A STUDY OF AUTOMOBILE INVENTORY INVESTMENT

The volatile fluctuations in automobile inventory levels are explained well by the stock-adjustment model estimated in this paper on monthly time-series data. In contrast to the findings of most previous inventory studies, fluctuations in financial inventory carrying costs (as measured by a service cost of capital) are found to influence the target auto stocks in both a statistically significant and economically important manner. Also, the speed-of-adjustment of automobile inventories to their target level is estimated to be relatively fast, about thirty percent per month.     

RACE AND HOME OWNERSHIP: IS DISCRIMINATION DISAPPEARING?

Racial differentials in home ownership rates are examined using data on households in the twenty-four largest metropolitan areas. considerable recent reduction in racial discrimination is indicatd, in contrast to the findings of a previous analysis of the St. Louis housing market. The results are maintained under a number of modifications of the model and estimation technique.     

PAID- VERSUS DONATED-MEDIA STRATEGIES FOR PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT CAMPAIGNS

Public service announcement (PSA) campaigns have traditionallyrelied on donated rather than paid advertising media. Recently,however, both government agencies and charitable or ganizationshave questioned whether donated-media strategies should be abandonedfor paid-media PSA campaigns. The present research examinesthis issue in a three-market field experiment comparing theeffectiveness of "paid versus donated" PSA cam paigns in decreasingyouthful male drinking and driving. Depen dent variables include(1) self-reports of behaviors from sample surveys and (2) officialcounts of incapacitating and fatal highway accidents. Resultsshow that both campaigns were equally effec tive and both werecost efficient. Thus, in light of these results, it is recommendedthat social marketers not abandon donated-media PSA campaignsfor paid-media PSA campaigns.     

MEASURING CRACK COCAINE AND ITS IMPACT

Numerous social indicators turned negative for Blacks in the 1980s and rebounded a decade later. We explore whether crack cocaine explains these patterns. Absent a direct measure, we construct a crack prevalence index using multiple proxies. Our index reproduces spatial and temporal patterns described in ethnographic accounts of the crack epidemic. It explains much of the 1980s rise in Black youth homicide and more moderate increases in adverse birth outcomes. Although our index remains high through the 1990s, crack's deleterious social impact fades. Changes over time in behavior, crack markets, and the user population may have mitigated crack's damaging impacts. (JEL K42, J15, I30)     

ECONOMIC REGULATION IN MERCANTILE EENGLAND: HECKSCHER REVISITED

The gradual evolution to free enterprise in England, which became quite pronounced about the time of Adam Smith, is explained in this paper in terms of institutional changes in the rent-seeking society of mercantile England. In this explanation the role of ideas and influential writers is seen as subsidiary to the role of real economic and institutional forces in producing historical outcomes. Moreover, a major feature of our rent-seeking interpretation is that the poor design and competition for control of the mercantile regulatory process unintentionally helped bring about the institutional changes which made rent seeking and economic regulation by the central government less feasible.
"a part of that force which always intends evil 4und always creates good"— Goethe, Faust.     

FIRM MARKET SHARE, PRICE FLEXIBILITY, AND IMPERFECT INFORMATION

This paper argues that firms with larger market shares will be relatively better informed about demand conditions. The main implications are 1) more rapid price adjustments in concentrated industries, 2) price leadership in industries with dominant firms, and 3) price setting behavior by the concentrated side of the market.