Knowledge that Transforms

Recent interest in trade union activity has led to the development of econometric models of union membership growth. This paper examines the structural stability of two of the leading models—Ashenfelter-Pencavel's and Bain-Elsheikh's—each of which claimed to have captured the primary determinants of union growth in the twentieth century. The models were reestimated using revised, corrected, and extended membership data, and a nonlinear, maximum-likelihood procedure was employed to estimate the shift-point for each model. Contrary to previous studies, we found evidence of a break in the structure of each model. And unlike earlier work that hypothesized a World War II break-point, our estimated point was 1937–1938, most likely reflecting the impact of the Wagner Act.

Nobuhiro Okuno, Akira Yakita; Public Investment and Income Distribution: A Note*, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 96, Issue 1, 1 February 1981,

Journal Article Justice to the Australians Get access Paul A. Samuelson Paul A. Samuelson Massachusetts Institute of Technology Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 96, Issue 1, February 1981, Pages 169–170, https://doi.org/10.2307/2936147 Published: 01 February 1981

G. S. Maddala, R. Blaine Roberts; Statistical Cost Analysis Re-Revisited, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 96, Issue 1, 1 February 1981, Pages 177–181

Journal Article Summing up on the Australian case for Protection: Comment Get access Gary J. Manger Gary J. Manger University of New South Wales Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 96, Issue 1, February 1981, Pages 161–167, https://doi.org/10.2307/2936146 Published: 01 February 1981

This paper examines the appropriate use of cross-section microdata in life cycle models. Drawing upon recent empirical work based upon panel data, we illustrate how these results can be used as priors to generate a distribution of life cycle earnings. Such a surrogate distribution can be shown to possess the same properties as actual distributions. We focus attention particularly upon the treatment of economic growth and the unobservable components of earnings. In the final section of the paper, we show how such distributions might be used in inequality analysis.

Consider an industry with many potential firms, each firm characterized by a cost structure with large fixed costs. In determining the socially optimal resource allocation, the number of firms is a crucial variable. In this paper a relationship is established between pure profits with a fixed number of firms and the desirability of increasing or diminishing the number of firms in the industry. Both first-best and nonnegative profit-constrained, second-best cases are considered. The results are related to price and entry regulation in such an industry.

Conventional growth literature fails to incorporate technical change and investment as endogenous variables; Marxian growth literature is bedeviled by indeterminacies surrounding technical change and the rate of profit. Both sets of problems are addressed using a two-sector (capital good, consumer good) model, in which capitalists accumulate coexisting vintages of techniques. The parameters of the latest technique are determined by maximizing the innovator's profit, constrained by diminishing returns to mechanization. The model describes the differential impact of goods-, capital-, and labor-market equilibrium on the sectors, as the economy converges to a proportional-growth path. Conditions are identified under which prices approach labor values over time; and under which Marx's "rising composition" and "falling profit rate" tendencies are realized.

This paper reexamines Metzler's analysis of the effects of taxes and subsidies on the competitive supply prices of output in Leontiefs system. It will be shown that Metzler's conclusions are valid even if one removes the assumptions made by Metzler, and that Allen's conclusion concerning the ad valorem tax is false. We present some interesting properties of Leontiefs system, and also provide a theorem on Metzler's matrix, proving it and deriving some useful properties on the inverse matrix of the input-output model

Journal Article Effects of Changes in the Discount Rate on the Foreign Exchange Value of the Dollar: 1973 to 1978 Get access Kathleen Hope Brown Kathleen Hope Brown Division of International Finance, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 96, Issue 3, August 1981, Pages 551–558, https://doi.org/10.2307/1882687 Published: 01 August 1981