LIBERTY AND THE HIGHER PLEASURES: REPLY

"I don't like spinach and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd eat it, and I hate it!" (Anonymous.)     

IN DEFENSE OF THE FINANCE CONSTRAINT

Simple models of monetary trade commonly impose a finance constraint on expenditure. It is often suggested that this finance constraint is artificial - a result of money's being the only asset, of the absence of credit, and of the special time structure of such models. This paper shows that the finance constraint on aggregate expenditure remains in force when other assets and credit are introduced and when the time structure is generalized to allow overlapping income periods of differing lengths. Most of the objections to the finance constraint are shown to involve fallacies of composition.
There are economists to whom a constraint of the form pc < M (in units $/t < $) must appear unthinkable. R. E. Lucas, Jr. (1980)     

SPEAKING OF BODIES,PLEASURES, AND PARADISE LOST: EROTIC AGENCY AND SITUATIONIST ETHNOGRAPHY

This ethnographic account of a love story of two elite-level bodybuilders addresses the ways in which broad cultural histories are relevant to understanding contemporarily situated problematics of sex and sexual identity. Specifically I argue that strategically placed historical and cross-cultural studies are useful in understanding in this context how: (1) subjects are configured as gendered, sexed, and sexually-oriented; (2) subjects make love; and (3) attempts to remake love outside the episteme of sexuality are confined. The love story, configured as a ‘paradise lost’ narrative, provides evidence suggesting that the occularcentric and muscularcentric practices of bodybuilding within this specific setting combined to offer the featured couple the material grounds upon which to venture temporarily beyond the pleasures circumscribed by the historical shift in subjectivity associated with Modernity. I conclude the piece by looking to the 1960's European revolutionary aesthetic movement of the Situationists to suggest how a ‘situationist ethnography’ might be used to create conditions of possibility for progressive work in the area of sexuality.     

THE OPTIMAL DEFENSE OF NETWORKS OF TARGETS

This paper examines a game‐theoretic model of attack and defense of multiple networks of targets in which there exist intranetwork strategic complementarities among targets. The defender's objective is to successfully defend all the networks and the attacker's objective is to successfully attack at least one network of targets. Although there are multiple equilibria, we characterize correlation structures in the allocations of forces across targets that arise in all equilibria. For example, in all equilibria the attacker utilizes a stochastic “guerrilla warfare” strategy in which a single random network is attacked. (JEL C72, D74)     

THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION AND THE GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

This research investigate the contradictory role of the National Collogiate Athletic Athletic Association (NCAA) as the linkng-pin organization within the economic and educational network of intercollegiate athletic organizations. The NCAA is posited as an institutional structure that developed from struggles over the legitimate definition and practice of intercollegiate athletics within the system of higher education in the U.S. It regulates athletic competition and the distribution of material resources in the network and strives to develop and maintain the legitimate purposes of athletic competition in the system of higher education. This study furthers research in the social organization of sport by combining economic and cultural explanations to reveal competing rationalities and the ebb and flow of domination in the institutional process.     

1998 MSSA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: TECHNOLOGY,INNOVATION, AND HIGHER EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SOCIOLOGY IN THE 21st CENTURY

Higher education is undergoing radical change as we move into the 21st Century. The challenges are both external and internal. Using a sociological perspective to consider these challenges can transform them into opportunities and place sociology in a leadership role in the process of change.     

POLITICAL RISK, NATIONAL DEFENSE AND THE DOLLAR

The Federal Reserve Board's trade-weighted real exchange rate index is highly correlated with the U.S. defense budget share of GNP. This paper provides evidence that the correlation is not spurious. Political risk associated with holding wealth in the United States varies inversely with U.S. military security and, due to the Soviet military threat to the West, is a major argument in foreign asset demand functions.     

SIGNALING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE EFFECT OF ACCESS TO ELITE COLLEGES ON CHOICE OF MAJOR

I propose a model of postsecondary education in which major field of study can be used by individuals to signal productivity to employers. Under this signaling model, I show that geographic areas with high access to elite universities result in fewer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors among lower ability students at nonelite colleges. This is distinct from the prediction of a full information model in which access to elite schools should only affect high ability individuals directly. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Baccalaureate & Beyond survey, I find evidence that is consistent with the signaling model prediction, specifically a 2.3–3.7 percentage point or 16%–25% decrease in the probability of choosing a STEM major among lower ability students in areas with greater access to elite colleges. (JEL I21, J24)     

TIME SERIES AND CROSS-SECTIONAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE DEMAND FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

This paper focuses on enrollment demand, making use of both aggregate and disaggregate data. In a time series analysis we explore the economic environment affecting freshman enrollments over time. Stratifying by type of school reveals significant differences among institutional segments. In particular, community college enrollments appear more sensitive to financial variables and the availability of alternative activities. To further investigate these differences, cross-sectional analysis is carried out using survey responses from students currently enrolled in each institutional segment. These results, obtained from linear discriminant analysis, show additional, important differences among segmental populations.     

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC'S DEFENSE SPENDING PREFERENCES IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA

The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Unionhave produced marked changes in the defense spending preferencesof politically informed Americans, but relatively little changeamong the 60 percent or so of the public least informed aboutpolitics. The overall level of defense spending preferred bywell-informed citizens is significantly lower than during theCold War and significantly less related to ideology and isolationism.Willingness to use force in the international arena remainsthe primary determinant of defense spending preferences amongboth well-informed and relatively uninformed citizens. Willingnessto use force is in turn primarily related to basic social andcultural values, including trust in people and symbolic patriotism.     

SUBSIDY AND TUITION POLICIES IN PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION

Although public appropriations to higher education and tuition rates are set under alternative arrangements, the optimal allocation is readily achievable. The decentralized linear-subsidy case produces an externality that reduces joint welfare below the centralized (first-best) case, but when vertical constraints are added or bilateral bargaining occurs, tuition maximizes joint surplus. Specifications differ in the subsidy's assigned role, which varies from affecting tuition directly to being indeterminate under Nash bargaining. When marginal cost of education is nondecreasing, the ratio of nonresident to resident tuition declines with increases in the demand for education and with decreases in the state budget. (JEL D4, I2 )     

THE HARDER THE TASK,THE HIGHER THE SCORE: FINDINGS OF A DIFFICULTY BIAS

Studies have found that going first or last in a sequential order contest leads to a biased outcome, commonly called order bias (or primacy and recency). Studies have also found that judges have a tendency to reward contestants they recognize with additional points, called reference bias. Controlling for known biases, we test for a new type of bias we refer to as “difficulty bias,” which reveals that athletes attempting more difficult routines receive higher execution scores, even when difficulty and execution are judged separately. Despite some identification challenges, we add to the literature by finding strong evidence of a difficulty bias in gymnastics. We also provide generalizations beyond athletics. (JEL L10, L83, D81, J70, Z1)