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This paper demonstrates that plausible cost-based explanations exist for what are commonly perceived to be cases of price discrimination. We explain such commonly discussed problems as the price spreads of retail gasoline products, the "high" price of dinners at restaurants, the "high" price of popcorn at movie theaters, and the fact that airline ticket prices vary with how long the ticket is purchased before the flight's departure. Our explanations benefit from not relying on consumer ignorance or implicit collusion among numerous sellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 5, 1977, U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell caused dismay among some government agencies by announcing a new Justice Department policy that would require a complete reversal in their procedures, and their philosophy, for administering the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. In a letter to heads of executive departments and federal agencies, the attorney general said that because nearly 600 FOI suits were in various stages of litigation, severely straining the staff resources of the Justice Department, he was directing that withholding of documents would no longer be defended unless agencies could show not only that the documents were legally exempt under provisions of the FOI Act, but also that disclosure would result in demonstrable harm. Over the 10-year history of the FOI Act, there has been a salutary change in attitude toward information throughout the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). From a disposition to conceal, there has been a swing toward the impulse to reveal. This is not, of course, all embracing; and, in an agency as large as HEW, there have, no doubt, been acts of nullification, which have never surfaced; but changes there have been.

Explores the incentives provided by one-sided enforcement of price control laws in the United States. Effectiveness of the one-sided enforcement of price controls in minimum-wage and rent control regulations; Details on the principles and mechanisms of price control laws; Why price controls are not placed on victimless commercial crimes.

This paper establishes the properties of marginal tax rates of government transfer programs in the U.S. as if they were chosen by majority rule. Not surprisingly, the model fails. Given the labor supply elasticities in the literature, actual tax rates appear to be consistently lower than those that would result from majority rule. Tax rates are not uniquely determined by the proportion of recipients favoring one tax rate over another. Still, the fact that tax rates are consistently lower than those preferred by the median suggests that there is some rationality in an area of government policy that is thought to be highly irrational, the design of transfer programs.

Several papers have noted and sought to explain the paradox of mini- mum wage law compliance. Compliance rates are high even though the penalty for violating the law is allegedly less than the underpayment to workers. By comparison, we show that the actual penalty exceeds the underpayment. We combine our estimates of the costs of violating the law with estimates of the probability of apprehension to arrive at the expected cost of violating the law. In contrast with previous work, we find that the expected costs are sufficiently high to make compliance rational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public goods can be financed by direct taxation or a subsidy to private spending. This paper examines the relative efficiency and distributional consequences of the two methods. Efficiency is shown to depend on the price elasticity of private spending and the trade-off between public and private spending. When this trade-off is dollar for dollar, however, a subsidy is always more efficient than direct taxation. The gains from a subsidy are larger for a mixed good than for a pure public good. Looking at distributional effects, I show when richer taxpayers may prefer a tax credit to deductibility, even though they face lower prices with deductibility. I also show when richer taxpayers prefer direct taxation to either type of subsidy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a model where private charity and public transfers are determined simultaneously. In political equilibrium, the government "overprovides" public transfers, transferring more to the poor than altruistic taxpayers prefer. At this equilibrium, private charity is zero. Evidence for this result is found by examining various types of data from the 1920s to the present. While private charity currently exceeds $50 billion, very little of it goes to the poor I provide evidence that this phenomenon of zero private charity began, as the model predicts, in the 1930s, the beginning of federal intervention in the charity market. This paper derives a rigorous statement of the crowding-out relationship. Private charity is motivated by altruism. The political process then adjusts the distribution of income in order to maximize the political support received from both rich and poor. This paper integrates two explanations for the level of public transfers-the public good argument and the political power of recipients. One result that emerges is that the political process "overprovides" public transfers in the sense that more resources are transferred to the poor than altruists desire. This implies that private charity is zero. Current data and evidence from the Depression yield support for the crowding-out result.[14] The huge growth m public transfers in the 1930s crowded out private antipoverty efforts and fundamentally changed the nature of private charity. Current data also support this conclusion.[15] As usual, this paper uses a number of simplifying assumptions. Public charity is a perfect substitute for private charity since altruists and recipients only care about the consumption level of recipients. If altruists receive utility from the act of transferring as well, then private charity would still be positive m equilibrium. The analysis also concentrates on homogeneous altruists. A more intensive examination of a world of heterogeneous alt... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the size of an efficient subsidy varies with the amount of freeriding and the presence of distorting taxation. Ironically, the existence of free-riding, where some individuals make no voluntary contribution at all, reduces the size of an efficient subsidy and makes a subsidy more attractive compared to direct taxation. For the gain to be significant, the number of donors must be extremely few in number. Even when the gains from a subsidy relative to direct taxation are small, a subsidy may dominate direct taxation because it can reveal an efficient level of the public good. The analysis distinguishes between traditional public goods such as national defense, and what I call transfer public goods, where members of society care about the consumption of a particular group in society such as the poor. I generalize the Samuelson (1954) results to derive conditions for efficiency in providing transfer public goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a comparative analysis of competition in political and economic markets. Significance of competition among politicians and interactions between self-interested voters to political decision-making; Constraints of political-decision making systems; Implication of competition in political markets for political systems.

The article presents an obituary for social scientist and economist Gary Becker.

The article offers information on 10th Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Symposium held in Hobart, Tasmania on October 15-17, 2018. Topics discussed include need to address mental health literacy, importance of good physical health to mental health and well-being and ways to effectively incorporate and integrate the volunteer and career support. It also mentions need to provide reliable professional support to mental health workers to delivery to rural and remote communities.

Lead is a confirmed neurotoxin, but questions remain about lead-associated intellectual deficits at blood lead levels < 10 μg/dL and whether lower exposures are, for a given change in exposure, associated with greater deficits. The objective of this study was to examine the association of intelligence test scores and blood lead concentration, especially for children who had maximal measured blood lead levels < 10 μg/dL. We examined data collected from 1,333 children who participated in seven international population-based longitudinal cohort studies, followed from birth or infancy until 5–10 years of age. The full-scale IQ score was the primary outcome measure. The geometric mean blood lead concentration of the children peaked at 17.8 μg/dL and declined to 9.4 μg/dL by 5–7 years of age; 244 (18%) children had a maximal blood lead concentration < 10 μg/dL, and 103 (8%) had a maximal blood lead concentration < 7.5 μg/dL. After adjustment for covariates, we found an inverse relationship between blood lead concentration and IQ score. Using a log-linear model, we found a 6.9 IQ point decrement [95% confidence interval (CI), 4.2–9.4] associated with an increase in concurrent blood lead levels from 2.4 to 30 μg/dL. The estimated IQ point decrements associated with an increase in blood lead from 2.4 to 10 μg/dL, 10 to 20 μg/dL, and 20 to 30 μg/dL were 3.9 (95% CI, 2.4–5.3), 1.9 (95% CI, 1.2–2.6), and 1.1 (95% CI, 0.7–1.5), respectively. For a given increase in blood lead, the lead-associated intellectual decrement for children with a maximal blood lead level < 7.5 μg/dL was significantly greater than that observed for those with a maximal blood lead level ≥7.5 μg/dL (p = 0.015). We conclude that environmental lead exposure in children who have maximal blood lead levels < 7.5 μg/dL is associated with intellectual deficits.

The article focuses on issue of meddling. It mentions that motives play a very important role in the daily activities of a person. It says that stranger don't understand the motive of a person as they don't have the knowledge of an individuals need, desires and dreams. It says than time should take a humble approach to intervene into others life.

An editorial is presented on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report entitled "Mortality of people using mental health services and prescription medications" which was released on September 2017. It states that ABS it reports on the mortality of people who are gaining access to the Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) subsidised mental health-related treatments.

NewAccess is a low-intensity cognitive behavioural program which was recently trialled for the first time in Australia for clients aged under 18. Given that accessing support earlier tends to result in better outcomes for people with mild-to-moderate mental health issues, having NewAccess available for young people has the potential to reduce the likelihood of mild-to-moderate mental health concerns developing into more serious, or chronic mental illness over time for some clients, while also freeing up resources for those with more severe support needs. This mixed methods approach presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the program delivered out of two regional headspace centres in 2017-2019. From an initial sample of 165 young participants aged between 12 and 25, 109 completed the program. Of those who completed the program 60 were under the age of 18. The standardised assessment and outcome measures indicated a very good response to the program, with the majority showing significant improvements in their depression, anxiety and psychological distress scores. The overall 'reliable improvement' and 'recovery rates' were 64.2% and 72.3% respectively. Overall, the results indicated this program was an acceptable and efficacious intervention for young people in rural settings, when delivered in a 'youth-friendly' service environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author emphasizes the importance of an integrated approach to providing health care for Australians in rural areas. Topics covered include data linking physical illness and mental health conditions, chronic disease co-morbidity, and important role of rural health workers in connecting clients to other health professionals and services. It also cites issues of distance and scarce health resources, workforce development, life expectancy gap, and insights from various types of research.

The author discusses whether the National Mental Health Commission's first report: `A Contributing Life: the National Report Card' will make any meaningful contribution to mental health reform. He mentions that the report draws attention to a few key research findings and gives high visibility to consumer stories. He states that the report provides 10 recommendations none of which are new and the most disappointing thing is that it does not say anything about regional and remote mental health.

The author discusses the media release "Delivering National Mental Health Reform" about the 2.2 billion Australian dollars mental health services under a five-year reform package. The media release contains funds committed at the 2010 election in Australia as well as the amount reduced from existing mental health programs. Some of the laudable features of the mental health budget package are funding for personal helpers and mentors to support daily living, housing, employment and transport.

In this article the author focuses on several chapters of the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) in the U.S. He mentions that they have 27 chapters which include three international chapters from Great Britain, Australia and Israel. He states that the chapters have contributed to their test and evaluation (T&E) professionals in providing informations that are exchanged through meeting and luncheons.

The article highlights his experiences with the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) in the U.S. The author states that his first exposure to ITEA was in the fall of 1999 during which the Atlanta charter hosted the annual symposium. He adds that his experience in the Army has taught him the value of caring for the troops and has carried over in his civilian career.