MIGHT MAKES RIGHTS: A THEORY OF THE FORMATION AND INITIAL DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS

This paper is a theoretical and empirical investigation into the formation and initial distribution of property rights. Violence is singled out as a major constraint on this formation process. Its role is explicitly modeled in a choice theoretic framework and some of the implications are tested using data collected from contracts written during the California gold rush of 1848.     

RESPONSE LATENCY AS A SIGNAL TO QUESTION PROBLEMS IN SURVEY RESEARCH

This research explores the potential utility of response latencyas an index of question problems in survey research. The timerespondents took to answer three types of bad questions wascompared to the time they took to answer the repaired versionsof the questions. Questions containing a superfluous negativeand double-barreled questions took longer to answer than nearlyidentical questions without these problems. Repaired versionsof questions soliciting frequency estimates, however, took longerto answer than their problematic counter parts. The resultsare discussed in the context of a model of question answering,and their implications for survey methodology are explored.     

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.     

A Structuralist Interpretation of the Fishbeinian Model of Intention

The traditional paradigm for research relating to the Fishbeinian model of intention is described and some of its limitations are discussed. A structuralist interpretation of the Fishbeinian equation is then put forward from the standpoint of the ethogenic perspective advocated by Harré and Secord. Each component of the Fishbeinian equation is assumed to be the symbolic expression of an account (or accounts) which is attributable to the agent and relates to the act in question. The equation as a whole is then interpreted as a rule governing the intelligibility of a cluster of such accounts. Empirical studies are reported which examine the consequences of transgressing the rule of intelligibility and which use instances of transgression as a means to theoretical development. In this development, the importance of the executive facet of action is acknowledged by utilising Abelson's schemes for the representation of plans. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion as to how this radically different conceptual and methodological approach might be used in future research on the intention-behaviour relation.     

ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SAMPLE MEAN AND TRANSLATION-INVARIANT STATISTICS FOR MATRIX NORMAL DISTRIBUTIONS

We present an explicit characterization of the joint dependency structure of an n×p matrix normal random matrix such that the p-dimensional sample mean vector is independent of all translation invariant statistics.     

A CLEAR AND PRESENT MINORITY: HETEROGENEITY IN THE SOURCE OF ENDOWMENTS AND THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC GOODS

We conduct public goods experiments in which participant groups are heterogeneous in regards to the source of their endowments. We find that this dimension of heterogeneity significantly reduces contributions to the public good, yielding strong support for the Nash prediction of minimal contributions. These minimal contributions arise in environments in which there exists a clear minority in terms of source of endowments. We discuss these results in light of current research on the influence of heterogeneous populations on public goods provision and redistributive policies. (JEL C9, D63, H4, J15)