SOME ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF ANTICIPATING TECHNICAL ADVANCE

Using a simple model of a long run profit maximizing firm, we investigated the consequences of foreseeing future technical advance upon the adoption of new technology, scrapping of old, and for price and output of the firm's product. To simplify the analysis and highlight the conclusions, we assumed all technologies embodied in equipment and all equipment infinitely durable. It was shown that the often-used formulas for the unit cost of using capital over a finite (rkj/(l — a^T)) or infinite (rkj) life are appropriate only if the equipment does not become outmoded during its economic life and if there are no demand shifts in that time interval. Otherwise, the current cost of using capital (ex ante) must reflect future lesser or greater earning power of that capital due to outmodedness or demand shifts. Anticipation of technical advance tends to delay scrapping of old equipment and retard installation of new, with current output smaller and price higher than if technology is stagnant. Selection among currently competing technologies is also affected by the course future technical advance is expected to follow. The economic lifetime of capital equipment is independent of the elasticity of demand for the firm's output. On the other hand anticipation of demand expansion tends to partially or wholly offset the effect of anticipating future technical advance, while expected demand decline tends to reinforce it. Uncertainty about when improved technology will appear tends to retard adoption of current best practice technology, to retard scrapping of outmoded technology, restrict output and elevate price, in comparison with pptimal policy when the time of availability is believed known. The optimal policy is unaffected when it is the magnitude of the improvement rather than its timing which is unknown.     

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NATIVITY WEALTH GAP*

We investigate the relative wealth position of immigrant households residing in Australia, Germany, and the United States. In Germany and the United States, wealth differentials stem from differences in the educational attainment and demographic characteristics of the native and immigrant populations, rather than income differentials. In contrast, the small nativity wealth gap in Australia exists because immigrants to Australia do not translate their relative educational and demographic advantage into a wealth advantage. Overall, we find substantial disparity in the economic well‐being of immigrant and native families which is largely consistent with domestic labor markets and immigration policies. (JEL F22, D31)     

EMPIRICAL UTILITY FUNCTIONS AND RANDOM DEVICES: AN EXPERIMENT

The primary purpose of the present experiment was to examine the effects on the empirical derivation of executive's utility functions caused by the use of random device analogues. The results indicate that utility functions obtained using a random device analogue imply more risk aversion than when these functions are determined by simulating actual decision situations. Furthermore, there is also evidence that the bias is directly related to the monetary amounts involved.     

ANTITRUST POLICY AND MERGERS: THE WEALTH EFFECT OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Many believe that antitrust policy has had a dramatic impact on merger strategies in the United States. For this to be true, enforcement of antitrust laws must affect a wide range of firms, not just those firms whose mergers are contested. This study tests whether or not firms engaged in uncontested mergers are affected by antitrust enforcement, as signalled by Supreme Court decisions. Using event study methodology, we find that antitrust policy against mergers was binding during the 1960s and 1970s as it ulowered the value of targets in ucontested ongoing mergers.     

THE SUPPLY OF CHILDREN'S TIME TO DISABLED ELDERLY PARENTS

This study develops and tests a model of supply of children's time to disabled elderly parents, using data from the National Long-Term Care Survey. The model, which assumes strategic behavior among relatives, offers predictions about effects of changes in the price of paid personal care, parent's wealth, kid's wage rates, public in-kind subsidies of personal care, and parent's relative bargaining power on care provided by children. Although several statistically significant relationships are obtained, the evidence does not generally indicate that children's provision of care to parents is guided by a strategic bequest motive.     

Dividing the wealth, sharing the poverty: the (re)formation of 'family' in law in Ontario

Depuis dix ans, le droit de la famille en Ontario a subi un procès de (ré)formation qui a redéfini de façon significative les droits et devoirs légaux des membres des families en ce qui a trait à la propriété et au soutien. A la lumière ďune analyse serrée des transformations du discours légal (tant celui des statuts que celui des juges) sur ľidéal d'égalité des époux, on constate que la position des femmes (et de leurs dépendants) s'est modifiée sans pour autant s'améliorer. Une analyse féministe de ces (ré)formes suggère que si Ton veut parvenir àľégalité entre les sexes, les relations entre époux doivent être repensées en termes de relations de travail. Les intérêts collectifs des femmes et des enfants sans soutien économique des hommes seront alors le point ďancrage pour 1'analyse et la menée de la lutte de sexes et de classes au sein de ľEtat.
Over the past decade, family law in Ontario has undergone processes of (re)formation which have significantly redefined the legal rights and responsibilities of family members with respect to property and support. A close analysis of shifts in discourse in both statute and judge-made law in terms of the ideal of 'equality' of spouses reveals that the position of women (and their dependent children), while significantly altered, remains essentially unimproved. A feminist interpretation of these (re)forms suggests that, in order to achieve gender equity, 'spousal' relationships must be rethought in a framework of labour negotiations, taking the collective interests of women-and-children-without-the-economic-support-of-men as the vantage point for analysing and waging both class and gender struggles within the State.