Universal Health Insurance in the Clinton Plan: Coverage as a Tax-Financed Public Good

[Symposium: Health Care Reform]

By Mark V. Pauly

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

The financing arrangements embodied in the Clinton health reform plan involve some important differences in the way in which public goods are usually financed. The subsidies to small, low-wage firms mandated to provide benefits distort markets in both lab...

Public Finance Principles and National Health Care Reform

[Symposium: Health Care Reform]

By Richard Zeckhauser

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Public finance principles, though usually treated as a minor consideration, lie at the heart of effective national health care reform. Four principles are discussed: charge for a service where its cost is created; distinguish rents, resources, and transfe...

Two Improvements on the Clinton Framework

[Symposium: Health Care Reform]

By Peter A. Diamond

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Under the Clinton proposal, states choose a single payer or large regional alliances, where individuals choose from all plans in the market. This should give the high administrative costs of individual choice, not those of group choice. States should have...

A Skeptic's View of Global Budget Caps

[Symposium: Health Care Reform]

By James M. Poterba

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This brief paper explores the likely effects of government-imposed global budget caps, such as those in the Clinton administration proposal, on health care spending. It argues that health reform proposals that guarantee universal access to a basic package...

Economic FAQs About the Internet

[Symposium: Internet]

By Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Hal Varian

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This is a set for frequently asked questions (and answers) about the economic, institutional, and technological structure of the Internet. The authors describe the current state of the Internet, discuss some of the pressing economic and regulatory problem...

Computer Network Resources for Economists

[Symposium: Internet]

By William L. Goffe

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This paper outlines resources for economists on the Internet, the large and very rapidly expanding computer network that is revolutionizing research in many fields. Even at this early stage, there are a number of very useful resources (such as large datab...

Universal Banking

By George J. Benston

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Universal banks can offer the entire range of financial services within the bank or through subsidiaries. Most countries permit universal banking. In contrast, the United States is served only by specialized banks. Universal banking, particularly in Germa...

Selling Spectrum Rights

By John McMillan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

The design of the FCC spectrum-license auction is a case study in the application of economic theory. Auction theory helped address policy questions such as: Should an open auction or a sealed-bid auction be used? Should the licenses be auctioned sequenti...

Corporate Diversificaton

By Cynthia A. Montgomery

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This paper documents the significant presence of diversified firms in the U.S. economy and presents three views on why firms diversify. The market power view argues that firms diversify to wield conglomerate power across markets. The agency view argues th...

Trends in the Publication of Empirical Economics

By David Figlio

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

This paper documents recent trends in the publication of empirical articles in general-interest economics journals. Three measures of journal quality are estimated. The author finds substantial differences in publication rates of empirical articles among ...

Retrospectives: Fixed Capital, Railroad Economics and the Critique of the Market

By Michael Perelman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Where average fixed costs are large compared to marginal costs, competition will drive industry into bankruptcy. During the last century, the chaos that competition created within the railroad industry caused many prominent U.S. economists to reject the m...

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Recommendations for Further Reading

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Correspondence: Should Class Attendance Be Mandatory?

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1994

The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care

[Symposium: Contingent Valuation]

By Paul R. Portney

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1994

The contingent valuation method, wherein sample surveys are used to elicit individuals' willingness to pay for certain types of policies, is playing an important role in government decision-making. The most prominent applications are in the valuation of d...

Valuing the Environment through Contingent Valuation

[Symposium: Contingent Valuation]

By W. Michael Hanemann

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1994

Contingent valuation is now used around the world to value many types of public goods, including transportation, sanitation, health, and education, as well as the environment. The author describes how researchers go about making such surveys reliable, men...

Contingent Valuation: Is Some Number Better than No Number?

[Symposium: Contingent Valuation]

By Peter A. Diamond and Jerry A. Hausman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1994

Without market outcomes for comparison, internal consistency tests, particularly adding-up tests, are needed for credibility. When tested, contingent valuation has failed. Proponents find surveys tested poorly done. To the authors' knowledge, no survey ha...

Economic Incentives and the Defense Procurement Process

[Symposium: Defense Procurement]

By William P. Rogerson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1994

This paper describes some of the insights that the economic theory of incentives can contribute to defense procurement policy analysis. It describes the underlying incentive problems that shape the defense procurement problem, the nature of current instit...

Competition Policy, Rivalries, and Defense Industry Consolidation

[Symposium: Defense Procurement]

By William E. Kovacic and Dennis E. Smallwood

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1994

Declining outlays for new weapons programs have triggered a process of consolidation that promises to shrink the U.S. defense industry drastically. Consolidation in the defense industry raises complex competition policy issues that are not amenable to con...