NEW ON THE SHELF

A Survivor of the Chinese Revolution Author: Zeng Zhi Published by Guangdong People's Publishing House (First edition in Chinese, December, 1999) Zeng Zhi, one of the revolutionaries in the earlier Chinese Revolution led by the Communist Party of China, began her glorious career when she was only sixteen. She has experienced many incredible historical events during the Chinese     

NEW ON THE SHELF

Writer: WANG ANYI Publisher: Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House (1st edition of Chinese version, May, 1998). Wang Anyi is one of the women writers of China whose work receives close attention. Her novels have been translated into many languages. Approaching A New Century is a collection of her prose which includes works from the end of the 1980s and     

NEW ON THE SHELF

An Enduring Talent Author: ZHANG YUNHE Publisher: Joint Publishing Company (first edition of Chinese version, June 1999) This is a collection of autobiographic prose. The author Zhang Yunhe was born into a large family in Hefei, Anhui Province in south China. Her father Zhang Jiyou was in education and ran the Leyi Middle     

NEW ON THE SHELF

Daughter of the Mountain Chief Editor: He Zhonghua Published by Guizhou Nationalities Publishing House (first edition of Chinese version, Oct, 1998) Sub-titled: Experience, Voice and Needs, this is the South-Western volume     

NEW ESTIMATES OF THE OPTIMAL TAX ON ALCOHOL

In this paper I use a new data set to estimate the optimal alcohol tax rate. As a benchmark, the empirical results imply that the optimal tax rate is over 100 percent of the net-of-tax price. However, alcohol taxation is a second-best solution to the problems associated with alcohol abuse. I conclude that the optimal alcohol tax rate would be much lower if punishment for drunk driving were more certain and severe. Government provision of information about the health consequences of heavy drinking would also remove part of the efficiency rationale for alcohol taxes.     

NEW EVIDENCE ON INCOME AND THE VELOCITY OF MONEY

Time series and cross-country empirical results suggest that cash holding as a proportion of income rises, or equivalently that velocity falls, as income increases. Numerous cross sectional findings at many points in time, in several countries conclude oppositely. It is argued here that the former findings suffer from omitted variable bias by ignoring sociodemographic variables affecting the demand for cash balances. When one incorporates such demand shifters into the analysis the time series and cross-country findings are seen as consistent with the critically reexamined cross sectional result that velocity increases with income.     

NEW EVIDENCE ON THE RETIREMENT AND DEPRECIATION OF MACHINE TOOLS

This paper uses data from machinery dealers to estimate the retirement and depreciation patterns for a broad set of conventional machine tools. According to the dealers, the average service life of these machines at the survey date was about thirty years. Service lives were even longer in the mid-1970s, with the reduction over time likely caused by the diffusion of superior, computer controlled machines. Consistent with the relatively long average life, the conventional machines have depreciated slowly. I use the results to assess the average service life assumed by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to construct capital stocks for metalworking machinery.     

浅谈文房收藏新亮点：古墨

近些年来,在各大拍卖会上,无论是国内的还是国外的,大型的小型的,中国古代文房用具专场异军突起,成交战果表现的非常抢眼。藏墨是文人的雅逸之举和情怀寄托。把玩收藏古墨将成为今后收藏拍卖市场上下一个“风向标”。墨,是文明的产物,它具有“落纸如漆,万载存真”的功效。历来备受文人雅士、书画名宿的青睐。在当代社会,收藏古墨被越来越多的收藏爱好者喜爱。在拍卖现场,只要有古墨出现,拍卖现场都会异常激烈,那么为何收藏古墨被越来越多的人所喜爱呢？     

THE LAW OF ONE PRICE REVISITED: NEW EVIDENCE ON THE BEHAVIOR OF INTERNATIONAL PRICES

This paper is an empirical investigation of the long-run behavior of international prices at the microeconomic level. It analyzes the time-series behavior of a unique set of carefully matched, disaggregated export prices for manufactured goods from the U.S., Gemany, and Japan over the period 1974–90. The results provide little evidence of a long-run linear relationship between global prices of similar export goods from different sources, casting doubts on the empirical relevance of the law of one price.     

THE EFFECTS OF STATE AUTOMOBILE DEALER ENTRY REGULATION ON NEW CAR PRICES

This paper examines the impact of state regulations restricting entry into new car retailing. The central hypothesis is that these regulations create artificial scarcity rents for existing dealers, which are collected through higher car prices. A reduced form multiple regression model is specified with retail price as the dependent variable. The model is estimated using transactions price data for a sample of over 5,000 Chevrolet dealers and seven car lines in 1978. The results confirm the hypothesis that entry restrictions cause higher car prices.     

THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND RISK PERCEPTION ON THE HURRICANE EVACUATION DECISION-MAKING OF GREATER NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS

This article contributes to the current discussion on how residents living in vulnerable areas make the decision to evacuate when they are in harms way. Key in this discussion is the question, what role does information and risk play in shaping evacuation behavior? This study used a sample of respondents from the greater New Orleans region (Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes) of the Twelve Parish Survey (N = 1,207) conducted prior to Hurricane Katrina. The findings indicate that information sources are vitally important in the evacuation process. By examining the role of information from authorities, family, and friends; visual imagery; and the media we found that individuals use a variety of sources when they decide to evacuate. Further, the importance of visual imagery in the evacuation process is discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of information dissemination and its importance to members of the media and public policy makers.     

FRANK KNIGHT ON RISK, UNCERTAINTY, AND THE FIRM: A NEW INTERPRETATION

We attempt to interpret Frank Knight by taking him on his own terms. Among our conclusions are the following. (1)Knight's distinction between risk and uncertainty is not solely a distinction between insurable and uninsurable risk. (2)Knight's explanation for the existence of firms does not reduce to a moral-hazard theory, except perhaps in the broadest and least-interesting sense. And (3) Knight's treatment of the problem of the separation of ownership from control is not as obviously wrong as commentators have made it out to be.     

CRIMINAL DETERRENCE IN THE REDUCED FORM: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON EHRLICH'S SEMINAL STUDY

Ehrlich [1973] is perhaps the best known and most influential study of criminal deterrence. Ehrlich's structural estimation of a three-equation simultaneous system found large and significant direct deterrent effects of penalties on crime rates. However, recent theoretical results show that higher penalties may indirectly increase crime rates by reducing the probability of conviction. Hence, a reduced-form model is needed to learn the total effect of penalties on crime rates. Using such a model, we find that the marginal deterrent effects reported by Ehrlich vanish. This result generates much different policy implications than those widely adopted following Ehrlich's publication.     

TESTING THE THEORY OF THE NEW CLASS

This article tests the theory that a post-industrial economic order gives rise to an elite which has a class interest in the expansion of government: the New Class. Cluster analysis of large national surveys reveals the existence of such a group, identifiable by liberal policy preferences and a pattern of group identifications which clearly distinguish it from the traditional middle and working classes. This New Class is concentrated in the professions, and among those with high levels of education.     

NEW YORK COURSE ON PUBLIC RELATIONS

Dr. Fine, who attended the course described in this, report,has been a staff member of the New York Times for fire years.     

NEW TRENDS IN THE DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP: IMPACTS OF MANAGED CARE ON THE GROWTH OF A CONSUMER PROTECTIONS MODEL

Managed care is prompting a large revision not only in the ways doctors are employed and paid but also in the essence of the relationship between doctors and patients. In medical sociology, a discipline with a long-standing focus on scrutinizing the role of both the physician and the patient, there has already been discussion of a shift from the doctor as more all knowing to a less dominant position vis-a-vis both the patient and delivery of care. Patients are aware of shifts that place physicians in an environment characterized by new roles and responsibilities, such as acting as a gatekeeper. Limitations on health care coverage and the rethinking of roles have led to a depiction of the patient as the consumer of care and the managed care plan's becoming the commercial enterprise from which a service is obtained. The model of the patient as consumer of medically related goods and services appears to be growing, as does a model of the physician as one who contracts for a specified range of services for specific patients. In this article, trends in and problems with contemporary managed care are raised. Calls for patients' rights legislation may be among the health trends of the new millennium.     

THE NEW ECONOMY AND THE AMERICAN DREAM:

Recent decades have seen major changes in economic conditions in the United States, including large-scale layoffs and downsizing, erosion of job quality for some workers, and increased reliance on nonstandard workers. Researchers have investigated the objective contours of this new economy, but few have investigated the consequences of these changes for popular attitudes about economic opportunity. Using data from the 1998 Indiana Survey of Workers in a Polarized Economy (N = 853), I investigate this new economic landscape and its effects on people's views about economic opportunity. I find that job deterioration and experiences with layoffs and job threats are creating pessimism about the American Dream among Indiana workers.