We model entry incentives in auctions with risk-neutral bidders and characterize a symmetric equilibrium in which the number of entrants is stochastic. The presence of too many potential bidders raises coordination costs that detract from welfare. We show that the seller and society can benefit from policies that reduce market thickness (i.e., the relative abundance of buyers). Our analysis extends well-known revenue-equivalence and ranking theorems but also demonstrates that variations in the auction environment affect optimal policies (e.g., reservation prices) in ways not anticipated by models that ignore entry.

Thirty years ago, Gary Becker in his now classic work, Economics of Discrimination, sparked renewed interest in an economic analysis of racial income disparities. The volumes of research papers that built on Becker's contribution over the last three decades added a great deal to what we know about the reasons for the wide income differences between the races. One reason was the emergence of several large scale micro data sets of which the 1960 census was the first. Today, analysis is based not only on the 1980 census file but also on several longitudinal data sets best represented by the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Parnes National Longitudinal Surveys. Ironically, it is the release of micro data files from two pre-Becker data sets that appears to offer the greatest potential for answering the important questions that remain. In this paper, we use these two data sets-the 1940 and 1950 census files-in combination with the three subsequent census files to describe long-run trends in black poverty. We begin by describing purely labor market developments, but supplement that depiction with a broader look at events that impacted on the black family. The paper concludes with an examination of the downside of black economic progress-the increasing disengagement of many black men from the labor market.

In this paper we investigate the reasons for the growth in the female labor force in America during the twentieth century. In our research, we study the longer-term trends since 1900 and conduct a more intensive examination of developments after the Second World War. On the basis of our work, we conclude that rising real wages accounted for 60% of the total growth in the female labor force. Half of this wage effect in expanding labor supply was the fertility-reducing consequence of a higher female wage.

Abstract Reviews the book "Cost Accounting," by James A. Cashin and Ralph S. Polimeni.

Abstract The article focuses on readability as a measure of the performance of the communication function of financial reporting. Financial reports are prepared for a specific purpose. The premise adopted in this article is that the function of financial reporting is to communicate selected financial information. If this communication function is not performed, then financial reporting is nonutilitarian. Communication has been long recognized as a function of financial reporting. Communication occurs in financial reporting only if the meanings intended by the information source are assigned to the financial statement messages by the destination. Proper meaning assignment necessitates that the information source encode and transmit the selected messages such that the destination is capable of assigning the intended meanings. Ideally, the information source should be able to objectively measure the degree to which the intended meanings will be assigned to the selected financial statement messages. No such objective measure exists that can be applied to the entire financial statements. However, an objective measure does exist that can be applied to the footnotes to the financial statements. This measure is termed readability.

A probabilistic discovery model modified after Kaufman's earlier model is simplified to reduce computational demands and to reduce the sensitivity of the resulting estimates. The model is applied to the North Sea to estimate remaining oil reserves and forecast future discoveries. The simplification jeopardizes some informational detail, but the errors and approximations inherent in historical data sometimes overvalue the available information. A broader categorization scheme helps to control errors in this case. The model uses a stochastic production function based on a timing relationship between exploratory efforts and reservoir discovery and on a dynamic relationship of productivity and resource depletion. 21 references, 4 tables. (DCK)