The Long-Run Relationship between Money, Nominal GDP, and the Price Level in Venezuela: 1950 to 1996

This paper explores whether a significant long-run relationship exists between money and nominal GDP and between money and the price level in the Venezuelan economy. We apply time-series econometric techniques to annual data for the Venezuelan economy for 1950 to 1996. An important feature of our analysis is the use of tests for unit roots and cointegration with structural breaks. Certain characteristics of the Venezuelan experience suggest that structural breaks may be important. Since the economy depends heavily on oil revenue, oil price shocks have had important influences on most macroeconomic variables. Also since the economy possesses large foreign debt, the world debt crisis that exploded in 1982 had pervasive effects on the Venezuelan economy. Radical changes in economic policy and political instability may have also significantly affected the movement of the macroeconomy. We find that a long-run relationship exists between narrow money (M1) and nominal GDP, the GDP deflator, and the CPI when one makes allowances for one or two structural breaks. We do not find such long-run relationships when broad money (M2) is used.

Monetary Policy Delegation, Contract Costs, and Contract Targets

We reconsider the optimal central banker contract derived in Walsh (1995). We show that if the government's objective function places weight (value) on the cost of the contract, then the optimal inflation contract does not completely neutralize the inflation bias. That is, a fraction of the inflation bias emerges in the resulting inflation rate after the central banker's monetary policy decision. Furthermore, the more concerned the government is about the cost of the contract or the less selfish (more benevolent) is the central banker, the smaller is the share of the inflation bias eliminated by the contract. No matter how concerned the government is about the cost of the contract or how unselfish (benevolent) the central banker is, the contract always reduces the inflationary bias by at least half. Finally, a central banker contract written in terms of output (i.e., incorporating an output target) can completely eradicate the inflationary bias, regardless of concerns about contract costs.

Strategy and Circumstance: the Response of American Firms to Japanese Competition in Semiconductors, 1980-1995

The transistor was an American invention, and American firms led the world in semiconductor production and innovation for the first three decades of that industry's existence. In the 1980s, however, Japanese producers began to challenge American dominance. Shrill cries arose from the literature of public policy, warning that the American semiconductor industry would soon share the fate of the lamented American consumer electronics business. Few dissented from the implications: the only hope for salvation would be to adopt Japanese-style public policies and imitate the kinds of capabilities Japanese firms possessed. But the predicted extinction never occurred. Instead, American firms surged back during the 1990s, and it now seems the Japanese who are embattled. This striking American turnaround has gone largely unremarked upon in the public policy literature. And even scholarship in strategic management, which thrives on stories of success instead of stories of failure, has been comparatively silent. Drawing on a more thorough economic history of the worldwide semiconductor industry (Langlois and Steinmueller 1999), this essay attempts to collect some of the lessons for strategy research of the American resurgence. We argue that, although some of the American response did consist in changing or augmenting capabilities, most of the renewed American success is in fact the result not of imitating superior Japanese capabilities but rather of taking good advantage of a set of capabilities developed in the heyday of American dominance. Serendipity played at least as important a role as did strategy.

The Level of Development and the Determinants of Productivity Growth

We examine the effects of technology on productivity growth by disaggregating total output into sectoral components, exploring the roles of investment and technology on productivity growth for countries in different income groups. We find that for low-income countries, investment is the most important determinant of productivity growth. While investment plays an important role in determining productivity growth in middle-income countries, additional effects resulting from technological change also emerge. Investment ceases to have a significant effect on productivity growth in high-income countries.

The Problem with Utility: Towards a Non-Consequentialist / Utility Theory Synthesis

I develop the argument that our current decision-making framework, utility theory, when used by itself, is 1) descriptively incomplete, 2) theoretically flawed, and 2) ethically questionable. In response, I offer an exploratory framework that incorporates both consequentialist and non-consequentialist motivations. Adding a commitment function provides a synthesis which remedies the problems associated with the sole use of utility theory. Finally, I show how philosophers Immanuel Kant, W.D. Ross, and Martin Buber provide an ethical basis for the framework.

Schumpeter and Personal Capitalism

In an earlier paper, I criticized Schumpeter's account of the obsolescence of the entrepreneur in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. That account rests, I argued, on a confusion about the nature of scientific knowledge and its role in the competences of the firm. This paper is an attempt to take up the argument again, moving it away from the doctrine-historical into the provinces of the economics of organization. Drawing on the work of Max Weber, as well as on a case study of the Swiss watch industry, the paper argues for the ineradicable role of personal capitalism, properly understood.

Transaction Costs, Production Costs, and the Passage of Time

No abstract available.

Understanding Racial Segregation: What is known about the Effect of Housing Discrimination

A central purpose of this chapter is to assess whether the available empirical evidence supports the view that current levels of housing discrimination are a significant contributor to residential segregation in U.S. cities and metropolitan areas. Through the course of this chapter, the reader will find that the empirical patterns of racial segregation in the U.S. are often inconsistent the available evidence on housing discrimination. Admittedly, strong evidence exists that both housing discrimination exists today and that housing discrimination throughout much of the Twentieth Century was central to creating the high levels of segregation that we observe in U.S. metropolitan areas today, but the appropriate policy responses may differ dramatically depending upon how these two phenomena are currently interrelated.

Economics and Ideology: Causal Evidence of the Impact of Economic Conditions on Support for Redistribution and Other Ballot Proposals

There is a large literature demonstrating that positive economic conditions increase support for incumbent candidates, but little understanding of how economic conditions affect preferences for parties and for particulars of their platforms. We ask how exogenous shifts to the value of residents. human capital affect voting behavior in California neighborhoods. As predicted by economic theory, we find that positive economic shocks decrease support for redistributive policies. More notably, we find that conservative voting on a wide variety of ballot propositions--from crime to gambling to campaign finance--is increasing in economic well being.

Legal Change and the Social Value of Lawsuits

This paper integrates the literatures on the social value of lawsuits, the evolution of the law, and judicial preferences to evaluate the hypothesis that the law evolves toward efficiency. The setting is a simple accident model with costly litigation where the efficient law minimizes the sum of accident plus litigation costs. In the steady state equilibrium, the distribution of legal rules is not necessarily efficient but instead depends on a combination of selective litigation, judicial bias, and precedent.

C4I Roadmap March 2005

Patients expect to be safe from harm inside the walls of a hospital. Increasing reports of medical errors and adverse events have brought these concerns to public attention. Although we have celebrated many scientific advances over the past several decades, many patients do not benefit because the healthcare infrastructure is inadequate to deliver care to all. Studies confirm opportunities to improve in areas such as inpatient vaccination for flu and outpatient screening for breast, cervical or colon cancer. (Institute of Medicine, (IOM), 2000, 2001, 2004). This document outlines the steps needed to further increase our focus on patient safety in John Dempsey Hospital through the development of a multi-disciplinary Collaborative Center for Clinical Care Improvement (CCCCI). The dimensions of safety and outcomes are briefly discussed to provide some perspective on the scope of these challenges (Strongwater, 2003).

Lee O Case's "Elements of the Phase Rule", Chapter 2

The second chapter of the Case text on the phase rule, this time dealing with two component systems, added to by the author, is presented here.

Institutional Repository Workflow from Initial Inquiry to Repository Upload

A workflow flowchart on the verification steps involved in preparation to uploading assets to the University of Connecticut's institutional repository (http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu). This flowchart is geared towards assisting subject liaisons who also serve as series administrators for UConn@DigitalCommons.

Neuroimmune Interactions: a Bidirectional Flow that Leads to Health and Disease

The Vedic philosophy deals with harmony and balance between the mind and the body as well as interactions with nature. This ancient approach to health and well-being is being more and more appreciated in part as we understand the intimate relationship between the immune system, our major defense mechanism and the nervous system. Like other organ systems, the immune system is dependent on the central nervous system (CNS) and the endocrine system in its role for effective defense against foreign and domestic invaders.

Predator-Induced Plasticity in Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum)

The ability to respond plastically to the environment has allowed amphibians to evolve adaptive responses to spatial and temporal variation in predation threat. However, animals exposed to predators may also show costs of plasticity or tradeoffs. This study examines predator-induced plasticity in larval development, behavior, and metamorphosis in the spotted salamander, Ambystoma maculatum. Salamanders were raised in two treatments: with predator cues (a fish predator, genus Lepomis, on the other side of a divided tank), or without predator cues. During the larval stage the predator treatment group experienced higher mortality rates than the no-predator treatment group. Behavioral trials revealed that predator treatment animals ate less than those not exposed, and that this feeding response was immediately inducible and had lasting effects. Animals in the predator treatment group had smaller tail areas during the mid-larval period. Feeding and body size effects may have contributed to increased mortality in the predator-treatment animals. The timing of metamorphic onset was not affected by the presence of predators, but predator-treatment salamanders had shorter snout/vent lengths at metamorphosis. The duration of metamorphosis showed a potentially adaptive plastic response to the presence of predator cues: metamorphosis was longest in the no-predator treatment group, reduced in the predator treatment group, and even further reduced for animals exposed to predator cues only during metamorphosis. Overall, we found a mix of potentially adaptive and costly plastic responses in spotted salamanders.