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The area in which the single European market of 1992 will have the greatest effect is international trade. The reduction of trade barriers may reduce the prices of both imports within the European Community and extra-EC imports at the expense of domestic sales. Increased competition, in the form of either greater competition within EC-member states or greater competition from non-EC members, needs to supplement the reduction in trade barriers. Countries should not be allowed to petition reductions in EC imports unless policies are discriminatory.

A paper on the impact of the health status of infants on subsequent income inequality and socioeconomic conditions during their lives is presented. Economics research indicating that birth weight is affected by a wide range of factors including environmental conditions, health behavior of mothers and nutrition during pregnancy is considered. Research finding a strong correlation between birth weight and future lifetime earnings is discussed.

This article presents the author's view on George Stigler's paper debunking the effects of economic conditions on electoral results in the United States. I view Stigler's paper as a healthy antidote to conventional wisdom and a refreshing contrast to the frequent practice of computer-users of running regressions until they find something significant. Nonetheless, I believe there is more to the relation between voting behavior and general economic conditions than meets the jaundiced eye, and I am particularly concerned that Stigler's criticisms should be correctly interpreted as dropping the gauntlet--and not a wet blanket--on research in this area. I do not share his negative presumptions about the satisficing model in general or its applicability to voting behavior in particular. To use his example of a 3 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, it tells us far more than the extra number of people unemployed at a moment of time. It also means that an extra 12 percent of all adult male workers will have experienced some costly spell of unemployment within the preceding year. Without a reliable theoretical guide, the specification of favorable economic conditions becomes a matter of hunch and taste. In the final section of his paper, Stigler sets forth as an alternative a long-memory model of how macroeconomic performance might influence voters. Unlike the Kramer satisficing voter who sees the two parties only as ins and outs, the Stigler long-memory voter has a definite perception of Republicans and Democrats.

This article focuses on papers discussed at the round table meeting on "the teaching of elementary economics" on December 30, 1949, at New York. Since the movement toward a general course in the social sciences seems to one essential it would be useful at this stage to collate the experiences of the hundred institutions now engaged in offering such a course. Fortunately both the American Economic Association and the American Political Science Association are engaged in a survey of this field by questionnaire and interviews. It is already clear, however, that the general course can be expected to follow no set formula. Its content and emphasis will vary from college to college with the abilities, interests, and philosophies of the staff members, and with the financial resources of the institution. One do not consider such diversity unfortunate. It is fragmentation and compartmentalization which are making the teaching of the social sciences increasingly ineffective in the light of social integration today. The closest integration will continue to recognize the infinite diversity contained in the fundamental unity of society.

The article presents information about the program of the American Economic Association Meeting. In programs of the annual meetings of the American Economic Association for the five years 1950-54, persons from the economics departments of fifteen academic institutions delivered 114 out of a total of 210 papers, or 54.3 percent. When papers delivered by people outside the academic field are excluded it is found that of 156 papers originating in colleges and universities these fifteen institutions were responsible for 73.1 percent. Only a few organizations outside the academic field were able to reach the more than two papers category. There was a substantial amount of duplication by individuals from "big 15" universities. Sixteen persons delivered two or more papers, accounting for a total of 37 of 161 papers originating in colleges and universities. These sixteen scholars also served as discussants 6 times. Two of them delivered as many as four papers each in five years, full staffs of only eleven colleges and universities did as well or better.

This article presents information on the ninetieth annual meeting of the American Economic Association, held during December 27-30, 1977, in New York. Meetings will take place on different related topics to economics. Some of the topics that will be discussed are--economics of life and safety; the negative income tax and the role of social experimentation; pricing in public utilities; economics of education; and recent advances in theory and practice.

The 2012 report from the editor of the periodical "American Economic Journal: Applied Economics" is presented. It announces that co-editors Thomas Lemieux and Liran Einav have both ended their tenure as editors to pursue other interests. It provides statistics on articles received by the periodical on topics including economic history, law and economics, and international economics. It acknowledges the contributions of Managing Editor Michelle DeBlasi, as well as Editorial Assistants Olivia Sweeney and Kelly Andrews.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the papers in the journal concerning economics in the U.S. and answers questions and answers concerning topics chosen at the 124th annual meeting of the American Economic Association held in January 2012, standards for the papers, and the publication of comments.

Presents a preliminary announcement of the program of the Eighty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 26-29, 1971.

The credibility revolution in economics has promoted causal identification using randomized control trials (RCT), difference-in-differences (DID), instrumental variables (IV) and regression discontinuity design (RDD). Applying multiple approaches to over 21,000 hypothesis tests published in 25 leading economics journals, we find that the extent of p-hacking and publication bias varies greatly by method. IV (and to a lesser extent DID) are particularly problematic. We find no evidence that (i) papers published in the Top 5 journals are different to others; (ii) the journal "revise and resubmit" process mitigates the problem; (iii) things are improving through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of a lending channel of the transmission of monetary policy is illustrated through the use of a model that incorporates relative moments in commercial paper and bank loans. The model illustrates how policies affect the assets and liabilities of banks. The model shows that firms change their mix of external financing in response to tighter monetary policy and indicates that the supply of loans can be reduced as a result of contractionary policy.

The article discusses the launch of the "American Economic Journal: Applied Economics" (AEJ APPLIED), which is one of the four that was published by the American Economic Association in July 2007. AEJ APPLIED publishes papers covering topics in applied economics focusing on empirical microeconomic issues. Topics covered in the journal's first issue as well as topics in forthcoming issues are considered. AEJ APPLIED's editorial staff, editorial process, and publication and editorial statistics are discussed.

The transition from barter to fiat money is accounted through an equilibrium path. This is done through the intervention of a self-interested government which can credibly promise to limit the issuance of money. The government has to offset the benefits of seigniorage to gain credibility. This is done by internalizing the macroeconomic externalities due to the issuance of fiat money. The transition can be successful depending on the government's patience and involvement in the economy.

The article discusses the scholarly periodical "The American Economic Journal: Microeconomics" (AEJ Micro) as of 2014. According to the article, AEJ Micro was established in July 2007 by the organization the American Economic Association (AEA). The article discusses the editorial process and lists several members of the Editorial Board including scholars Kyle Bagwell, Darrell Duffie, and Michael Ostrovsky. It also presents statistics related to AEJ Micro.

The article discusses the scholarly periodical the "American Economic Journal: Applied Economics" (AEJ Applied) as of 2014. According to the article, the AEJ Applied was established by the organization the American Economic Association (AEA) in July 2007. The article discusses the editorial process overseen by editor Esther Duflo. It also lists members of the editorial board including scholars Joshua Angrist, Gordon Dahl, and David Card.

This article introduces a series of papers discussed at the 1982 annual meeting of the American Economic Association.

This article reassesses the links between aid, policy, and growth. In an influential paper, Craig Burnside and David Collar find that aid has a positive impact on growth in developing countries with good fiscal, monetary, and trade policies but has little effect in the presence of poor policies. This finding has enormous policy implications. The Burnside and Dollar (BD) result provides a role and strategy for foreign aid. If aid stimulates growth only in countries with good policies, this suggests that aid can promote economic growth, and it is crucial that foreign aid be distributed selectively to countries that have adopted sound policies. International aid agencies, public policy makers, and the press quickly recognized the importance of the BD findings. The BD data end in 1993. This article reconstructs the BD database from original sources and adds additional countries and observations to the BD data set because new information has become available since they conducted their analyses, and extends the data through 1997. Thus, using the BD methodology, it is reexamined whether aid influences growth in the presence of good policies. This paper conducts a simple robustness check by adding new data that were unavailable to BD.

We study the competitive forces which shaped ideological diversity in the US press in the early twentieth century. We find that households preferred like-minded news and that newspapers used their political orientation to differentiate from competitors. We formulate a model of newspaper demand, entry, and political affiliation choice in which newspapers compete for both readers and advertisers. We use a combination of estimation and calibration to identify the model's parameters from novel data on newspaper circulation, costs, and revenues. The estimated model implies that competition enhances ideological diversity, that the market undersupplies diversity, and that optimal competition policy requires accounting for the two-sidedness of the news market. (JEL D72, K21, L13, L41, L82, N42, N72) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the scholarly periodical the "American Economic Journal: Economic Policy" (AEJ Policy) as of 2014. According to the article, four issues of AEJ Policy were published in 2013. The article discusses the editorial process of AEJ Policy, the submission process, and the review process. According to the article, AEJ Policy's co-editors are scholars Mark Duggan and Dan Silverman. The article also presents statistics concerning the number of manuscripts submitted and published from 2007 to 2013.

The article discusses the scholarly periodical "American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics" (AEJ Macro) as of 2014. It discusses the editorial staff of the journal including co-editor Richard Rogerson and managing editor Michelle DeBlasi, and members of the Board of Editors including scholars Nick Bloom, Pierre Cahuc, and Tim Cogley. The article also examines the editorial process of the journal, and presents statistics concerning manuscript submissions and publication from 2007 to 2013.

This section answers several question about papers and proceedings of the annual meetings of the American Economic Association.

This article highlights the written reports presented by Robert Clower, managing editor of the American Economic Review, at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in December 1981. The year 1981 has seen some changes in editorial procedures. Outside editorial scanners are no longer used. Comments on already published papers are now sent to the original authors for their information and reaction before being submitted to independent review by members of the Board of Editors or other disinterested parties. Office processing controls have been designed to ensure that, except in most unusual circumstances, authors will have a final editorial decision within three months of the date their manuscript is received. The Review received 784 papers in 1981, 20 percent more than the average number processed during each of the preceding five years. The acceptance rate on manuscripts for which processing has been completed is well below the ratio of published-to-submitted papers. This does not reflect a permanent upward shift in acceptance standards; it is merely a consequence of current efforts to reduce the backlog of papers awaiting publication. The Board of Editors consists of 18 members, chosen by the managing editor, with the approval of the Executive Committee of the Association.

The article profiles Susan C. Athey, recipient of the 2007 John Bates Clark medal. As an applied theorist Athey has made significant contributions to several areas of economic thought. Her 2002 paper in the "Quarterly Journal of Economics" added to the body of knowledge about monotone information models. A 2001 paper she co-wrote with Jonathan Levin identified private information in timber auctions. In 2004, along with Kyle Bagwell and Chris Sanchirico, she authored a paper that described optimal collusive equilibrium among firms that repeatedly interact.

This paper reexamines the behavior of inflation and unemployment and reaches four conclusions: 1) The U.S. Phillips curve is alive and well (at least as well as in the past). 2) Inflation expectations however have become steadily more anchored. 3) The slope of the curve has substantially declined. But the decline dates back to the 1980s rather than to the crisis. 4) The standard error of the residual in the relation is large, especially in comparison to the low level of inflation. Each of the four conclusions presents challenges for the conduct of monetary policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, economists are drawing on concepts from outside economics--such as 'norms,' 'esteem,' and 'identity'--to model agents' social natures. A key reason for studying such social motivation is to shed light on the conditions that facilitate--or deter--collective action. It has been widely observed, for instance, that groups are more able to engage in collective action when they have a common, group identity. This paper gives one explanation for such a link. The paper develops a new concept, 'we thinking'; and it also provides a deeper understanding of the concepts of norms, identity, and esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a series of papers discussed at the 1982 annual meeting of the American Economic Association.

This paper analyzes the welfare costs of business cycles when workers face uninsurable job displacement risk. The paper uses a simple macroeconomic model with incomplete markets to show that cyclical variations in the long-term earnings losses of displaced workers can generate arbitrarily large cost of business cycles even if the variance of individual income changes is constant over the cycle. In addition to the theoretical analysis, this paper conducts a quantitative study of the cost of business cycles using empirical evidence on the long-term earnings losses of US workers. The quantitative analysis shows that realistic variations in job displacement risk generate sizable costs of business cycles, even though a second-moment analysis would suggest negligible costs. (JEL E21, E24, E32, J63) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses new confidential Census data to revisit the relationship between firm size, cyclicality, and financial frictions. First, we find that large firms (the top 1 percent by size) are less cyclically sensitive than the rest. Second, high and rising concentration implies that the higher cyclicality of the bottom 99 percent of firms only has a modest impact on aggregate fluctuations. Third, differences in cyclicality are not simply explained by financing, and in fact appear largely unrelated to proxies for financial strength. We instead provide evidence for an alternative mechanism based on the industry scope of the very largest firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate regarding trends in consumption inequality in the United States. We present a new measure of consumption inequality based on the redesigned 1999-2011 PSID. We impute consumption to the families observed before 1999 using the more comprehensive consumption data available from 1999 onward. One advantage of this procedure is in sample verification of the quality of the imputation procedure; another is that it yields a long time series (1967-2010). Consumption inequality was stable in the 1970s, as was income inequality. It increased significantly after 1980. The Great Recession was associated with a decline in consumption inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of new books related to economics and business. Some books related to general economics are "University Economics," by A.A. Alchian and W.R. Allen; "Positive Economics and Policy Objectives," by T.W. Hutchison and "The Age of Inflation," by J. Rueff. Some books related to price and allocation theory, income and employment theory, related empirical studies and history of economic thought are "The Growth of Television Ownership in the United Kingdom Since the War-A Lognormal model," by A.D. Bain; "External Economies in Production," by P. Bohm; "Economics Choice of Human and Physical Factors in Production," by G.K. Boon is an attempt to measure the micro-economic and macro-economic possibilities of variation in factor proportions of productions. "Economic Growth in a Free Market," by G.H. Borts and J.L. Stein; "Balanced Distribution," by G. Erickson; "The Life of John Maynard Keynes," by R.F. Harrod; "History of Economic Doctrines-An Introduction to Economic Theory," by E. Heimann and "Consumption Patterns in Israel," by N. Liviatan.

The article presents authors' comments on three different papers on industrial cost analysis by economists Lester G. Telser, Richard H. Holton, Frederick V. Waugh and Kenneth E. Ogren. The article says that Telser's paper is provocative, and his proposition that an inverse relationship exists between the intensity with which a firm advertises and the price elasticity of its product seems to accord with empirical observation. In addition to one's own illustrations, one may note that aggregate advertising tends to increase during periods of rising personal incomes, and vice versa. At the same time there are reasons for believing that price elasticities tend generally to decrease during such periods, and vice versa. It appears, therefore, that consumer advertising in the aggregate also conforms to Telser's thesis. The article adds that the paper by Waugh and Ogren and the paper by Holton are of an entirely different nature. Both papers utilize a static, equilibrium type of conceptual framework that derived historically from the classical theory of the stationary state. Within such a framework, analysis necessarily is made in terms of demand-supply relationships, with demand originating in the preferences and purchasing power of consumers and supply originating in production costs. In it, both demand and supply are regarded as given, and frictions tend to be regarded as interferences with pure competition.

The article presents discussions by economists on some papers that are published in the May 1, 1953 issue of the journal "American Economic Review." The author states that all papers in their concluding analysis focus upon long-term changes in economic life. This is reflected in their growing preoccupation with economic development. But beyond this new interest is the recent impact of sociology upon economics. Sociological theory, whether that stated in terms of values or the less subjectively oriented concepts of social organization and process, derives from broader cross-cultural comparisons. Economists have been forced to acknowledge that much of their analytical framework is of specific rather than generalized applicability and as a result they are virtually compelled to view problems of economic development and change as intertwined with other aspects of a social system. Economist Joseph J. Spengler relates sociological value theory to economics with his usual sound and broad perspective. The author disagrees with Spengler's main conclusions.

Leading empiricists and theorists of cities have recently argued that the generation and exchange of ideas must play a more central role in the analysis of cities. This paper develops the first system of cities model with costly idea exchange as the agglomeration force. The model replicates a broad set of established facts about the cross section of cities. It provides the first spatial equilibrium theory of why skill premia are higher in larger cities and how variation in these premia emerges from symmetric fundamentals. (JEL J24, J31, O31, R12, R23) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the Committee on Economic Education of the American Economic Association. The author comments on the organization of the Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education (CTREE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from May 27-29, 2015 by the committee. Several educational sessions related to economics created by the committee are detailed.

Private markets are becoming an increasingly important way of financing rapidly growing and mature firms, and private investors are reputed to have far-reaching economic impacts. These important markets, however, are uniquely difficult to study. This paper explores these challenges, as well as the ways they can be overcome, using the experiences of the Private Capital Research Institute as a case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity economics provides a framework to analyze economic outcomes by establishing people's identities--not just pecuniary incentives--as primary motivations for choice. The heart of the framework is social difference and norms. This paper engages the emerging economic research into sources of divisions and norms: individuals, families, schools, governments, and social movements. The task at hand is to further to develop the micro-foundations of identity, in order to build a socially framed understandings of human motivation that will yield more robust accounts of behavior and institutions and yet better predictions of the implications of policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising student loan default rates and protests over debt suggest that many students make college enrollment and financing choices they regret. Policymakers have considered tying the availability of federally subsidized loans at degree programs to financial outcomes for past students. This paper considers the implementation of such a policy in Chile. We describe how loan repayment varied by degree type at baseline, the design of the loan reform, and how earnings-based loan caps change availability of loans and incentives for students and higher education institutions. We discuss the challenges facing policymakers seeking to link loan availability to earnings outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the extent of financial contagion exhibits a form of phase transition: as long as the magnitude of negative shocks affecting financial institutions are sufficiently small, a more densely connected financial network (corresponding to a more diversified pattern of interbank liabilities) enhances financial stability. However, beyond a certain point, dense interconnections serve as a mechanism for the propagation of shocks, leading to a more fragile financial system. Our results thus highlight that the same factors that contribute to resilience under certain conditions may function as significant sources of systemic risk under others. (JEL D85, E44, G21, G28, L14) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mazzocco and Saini (2012) propose and implement a test of efficient risk sharing that allows for preference heterogeneity. They motivate their approach as yielding different results from those of a standard efficiency test with homogeneous preferences. We show that the standard efficiency test results are misreported in their paper and that the correctly reported results do not present as compelling a case for the importance of accounting for heterogeneous preferences. (JEL D12, D81, G22, O12, O18, R23, Z13) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that precautionary savings due to uninsurable earnings uncertainty are likely to be an important source of aggregate wealth accumulation. The stylized model presented in this paper can easily generate levels of wealth above 60 percent of the observed net wealth in the United States, net of conventional life-cycle savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the publications of the periodical "American Economic Association." Some topics covered in the volumes of the periodical contains: Report of Organization of the American Economic Association; "Three Phases of Co-operation in the West," by Amos G. Warner; "The Railway Question," by Edmund J. James; "The Stability of Prices," by Simon N. Patten; Third Annual Meeting: Report of the Proceedings; "Educational Value of Political Economy," by S. N. Patten; "State Railroad Commissions," by F.C. Clark; "Public Assistance of the Poor in France," by E.G. Balch; Eleventh Annual Meeting: Handbook and Report; Economics as a School study. By F.R. Clow; Significance of a Comprehensive System of Education; Money and Prices; The Ricardo Centenary; Accounting; Canals and Railways; Population and Immigration; Labor Legislation; Taxation; Effects of Current and Prospective Technological Developments upon Capital Formation; Public Investment in the United States; Expansion and Contraction in the American Economy; Effect of Industrial and Technological Developments upon Demand for Capital.

The article throws light on the papers of James Harvey Rogers "The Absorption of Credit." Rogers paper was a mathematical development showing that an addition to its reserve bank didnot result in increasing that individual bank's deposit liabilities by ten fold. The increase of reserve and increase of deposits were substantially equal and that the pyramiding occurred through the overflow from the individual bank to the other banks. Rogers demonstrates that such overflow from the banks receiving the funds would, in turn, cause an overflow from these to which the funds were communicated, and so on. He demonstrated that, as a result of such converging series, equilibrium would be reached when the additional deposit liabilities of the banks as a whole had become ten times the additional aggregate reserve. All of this was developed on the assumption that the general expansion of loans and deposits led to no outflow of cash to circulation. Rogers also showed a substantially similar result as to loans and discounts. He further applied the theory reversely to deductions of funds instead of additions. In other words he showed how both inflation and deflation work cumulatively and how different was the initial effect on the individual bank from the final effect on banks as a whole.

The article presents information on various books about general works, theory and its history published in 1925. Some of the books included are, "Papers Relating to Political Economy," by F. Y. Edgeworth. The authors scattered papers, rescued from the files of the "Economic Journal," and the periodicals and brought together in these three volumes, make an impressive showing. Even one who, like the present reviewer, counts himself fairly familiar with the author, cannot turn to the pages of these books without a new appreciation of variety and the sustained level of the achievement they represent. "Origins of Sociology," by Albion W. Small. The author tells what sociology is by telling how it came to be, by tracing its differentiation out of the general field of social science. Being a sociologist, he naturally sees the sociological movement as an advance, a passing beyond previous social science. In the preface the movement is described as "a drive from relatively irresponsible discursiveness."

The article discusses the papers "Strategies for Helping Cities," by Jane Jacobs, "The Urban Economy and the 'Urban Crisis,'" by Barabara R. Bergmann, and "Housing the Urban Poor: The Economics of Various Strategies," by Anthony Downs. One commentator criticizes Jacobs for failing to provide a definition of a city and thus invalidating her paper for policy purposes. A definition of the city is then provided. Another commentator notes that the papers do no address the underlying structural causes of the urban crisis, which is essential for policy reform. A final commentator provides an historical perspective on urban concentration.

The papers by economists James M. Buchanan and Julius Margolis deal primarily with voting, while economist Roland N. McKean's paper is concerned mainly with politicians and bureaucrats. The subjects of these papers therefore fall squarely within the domain of political science. Another characteristic that these papers have in common is a concern with the way political processes determine the amount of resources allocated to the production of public goods. Buchanan and McKean suggest that the U.S. political and fiscal system systematically tends to allocate excessive resources to the satisfaction of social wants, while Margolis suggests that local referendums, at least, can lead to less than optimal levels of public investment. the possible tendency toward excessive purchases of public goods in Buchanan's final model may well be counteracted by opposing factors. First, demonstration effects are surely strongest in the private sector, and they tend to lead toward an excessive purchase of private goods. Second, billions of dollars are spent advertising private goods, while public goods are normally not similarly advertised.

This article presents a comment on economist M.A. Adelman's paper. Adelman's paper makes three major points— first, that competition is feasible in the oil industry, second, that domestic regulatory policies of the U.S. have produced monstrous wastes, third, that the wastes caused by such monopoly as persists in foreign oil markets are far less important than those attributable to domestic cartelization. He also makes certain predictions about the future course of world oil prices and prospective competitiveness of atomic power. His argument here is based essentially on the industry's inherent tendency to statically diminishing returns. On Adelman's third major point, the contrast he draws between the circumstances at home and abroad is instructive. But in pressing the contrast, it seems that he has at some points minimized unduly the persistence of monopoly in foreign production. The evidence of how much remains is the fact, emphasized several times by him, that the price, though much reduced, is still far above finding-developing-operating costs.