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Some 30 years ago Gordon Tullock, in his capacity as Editor of Public Choice, made a pointed effort to motivate researchers to measure and quantify resource investments in rent-seeking activities. Despite Tullock's identification of this aspect of rent-seeking as a significant gap in the literature and call to arms, this remains an under-studied topic of importance. Why is this? In our opinion, the answer is that, for a variety of reasons, measuring rent-seeking turns out to be very difficult. In this paper we identify and discuss several of the difficulties, both theoretical and empirical, although we concede that our treatment surely is not exhaustive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mikkelson et al.'s (PLoS One 2(5):e444, 2007) empirical finding of a positive relationship between income inequality and species imperilment in an international context is less-than-compelling for 3 reasons: (a) findings for their limited sample size, which constitutes a relatively small fraction of all countries, may not hold in the context of a more encompassing sample of countries, (b) their aggregate analysis, which includes amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, and vascular plants, may mask important taxa-level differences, and (c) the absence of controls for spatial autocorrelation between countries. Using data from 133 countries, we estimate models of factors that influence species imperilment and, controlling for cross-border effects, we reproduce the Mikkelson et al. findings, then demonstrate that they are sensitive to inclusion of additional countries, model specification, and to data aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policies that encourage high-density human living arrangements have been predicated explicitly on the assumption that certain spatial distributions of a fixed-size human population are less environmentally damaging than others. We examine the empirical validity of this assumption across 127 countries by analyzing whether the concentration of human presence in each country is related statistically to the percentage of species that were on the IUCN Red List in 2004. Our findings indicate that concentration of the human population is associated with reduced imperilment among amphibians but increased imperilment among reptiles, and birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the costs of regulation are borne by individuals outside of their political jurisdiction, an elected politician arguably will vote in favor of socially costly regulations because from his/her narrow perspective even small marginal benefits outweigh zero marginal costs. Our empirical analysis of the environmental voting records of U.S. Senators from 1991 to 2002 reveals a pronounced tendency for Senators to vote against (in favor of) environmental bills that impose costs in their (other) states. The straightforward implication is that elected politicians overgraze the regulatory pasture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a public choice analysis of endangered species listings in the U.S. Listing under the Endangered Species Act; Political consideration in the listing

In theory, not-for-profit organizations will be characterized by higher production costs per unit of output than for-profit producers of otherwise-identical goods/services, since profit maximization implies cost minimization per unit of output; breaking even does not imply cost minimization and, indeed, may imply inflated costs. We explore the empirical validity of this hypothesis in the context of higher education. Using 1996 data, we estimate multiproduct cost functions for 1,450 public, 1,316 private, not-for-profit, and 176 private, for-profit institutions of higher education in the United States. We fail to find a statistically significant difference between for-profit and not-for-profit private providers, but do find a statistically significant difference between private, not-for-profit institutions and public institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on specific political and economic structures in the U.S. and Brazil that promoted or restricted the establishment of domestic mercantilism in those economies. Economic history of the nations; Relative factor endowments; Role of institutions in economic conditions.

Presents information on a study which examined the evidence of 'home grown-ness' in politics using precinct-level data from the 1998 election for the third congressional district in Alabama. Mechanisms used by voters to minimize the expected agency costs associated with representative government; Information on the 1998 election for the third congressional district in Alabama; Model, data and findings; Conclusions.

number of different aspects of environmental quality are produced jointly with timber. Unfunded environmental mandates whose costs are borne strictly by the private landowner lead to reduced production of both timber and environmental quality relative to the quantity of both that would be produced in the absence of such policies. That is, acting without regard to environmental consequences, private landowners produce more environmental quality (as a byproduct of producing timber) than they do when unfunded policy mandates result in de facto partial takings for which they are not compensated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a comparison on the characteristics of an economists and non economist groups. Exhibition of selfish behavior; Consideration of the microeconomic principles with a game theory; Private provision of a public good.

In this article, we report on the extent of voluntary compliance by ASA members with the Association dues structure. Comparing our findings from a random survey of ASA members with the distribution of member payments by income-based dues category, we find a fairly high degree of noncompliance in the highest dues category. This implies, and we observe, that higher fractions of ASA members pay dues in the lower income categories than is consistent with their self-reported income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of credit bureaus as arbitrators. Manifestation of opportunistic behavior by seller and buyer; Economic importance of contractual device; Significance of the changes in cost and benefits.

The article reports on the empirical evidence in rent seeking and hidden in-kind resource distortion. The view that hidden rent seeking is a factor in assessing resource distortion is presented as an additional support. As a result, it would hold for federal and local levels and for state levels as well. Business trade regulation and the government involvement on its administration is discussed. The lower-cost forms of rent seeking is expected more where bribery and rents are lower.

Looks at the first attempts to empirically verify and quantify the alleged social waste due to rent-seeking in the U.S. Overview of the theoretical trade-off between investment in socially unproductive rent-seeking and socially productive profit-seeking behavior; Evidence of rent-seeking and economic well-being; Factors that constitute measures of real economic activity over time in the economy.

Discusses the importance of transactions costs in a team production or logrolling setting in determining legislative outcomes. Results of a correct measurement of the legislative time reference for bills; Possible solutions to the heterogeneity of bills problem; Ordinary least squares regression results on the speed of passage of appropriations bill.

Analyzes the geographic distribution of federal funds in the U.S. for fiscal year 1981. Categories of information collected by the U.S. House Information Services on federal expenditures; Potential explanations for the observed inequality in the flow of federal funds; Statistical relationship between the dollar amount of federal funds spent in each specific congressional district.

Discusses the relative quality of economics journals. Development of the Social Sciences Citation Index; Alternative rankings of several economics journals; Measures which can be used to evaluate professional regard for economics journals.

Probes into the basic question of whether or not a relationship exists between economic activity and political structure. Association between certain measures of economic well-being and the political environment of a country; Methods of identifying the prevailing political regime for 123 countries in 1980; Rates of growth in the five static economic variables; Stepwise regression results.

Provides information on the public funds reduction measures implemented by officers in the U.S. as of 1984. Authority of administrative agency heads in deciding on employee layoffs; Agencies which show increases in employment during budgetary reductions; Comparison of reduction measures between 1982 and 1984.

Replies to comments of Michael L. Marlow on a paper which examined the success of U.S. President Ronald Reagan at decreasing the size and scope of the federal Leviathon. Argument presented by Marlow concerning actual and proposed budget reductions; Failure of Marlow to come to grips with the response of agency heads to reductions in budget allocations.