Asymmetric Information and Public Economics: The Mirrlees-Vickrey Nobel Prize

By Agnar Sandmo

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

This paper surveys the contributions of Nobel laureates James Mirrlees and William Vickrey to the study of asymmetric information in economics, particularly as they relate to problems in public economics. It discusses and interprets Mirrlees's work on opt...

Policy Watch: Developments in Antitrust Economics

By Jonathan B. Baker

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

This article highlights recent developments in antitrust economics that have influenced the way the federal antitrust enforcement agencies analyze five issues: efficiencies from mergers, entry conditions, practices facilitating coordination, exclusionary ...

Retrospectives: Say's Law

By William J. Baumol

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

What is perhaps most curious about 'Say's law' is the continuing disagreement on its substance and to whom it should be credited. John Maynard Keynes summarized the law as 'supply creates its own demand' but it is now generally agreed that Keynes did not ...

Classroom Games: A Market for Lemons

By Charles A. Holt and Roger Sherman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

The incentives that arise in markets with asymmetric information are illustrated in the classroom exercise presented here. Student sellers choose both a quality 'grade' and a price for their products. Initially, both prices and grades for all sellers are ...

Correspondence

By Reinard Schuessler and Robert W. Dimand

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1999

Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: Reflections on Managing Global Integration

By Lawrence H. Summers

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

On the topic of globalization and economic integration, I want to address five subjects: The first is the extent of global integration that has taken place and that lies in prospect. The second is the broad case for economic integration and why domestic a...

Introduction to the Symposium on Business Cycles

[Symposium: Business Cycles]

By J. Bradford De Long

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

Changes in Business Cycles: Evidence and Explanations

[Symposium: Business Cycles]

By Christina D. Romer

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

This paper shows that the volatility of annual real macroeconomic indicators for the United States and the average severity of recessions have declined only slightly between the pre-World War I and post-World War II eras. Recessions have, however, become ...

Business Cycles in International Historical Perspective

[Symposium: Business Cycles]

By Susanto Basu and Alan M. Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

This paper examines business cycles theoretically and empirically, with a quantitative study based on data for a cross section of countries. Theoretical concerns indicate that the properties of business cycle models depend not only on important structural...

Theory and History behind Business Cycles: Are the 1990s the Onset of a Golden Age?

[Symposium: Business Cycles]

By Victor Zarnowitz

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

The theory presented in this paper ties together profits, investment, credit, stock prices, inflation, and interest rates. The author discusses new estimates of profit and investment functions with important roles for growth and demand and productivity, p...

The Law and Economics of the Economic Expert Witness

[Symposium: Economists as Expert Witnesses]

By Richard A. Posner

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

I will consider the law and economics of the use of economic expert witnesses. After introducing the law governing the use of expert witnesses (including economists), I analyze and respond to several concerns regarding the use of expert witnesses. The fir...

The Economist in Tort Litigation

[Symposium: Economists as Expert Witnesses]

By Robert Thornton and John Ward

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

In recent decades, the involvement of economists as consultants and expert witnesses in civil tort actions has grown rapidly. In this article, the authors discuss the reasons for this phenomenon and the extent to conflicts of interest to arise in the prac...

Going for the Gold: Economists as Expert Witnesses

[Symposium: Economists as Expert Witnesses]

By Michael J. Mandel

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

The use of economists as expert witnesses and consultants has grown dramatically in recent years, driven by such factors as the explosion of mergers and acquisitions. On the plus side, the expert witness boom will likely lead to better regulatory and lega...

The Structure of Foreign Trade

By Elhanan Helpman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

During the last two decades, new research has greatly advanced the understanding of the structure of world trade. While research in the 1960s and 1970s provided mostly theoretical insights, major empirical innovations concerning the study of factor conten...

Healthy Bodies and Thick Wallets: The Dual Relation between Health and Economic Status

By James P. Smith

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

This paper sketches theoretical reasons why health may alter household savings and provides evidence on the empirical impact of health shocks on household wealth. The impacts on saving are quantitatively large and only partly explained by increased out-of...

Three Sides of Harberger Triangles

By James R. Hines

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

Harberger triangles are used to calculate the efficiency costs of taxes, government regulations, monopolistic practices, and various other market distortions. This paper considers the historical development of Harberger triangles, the associated theoretic...

Hedge Funds and the Collapse of Long-Term Capital Management

By Franklin R. Edward

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

The Fed-engineered rescue of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) in September 1998 set off alarms throughout financial markets about the activities of hedge funds and the stability of financial markets in general. With only $4.8 billion in equity, LTCM ma...

Classroom Games: Strategic Interaction on the Internet

By Marko Grobelnik, Charles A. Holt, and Vesna Prasnikar

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1999

Economics is often taught at a level of abstraction that can hinder some students from gaining basic intuition. However, lecture and textbook presentations can be complemented with classroom exercises in which students make decisions and interact. The app...