar period the falling plant-equipment ratio tends to offset it somewhat. However, it appears that the intensity of the capital-saving bias may be higher in the post-war period than in the 1923-1941 period. The implications of the falling capital coefficient for equilibrium growth are examined in terms of the Harrod-Domar model. Since a capital-saving bias in technological progress tends to cause the rate of growth of productive capacity to exceed the rate of growth of aggregate demand, it is suggested that the nature of technological progress may be one of the factors contributing to the secular GNP gap for the United States since 1958. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use new individual‐level data from MasterChef, a television show in the United States in order to objectively capture situations of fear of failure. We codify situations in which the contestants are on the verge of being eliminated from competition and situations where they explicitly express fear of failing. These new data have the distinct advantage of being purely objective. We cover ten seasons, from 2010 to 2020 and include nearly 200 observations to study the role of fear of failure on performance. Using ordinary least squares, we show that extreme fear of failure is associated with an increase of two to four positions in the final placement of the cooking competition. This positive link between fear of failure and performance tends to contradict the conventional wisdom in both psychology and behavioral economics that such a link tends to be negative. Our findings are robust to broad changes in specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are robust gender differences in the domains of risk taking, overconfidence and competition behavior. However, as expertise tends to level these differences, we ask whether financial experts still show gender dissimilarities in their domains of decision making? We analyze survey responses of 649 fund managers in the U.S., Germany, Italy and Thailand, and find that female fund managers tend to behave as expected from gender studies: they are more risk averse and shy away from competition in the tournament scenario. The expected lower degree of overconfidence by women is yet so small that it becomes insignificant in fund management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations to investigate the empirical relationship between federal regulation and macroeconomic performance in the U.S. The analysis uses an aggregate production framework to study the co-movement of output and the factors of production that results from regulation. The use of cointegration methodology overcomes some shortcomings of traditional techniques. The results suggest that regulation generally is negatively related to aggregate economic performance in both the short run and the long run. Some specific areas of regulation are also found to have important long-run effects, some positive and some negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kyklos is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Evaluates trends in social capital in the U.S. since 1952 to 2001. Examination of trends in participation in community and family life; Variation in social capital trends across different indicators; Role of growing income, racial and ethnic heterogeneity within communities in the decline in social capital since the 1970s.

A vast empirical literature has used ad hoc linear cross-country regressions to search for the determinants of FDI. The literature is extensive and controversial. Can policy-makers use this body of research to learn anything that can help them stimulate FDI? The author uses Extreme Bound Analysis (EBA) to examine if any of the conclusions from the existing studies is robust to small changes in the conditioning information set. The EBA upholds the robustness of the correlation between FDI and market-size, as measured by per-capita GDP, but indicates that the relation between FDI and many of the controversial variables (namely, tax, wage, openness, exchange rate, tariff, growth, and trade balance)bare highly sensitive to small alterations in the conditioning information set. The author also studies the distribution of the estimated coefficients of the controversial explanatory variables to rank them in order of their likelihood of their being correlated with FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a study on institutional arrangements of markets for chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) that make a change-over to a less environmentally harmful technology possible without the United States government regulation. Discussion on technology trap; Description of the model of the study; Termination of the market for CFC; Conclusion.

This paper proposes a rigorous framework for the incorporation of characteristics in estimating U.S. import demand functions by region of origin Assuming a CES aggregator function, we derive an import share equation that is identical for all regions of origin. Differences in shares are explained by differences in prices and in the characteristics of the exporting regions The model is estimated with data for seven of the major exporters to the United States, Canada, Japan, West Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and, in some cases, Mexico The results indicate that the U.S. import share of a foreign region is positively related to that region's economic size, labor intensity, labor efficiency and proximity to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wage supplements in the form of private fringe benefits and statutory contributions to social welfare account for around 25 per cent of the typical firm's total labour costs throughout OECD countries. Yet the relative emphasis on private and statutory payments differs from country to country. For example, the ratio of statutory contributions to private fringes (excluding holiday payments) was 5 0 in the FRG compared to 0.9 in the USA in 1981. This paper critically assesses the economic arguments for and against both forms of non-wage payment. On the private side, the discussion concentrates on human capital anti union median voter explanations for private fringe payments. Attention is also given to the implications of favourable corporate and individual tax concessions with respect both to the demand for private fringes and to the evaluation of their human capital effects. On the statutory side, social security contributions are discussed in relation to general social welfare, government employment policy and employer-union relations. As part of the general assessment, it is argued that governments should provide a Fiscal framework in this area which is designed to stimulate more effective individual and firm-level choice between equivalent forms of private and statutory supplementary compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers further evidence on the political business cycle hypothesis by testing for a relationship between aggregate economic activity and the legislative output of the US Congress from its first assembly in 1789 through the biennial session ending in 1980. The advantage of this approach is that it captures the fiscal initiatives necessary to spur expansionary or contractionary pressures as well as government's off-budget intrusions into the private economy. The empirical results from three alternative tests offer little evidence that the legislature attempts to engineer macroeconomic events so as to enhance the reelection prospects of incumbent politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the impact on international capital movements of the accelerated tax depreciation scheme introduced in the U.S.A. under the REAGAN administration. It is argued on theoretical grounds that, contrary to most other potential tax reforms, this depreciation scheme calls for a substantial restructuring in the world-wide capital stock in favor of the U.S. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the scheme may reduce severe sectoral changes within national economies. Countries that do not take countervailing actions against the U.S policy are likely to experience a rise in their labour intensive industries at the expense of losing their capital intensive industries. A tentative estimate based on stylized economic facts indicates the necessity of a capital import into the U.S. of at least 7% of the OECD capital stock, which means that even with a doubling of the 1983 U.S. current account deficit of $40 billion more than a decade would have to pass in order for the required structural changes to be accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is worth noting that 82% of the cross industry variation in PFRD has been explained without using any explanatory variable measuring the cost advantages of an American versus a 'rest of the world' R & D location. While such a variable certainly belongs in the regressions run, it is and will remain prohibitively difficult to obtain unless the OECD or some other international body publishes suitable comparative data[38]. Significant multicollinearity between this omitted independent variable and the eight others used in the regressions is, with the possible exception of LWRDI, a very remote possibility.
This study develops and empirically tests a 'scenario' describing the evolution of a typical American multinational manufacturing corporation's (AMMC's) foreign research and development (R&D) activity. It finds that international differences in R & D factor costs probably have very little effect on R & D location decisions. The critical variables appear instead to be less traditional things like the time elapsed since the AMMC first engaged in foreign production. That such variables were discovered and emphasized in the study is a result of the 'satisficing' approach adopted in its 'scenario'. In vindicating that approach, the paper's findings also show the need for economic theorizing to take explicit account of the fact that information costs something to obtain and to use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts a more direct test of the growth and profit maximizing theories of the firm, than previously presented. The approach is to estimate directly the marginal rates of return on investment for individual firms and individual years, over time, for a sample of large U.S. industrial corporations. The marginal rate of return estimates are then statistically compared to several cost of capital series, on a year-by-year basis. Substantial, prolonged, and statistically significant overinvestment is discovered, casting doubt on the profit maximizing conditions but supporting the growth theory of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes J. K. GALBRAITH's new vision of the economic system of the U.S.A., seen as an example of popular institutionalist thinking. Such a critique seems important because of GALBRAITH's claim to a closed and complete doctrine and because of the growing influence of his vulgarized economics. An examination of his methods discovers deficiencies of the systemic approach, obscurities in concept formation, arbitrary formulations of behavioral theories, purely persuasive modes of argumentation and techniques of immunization against contrary evidence. An analysis of his system of political economy shows that it lacks a genuine theory of the state and a truly consistent explanation of inequalities of power. So his programme of reforms and of measures of economic policy rests upon rather weak methodological and theoretical foundations. SUBSTITUTION ALONG THE TIME AXIS CARL CHRISTIAN VON WEIZSCKER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the productivity bias hypothesis by relying upon the time-series data and the technique of cointegration. Description of the model and methodology used to establish the long-run relation between productivity and the deviation of purchasing power parity (PPP) from the equilibrium exchange rate; Empirical results of the examination to support the Balassa effect; Conclusions.

Explains the extensive deregulation of interstate telecommunication in the United States compared to the lagging telecommunications deregulation intrastate in the US and intracountry in Europe and in Germany. Critism of Gene Laber on the authors comparative approach; Role of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

SUMMARY Two important themes in recent discussions of the evolution of international monetary institutions are the problems of cooperation among central banks and the role of exchange guarantees. These themes are illustrated by a discussion of United States Federal Reserve and Treasury foreign exchange operations, proposals for a multiple key-currency system, and suggestions for making currency swap agreements permanent and access to overdrafts automatic. It is argued that, while cooperation is required in any system, the more it is arranged in advance and formalized the less will be the unjustified deflationary bias in policy. Further, a multiple key-currency system is appreciably more unstable than one based on automatic extensions of liquidity, even if both are supported by exchange guarantees. These considerations suggest that adopting a multiple key-currency system, as advocated by F. A. L utz among others, would be inferior to automatic prearranged currency swaps and overdrafts as suggested by P. B. K enen and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Although gay men have reported experiencing labor market discrimination, re‐ search studies on a potentially discriminatory wage gap have reported mixed findings. We consider the Becker model of taste based discrimination which hypothesizes that we will observe, in the presence of discrimination, a smaller or non‐existent wage gap in more competitive markets. Using economic freedom at the state level as a measure of market competitiveness, and controlling for other influential characteristics, we analyze the wages of over 300,000 men in the United States to consider how economic freedom influences the wage gap between cohabitating gay men and married straight men be‐ tween the years 2000 and 2014. We find evidence consistent with model predictions in the presence of labor market discrimination for the states in the South and regions with the highest concentrations of religious households but not in the Northeast, West and less religious regions. Given the lower levels of public support of gay rights in the South and religious regions, this result suggests that gay men may be experiencing la‐ bor market discrimination in these regions but not in regions which typically offer more public support. These findings may help reconcile contradictory findings in previous research which did not explicitly allow for differential regional and religious influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the levels of public corruption in the American states and their impact on the prices of public debt sold by underwriting banks to retail investors. Results suggest that the markups paid by retail investors to underwriters decrease significantly with the incidence of public corruption. The relationship remains significant even when existing anti-corruption enforcement efforts are taken into consideration. Extant literature shows that the issuers of public debt from relatively more corrupt jurisdictions receive lower prices from underwriting banks in wholesale transactions. We develop and empirically show the mechanism through which this can occur. We offer the first evidence that the public debt market exerts disciplining pressures on the American states with greater levels of public corruption. When purchasing state-issued public debt, retail buyers appear to demand narrower markups by factoring in public corruption. This, we argue, is an important reason why underwriting banks offer lower prices when dealing with less disciplined fiscal sovereigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article analyzes the differences between economists and non-economists with respect to observed corruption behavior used as a proxy for selfishness. For this purpose, I analyzed real world data of relating to the 109th-111th US Congress between 2005 and 2009, including 695 representatives and senators. I show that those who hold a degree in economics are significantly more prone to corruption than 'non-economists'. These findings hence support the widespread, but controversial hypothesis in the 'economist vs. non-economist literature' that economists lack what Frey and Meier (2004) call 'social behavior'. Moreover, by using real world data, these findings overcome the lack of external validity, which impact on the (low cost) experiments and surveys to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the recent efforts in several countries to reorganize the research institutional setting to improve research productivity, our analysis addresses the following questions: To which extent has the recent awareness over international quality standards in economics around the world been reflected in research performance? How have individual countries fared? Do research quantity and quality indicators tell us the same story? We concentrate on trends taking place since the beginning of the 1990s and rely on a very comprehensive database of scientific journals, to provide a cross-country comparison of the evolution of research in economics. Our findings indicate that Europe is catching up with the USA but, in terms of influential research, the USA maintains a dominant position. The main continental European countries, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, experienced some of the largest growth rates in economic scientific output. Other European countries, namely the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, have shown remarkable progress in per capita output. Collaborative research seems to be a key factor explaining the relative success of some European countries, in particular when it comes to publishing in top journals, attained predominantly through international collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a new 16-country data set we demonstrate a robust negative employment-total factor productivity trade-off 1870–2004. Widely disparate cross country employment growth had a powerful long term influence on productivity dispersion. Unexceptional US productivity growth principally resulted from her exceptional employment growth rather than from her initially high productivity levels. The negative externalities associated with higher employment are shown to have dominated the diminishing of total factor productivity gaps among the 16 countries, and led to the erosion of US productivity leadership over the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prominent figures in our profession have quite recently offered clear cut views on the present distribution of prosperity and depression among the advanced industrial countries, see for example, Lucas (2003), Prescott (2002) : prosperity is identified with the United States, depression with Western Europe, and they relate this to the lower burden of taxation in the United States. The gap in the chosen level of performance (output per capita) is very large, about 30%, and the remedy is clear: cut taxes in Europe. But Europe is different from America: for deep historical, cultural reasons, but partly because the pressures to consume are different. There can be no easy inference about relative prosperity: the market investment of modern capitalism can drive people towards longer hours of work and away from their underlying (meta) preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effectivity of decentralized unemployment policies of United States federal government. Characteristic of decentralized unemployment policies; Mobility of local labor; Persistence of state unemployment.

Examines a new method of evaluating the relative importance of the consumption and investment motives in voting behavior. Distinction between alienation and indifference as motives of voter abstention; Description of data source; Derivation of basic and subsidiary hypothesis; Support for the consumption theory.

Correlates the diversity of a country's population with the size of its public sector. Opinions on public expenditure; Effect of diversity on provision of goods; Income redistribution and government spending trends; Studies on public sector size and demographic composition; Measures of diversity; Discussion of findings.

Focuses on the theoretical aspects of the socialist market economy. Arguments for contra and pro a socialist market economy; A critic theory of the socialist market economy; Questions arising from the theories; Some institutional economic aspects of market socialism; Information about labor-managed economy; Conclusions.

Presents a classification and consideration of individual psychological variables in negotiations. Discussion on the psychological variables; Information about social-variables; Conclusion regarding the effects of the psychological variables in negotiations.

Provides information on insider-outside approach to explain wage rigidities and persistent unemployment within the framework of neoclassical theories. Main idea of the insider-outsider approach; Emergence of `Two-Thirds-Society'; Reasons for the decline in marginal revenue productivity; Views on unemployment, Two-Thirds-Society and on union policy; More information.

Investigates participation and profit sharing decisions using individual level data and examines various types of wages and non-wages. Related information on profit sharing; Data and methodologies used in the study; Results of the study and its interpretation; Recommendations; Conclusions.

Discusses the main economic arguments concerning insider trading and contrasts them with the different versions of the fairness arguments. Background information on the arguments on insider trading; Victims of insider trading; Costs and benefits of informal efficiency of prices; Corporate insider's incentives; Views on fairness arguments; Limitation of the study; Conclusions.

Examines the causal relationship between exports and gross national product (GNP) in the industrial countries over the period 1950-1985. Background information concerning exports and GNP causality; Data used in the study; Integration and cointegration; Testing for Granger causality; Conclusions.