On the Internal Contradictions of the Law of One Price

As stated originally, the venerable law of one price succinctly describes long-run equilibrium in a perfectly competitive market. The law was later amended, defining a market as the geographic area within which the same thing sells for the same price at the same time, allowance being made for transportation costs. Modified in that way, the law has two plausible interpretations. By one interpretation, every production site is a market. By the other, prices in fact do not differ by transportation costs. The transportation-cost amendment thus introduces internal contradictions that render the revised law of one price either useless or wrong.     

Deferred Legacy! The Continued Marginalization of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory

Between 1895 and 1917 the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory made substantial contributions to the discipline of sociology, including the establishment of the first American school of sociology, institutionalization of method triangulation, institutionalization of the insider researcher, and institutionalization of the public acknowledgment of one's research. Despite these contributions that predate the Chicago School, the W. E. B. Du Bois led laboratory remains in the margins of American sociological discourse. This paper examines the contributions of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, offers explanations for the school's more than 100-year marginalization and examines its legacy in the discipline.     

UNTIMELY ACTS

Interactionists and labelling theorists have made actors central to a jointly constructed process of deviance. This article extends their arguments to the deviant act itself and suggests how uses and conceptions of time and temporality distinguish deviant acts from routine or other unconventional acts. It treats time systematically in relation to designations of deviance by, first, correlating timing with temporal structures; second, comparing and contrasting deviant acts with untoward and anomalous acts; third, discussing nine temporal dimensions involved in the construction of deviant acts by illustrating how diagnosticians identify problematic drinking; fourth, elaborating the use of these dimensions to deviance in general and to issues of legal and "universal wrongs" which imply a negotiated moral order in modern society.     

Pathological gambling: Marital-familial factors,implications, and treatments

The literature relating marital/familial factors to pathological gambling is reviewed. It is pointed out that numerous authors who focus on individual factors note the existence of marital problems in their patients. Additionally, improvements in the marriage often follow successful treatment for pathological gambling. Marital therapy has proven to be an effective intervention for this problem in many cases.The material in this article was abstracted from the author's chapter on pathological gambling which was prepared forThe Addictions: Differential Treatments, edited by L'Abate, Farrar, and Serritella (in preparation).     

Uses of Probabilistic Exposure Models in Ecological Risk Assessments of Contaminated Sites

Food web models have two uses in assessments of environmental contaminants. First, they are used to determine whether remediation is needed by estimating exposure of end-point species and subsequent effects. Second, they are used to establish cleanup goals by estimating concentrations of contaminants in ambient media that will not cause significant effects. This paper demonstrates how achievement of these goals can be enhanced by the use of stochastic food web models. The models simulate the dynamics of PCBs and mercury in the food webs of mink and great blue herons. All parameters of the models are treated as having knowledge uncertainty, due to imperfect knowledge of the actual parameter values for the site, chemicals, and species of interest. This uncertainty is an indicator of the potential value of additional measurements. In addition, those parameters that are responsible for variance among individual organisms are assigned stochastic uncertainty. This uncertainty indicates the range of body burdens that are expected when the end-point species are monitored. These two types of uncertainty are separately accounted for in Monte Carlo simulations of the models. Preliminary monitoring results indicate that the models give reasonably good estimates of heron egg and nestling body burdens and of variance among individuals.     

CORPORATE CHARTERING: AN EXPLORATION IN THE ECONOMICS OF LEGAL CHANGE

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the market for corporate charters was deregulated as states replaced special chartering with incorporation under general laws. This paper explores the pattern of deregulation across states within the context of the interest-group theory of government. The empirical results show that legal change tended to occur first in states where the stake in deregulation was greatest, and where the costs of lobbying for "liberal" corporation codes were low. Innovations in law can thus be explained by the same benefit-cost calculus that describes economic innovation.     

The Economic Impacts of a Terrorist Attack on the U.S. Commercial Aviation System

We use data on air passenger travel expenditures per passenger as well as statistical analysis of the air traffic lost for the two-year aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks to estimate direct demand losses for air transportation services. These are used along with a national input-output model to assess the full costs of these losses. Depending on assumptions made, the full losses to the U.S. economy were between $214.3 and $420.5 billion. These estimates are similar to those from other studies of such an event, and suggest that the high costs of effective countermeasures may be justified.     

How Good Are Networks for Migrant Job Seekers? Ethnographic Evidence from North Carolina Farm Labor* Camps

Migrant farmworker networks are vital components in their job seeking and underemployment minimization strategies. Yet, farmworker cultural, physical, and institutional isolation along with the itinerant and clandestine features of farmwork have become major obstacles in the development of robust lateral communitywide network ties that would otherwise favor reciprocity and resource sharing. Thus, contrary to the positive social capital assumption, we argue that the paucity and fragmented features of farmworkers’ lateral ties have increased their vulnerability and locked them in exploitative relationships in a hostile social environment that makes impractical or impossible the formation of alternative ties. Our study is based on participant observation through a 6‐week stay in three North Carolina farm labor camps. On‐site evidence shows that the two larger groups of solitary male farmworkers and farmworking families break up into smaller groups, each group in pursuit of its own short‐term goals. We conclude that, even though farmworker networks help them to find and ensure temporary jobs, their inability to use the networks to share resources is ultimately detrimental for participants’ long‐term socioeconomic prospects.     

HOTEL DEMAND BEFORE,DURING, AND AFTER SPORTS EVENTS: EVIDENCE FROM CHARLOTTE,NORTH CAROLINA

This paper uses daily hotel occupancy data to examine the effects of a wide variety of political and sporting events on the hotel room market of Charlotte, North Carolina from 2005 to 2014. Two political conventions and NASCAR auto races are associated with large increases in hotel occupancy, prices, and revenue, but many other events have no discernable effect on Charlotte's hotel market. The results also indicate that occupancy effects before or after most events are modest at best. Back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations show incremental hotel‐tax receipts fall short of the debt service incurred in constructing and maintaining the city's sports venues. (JEL H71, Z23, Z28)     

Get a job and keep it! High school employment and adult wealth accumulation

Wealth inequality receives substantial scholarly attention, but mounting evidence suggests that childhood and adolescent traits and experiences contribute to financial disparities in the United States. This study examines the relationship between adolescent labor force participation and adult wealth accumulation. I argue that employed high school students gain practical life skills, abilities, and knowledge from work experience and business exposure that shape investment decisions and affect overall net worth. I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort, to empirically explore this idea. This study extends the wealth literature by identifying adolescent employment as an important mechanism that improves adult net worth and financial well-being.