Constitutional Philosophy,Pragmatism, and Economic Regulation*

This article explores the various senses in which the framers of the Constitution were motivated by a pragmatist philosophical framework, and how this pragmatism influenced their vision of the best interests of the American economic system. We argue that, on various grounds, the framers would have disapproved of the excessive regulation that characterizes the current business environment.     

A TEST FOR THE DETECTION OF A POISSON PROCESS

A statistical test is presented to detect the presence of a Poisson input source into a queueing system. The fact that the arrival times of a Poisson input source are distributed independently and uniformly over time is used in conjunction with the central limit theorem to develop a test, based on the sum of the arrival times over a given interval of time, for the hypothesis that an input source into a queueing system is Poisson. Failure to reject this hypothesis gives one an extra degree of assurance that traditional queueing models assuming a Poisson input are applicable.     

AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF RIOT PARTICIPATION

This paper examines the behavior of riot participants in the context of an expected utility maximization model. The basic hypothesis is that a riot presents the participants with a constantly changing set of opportunities, and that their behavior can only be understood in light of these changing returns and costs. The model is tested using data collected by the National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders. The results are consistent with the hypothesis of maximizing behavior.     

MINIMUM WAGE EFFECTS WITH OUTPUT STABILIZATION

What are the effects of legal minimum wage rates on the U.S. economy? Does minimum wage legislation promote the economic self-interest of high wage union labor and impede the economic self-interest of capitalists as our earlier research [Cox and Oaxaca 1982] suggested? This paper uses a nine sector econometric/simulation model of U.S. industry from 1975–1978 to answer these questions in the context of stabilization policies which hold aggregate real output constant. While most simulated percentage effects are small, those for the unskilled workers themselves are not. A 15.7 percent increase in the average nominal wage rate of unskilled labor, as a result of minimum wage legislation, produced an 11 percent decrease in unskilled employment, 2.2 million jobs lost, while increasing the real wage of unskilled workers by 15 percent. Simulated changes in several key variables support our earlier observations that the self-interests of labor unions, with skilled workers, conflict with those of capitalists over the issue of minimum wage legislation.     

RACE PREJUDICE AND RACISM: A DISTINCTION

Jusqu'à tout récemment, les auteurs n'essayaient pas de clarifier la difference entre les notions de racisme et de préjudice racial. Les deux expressions sont souvent interchangées. Comme l'ont indiqué certains critiques, les idées de racisme et de préjudice racial ne sont pas les mêmes. Afin de distinguer entre ces deux topiques, l'hypothèse qu'il n'existe pas de relation entre les mesures empiriques des deux idées a été mise a l'épreuve. On s'est servi de mesures autonomes pour définir enfin la dimension affective concernant l'attitude du préjudice racial. Les conclusions suggèrent que les deux idées ne sont pas étroitement reliées quand elles sont mesurées par des questions-type Likert. Toutefois, ces mêmes idées sont étroitement reliées quand elles sont mesurées par des indicateurs autonomes d'éveillement affectif.
Until recently authors have made little attempt at clarifying the differences between the concepts of racism and race prejudice. The two terms have often been used interchangeably. As a few contemporary critics have pointed out, the concepts of racism and race prejudice may not be the same. In order to distinguish between racism and race prejudice, the hypothesis that there is no relationship between empirical measures of the two concepts was tested. Autonomic measures were used to operationally define the affective dimension of the attitude: race prejudice. Findings suggest that the two concepts are not closely associated when measured by Likert-type questions, but closely associated when measured by autonomic indicators of affective arousal.     

Reinserting the professional into the study of globalizing professional service firms: the case of law

Abstract In discussions of the globalization of professional service firms there is an increasing recognition that understanding the ‘social construction’ of organizational architectures is essential. In this article we argue, using the management of transnational law firms as an example, that to understand effectively these social constructions we must reincorporate an understanding of the principles of professionalism into discussions. We highlight the importance of occupational autonomy to professionals and how this is likely to influence the strategies that global professional service firms use. We also point to what we term the ‘varieties of professionalism’ and the spatially variable professional projects that underlie the values and identities of lawyers. This reveals the way rational and efficient forms of organizing have to be adapted as a result of professional values and the diverse ideals and beliefs of lawyers in different international jurisdictions.     

ANTI-SEMITIC ATTITUDES OF THE MASS PUBLIC: ESTIMATES AND EXPLANATIONS BASED ON A SURVEY OF THE MOSCOW OBLAST

In this article we examine anti-Semitism as expressed by a sampleof residents of the Moscow Oblast (Soviet Union). Based on asurvey conducted in 1920, we begin by describing anti-Jewishprejudice and support for official discrimination against Jews.We discover a surprisingly low level of expressed anti-Semitismamong these Soviet respondents and virtually no support forstate policies that discriminate against Jews. At the same time,many of the conventional hypotheses predicting anti-Semitismare supported in the Soviet case. Anti-Semitism is concentratedamong those with lower levels of education, those whose personalfinancial condition is deteriorating, and those who oppose furtherdemocratization of the Soviet Union. We do not take these findingsas evidence that anti-Semitism is a trivial problem in the SovietUnion but, rather, suggest that efforts to combat anti-Jewishmovements would likely receive considerable support from ordinarySoviet people.     

NOMINAL COSTS AND THE DEMAND FOR REAL TRANSACTIONS BALANCES

The standard specification of constant real transactions costs assumes that over the sample period transactions costs move in lock-step with the GNP deflator; our model assumes that transactions costs move negligibly compared to the GNP deflator. That is, nominal transactions costs are assumed constant here rather than real transactions costs as in other estimates of money demand. We find with this nominal-transactions-cost specification that the real money demand function is more stable in terms of the stability of the coefficients and the accuracy of out of sample predictions than indicated by earlier studies.