摘要:

Between 1974 and 1989, the Chilean government privatized 550 state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). Before 1974, all but a handful of major corporations were SOEs. About 50 of the largest enterprises privatized during the 1970s fell into government hands again, only to be re‐privatized later. This was due partly to the economic and financial crisis affecting most Latin American countries during the early 1980s but also was a consequence of the privatization modes used. This paper analyzes that unique privatization experience so as to extract policy lessons. The analysis focuses on economic conditions, objectives of government policy, privatization modes, and the divestiture effects on employment, fiscal revenues, public sector wealth, spread of ownership, and capital market developm

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00347.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The European Community (EC) seems headed toward monetary union, either with “permanently” fixed exchange rates or with a common currency. Ceteris paribus, the breakup of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe makes monetary union less desirable. One can expect further shocks from the East. Analyzing stock markets' reactions to events in the East from late 1988 to early 1990 shows that these shocks typically differentially affect EC members, particularly Germany. These differential shocks often call for adjustments in relative national price levels, which can be accomplished most easily with exchange‐rate adjustments. The likelihood of such pressures reduces the credibility of a system of pegged rates and makes the system more vulnerable to speculative runs. A common currency is more credible by its nature but may give an inflationary bias to the European Monetary

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00348.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study provides fresh evidence on the responsiveness of private consumption and, by implication, saving to government deficits. It focuses on consumption and saving from 1981 to 1989, a period during which the personal saving rate was characterized as surprisingly unresponsive to high federal budget deficits. The authors attempt to determine whether this experience is consistent with previous behavior. They also test whether this experience refutes the Ricardian Equivalence Proposition (REP), under which consumers incorporate the government's intertemporal budget constraint into their own.The analysis involves estimating two consumer expenditure functions based on two measures of current income capable not only of explaining expenditure behavior during the postwar period but also of successfully forecasting out of sample into the 1981–1989 period. Only one model is consistent with the REP, but neither model indicates that high government deficits caused the drop in the national saving rate experienced during the 1980s. Both models predict similar short‐run responses to shifts in the government deficit. The responses depend crucially on the mix of tax and expenditure changes used to achieve the deficit shift. Both consumption and saving are more responsive to changes in government expenditures on goods and services than they are to changes in ta

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00349.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study's primary objective is to evaluate empirically the economic effects of the U.S.‐Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The paper emphasizes bilateral trade flows of agricultural and industrial products between the United States and Canada, given that the FTA removes tariff and non‐tariff barriers. It evaluates the FTA's impact on the two countries' trade with third countries. The paper specifies a traditional log‐linear trade model consisting of import demand and export supply equations for both agricultural and industrial products. It uses quarterly time‐series U.S. and Canadian trade data for 1972–1985.The study uses the two‐stage least‐squares estimator to estimate the models. The models had R coefficients ranging from 0.78 to 0.99, indicating that the models' explanatory variables explain most causes of variations in the dependent variable. This study reveals that U.S. imports of agricultural and industrial products from Canada were more sensitive than were Canadian imports not only to import and domestic prices but also to world prices. This is because Canadian consumers have less domestic substitutes than do their U.S. counterparts. Also, Canada has a smaller internal market than does the United States. The study estimates that U.S. imports from Canada will increase $2.8 billion while Canadian imports from the United States will increase $1.2 billion. The impact on the two countries' trade with third‐party countries will b

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00350.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

During the past 20 years, the U.S. telephone industry has undergone a remarkable evolution from a set of government‐enforced monopolies to a much more competitive environment. Long‐distance service, private‐line service, data communications, and terminal equipment once were available only from the telephone monopolist. Now they are freely available from numerous competitive suppliers due to a series of regulatory and judicial decisions. But despite this veritable explosion in competition, the telephone industry still is regulated at both the federal and state levels. Only the provision of terminal equipment is totally deregulated.Regulating telephone rates has created a highly inefficient rate structure replete with cross‐subsidies. Legislators' and state regulators' reluctance to eliminate these cross‐subsidies remains the most important hurdle to transforming the telephone industry to a fully competitive market. Nevertheless, liberalizing entry has generated some economic efficiencies through its effect on productive efficiency and on regulated rates. Productive efficiency gains may have reached $3 billion by 1988, and the welfare gains from the limited rationalization of rates caused by entry are nearly $1 billion per year.Fully deregulating long‐distance and local service requires that regulators abandon their policies of cross‐subsidizing rural residences at the expense of businesses and of cross‐subsidizing local service at the expense of long‐distance service. Movement toward deregulation is progressing at the federal level and in some states, but full deregulation appears unlikely in the f

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00351.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A Federal Highway Bill was enacted in 1987 in response to many state governments' increasing concerns that the 55‐mph national maximum speed limit was unduly restrictive. The bill permitted states to raise the maximum speed limit to 65 mph on most rural interstate highways, which historically have been the safest. The state of Indiana reacted promptly to the enabling legislation by raising the maximum speed limit on its rural interstate highways to 65 mph as of June 1, 1987. This paper uses cross‐section/time‐series data to estimate a model of highway safety. The primary empirical finding is that the higher speed limit on rural interstates has increased the incidence of total and injury interstate accidents but not of fatal interstate accidents. However, for the state as a whole, the relaxed speed limit has reduced total and injury accidents with no effect on fatal accidents. This indicates that the impact of speed limit legislation on non‐interstate roads has more than offset its effect on interstate h

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00352.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The rate of business failures is widely quoted but is little understood. This study reviews the availability and usefulness of data on business failures and discusses the major determinants of fluctuations in the business failure rate. It shows that the age distribution of the population of firms is the largest determinant of failures and that the rate of failure has only a small countercyclical fluctuation. The study documents a substantial decline in the rate of failures between 1962 and 1979 and a smaller increase after 1980. The evidence presented suggests that the long decline is caused by the fall in failure rates in certain states and that part of the increase during the 1980s is due to changes in Dun&Bradstreet's data collection procedures.

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00353.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Some justify the law enforcement emphasis on controlling illicit drug markets by contending that drug users attempting to finance their habits often are responsible for property crime. Yet, in Florida at least, the increased effort to control drug markets has been accompanied by increasing property crime. The fact is that law enforcement resources are scarce, and many resources now being devoted to enforcing drug laws have been shifted away from enforcing laws pertaining to other crimes. This has reduced deterrence for property crime and, as a result, such crime has increased. Thus, the resource reallocations accompanying strong drug law enforcement lead to more property crime.

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00354.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The addiction literature treats as a stylized fact that formal treatment programs have little long‐run efficacy. Treated addicts have no better prospects for long‐run abstinence than do addicts who do not enter treatment programs. A logical consequence of this is that if treatment enhances the prospects of long‐run abstinence for some treated addicts, then it diminishes the prospects for others. This paper offers a simple cost‐benefit argument explaining how treatment can interfere with certain natural processes conducive to permanently abandoning an addiction. The paper argues that a stable remission from addiction depends on the historic costs of the addiction relative to the historic benefits as perceived by the user. Because treatment intrinsically mitigates the cost of addiction but does not directly influence the benefits of addiction, treatment can make returning to an addiction more

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00355.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1991

数据来源: WILEY