Robert Nakosteen and Michael Zimmer
Social science researchers have long noted a tendency for individuals to marry
persons similar to themselves with respect to age, ethnicity and social class.
In this paper we devote particular attention to racial combinations in marriage
and patterns of labor force participation by spouses. Our principal objective
is to determine whether the interdependence of spouses’ employment differs
across race combinations of husbands and wives. Our analysis is based on a
sample of blacks and whites extracted from the 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample
of the U.S. Census. Using a model of dummy endogenous variables with structural
shift, we estimate models of employment in which each spouse’s job status is
explicitly related to the labor market attachment of his partner. Our results
indicate that marriages distinguished by different combinations of spouses’
race show some distinctive features with regard to the extent of
interdependence between spouses’ labor market outcomes. (J2)
Jeremy Sandford and Michael C. Seeborg
This paper uses a sample of 30 year old male immigrants from the 1990 Census
PUMS data to explore the effects that age of arrival and ethnic capital have on
the standard of living of immigrants. It finds that both time of arrival and
ethnic capital affect immigrants’ standard of living through a set of
interaction effects and indirect effects. In particular, immigrants who arrive
as children enjoy greater returns to human capital investments than immigrants
who arrive as young adults. Moreover, immigrants who arrive as children are
affected less than young adult immigrants by the ethnic capital of the group
that they join in the United States. Further, age of arrival and ethnic
capital are found to have indirect effects on immigrants’ standard of living
through their influence on educational attainment and language proficiency.
(J15, J61)
Fatih Savasan
MIMIC model and two versions of the Randomized Response (RR) Technique are
employed to estimate the size of the underground economy (UE) in Turkey. The RR
estimate for 1998 is 28% of ‘measured’ GDP. Over the period from 1970 to 1998,
the size of the UE is found to vary between 10% and 45%. The UE faces big drop
in the mid-1980s, implying the importance of structural changes in the Turkish
economy in reducing the size of UE. All types of burden imposed by government
are found to be positively related to the UE. Tax-gap issue is also addressed.
(C22, C42, H26)
Peter G. VanderHart and Jennifer K. Ransom
We examine the efficiency of Ohio public school districts by estimating
marginal product - input price ratios for six measures of school inputs. Our
findings suggest that while many districts make input choices efficiently, many
others are inefficient in some way. Our results further suggest that where
inefficiency is present, improvements can be made by increasing the amount of
capital expenditure and support staff, and decreasing the number of
administrators and office personnel. (I21)
James Swanson and Kim Andrews
A stochastic frontier approach is used to examine efficiency of the U.S.
manufacturing sector over the 1958 – 1996 time period. A National Bureau of
Economic Research (NBER) panel data set was used to estimate a translog cost
frontier. Both fixed effects and random effects models were estimated. The
estimation results were surprisingly robust and show not only a great deal of
inefficiency within the manufacturing sector but also a great deal of variation
in efficiency within this sector. (L6).
Denise Hazlett and Joshua Wookey
According to Kennedy (2000), the difference between real and nominal interest
rates constitutes the most important concept taught in macroeconomics courses.
The classroom exercise described in this article demonstrates one way in which
real and nominal interest rates differ, namely in their effect on aggregate
investment. Students assume the roles of borrowers and lenders who have the
opportunity to undertake productive investment projects. By negotiating loans
with each other and making their individual investment decisions, students
generate aggregate data which they then analyze. In their analysis, they see
how real versus nominal interest rates affected aggregate investment. The
exercise uses a non-computerized double oral auction which takes 35-50 minutes
to run, and works with classes of 12 to 60 students. (A22, E22, E44)