Journal of Economic Literature
Vol. 39, No. 3, September 2001
Contents
Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of “Secondary”
Data-Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries as a Case Study
Anthony B. Atkinson and Andrea Brandolini
The Taxing Task of Taxing Transnationals
Thomas A. Gresik
Official Intervention in the Foreign Exchange Market:
Is It Effective and, If So, How Does It Work?
Lucio Sarno and Mark P. Taylor
Economics of Alliances: The Lessons for Collective
Action
Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley
An Early Application of the Average Total Cost Concept
F. M. Scherer
Book Reviews
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Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of “Secondary” Data-Sets: Income
Inequality in OECD Countries as a Case Study
Anthony B. Atkinson and Andrea Brandolini
This paper examines the role of secondary data-sets in empirical economic
research, taking the field of income distribution as a case study. We
illustrate problems faced by users of "secondary" statistics,
showing how both cross-country comparisons and time-series analysis can
depend sensitively on the choice of data. After describing the genealogy
of secondary data-sets on income inequality, we consider the main methodological
issues and discuss their implications for comparisons of income inequality
across OECD countries and over time. The lessons to be drawn for the construction
and use of secondary data-sets are summarized at the end of the paper.
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The Taxing Task of Taxing Transnationals
Thomas A. Gresik
Financial and real investment flexibility, tax competition, and superior
economic information by transnationals both create a rationale for corporate
income taxation and limit the effectiveness of such taxation. While these
factors have led to a variety of transnational tax policies, such as deferral,
double taxation, apportionment, and trade rules, very few of these institutional
features have been integrated into tax competition and agency models.
In this paper, I show how the integration of investment flexibility, tax
competition, and agency issues is crucial to our understanding of corporate
tax policies.
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Official Intervention in the Foreign Exchange Market: Is It Effective
and, If So, How Does It Work?
Lucio Sarno and Mark P. Taylor
Our paper assesses progress made by the profession in understanding whether
and how exchange rate intervention works. We review theory and evidence
on official intervention, concentrating primarily on work published in
the last decade or so. We conclude that, unlike the profession's consensus
of the 1980s, official intervention can be effective, especially as a
signal of policy intentions and when publicly announced and concerted.
We note an apparent empirical puzzle concerning the secrecy of much intervention
and suggest another way for intervention to be effective which has received
little attention in the literature, namely by remedying a coordination
failure in the foreign exchange market.
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Economics of Alliances: The Lessons for Collective Action
Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley
This essay provides an up-to-date summary of the findings of the literature
on the economics of alliances. We show that the study of the economics
of alliances has played a pivotal role in understanding and applying public
good analysis to real-world applications. We establish that the manner
in which alliances address burden sharing and allocative issues is related
to strategic doctrines, weapon technology, perceived threats, and membership
composition. Past contributions are evaluated, and areas needing further
development are identified. The theoretical and empirical knowledge gained
from the study of alliances is shown to be directly applicable to a wide
range of international collectives.
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An Early Application of the Average Total Cost Concept
F. M. Scherer
At the outset of the 19th century, a leading German publisher calculated
for his firm's decision making volume-dependent average total cost tables
covering two alternative means of printing sheet music. He used those
data to estimate how large his rents would be and hence what honoraria
he could offer to composers, and to determine which of the two (and later
three) technologies would be favored under diverse demand conditions.
These systematic average cost calculations precede by eight decades the
first similar data recorded in the economic literature, whose subsequent
development is traced briefly in this note.
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