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Nonprofit and Proprietary Sector Behavior: Wage Differentials among Lawyers

Journal of Labor Economics 1983 1(3), 246-263
This paper focuses on earnings differentials in the for-profit and private nonprofit sectors, with specific reference to lawyers. An earnings equation for private lawyers is estimated and is used to predict what the nonprofit sector "public interest" lawyers could earn in the private sector. The finding is that the public interest lawyers are paid substantially less, that they know this, and that the financial sacrifice is permanent. Next, a job choice equation is estimated which suggests that those lawyers who choose public interest work have different "preferences" from those who choose private law practices. The difference may help to account for the willingness of the public interest lawyers to accept lower monetary rewards. Further research is needed to determine whether the differences found for lawyers in the two sectors are also found in other industries, and whether such differences are found only at the level of management or at lower levels. The goal is improved understanding of behavioral differences between for-profit and nonprofit firms.

Collective-Consumption Services of Individual-Consumption Goods

Quarterly Journal of Economics 1964 78(3), 471
Certain commodities of a pure individual-consumption variety also possess characteristics of a pure collective-consumption good, 471. — In certain cases when individual-consumption goods cannot be provided profitably by private enterprise, it may serve the social welfare to subsidize their production, 474. — Conclusion, 476.

The Joint Economic Committee's "Economic Policy Questionaire"

The Review of Economics and Statistics 1960 42(3), 334 open access
In September I958, the Subcommittee on Stabilization of the Joint Committeeof the U.S. Congress distributed an Economic Policy Questionnaire among some I500 college and university economists. The replies on the 65 questionnaires which were returned have been tabulated and appear in a report which has recently become available. It is the purpose of this note to discuss some of the significant aspects of the questionnaire.

Exchange Rate Adjustment and Relative Size of the Depreciating Bloc: A Comment

The Review of Economics and Statistics 1956 38(3), 323 open access
In his article, Exchange Rate Adjustment and Relative Size of the Depreciating Bloc, Professor Orcutt set out to attack the notion that by a large bloc versus the rest of the world generally would be substantially less effective than depreciation by a small country versus the rest of the world. Indeed, he goes so far as to conclude that for the case of actual large blocs, such as the dollar bloc or the sterling bloc, application of the model developed in this paper would seem to indicate that effectiveness of depreciation would be substantially greater than in the case of the small country versus the rest of the world. This conclusion merits evaluation.

Comparing Utility Functions in Efficiency Terms: Reply

American Economic Review 2016
If utility functions can be compared in efficiency terms, as I argued is sometimes the case (see my earlier paper), it follows that there is a new research area for economists to explore. To be sure, no analytic perspective, no matter how useful it may be, is without problems. For example, as Dana Stevens and James Foster have correctly pointed out, the possibility (though not the certainty) of cyclic ranking of utility functions exists if more than two types are compared. Their comment is, I believe, intended not as criticism of the utility function comparability perspective but as a call for more research; for example, on the efficiency properties of various types of utility functions, and on the responsiveness of attainable commodity sets to changes in preferences. The point is that there do exist researchable questions that are suggested as soon as we recognize the possibility of subjecting utility functions to analysis within a Paretian framework. Conventionally such questions have not been asked, partly because they were regarded as equity matters on which economists had little to say normatively, and partly because the factors shaping utility functions have been regarded as lying outside the domain of economics. It certainly is premature to say that we now know enough to conclude that on efficiency grounds alone, resources shouldor should not -be devoted to shaping utility functions. Yet to entertain even the possibility that one type of utility function can be preferred to another, and that changing such a function may be efficient, is to reach out in a bold new direction. Important conceptual issues as well as vital public policy questions are at stake.

Earnings Profile: Ability and Schooling: Comment

Journal of Political Economy 1972 80(3, Part 2), S139-S141 open access
John Hause's paper is addressed to the perplexing matters of how to disentangle the effects of and schooling on worker earnings, and of the effect of on earnings over a worker's lifetime.' His emphasis oil ability and schooling as determinants of earnings is surely not intended to deny that other variables also affect earnings or to deny that these other variables may also interact with and schooling level-but he barely touches on other variables or the possibility of interactions.

Costs and Benefits of Medical Research: A Case Study of Poliomyelitis

Journal of Political Economy 1971 79(3), 527-544 open access
The paper provides estimates of (1) research expenditures on poliomyelitis, (2) several forms of productivity benefits from applying the knowledge generated by the research, and (3) the costs of applying that knowledge. Internal rates of return are computed under a variety of assumptions, with results generally between 4 and 14 percent. The interrelatedness of research with procedures for applying the research findings is investigated; in the case of polio, the rate of return on research is found to be heavily influenced by the costs of application. Finally, a discussion is included of the likely allocative efficiency of private-market behavior when a collective-consumption good, such as research knowledge, requires the use of an individual-consumption good, such as a vaccination, for its application.