Southern Economic Journal back issues from January 2006:
Marginal deterrence and multiple murders.
Jan 01, 2006; ... ********** One must calculate a penalty in terms not of the crime, but of its possible repetition. One must take into account not the past offence, but the future disorder. Things must be so arranged that the malefactor can have neither any desire to repeat his offence, nor any ...
Exchange rate sensitivity of U.S. trade flows: evidence from industry data.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction In an effort to boost employment, a country could stimulate its exports and discourage its imports and thereby improve its trade balance. One policy that has received a great deal of attention in the literature is currency devaluation. By making exports cheaper ...
Pension plan choice among university faculty.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction There has been a large amount of economic research concerning the effects of pension plans on both a worker's mobility and retirement timing. (1) Defined benefit plans tend to be less portable but limit the financial market risk faced by the employee. Defined ...
Finance and income inequality: What do the data tell us?
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Recent studies have shown that financial sector development boosts economic growth (Levine 1997b). (1) But many people worry that financial development benefits only the rich and powerful. Because financial markets are fraught with adverse selection and moral ...
Can consumer confidence forecast household spending? Evidence from the European Commission Business and Consumer Surveys.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction The analysis of the impact of consumer attitudes on consumer spending has been an area of sustained interest in the macroeconomics literature. This interest in consumer attitudes reflects a popular belief that macroeconomic outcomes depend heavily on consumers' ...
Export promotion through exchange rate changes: exchange rate depreciation or stabilization?
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Exchange rate movements affect exports in two ways--rate depreciation and rate volatility (risk). The two effects have received considerable attention since the collapse of fixed exchange rates in the early 1970s. But, no research considers the net (total) effect ...
A global analysis of constrained behavior: the LeChatelier principle "in the large".
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Samuelson (1947) first introduced the LeChatelier principle in economics. The principle has its simplest interpretation in the theory of the firm. It states that output supply or variable input demand functions are more price elastic in the long run (where all ...
Games in fuzzy environments.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction In a recent issue of this journal, an interesting paper by West and Linster (2003) used fuzzy rules to show that Nash equilibrium behavior can be achieved by boundedly rational agents in two-player games with infinite strategy spaces. These rules are based on the ...
Some evidence on the relationship between performance-related pay and the shape of the experience-earnings profile.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction and Background In this paper we explore the shape of the experience-earnings profile for individuals employed under different types of contracts: fixed-wage, performance-related pay (PRP), and self-employment contracts. We follow Lazear (1979, 1981) and Lazear ...
Rational beliefs or distorted beliefs: the equity premium puzzle and micro survey data.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Since Shiller (1982) and Mehra and Prescott (1985) questioned why the gap between the rates of returns from stocks and bonds is so large, the equity premium puzzle has attracted the attention of many economists. The numerous explanations for the puzzle that have ...
Alcohol prices, consumption, and traffic fatalities.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Traffic fatalities are a leading cause of premature death, particularly among people under 35 years of age. (1) Alcohol is involved in about 40% of all traffic fatalities, and hence alcohol policies have the potential to significantly reduce fatality rates. (2) ...
Labor market implications of weak ties.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Many of us have heard the phrase "it's not what you know but who you know." While this may not be strictly true, approximately one half of workers in the United States do find employment through friends, relatives, and other social contacts (Granovetter 1995) ....
Defining poverty lines as a fraction of central tendency.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction For many years the relative notions of poverty have been important. These notions account for the evolution of perceptions of basic needs evolving in society (Sen 1983; Foster 1998). Being poor among a population of poor people can be considered very differently ...
Testing monetary policy intentions in open economies.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction This article examines the relationship between economic openness and inflation performance. Among the most prominent research on this topic is the work by Romer (1993). He demonstrates a negative relationship between economic openness and the inflation level. His ...
The influence of teaching on research in economics.
Jan 01, 2006; ... 1. Introduction Can you think of an instance in which your teaching enhanced your research? We have had several such experiences and wondered if it was a common phenomenon among scholars in economics. To find out, we conducted a survey, asking several prominent (and several ...
Does teaching enhance research in economics? A few more thoughts.
Jan 01, 2006; ... William Becker and Peter Kennedy have assembled a series of entertaining anecdotes about ways teaching has complemented the research of successful scholars. The examples are numerous, varied, and interesting. There is no doubt that the research productivity of many serious scholars has ...