Journal of Economic Literature
Vol. 38, No. 3, September 2000
Contents
Assessing Affirmative Action
Harry Holzer and David Neumark 483
Understanding Productivity: Lessons from Longitudinal
Microdata
Eric J. Bartelsman and Mark Doms 569
The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock,
Looking Ahead
Oliver E. Williamson 595
The Emigration of German-Speaking Economists after
1933
F. M. Scherer 614
A Review of Markets for Clean Air: The U.S. Acid
Rain Program by Ellerman, Joskow, Schmalensee, Montero, and Bailey
Peter Cramton 627
Book Reviews
in pdf format 
(AEA members only)
Sign up for e-JEL
Assessing Affirmative Action
Harry Holzer and David Neumark
Economic research provides extensive evidence regarding discrimination
against women and minorities, and some evidence on the redistributive
effects of affirmative action. However, it provides much less evidence
on affirmative action' s impact on efficiency or performance, perhaps
the key economic issue in the debate over affirmative action. This review
covers all of these issues, but focuses on the efficiency/performance
question, drawing on economics and other disciplines. The evidence suggests
to us that affirmative action can be implemented with relatively little
efficiency loss. Most importantly, the empirical case against affirmative
action on the grounds of efficiency is weak at best.
View article
in pdf format
(AEA members only)
Sign up for e-JEL
Understanding Productivity: Lessons from Longitudinal Microdata
Eric J. Bartelsman and Mark Doms
This paper reviews research that uses longitudinal microdata to document
productivity movements and to examine factors behind productivity growth.
The research explores the dispersion of productivity across firms and
establishments, the persistence of productivity differentials, the consequences
of entry and exit, and the contribution of resource reallocation across
firms to aggregate productivity growth. The research also reveals important
factors correlated with productivity growth, such as managerial ability,
technology use, human capital, and regulation. The more advanced literature
in the field has begun to address the more difficult questions of the
causality between these factors and productivity growth.
View article
in pdf format
(AEA members only)
Sign up for e-JEL
The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead
Oliver E. Williamson
This paper examines the progressive development of the new institutional
economics over the past quarter century. It begins by distinguishing four
levels of social analysis, with special emphasis on the institutional
environment and the institutions of governance. It then turns to some
of the good ideas out of which the NIE works: the description of human
actors, feasibility, firms as governance structures, and operationalization.
Applications, including privatization, are briefly discussed. Its empirical
successes, public policy applications, and other accomplishments notwithstanding,
there is a vast amount of unfinished business.
View article
in pdf format
(AEA members only)
Sign up for e-JEL
The Emigration of German-Speaking Economists after 1933
F. M. Scherer
Economists were among the many scholars uprooted following Hitler's rise
to power in 1933. This article reviews a series of books edited by Harald
Hagemann and others which provide extensive biographical information on
314 German-speaking economists whose professional opportunities were shattered
by Nazi policies. It evaluates the impact of the massive emigration on
economic research and teaching in Germany and Austria and in the nations
to which most of the economists emigrated. An analysis of 1966-70 data
reveals that the emigrés' cited publication counts were equivalent to
the citations of three leading U.S. economics departments.
View article
in pdf format
(AEA members only)
Sign up for e-JEL
A Review of Markets for Clean Air: The U.S. Acid Rain Program
by Ellerman, Joskow, Schmalensee, Montero, and Bailey
Peter Cramton
A Review of Markets for Clean Air: The U.S. Acid Rain Program by Ellerman,
Joskow, Schmalensee, Montero, and Bailey Peter Cramton Markets for Clean
Air is the definitive text on the U.S. acid rain program. This innovative
program uses a cap-and-trade approach, rather than the traditional command-and-control
approach, to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. The authors conclude that
the program was successful in cutting the costs of SO2 emission reductions
by about half, saving tens of billions of dollars. Both scholars and policy
makers will have a better sense of the virtues and pitfalls of market-based
regulation after reading this.
View article
in pdf format
(AEA members only)
Sign up for e-JEL
 Back
to Contents
|
