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  Working Paper No. 48

  The Economic Significance of Equity Capital

  I was motivated to address this subject by the rich irony of last year’s Nobel Prize in Economics. The end of the LBO era was crowned by the recognition of work which purported to demonstrate that the value of an enterprise is independent of the volume of its debt. In response, this paper is an […]
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  Working Paper No. 47

  Financial Disturbances and Depressions

  Events of the past quarter century have renewed the interest of economic historians in major financial disturbances. The study of financial crises was common before World War II, but for the next quarter century little fresh work was done in the area. The chief exception was J. K. Galbraith’s The Great Crash. 1929 (1954). Then […]
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  Working Paper No. 46

  Redistribution through Taxation

  Income tax progressivity is studied using Generalized Entropy measures of inequality. Luxembourg Income Study data sets for ten countries are used for international comparative purposes and analysis. Progressivity indices are generated using the Generalized Entropy family as well as Atkinson measures. This is to test the robustness of our observation of tax progressivity in each […]
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  Working Paper No. 45

  Female-headed Families

  Over the last few decades in the United States, the poverty rate for female-headed families (with no husband present) has been about three times the poverty rate for male-headed families (with no wife present) and about six times the poverty rate for married-couple families. This paper addresses the question of why, in general, female-headed families […]
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  Working Paper No. 44

  Accounting for the Decline in Private Sector Unionization

  During the 1980s several qualitative changes occurred in the union decline. First, net gains from certification (less decertification) elections fell to insignificant levels, tending to accelerate the union decline. On the other hand, union losses from the relative growth of nonunion services (structural change) also declined sharply as unionization rates became more homogeneous across sectors. […]
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  Working Paper No. 43

  International Comparison of Household Inequalities

  This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the decomposability property of the Generalized Entropy (GE) family of measures in comparing inequality among countries. A family of Generalized Entropy measures are decomposed by family size and by the household head’s age, gender, education, and ethnicity. This is done in order to learn about components which are due […]
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  Working Paper No. 42

  Poverty and Choice of Marital Status

  Over the last few decades in the United States, the poverty rate for female-headed families has been about five times the poverty rate for other family types. This paper addresses the question of why, in general, female-headed families are so much poorer than other families. Recognizing that individuals choose their own marital status, a self-selection […]
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  Working Paper No. 41

  Generalized Entropy Measures of Long-run Inequality and Stability among Male Headed Households

  Short and long-run inequalities and income stability among households with male heads are measured and analyzed using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for 1969–81. The results suggest short-run inequalities are increasing over the period with fluctuations. These fluctuations contain transitory components which can be eliminated by smoothing of the data. Long-run measures are less […]
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  Working Paper No. 40

  A Kernel Regression of Phillips’ Data

  Economists have assumed that the Phillips curve, which shows a positive (negative) relation between inflation and the output ratio (unemployment rate), may be mapped off the aggregate demand -aggregate supply apparatus. The paper shows that the Phillips curve requires that unlikely restrictions be put on the form of the aggregate supply and aggregate demand curves. […]
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  Working Paper No. 39

  Poverty and Household Composition

  This paper has investigated the relationship between poverty and family type, as reflected in the marital status and gender of the head of the family number of factors have been identified as important determinants of poverty for all family types: education and work experience of family members, race, disability, and unemployment of the family head, […]
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  Working Paper No. 38

  The Mathematics of Economic Growth

  Traditionally, economists have considered that mathematics acts as a universal language that lends clarity to theoretical statements. This paper proposes that mathematics does not function as a mere language. Rather, the advocacy of particular theoretical views and the choice of mathematical formalisms go hand-in-hand. The paper explores this issue by investigating the role of mathematics […]
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  Working Paper No. 37

  What Happened to the Corporate Profit Tax?

  The radical reorientation of the federal budget during the 1980s provided generously for military expansion at the expense of pressing social needs. In the wake of such dramatic upheavals, the federal government will eventually be compelled to seek out new sources of revenue in order to compensate for the decade of neglect. But where will […]