Political Economy Commons^™

Constitutional Design And Law: The Political Economy Of Cabinet And Congressional Government, Matthew S. R. Palmer

The Hon Justice Matthew Palmer

The dissertation takes a political economy approach to constitutional design and legislation in the Westminster (Cabinet) and US (Congressional) models of government. Part I develops the economics of comparative political organization by constructing a theoretical framework for analyzing constitutional design. Part II applies the framework to distinguish the essences of the Cabinet and Congressional systems of constitutional design in the contexts of US and Canadian federal government. Part III analyzes the effects of the different constitutional designs on the processes of legislating in each system and on the substantive characteristics of legislation in each system. The analysis is subjected to ...

Introducing: The Survey Of Professional Forecasters, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

Forecasts play a crucial role in the economy. Businesses won't hire workers as readily if they think the economy may go into a recession soon. Long-term interest rates will rise if people in the financial markets expect inflation to increase. And firms are less likely to borrow money for new investment spending today if they think interest rates will soon decline.

Forecasts are important for many decisions, but not many people have the knowledge and experience to forecast economic variables well. It makes sense, therefore, for people to rely on the forecasts of experts. One easy way to get ...

Indirect Transfers In Trade Among Former Soviet Union Republics: Sources, Patterns, And Policy Responses In The Post-Soviet Period, Lucjan Orlowski

WCBT Faculty Publications

Reports on indirect transfers in trade among the former Soviet Union Republics. The Former Soviet Union (FSU) was composed of 15 republics which were very unevenly endowed with human, physical and natural resources. To contain regional imbalances within the Union and to integrate all republics into a tight and centrally commanded division of labour, the central government operated a scheme of vertical fiscal redistribution between the Union budget and the republican budgets. Through this system poorer republics became net receivers of direct transfers and richer republics became net donors. This scheme, which collapsed with the dissolution of the Union in ...

The Decentralization Of Collective Bargaining: A Literature Review And Comparative Analysis, Harry C. Katz

Faculty Publications - Labor Relations, Law, and History

"The author reviews evidence that the bargaining structure is becoming more decentralized in Sweden, Australia, the former West Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although In somewhat different degrees and ways from country to country. He then examines the various hypotheses that have been offered to explain the significant trend Shifts In bargaining power, as well as the diversification of corporate and worker Interests, have played a part in this change, he concludes, but work reorganization has been more influential still. He also explores how the roles of central unions and corporate industrial relations staffs are challenged ...

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a ...

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that ...

Speed Variance, Enforcement, And The Optimal Speed Limit, Philip E. Graves, Dwight Lee, Robert L. Sexton

PHILIP E GRAVES

A model of the optimal speed limit is developed which explicitly recognizes the roles of average speed, speed variance, and the level of enforcement. An unusual result emerges, namely that a higher speed limit may be optimal when reducing the variance in highway speeds reduces accident externalities.

A Methodology For Determining The Local Impacts Of Defense Spending, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report was meant to determine what the economic impact of Department of Defense cutbacks would have been on local communities in Western Massachusetts. This project provided a methodology to determine what these local impacts were. The plan was to have policy makers use this data to create strategies which may ease the effects of defense spending cutbacks on their communities.

Can One Unscramble An Omlet? China's Economic Reform In Theory And Practice, Yuan-Li Wu, Richard Y.C. Yin

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

1993 American Incentive System Almanac, Don P. Diffine Ph.D.

Belden Center Monographs

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Competitive Advantage For Holyoke Massachusetts, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report was made to provide an overview of how Holyoke, Massachusetts compared to the other fifteen towns and cities in Western Massachusetts. A snapshot matrix was developed that compared Holyoke with each of the towns in one matrix. In the snapshot matrix a standard hypothetical comparison was developed and used to compare the towns in each of the separate categories.

A Comparative Analysis Fire, Police, And Public Works Departments Pelham, Massachusetts, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

In an ongoing effort to evaluate the effectiveness of its operations, the Town of Pelham engaged the services of the Center for Economic Development (CED) at the University of Massachusetts to examine the Highway (DPW), Police and Fire departments.

To that end, CED produced a detailed matrix comparing Pelham's three departments with those of three other communities; contacted professional and government organizations for potentially useful trends and researched additional information requested by the town. Herewith are the results of these efforts.

It was agreed that a comparative analysis of an extensive list of descriptive characteristics between Pelham's and ...

Jean Ensminger. Making A Market: The Institutional Transformation Of An African Society (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

The publication of Making a Market marks yet another excellent contribution to the field from the Cambridge Series on Political Economy. Similar to the other volumes in the series, it emphasizes the interaction of political structures and institutions with economic change. Yet whereas most of the previous volumes in the series have been written by political scientists or economists, this book stands out as unique in that it is written from an anthropological perspective. Unusual as this is, the book gives an extremely sophisticated and readable application of the new institutional economics to the developing world.

Robert H. Bates And Anne O. Kruger (Eds.). Political And Economic Interactions In Economic Policy Reform (Book Review), Sandra F. Joireman, Winston Wells

Political Science Faculty Publications

This volume is a welcome attempt to combine extremely disparate regional literature on structural adjustment programs. The empirical research for the book was conducted in such a way as to generate truly economic hypotheses and conclusions. Bates and Krueger commissioned eight teams of researchers; each composed of at least one political scientist and an economist. The teams' initial agenda was to unravel the puzzle of why good economics means bad politics in relation to these structural adjustment programs. To meet that end, the teams were asked to investigate three phases surrounding the adjustment programs: Informed by current theories of interest ...

Rigging The Lobbying Process: An Application Of The All-Pay Auction, Michael R. Baye, Dan Kovenock, Casper G. De Vries

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In a world where a politician can explicitly auction off a prize to the high bidder, the standard auction literature can be used to analyse political behavior. The justice system, however, precludes politicians from explicitly selling the prize to the highest bidder. Thus politicians cannot let it become public knowledge that they are in the business of selling political favors. An institution has emerged in political markets to overcome this constraint which are termed as lobbying. Lobbyists make implicit payments to the politician through campaign contributions. If these up-front payments were rebated to those failing to receive the prize, it ...

Labor Law Successorship: A Corporate Law Approach, Edward B. Rock, Michael L. Wachter

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

No abstract provided.

Speed Variance, Enforcement, And The Optimal Speed Limit, Philip E. Graves, Dwight Lee, Robert L. Sexton

Robert L Sexton

A model of the optimal speed limit is developed which explicitly recognizes the roles of average speed, speed variance, and the level of enforcement. An unusual result emerges, namely that a higher speed limit may be optimal when reducing the variance in highway speeds reduces accident externalities.