ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND WOMEN'S STATUS IN THE LABOR MARKET:

This study examines the effects of economic globalization on occupational sex segregation and occupational inequality. A theory of global economic restructuring and its impact on the quality of women's work suggests that national integration into the world economy significantly expands opportunities for women in the workplace but does not remove barriers to women's advancement or ameliorate the predominance of low-paying, menial jobs held by women. Two measures of gender occupational differentiation are employed as dependent variables in cross-sectional OLS regression analyses of fifty-six countries using data from 1970–1990. Results indicate that global economic forces reduce occupational sex segregation and inequality. However, these effects are determined by a country's world system position and region. The analyses illustrate that global economic restructuring is a gendered process that transforms and builds upon existing gender inequalities. Therefore, the inclusion of global structural characteristics into comparative research on occupational sex differentiation is essential.     

THE PLACE OF ECONOMIC HISTORY IN THE DISCIPLINE OF ECONOMICS

Despite the dominance of the field of economic history by trained economists who use the tools of economics, the output and services of economic historians are declining in demand. The explanation advanced in this address is that economic historians have not proved their value to economics. To play an essential role in economics, we must broaden the questions we ask and concommittently devise a set of theoretical tools to provide meaningful and testable theories about the structure and performance of economies over time. This address suggests the direction that such theory should take in order to make the field an indispensable part of the discipline of economics.     

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN THE SHADOW OF CONFLICT

Appropriation possibilities significantly alter economic fundamentals in a production and exchange economy. This is the primary lesson of our model, which combines Ricardian trade and the potential for predator/prey behavior. The model shows how conflict can be subdued by mutual gains from trade, but at a resource cost that modifies the exchange itself. On the other hand, it identifies conditions wherein appropriation incentives are so strong that specialized production and trade are precluded altogether. The model also reveals a new way to think about and measure the gains from trade. ( JEL C72, D51, D74, F10)     

THE ETHICS OF ECONOMIC INTERACTIONS IN THE NETWORK ECONOMY

The rise of the network economy brought about the strong conviction that economic interactions in the network economy could be based on cooperative, informed and transparent communication, which would counteract the negative welfare effects of unequal bargaining power, the opacity of the intentions of the parties, opportunistic behaviors, monopolies and market failures. So the contracts of the network economy nowadays do not at all remind us of agreements based on the cooperation of free, equal individuals who follow their values and self-interest, during which they take into consideration the increase of each other's well-being as well as the mutual sharing of benefits and risks. The network economy reached the limits set by the segmentation of network architecture, the restrictive regimes of copyrights, the digital privatizations of the public domains, the right holder's control over digitalized contents, the regulatory furors of the different states and international organizations, the 'private legislation' of the corporations, and so forth. The commoditization of knowledge, information and communication and the monopolies have had negative welfare effects. Of course, this in itself does not overthrow the validity of the philosophical, moral-philosophical and economic arguments brought up to support the contractual coordination of economic interactions. On the contrary: On the basis of the current setback of the development of the network economy, we could, rather, conclude that the business model, which is trying to expropriate the positive externalities of the network effect with legal and technical means, leads to a general decrease of social profit. So, not only does this model of the new economy violate rights and is also contrary to moral principles but it cannot, either, be maintained in the long run from the point of view of the market.     

THEORIES OF THE STATE: THE CASE OF LAND REFORM IN ITALY, 1944–1961

This article examines the case of land reform in Italy from 1944 to 1961 in relation to the role of the State in capitalism. Through an analysis of recent debate on the capitalist State, it offers an investigation of the generation and outcomes of the process of land reform. It is important to note that the social pressure exerted by landless peasants and farm workers for the redistribution of land and the dissolution of the dominant social bloc generated the conditions for a land reform that only partially satisfied the needs of the agricultural working class. Simultaneously, the mediation of the State enhanced the overall interests of the domestic bourgeoisie. In this context, land reform produced contradictory results that favored the processes of accumulation of capital and legitimation of social dissent.     

THE ECONOMIC CHOICE IN DIVORCE:

Abstract

Using the NELS data set, this study assessed whether parental involvement in children's education can eliminate the effects of parental divorce and remarriage on the academic achievement of adolescents. The results indicate that consistent effects for divorce emerged using the No-SES Model, both with and without the inclusion of the parental involvement variables. Similarly, consistent effects for remarriage emerged using the SES Model, both with and without the inclusion of the parental involvement variables. The significance of these results is discussed.     

RELATIVE SPOUSAL STATUS AND CHILD HEALTH IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: The Case of Ghana

This research examines the relationship between gender relations and decisions regarding child health and investigates the hypothesis that, in sub-Saharan Africa, the health of children is hampered by low levels of female autonomy. Using data from Ghana's 1988 Demographic and Health Survey, the findings provide no support for a gender relations theory, suggesting that the relative power of spouses may not be as relevant in health and mortality decisions as it is in fertility.     

STATUS POLITICS AND ECONOMIC CLASS INTERESTS:

The status politics paradigm has been utilized to examine many social movements, including prohibition and anti-pornography. The model assumes that economic and non-economic factors can be disassociated in such studies. This article disputes this and examines county-level 1918 prohibition referendum voting data from California. California is examined because it had a large wine industry, many breweries, and regionally separated religious and ethnic communities, with Germans and ethnic Catholics in the North and white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the South. Multivariate analysis shows that status factors influenced referendum voting patterns: evangelical Protestants supported the measure, and ethnic Germans and Irish opposed it. However, economic forces were also instrumental in determining the referendum outcome.     

THE DETERMINANTS OF THE PUBLIC DEBT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1953–1978

Barro claims that since the public rationally forecasts and discounts future taxes, government debt does not represent net wealth to the public and therefore does not affect any real economic variables. Then why are there ever deficits? Barro has presented a theory of optimal deficits based on intertemporal tax smoothing. The theory predicts that nominal debt grows in proportion to anticipated inflation, varies contracyclically with respect to real income cycles, and varies procyclically with respect to war cycles. Barro tested his theory using annual American data for 1922-76 and found weak support for his theory. This paper reexamines Barro's tests, using quarterly American data for 1953:Q1 to 1978:Q4 and finds stronger support for Barro's theory than Barro found using annual data. This paper also concludes that state and local governments do not engage in tax-smoothing behavior–––probably due to considerations of migration–––and that the debt held by the central bank should be included in the definition of public debt.     

CHANGES IN THE COMOVEMENT OF EUROPEAN EQUITY MARKETS

This paper investigates the impact that the removal of exchange controls within major European economies has had on the interdependence of European equity markets. For five years prior to the removal of exchange controls and five years following their removal, we use impulse responses and variance decompositions from vector autoregressions to illustrate that European equity markets have become substantially more integrated after the removal of exchange controls. We undertake further tests that demonstrate that, even if we allow for parallel macroeconomic harmonization, the removal of exchange controls has been a major cause of increased equity market integration within Europe. ( JEL F33, F36, G15)     

EVALUATING CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF CAPITAL WEALTH

A small-scale general equilibrium model in which the distribution of capital wealth is a key parameter is employed to examine the potential economic consequences of greater capital wealth equality. Every performance indicator examined – aggregate income, consumption equality, social welfare in the sum-of-utilities sense, and aggregate saving –is improved by greater capital wealth equality. However, the bottom-line social welfare gain, relative to the present high-inequality situation – even from the maximum achievable level of complete equality in capital wealth distribution – would be numerically rather modest.