R. G. Vickson, M. Altmann, On the Relative Effectiveness of Stochastic Dominance Rules: Extension to Decreasingly Risk-Averse Utility Functions, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Mar., 1977), pp. 73-84

A. Haurie, N. M. Hung; Turnpike Properties for the Optimal Use of a Natural Resource, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 44, Issue 2, 1 June 1977, Pages 329

This paper presents the results of a behavioral experiment which examined two proposals about middle-management decision-making behavior that are incorporated implicitly into Anthony's description of the management control process [Anthony, 1965]. The first of these proposals is concerned with how middle-level managers are motivated and predicts that their management control decisions are influenced strongly by the organizational goals emphasized by their senior managers. The second proposal involves how well middle-level managers can use multiple criteria to make decisions and involves the proposition that they accurately can incorporate a specified importance of organizational goals into their management control decisions. The results of the experiment suggests that Anthony's conceptual framework may be appropriately applied in nonprofit, public sector organizations such as the large military organization where the experiment was performed.

Macro-case analysis entails the aggregate analysis of factors present in court decisions rendered in a tax area over a chosen time period. It can often provide useful information which can not be gleaned from the common approach of individual case comparison. An example demonstrates the types of information which can be generated. Macro-case analysis reduces uncertainty in problem resolution, choice of litigation avenue, and estimation of litigation success. It can also assist tax law evaluation and provide a basis for models measuring the actual weights given various factors in judicial decisions.

The article comments on the work of accountant, E.V. Mclntyre's titled, A Note on the Joint Variance, in the January 1976 issue of the periodical "The Accounting Review," raises a number of questions regarding the nature of the three variance approach which generates the joint variance and whether the three-variance method should be taught at all. Two points should be considered. The first is whether the joint variance meaningful concept in relation to principles of managerial control. The second point is whether the understanding of the nature of the variance is enhanced by the model espoused by McIntyre or if the simple elegance of the area model superior. The author provides an opposing viewpoint and shows that, a different interpretation of the joint variance can be obtained if one accepts assumptions associated with the two-variance model. He shows that a number of managerial considerations are important in evaluating a particular model. Among these considerations are factors such as principles of managerial control, the separation of organizational functions and the operational implementation of the model.

Presents a reply to criticisms on an article about the need for priori research in accounting. Analogy between a move from a pure priorism to empiricism; Evidence that accounting literature is replete with evaluations of the alternative systems.

The problem of bond portfolio selection may be viewed as consisting of two parts. The first is concerned with the maturity profile of the total cash flows (the after-tax coupons and principal repayments) which the investor requires; in general there will be many portfolios of bonds which provide the desired cash flow profile. Accordingly, the second problem is the choice of a particular portfolio of bonds which provides these cash flows in some optimal fashion. If bonds are default free, future taxes are known, and differences in marketability and callability among issues can be ignored, then price is the only relevant criterion in choosing among alternative portfolios. This paper describes a simple linear programming model for this last problem of selecting the portfolio which provides a given pattern of cash flows at minimum cost. This provides a method for improving any initial portfolio, where such improvement is possible, by increasing its yield without reducing any future after-tax cash flows.

SHORELINE development is a growing public policy issue in many urban areas. While there is some published research on a related topic, the importance of ambient water quality, economists have not yet turned their attention to the economic significance of the existence and width of the undeveloped apron offering public use and access to bodies of water in urban areas. There are several important issues to be considered here. May we expect the urban land market to provide a solution which is Pareto efficient? Have public agencies through zoning and other building restrictions acted in a socially optimal way? What contribution can studies of the determinants of property values make to our understanding of these issues? We begin an exploration of these issues and present some empirical results that enhance our knowledge of the economics of water-related open space. More generally. this paper extends recent economic work that has produced quantitative measures of value for phenomena hitherto restricted to qualitative expression. The process of transforming qualitative into quantitative knowledge, so essential to an empirical science as to be one of its distinguishing features, is well illustrated by the work of Cobb and Douglas on production (1928); Griliches (1961) on the qualitative characteristics of automobiles; and Fogel and Engerinan's (1974) controversial piece on slavery.' With respect to hotusing, implicit prices of each attribute contained in the bundle of housing services have been estimated by hedonic price regressions in the spirit of the work by Lancaster (1971) and others.2 In the following sections we first examine the choice of housing attributes, including waterrelated open space and proximity to bodies of water, faced by a household in a metropolitan area. Next, the process of implicit price formation is examined, and, employing data on individual dwelling units in a metropolitan area with numerous bodies of water, these implicit prices are estimated. We then turn to the question of what can and cannot be inferred from these results about the demand for open space and the welfare gains or losses resulting from possible changes in the amount of water-related open space.

A decade has passed since the passage of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. Current federal expenditures for compensatory education under that act now exceed $1.5 billion annually. Those expenditures are largely focused on children in the elementary grades, in particular, kindergarten through grade three.' A major objective of compensatory education programs can be viewed as reducing poverty by increasing the human capital stocks of students at the end of their school-lives (i.e., the terminal human capital stock). Proponents of early childhood intervention programs expect terminal human capital stocks to be higher when limited resources are reallocated from later to earlier grade levels. However, empirical research has by and large failed to fulfill this expectation. Evaluations of early childhood intervention programs like Headstart have generally produced inconclusive results (Cicirelli, 1969; Bronfenbrenner, 1974; Ryan, 1974).2 There are several possible explanations for this finding, but the one explored in this research is low marginal productivity, with respect to the stock of terminal capital, of school inputs received in the early grades. While the conventional belief among psychologists and educators has been that this productivity is high (Hunt, 1961; Bloom, 1964), others have argued that the marginal product of school inputs in producing terminal capital is higher in the adolescent years than the early childhood years (Rohwer, 1971). If the latter view is correct, compensatory education programs should maximize terminal capital by increasing school resources in the secondary grades, not the early elementary grades. The purpose of this article is to estimate the productivity of school inputs over time for both and children. The estimates obtained will have implications for the optimal allocation of limited school resources over the school-life.3 In the case of disadvantaged children, the estimates provide one possible explanation for the presumed failure of compensatory, early childhood education programs. In the case of advantaged children, the results offer one prediction of the success of non-compensatory, early childhood education, which is receiving increasing political support these days. The model of human capital accumulation is derived and described in the next section, followed by a discussion of the data and sample used in the estimation of the model. Subsequently, the estimated results are presented, and the policy implications of the results are explored.