THE INFLUENCE OF ECONOMICS ON ANTITRUST LAW

Economists today play prominent roles in formulating antitrust policy and litigating antitrust cases. This paper explains why economics influences antitrust law and describes how economic theories enter and shape the antitrust system. Antitrust policy and doctrine change over time in response to developments in economic theory, and the decentralization of the antitrust adjudication system and the wide latitude accorded judges in interpreting antitrust statutes ensure that legal rules will reflect advances in the economic literature concerning the appropriate content of standards governing business conduct.     

ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULING POLICIES FOR HOSPITAL NURSES

The persistent shortage of nurses adversely affects the productivity, quality of care, and operating costs in most acute care hospitals. Aggravating the shortage are high nurse turnover rates, approaching 200% in some institutions. Policies to ensure adequate staffing levels and provide more attractive work schedules are alleged to improve nurse retention. However, their cost is seldom discussed. We compared expected nursing expense and workforce requirements to staff eight medical and surgical nursing units of a large hospital for 1 month, under 12 different scheduling policies alleged to improve turnover. Using simulation and an integrated staffing and scheduling methodology, we found that the expected nursing wages and workforce requirements for some policies differed by as much as 33%. In this hospital, the expected labor costs for certain policies could erode the benefits expected from improved retention. In contrast, other policies appear to allow high utilization of nursing resources, enhancing the expected benefits of reduced turnover with significant reductions in expenses for labor, recruiting, training, and fringe benefits.     

THE TAXPAYER RELIEF ACT OF 1997 AND HOMEOWNERSHIP: IS SMALLER NOW BETTER?

Prior to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA97), the capital gain from the sale of a home was taxed differently for those over and under the age of 55. TRA97 eliminated this differential treatment. Using a difference‐in‐difference approach, we find that home sellers slightly under the age of 55 were 6.2% more likely to move for a less expensive house to maintain, 6.6% less likely to move for a larger place, and 5.2% more likely to reside in a condominium after TRA97's enactment, relative to those slightly over 55. (JEL H24, R21)     

THE MAKING OF MONETARY POLICY: DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS*

At the present time Federal Reserve policy-making may be viewed as having a two-part structure. First, based on a four to eight quarter economic forecast, the Fed selects a target rate of money growth. Second, based on a short-term money market forecast, the Fed selects a Federal funds rate range thought to be consistent with the money growth target. The procedure followed in selecting the money growth target is “state-of-the-art” but the policy implementation based on controlling the Federal funds rate has permitted an undesirable pro-cyclical behavior of the money stock.