Robert B. Ekelund, Jr., William F. Kordsmeier; J. S. Mill, Unions, and the Wages Fund Recantation: A Reinterpretation—Comment, The Quarterly Journal of Economic

THE large increase in the labor force participation of women during recent times has been accompanied by a less-noted but also important change in their employment picture-the growth of part-week work.' While the participation rate of women was increasing from 37% in 1957 to 49% in 1977, the percentage of female employment in part-week jobs was rising from 20% to 27% (U.S. Office of the President, 1970, 1978).2 Economists have linked these changes to both the secular rise of the unemployment rate in the United States and the differential between female and male unemployment (Friedman, 1977; Niemi, 1974; Perry, 1970). For example, Friedman states

The choice of capital durability is affected by the rate of inflation because nominal depreciation deductions are based on historical cost rather than replacement cost. This paper analyzes a model with competitive firms and demonstrates that an increase in the rate of inflation will lead to an increase in the durability of capital, if the ratio of the nominal discount rate to the rate of depreciation exceeds a critical value. However, if this ratio is less than the crucial value, this effect is reversed. The effect of costs of adjustments on the crucial value is analyzed.

The choice of capital durability is affected by the rate of inflation because nominal depreciation deductions are based on historical cost rather than replacement cost. This paper analyzes a model with competitive firms and demonstrates that an increase in the rate of inflation will lead to an increase in the durability of capital, if the ratio of the nominal discount rate to the rate of depreciation exceeds a critical value. However, if this ratio is less than the crucial value, this effect is reversed. The effect of costs of adjustments on the crucial value is analyzed.

This paper asks whether the continued accumulation, or mild dissaving, observed among the retired can be explained by uncertain lifetime. In the absence of annuities, after an initial period influenced by borrowing constraints, under constant relative risk aversion, uncertain lifetime depresses consumption by a proportion increasing with age if the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption is "small." Illustrative computations, based on actual income and survival data, show that plausible elasticities are sufficiently small to give this effect. The reduction in consumption is large enough to explain much of the lack of decumulation by the elderly.

Under certain reasonable conditions for a growth model, the path of adjustment between steady states generated by a change in an exogenous policy variable is solved for explicitly. The overall welfare effect is then shown to be a weighted average of the short- and long-run effects for a large class of social welfare functions. These results are applied to a simple neoclassical growth model for the purpose of investigating the dynamic incidence of a labor income tax. Contrary to the claims of previous investigators, the long-run effect is shown to be more important for a wide range of parameter values.

Jean-Pierre Danthine, John B. Donaldson; Certainty Planning in an Uncertain World: A Reconsideration, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 48, Issue 3, 1