Kevin M. O'Brien
This paper extends the work by Sass and Troyer (1999) by examining the
determinants of female employment in police departments according to
racial/ethnic group as well as in the aggregate. In addition, the effects of
variables not included in earlier studies are analyzed. These variables
include the existence of an affirmative action policy, use of numeric goals,
the number of EEO complaints and failure rate for recruits in police academies.
It is found that existence of an affirmative action policy by itself is not
sufficient to increase female employment but numeric goals are required as
well. It is also found that the determinants of employment vary by minority
group. For example, while a higher level of public employee unionization
decreased white female employment, it had no effect on minority female
employment. (J7, J4)
Edward L. Fitzsimmons
The international debt crisis of the 1980s forced countries in Latin America
and the Caribbean to reform economic policies. Because the primary purpose of
these reforms was to enable the region’s economies to service the debts owed to
banks in industrialized nations, there was concern that these reforms would
increase the incidence of poverty. To measure the impact on the incidence of
poverty of two of these reforms, fiscal discipline and export promotion, two
simple regression models were constructed. Results of these regressions
indicated that fiscal discipline and export promotion are associated with
reduction in the incidence of poverty. (I32, O19)
Bruce Domazlicky
Nonmetropolitan counties in Missouri, similar to their national counterparts,
have experienced alternating decades of rapid and slower growth since the
1970s. A simple reduced form model is used to identify the factors that
explain population growth in rural Missouri counties. As found by earlier
researchers, such factors as agricultural employment, income, city size,
population density, race, retirement attraction and the existence of a state
college continue to influence population growth in rural counties in Missouri.
The variables identified are likely to contribute to continued growth in
nonmetropolitan counties in the present decade. (R11)
Jason Zimmerman
A labor market matching model shows that preemployment drug testing leads to a
net improvement in social welfare, but the overall level of drug testing will
exceed the social optimum. These results hold for wide ranges of parameter
values. Drug testing results in fewer and shorter episodes of unemployment for
drug-free workers while producing the opposite effect for drug users. Increases
in the overall prevalence of drug use can lower the popularity of drug testing.
(J00, D21)
Charles H. Breeden and Noreen E. Lephardt
Our interest is the impact of students’ attitudes toward the market system on
their ability to learn economics. This research reports a regression analysis
of Intermediate and Principles of Microeconomics students’ attitudes as a
predictor of learning measured by final course grade. The regression of
individual survey questions found a number of statistically significant
correlations. Separate regression results for a composite attitudinal score
were statistically significant for Intermediate students but not for Principles
students. Having found evidence of a relationship between pre-existing
attitudes and grades, we offer some tentative implications for instruction.
(A13)