Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity

By Ernst Fehr and Simon Gächter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

This paper shows that reciprocity has powerful implications for many economic domains. It is an important determinant in the enforcement of contracts and social norms and enhances the possibilities of collective action greatly. Reciprocity may render the ...

Vickrey Auctions in Practice: From Nineteenth-Century Philately to Twenty-First-Century E-Commerce

By David Lucking-Reiley

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

William Vickrey (1961) proposed an auction mechanism in which bidders submit sealed bids, and the highest bidder wins the good in return for payment of the second-highest bid amount. For decades, economists have credited Vickrey with inventing this auctio...

In Honor of Kevin M. Murphy: Winner of the John Bates Clark Medal

By Finis Welch

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

Kevin M. Murphy is the winner of the 1998 John Bates Clark Medal, presented by the American Economic Association every second year to an outstanding economist under the age of forty who is selected for special recognition. He is the George Pratt Schultz P...

The Tyranny of Budget Forecasts

By J. D. Foster and James C. Miller

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

The evolving federal budget process has placed increasing demands on, and given unique powers to, the economic forecasters at OMB, Treasury, CBO, and the Joint Tax Committee of Congress. On the whole, the forecasters have been highly professional in their...

Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World

By Kenneth L. Sokoloff and Stanley L. Engerman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

The explanations offered for the contrasting records of long-run growth and development among the societies of North and South America most often focus on institutions. The traditional explanations for the sources of these differences in institutions, typ...

Correction: Governance and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Benno J. Ndulu and Stephen A. O'Connell

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2000

The Resurgence of Growth in the Late 1990s: Is Information Technology the Story?

[Symposium: Computers and Productivity]

By Stephen D. Oliner and Daniel E. Sichel

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

The growth of U.S. labor productivity rebounded in the second half of the 1990s, after nearly a quarter century of sluggish gains. We assess the contribution of information technology to this rebound, using the same neoclassical framework as in our earlie...

Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance

[Symposium: Computers and Productivity]

By Erik Brynjolfsson and Lorin M. Hitt

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

To understand the economic value of computers, one must broaden the traditional definition of both the technology and its effects. Case studies and firm-level econometric evidence suggest that: 1) organizational "investments" have a large influence on the...

Does the "New Economy" Measure Up to the Great Inventions of the Past?

[Symposium: Computers and Productivity]

By Robert J. Gordon

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

During the four years 1995-99 U.S. productivity growth experienced a strong revival and achieved growth rates exceeding that of the "golden age" of 1913-72. Accordingly many observers have declared the "New Economy" to be an Industrial Revolution even mor...

Gender Differences in Pay

[Symposium: Women and the Labor Market]

By Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

We consider the gender pay gap in the United States. Both gender-specific factors, including gender differences in qualifications and discrimination, and overall wage structure, the rewards for skills and employment in particular sectors, importantly infl...

From Mill Town to Board Room: The Rise of Women's Paid Labor

[Symposium: Women and the Labor Market]

By Dora L. Costa

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

The widespread participation of women in paid labor outside of the home and in the highest echelons of society would have been unheard of a century ago. This paper documents this dramatic change in women's social and economic status and argues that it was...

For Love or Money--Or Both?

[Symposium: Women and the Labor Market]

By Nancy Folbre and Julie A. Nelson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

This paper explores the implications for economic analysis, societal well-being, and public policy of the movement of care services (such as child and elder care) from home to market. A broad empirical overview sets the stage for the argument that this pr...

Women's Work and Economic Development

[Symposium: Women and the Labor Market]

By Kristin Mammen and Christina Paxson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

Using a cross-country dataset and microdata from India and Thailand, we examine how women's work status changes with economic development. Several clear patterns emerge: women's labor force participation first declines and then rises with development; wom...

Evaluating Welfare Reform Waivers under Section 1115

By Carol Harvey, Michael J. Camasso, and Radha Jagannathan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

Beginning in 1962, Section 1115 of the Social Security Act allowed the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive specific provisions of the act within individual states, allowing them to implement welfare experiments or demonstration projects t...

Occupational Licensing

By Morris M. Kleiner

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

The study of the regulation of occupations has a long and distinguished tradition in economics. In this paper, I present the central arguments and unresolved issues involving the costs and benefits of occupational licensing. The main benefits that are sug...

Data Watch: Research Data in Health Economics

By William N. Evans, Helen Levy, and Kosali I. Simon

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000

In this paper, we discuss some important data sets that can be used by economists interested in conducting research in health economics. We describe six types of data sets: health components of data sets traditionally used by economists; longitudinal surv...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2000