Space: The Final Frontier

[Symposium: Urban Agglomeration]

By Paul Krugman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

Traditionally, until the early 1990s, spatial economics -- the study of where economic activity takes place and why -- was pretty much neglected. Even now not one of the best-selling introductory textbooks in economics contains a single index entry for "l...

The Past, Present, and Future of Macroeconomic Forecasting

By Francis X. Diebold

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

Broadly defined, macroeconomic forecasting is alive and well. Nonstructural forecasting, which is based largely on reduced-form correlations, has always been well and continues to improve. Structural forecasting, which aligns itself with economic theory a...

Forging Ahead and Falling Behind: The Rise and Relative Decline of the First Industrial Nation

By Nicholas Crafts

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

This paper considers Britain's failure to maintain its lead in economic growth in the face of overtaking by the United States. Recent cliometric research is reviewed and it is argued that early nineteenth century Britain had a low growth potential by twen...

Who Is a Member of the AEA?

By John J. Siegfried

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

The appointment of a new Secretary of the American Economic Association provides an opportunity for assessing the Association's membership trends and 'market coverage.' Toward these ends, the author has assembled information about trends in both aggregate...

Real and Money Wage Rates

By John T. Dunlop

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

In the General Theory, John Maynard Keynes held money and real wage rates move in opposite directions. In expansion, prices increase faster because of increasing costs and a rise in the proportion of product going to profits. Neoclassical economists held ...

Recommendations for Further Reading

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

Correspondence

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1998

Economics of the Endangered Species Act

[Symposium: Endangered Species Act]

By Gardner M. Brown and Jason F. Shogren

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of our most far-reaching and controversial environmental laws. While the benefits of protecting endangered species accrue to the entire nation, a significant fraction of the costs are borne by the private landowne...

Conflicts and Choices in Biodiversity Preservation

[Symposium: Endangered Species Act]

By Andrew Metrick and Martin L. Weitzman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

The purpose of this article is to examine the preservation of biodiversity as an economic problem. Using a very simple prototype model, the authors discuss how to include diversity in the objective function and how to develop a simple cost-benefit ranking...

Takings, Compensation and Endangered Species Protection on Private Lands

[Symposium: Endangered Species Act]

By Robert Innes, Stephen Polasky, and John Tschirhart

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

Preserving endangered species on private land benefits the public, but may confer cost on landowners if property is 'taken.' Government compensation to landowners can offset costs, although the Endangered Species Act does not require compensation. The aut...

An Interim Evaluation of Sulfur Dioxide Emissions Trading

[Symposium: SO2 Trading]

By Richard Schmalensee, Paul L. Joskow, A. Denny Ellerman, Juan Pablo Montero, and Elizabeth M. Bailey

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

This paper summarizes recent empirical research on compliance costs and strategies and on permit market performance under the U.S. acid rain program, the first large-scale, long-term program to use tradeable emissions permits to control pollution. An effi...

What Can We Learn from the Grand Policy Experiment? Lessons from SO2 Allowance Trading

[Symposium: SO2 Trading]

By Robert N. Stavins

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

The most ambitious application ever attempted of a market-based approach to environmental protection has been for the control of acid rain under the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, which established a sulfur dioxide allowance trading program. This essay...

U.S. Industry Adjustment to Economic Deregulation

[Symposium: Legacy of Deregulation]

By Clifford Winston

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

This paper develops a framework to analyze the long-run adjustment of U.S. industries to economic deregulation, highlighting the role of intensified competition, innovations in operations, marketing, and technology, and adjustments to external shocks. The...

Deregulation and the Labor Market

[Symposium: Legacy of Deregulation]

By James Peoples

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

This paper examines the earnings and employment effect of deregulation in the trucking, railroad, airlines, and telecommunications industries. Findings on nonmanagement workers suggest labor earnings fell sharply in trucking, somewhat in airlines, slightl...

Recent Trends in the Size Distribution of Household Wealth

By Edward N. Wolff

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

Based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, the distribution of wealth in the United States became much more unequal in the 1980s and that trend continued, albeit at a slower pace, in the 1990s. The only households that saw their mean net worth rise in abso...

Learning from the Behavior of Others: Conformity, Fads, and Informational Cascades

By Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

Learning by observing the past decisions of others can help explain some otherwise puzzling phenomena about human behavior. For example, why do people tend to converge on similar behavior? Why is mass behavior prone to error and fads? The authors argue th...

Foreign Students in U.S. Doctoral Programs

By Nahid Aslanbeigui and Veronica Montecinos

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998

In 1996, foreigners represented over half of the doctoral student population in economics, up from 20 percent in 1972. This article presents a profile of foreign students in economics Ph.D. programs in the United States based on survey and interview data ...

Recommendations for Further Reading

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1998