PERFECT COMPETITION, URBANIZATION, AND TAX INCIDENCE IN THE RETAIL GASOLINE MARKET

We use monthly gasoline price data for all 50 U.S. states over the period 1984–1999 to examine the incidence of state gasoline excise taxes. Our estimation results indicate full shifting of gasoline taxes to the final consumer. In addition, although we find that gasoline retail prices demonstrate asymmetric responses to changes in gasoline wholesale prices , we find only limited evidence of such behavior for retail prices with respect to gasoline excise taxes. Finally, we find that gasoline markets in urban states exhibit full shifting, but those in rural states (with less competition) demonstrate somewhat less than full shifting . ( JEL H22)     

International labour migration and tacit knowledge transactions: a multi‐level perspective

Abstract There has been limited research on the role of international migration in the transfer of tacit knowledge, as opposed to skills and capital. In part, this results from lack of engagement between research on migration and that on knowledge and learning, even in debates concerning the relative importance of distanciated versus localized knowledge transfers. However, positioning international migration in relation to the literature on knowledge management opens up new perspectives on its role in the overall transfer of knowledge in the economy. Starting from the premise that all tacit knowledge transactions are socially situated, in this article I set out a multi‐level approach to understanding the role of migrants in knowledge exchanges. The national, the urban and the firm constitute key levels in this study, although these are understood as interfolded rather than as discrete sites of analysis.     

On aligning actions in simple societies

Une récente constatation importante sur l‘état théorique “d'actions alignantes” par Stokes et Hewitt (1976) rernet en question l'applicabilité de ce concept vis à vis de petites sociétés peu différenciées. Tout en critiquant l'approche normative à la relation entre culture et comportement dans les sociétés complexes, ces auteurs sont pourtant contents de se rendre à l'avis d'une telle interprétation des sociétés simples. Nous pensons que cette vue trop simplifiée représente une fausse interprétation de la base de l'ordre social dans de telles sociétés. Quoiqu'ils paraissent stables et ne sernblent pas poser de difficultes, les modèles d'action jointe sont néanrnoins très predisposés aux événements problématiques et au “désalignement.” Cependant tout effort pour rectifier l'alignement prend une forme différente à cause de la nature imposée des attentes qui dérivent de roles et l'emploi d'un code linguistique restreint. L'affirmation publique (verbale et non-verbale) des intérêts collectifs remplace l’élaboration principalement verbale des intérêts individuels, comme un mode prédominant pour faciliter l'action jointe. On illustre cette théorie à partir de l'exemple des Hutterites. An important recent statement on the theoretical status of “aligning actions” by Stokes and Hewitt (1976) demurs on the applicability of the concept to small-scale, relatively undifferentiated societies. While critical of the normative approach to the relationship between culture and conduct in complex societies, these authors are nevertheless content to defer to such an interpretation of simple societies. It is here proposed that this represents an oversimplification and misinterpretation of the basis of social order in such societies. Patterns of joint action, while appearing stable and trouble-free, are still highly susceptible to problematic events and misalignment. Efforts to restore alignment, however, assume a different form due to the imposed nature of role expectations and the use of a restricted linguistic code. Public affirmation (both verbal and nonverbal) of collective interests replaces the largely verbal elaboration of individual interests as a predominant mode of facilitating joint action. The Hutterites are cited as an illustrative case.     

PROFIT AND EXPENDITURE FUNCTIONS IN BASIC PUBLIC FINANCE: AN EXPOSITORY NOTE

This paper demonstrates how profit and expenditure functions may be used to prove fundamental results about deadweight losses suffered by consumers, producers, and resource owners. Losses arising from excise taxes and subsidies are examined and, in the case of a tax, the individual level analysis is extended to the market level in a partial equilibrium setting. In addition, profit and expenditure functions are applied to quantity constraints, two-part tariffs, all-or-nothing choices, and reservation prices. Although no new results are derived, the paper provides motivation for the study of indirect objective functions and duality.     

Occupational status attainments of university graduates: individual attributes and labour market effects compared

Ce document analyse le processus de realisation d'un statut professionnel pour cinq cohortes de diplômés d'université, hommes et femmes, durant la période s'étendant de 1960 à 1976. Après avoir reçu leurs diplômés, les hommes, comparés à leurs homologues féminins, sont parvenus, en general, à un statut professionnel plus élevé, réparti sur une échelle plus large. Les conséquences des differences socio-économiques sur la réalisation d'un statut professionnel se sont avèrées minimes ou insignifiantes pour les deux sexes. Les effets des différences de l'enseignement reçu sur le statut professionnel sont plus grands. Les rendements pour l'étudiant avec une moyenne académique élevée sont les mêmes pour les hommes que pour les femmes. Les hommes qui ont poursuivi de hautes études supérieures ont éprouvé un meilleur rendement de méme que les femmes qui se sont spécialisées en sciences. La condition du marché du travail au moment ou ces étudiants ont obtenu leurs diplômes s'est avérée le facteur le plus déterminant dans la réalisation d'un statut professionnel. L'on maintient que la recherche sur la réalisation d'un statut professionnel a largement négligé les facteurs structurels tels que les conséquences du marché du travail, et sa concentration sur le prestige professionnel a entretenu le déguisement des differences entre les sexes dans la réalisation d'un statut professionnel. This paper analyzes the occupational status attainment process for five cohorts of male and female university graduates spanning the time period 1960 to 1976. When compared to their female counterparts, males on the whole achieve higher occupational status after graduation and experience a wider distribution of status. The effect of socioeconomic variables on occupational attainment are found to be either small or insignificant for both sexes. The effects of educational variables on occupational attainment are greater. The returns to a high undergraduate academic average are similar for males and females; males experience a higher return to graduate study while females experience a larger return to majoring in science. The state of the labour market at time of graduation is found to have the largest effect on occupational status attainment. It is argued that occupational status attainment research has largely neglected such structural factors as labour market effects, and its focus on occupational prestige has tended to mask sex differences in occupational status attainment.     

Informal Networks of Care: Issues Raised by Barclay

Summary In calling for the creation of ‘community social work’,the Barclay Report argues that social workers should aim todevelop informal caring networks. This entails exploiting anindividual's informal social contacts, such as kin, friends,and neighbours, to provide care. This paper firstly examinesthe assumptions and thinking behind the concept of informalcaring networks. It then assesses the feasibility of using differentinformal relations in care provision by analysing the normativepatterning and exchange content underlying them. It concludesthat strategies like Barclay's are unlikely to be successfulbecause they entail a transformation of these relationshipsthat is incompatible with their normal organisation.     

Anthropologists and social involvement: some issues and problems

De plus en plus souvent, les anthropologues interviennent à titre de médiateurs entre les agences gouvernementales et les groupes locaux. En fait, dans diverses régions du monde, ce mêmes anthropologues jouent les rôles inédits de consultants, de défenseurs et de médiateurs. Leurs interventions annoncent l'émergence d'une nouvelle conception du travail anthropologique, ce qui devra entraîner d'importants changements dans la discipline tout entière. Pourtant, bien peu d'analyses récentes ont tenté d'étudier les répercussions, ou même les avantages et les désavantages de cette activité nouvelle des anthropologues.
With increasing regularity anthropologists act as intermediaries in conflict situations, particularly between government agencies and local groups. Anthropologists in diverse areas of the world are enacting new roles as consultants, advocates, and mediators. These activities indicate the emergence of a new conception of anthropological work, and therefore they have important implications for changes in the discipline as a whole. Yet, remarkably little effort has been expended in the literature to anlyze these implications, or on the various advantages and disadvantages that these activities hold for anthropologists.