Econometrics and Presidential Elections

By Ray C. Fair

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

This paper discusses an econometric equation that explains votes for president as a function of economic events and incumbency information. The history of the equation is reviewed, the update after the 1992 election is discussed, and a prediction for the ...

Cheap Talk

By Joseph Farrell and Matthew Rabin

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

Economists often ask how private information is shared through markets, costly signaling, and other mechanisms. Yet most information sharing is done through ordinary, informal talk. Economists are inconsistent in their view of such 'cheap talk': sometimes...

Economic Foundations of the Current Regulatory Reform Efforts

By W. Kip Viscusi

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

Regulatory reform proposals before Congress would potentially increase the role of economics in regulatory policymaking. These reforms seek to override existing legislative mandates, which usually prohibit economic trade-offs and have often led to ineffic...

Market Microstructure and Intermediation

By Daniel F. Spulber

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

This paper emphasizes the important role played by intermediaries in the economy, including wholesalers, retailers, and financial firms. The paper defines an intermediary as an economic agent that purchases from suppliers for resale to buyers or that help...

Trends in Multi-authored Papers in Economics

By John Hudson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

This paper looks at the growth of multiple-authored papers in eight leading economics journals. In 1950, multiple authorship was a relative rarity. By the 1990s, it had become commonplace. An empirical analysis suggests that this growth has not been even ...

Policy Watch: Medicare

By Joseph P. Newhouse

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

The forecast growth for Medicare spending has created a highly visible budgetary impasse between the president and Congress. Both favor the growth of health plans that accept risk and would promote them by creating less restrictive options than heretofore...

Data Watch: The Redesigned Current Population Survey

By Anne E. Polivka

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

The Current Population Survey (CPS), a national survey of 50,000 households, is a major source of information about the American labor market. In January 1994, the CPS underwent a major redesign both in the wording of the questionnaire and the methodology...

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

Recommendations for Further Reading

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

Correspondence

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1996

Symposium on Primary and Secondary Education

[Symposium: Primary and Secondary Education]

By Francine D. Blau

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

This article introduces the 'Symposium on Primary and Secondary Education.' It points out that considerable controversy surrounds the issues treated by the articles in the symposium: the effect of the level of resources invested in education on student ou...

Measuring Investment in Education

[Symposium: Primary and Secondary Education]

By Eric A. Hanushek

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

Historic debates about the measurement of capital are even more complicated in the case of education and human capital. As extensive research demonstrates, education resources are not consistently related to student performance in existing elementary and ...

School Resources and Student Outcomes: An Overview of the Literature and New Evidence from North and South Carolina

[Symposium: Primary and Secondary Education]

By David Card and Alan B. Krueger

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

This paper reviews and interprets the literature on the effects of school resources on students' eventual earnings and educational attainment. In addition, new evidence is presented on the impact of the great disparity in school resources between black an...

Are Efficiency and Equity in School Finance Substitutes or Complements?

[Symposium: Primary and Secondary Education]

By Caroline Minter Hoxby

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

This paper analyzes cases made for local and centralized school finance and policies such as vouchers, categorical aid, and equalization aid. An ideal system of school finance would achieve efficiency and equity by ensuring every person invests in the amo...

Assessing the Effectiveness of Saving Incentives

[Symposium: Government Incentives for Saving]

By R. Glenn Hubbard and Jonathan S. Skinner

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

The authors argue that there is more to be learned from recent research on the effectiveness of targeted saving incentives than the wide variation in empirical estimates suggests. They conclude that characterizations of 'all new saving' or 'no new saving'...

How Retirement Saving Programs Increase Saving

[Symposium: Government Incentives for Saving]

By James M. Poterba, Steven F. Venti, and David A. Wise

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

This paper summarizes the authors work on the effect of IRA and 401(k) contributions on net personal saving. They consider many different nonparametric approaches to controlling for heterogeneity in individual saving behavior and conclude that the weight ...

The Illusory Effects of Saving Incentives on Saving

[Symposium: Government Incentives for Saving]

By Eric M. Engen, William G. Gale, and John Karl Scholz

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

The authors evaluate research on how tax-based saving incentives (IRAs and 401(k)s) affect saving. Previous research overstates the impact of the incentives on saving by failing to account for several issues: households with saving incentives have stronge...

Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage

By Shelly Lundberg and Robert A. Pollak

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

The standard economic model of the family is a 'common preference' model that assumes that a family maximizes a single utility function and implies that family behavior is independent of which individuals receive income or control resources. In recent yea...

Bias in the Consumer Price Index: What Is the Evidence?

By Brent R. Moulton

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1996

Recent research has suggested that the upward bias of the U.S. consumer price index may be significant, and correcting the biases would have important long-run effects on the federal budget deficit. The author describes the sampling procedures used in con...