Knowledge that Transforms

John A. Bishop, John P. Formby, Paul D. Thistle, Convergence and Divergence of Regional Income Distributions and Welfare, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 76, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 228-235

This paper analyzes the technical efficiency of group home care for the developmentally disabled in the Detroit metropolitan area. Linear programming methods are used to construct a production frontier that allows measurement of relative technical efficiency among homes in the sample. A sensitivity analysis is performed to identify influential observations in the data that might result from measurement error that could distort the efficiency measures. A regression analysis is undertaken to examine the effect of various factors on measured efficiency. Policy implications are discussed in the concluding section. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.

Janez Prasnikar, Jan Svejnar, Dubravko Mihaljek, Vesna Prasnikar, Behavior of Participatory Firms in Yugoslavia: Lessons for Transforming Economies, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Nov., 1994), pp. 728-741

This paper describes a low variance simulator of the normal distribution function. The probability integral is evaluated exactly at an initial point specified with a factor analytic covariance structure, so that the integral can be derived using dimension reduction techniques. The line integral between the initial point and the desired point is evaluated using Plackett's identity. A Monte Carlo simulation of this line integral simulator (LIS) with the Geweke-Hajivassiliou-Keane (GHK) simulator demonstrates that for dimensions of ten or less, the LIS outperformed the GHK simulator, typically by an order of magnitude and in some cases by two orders of magnitude. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.

Thomas J. Prusa, James A. Schmitz, Jr., Can Companies Maintain their Initial Innovative Thrust? A Study of the PC Software Industry, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Aug., 1994), pp. 523-540

Keith R. Ihlanfeldt, Madelyn V. Young, Intrametropolitan Variation in Wage Rates: The Case of Atlanta Fast-Food Restaurant Workers, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Aug., 1994), pp. 425-433

Jyoti Khanna, Wallace E. Huffman, Todd Sandler, Agricultural Research Expenditures in the United States: A Public Goods Perspective, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 76, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 267-277

Abrtmcr-An important question in the study of aging concerns the rate at which people physically deteriorate with age.HOW much, for example.CB~ be physically expected of, say, a healthy, non-injured 75.year-old man or woman relative to what be or she could do at ape 4% This paper applies econometric techniques to data on men's track and field and road racing remrds by age to estimate the rate at which men sknv down with asc.Eight track.eight field.and eleven road racing events me considered.The main econometric technique usad is a combination of the polytwmial-spline method and the frontier-function method.A number of the evetttr have been pooled to provide more et%cient estimates.1.

Antitrust regime shifts represented by the 1933 adoption and 1935 annulment of the National Industrial Recovery Act are postulated to have effects analogous to temporary achievement of Bradburd and Over's 'integrative concentration level' (Bradburd and Over, 1982); a level at which cartel formation and maintenance costs are outweighed by collusive spoils. 'Regime switching' analysis of Census of Manufactures data reveals a 'critical concentration level' of 60 percent in 1933, which disappears in 1935, and reemerges at 38 percent in 1937. The empirical results support the Bradburd and Over framework and suggest that temporary shifts in antitrust regimes may have lasting impacts on the ability of an industry to exercise market power. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.

The effects of unemployment and inflation on quintile shares of family income in the United States are estimated by means of generalized least squares. Inflation is found to have a significant progressive impact on the distribution of income. The results also lend support to earlier findings regarding the regressive effects of unemployment. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.