Knowledge that Transforms

Paul R. Blackley, Larry DeBoer, Measuring Basic Wants for State and Local Public Goods: A Preference Independence Transformation Approach, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Aug., 1987), pp. 418-425

Leslie G. Godfrey, Discriminating Between Autocorrelation and Misspecification in Regression Analysis: An Alternative Test Strategy, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Feb., 1987), pp. 128-134

Abstract-Leisure-inclusive welfare indices, such as the real wage index, have been previously investigated only with aggregate data. Using micro data, however, these indices show the effects of increasing labor market employment of household members. Real wage, expenditure, and nonlabor income indices are compared across six types of husband/wife households. These indices are also compared to ad hoc real wage and leisure-exclusive index measures. Doubt is cast on past results based upon aggregate data. I.

The asymmetric information characterizing markets for professional services has been used to justify tying requirements and other restrictions on the business practices of professionals. In this paper the prices and quality effects of state restrictions that prohibit the fitting of contact lenses by independent opticians and thereby tie the sale of contact lenses to the services of ophthalmologists and optometrists are estimated. The results suggest that prices are significantly higher in markets with tying requirements, controlling for differences in quality and variations in other state commercial practice restrictions. The tying requirements and the commercial practice restrictions, however, appear to have statistically insignificant effects on quality.

William J. Moore, John Raisian, Union-Nonunion Wage Differentials in the Public Administration, Educational, and Private Sectors: 1970-1983, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Nov., 1987), pp. 608-616

Robert A. Margo, Accounting for Racial Differences in School Attendance in the American South, 1900: The Role of Separate-but-Equal, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Nov., 1987), pp. 661-666

Varouj A. Aivazian, Jeffrey L. Callen, M. W. Luke Chan, Dean C. Mountain, Economies of Scale Versus Technological Change in the Natural Gas Transmission Industry, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Aug., 1987), pp. 556-561

This paper provides empirical evidence on the relative impact of the generalized system of preferences, adopted in 1975, and the Caribbean Basin Initiative, adopted in 1983, on the pattern of U.S. imports of manufactured goods from the target areas at the four-digit level in 1984. Imports from Brazil, Mexico, South America, the Caribbean Basin, and all eligible countries are each analyzed. The author provides evidence that existing preferential agreements have failed to offset the bias in U.S. protection against competitive exports from developing countries and explains why one might have predicted such an outcome. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.