King, Mary C.
Are African-Americans Losing Their Footholds in Better Jobs?
This paper investigates the hypothesis that bumping–movement down an employment queue to displace a group below-- is the source of the currently observed discrepancy between converging educational levels between blacks and whites and widening racial wage differentials. While African Americans–with the exception of young black men-- do not appear to have lost ground in those industry/occupation cells that pay the most per year of education, young black women and men do appear to have been bumped from positions that pay moderately well for the education required, and into positions with low returns to education. J. Econ. Issues, September, 1998, 32(3), pp. 641-668, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
Orr, Douglas V.
Strategic Bankruptcy and Private Pension Default
Defined pensions induce workers to provide effort today in exchange for future compensation. If firms can default on that deferred compensation, they have extracted labor at no cost. While ERISA made many past techniques for default illegal, new techniques are evolving. Strategic bankruptcy occurs when an otherwise solvent firm precipitates Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the specific purpose of avoiding future liability. This paper discusses the concept of strategic bankruptcy, provides examples of how it is achieved, and argues that firms are likely to use this strategy to default on their pension fund liabilities. J. Econ. Issues, September, 1998, 32(3), pp. 669-688, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA 99004
Eby, Clare Virginia
Veblen’s Assault on Time
As an evolutionary thinker, Thorstein Veblen analyzes change, but as a cultural critic, he examines attempts to deny the movement of time. From this perspective, ideologically motivated misrepresentations of time confuse and betray. Valorizing the future at the expense of the present lulls people into conformity. Psychological lag safeguards the myth of a timeless, unchanging realm. Veblen sought to situate his own work in the fleeting present, but it threatens to elude him and in that, paradoxically, we see his greatest relevance to our own time. J. Econ. Issues, September, 1998,32(3), 689-708, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Fullbrook, Edward
Caroline Foley and the Theory of Intersubjective Demand
In 1893 Caroline Foley argued that when post-subsistence levels of consumption
are reached, the ontological basis of individuals’ demands change, and
so do the structures and dynamics of market demand. She identified various
reasons why, with increasing affluence, consumers’ subjective preferences
become interdependent. In place of neoclassical atomism, Foley offered
the rudiments of a new and broader concept of demand, one which includes
neoclassical theory as a special case. This paper surveys, in the context
of Foley’s contribution, a century of attempts to accommodate, in economic
theory, the dependence of consumer demands on interpersonal factors. J.
Econ. Issues, September, 1998
B8-32(3),pp.709-732, Bristol, England.
Griffin, Robert
What Veblen Owed to Peirce–The Social Theory of Logic
The publication of the Writings of Charles S. Peirce permits a closer
look at studies Thorstein Veblen may have pursued at the Johns Hopkins
University in 1882. It also provides a clearer picture of the indebtedness
of Veblen to the thought of Peirce. After examining the social theory of
logic of Peirce, a comparative study is made of the social theory of logic
of Veblen, its variations on and transformation of the theory of Peirce.
Veblen’s differential transformation of the Peirceian theory has significant
implications for a general theory of culture and economics. J. Econ. Issues,
September, 1998
B8-32(3),733-758, Deerfield Beach, Florida, U.S.A.
Olson, Paulette and Champlin, Dell
Ending Corporate Welfare As We Know It: An Institutional analysis of the Dual Structure of Welfare
While government assistance for individuals at both the federal and state levels of clearly in retreat, government assistance for the business sector appears to enjoy broad public support. The purpose of this paper is to examine the dual structure of welfare through examination of controlling cultural perceptions. Underlying the dual structure is a cultural dualism identified by many feminists in which activities associated with the "economy" attain a higher degree of status and legitimacy than activities associated with the "family." The consequences for corporate welfare are explored. J. Econ. Issues, September, 1998, 32(3),pp. 759-772, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A.; Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, U.S.A.
Levin-Waldman, Oren M.
Exploring the Politics of the Minimum Wage
The minimum wage has important economic consequences, but is above all a political issue. The purposes of this paper is examination of a variety of political issues, including the political choice of economic models of analysis, the importance of "right-to-work" laws, and the role of party affiliation in voting patterns. J. Econ. Issues, September, 1998, 32(3),pp. 773-802, Jerome Levy Economics Institute and Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, U.S.A.
Christopher Brown
Rise of the Institutional Equity Funds: Implications for Managerialism
Surveys the growth of the institutional/equity funds, analyzes incentives to activism and the feasibility of coordinated action by large shareholders, and examines the role of investing institutions in bringing about the downsizing of firms such as Eastman Kodak. Expanding concentration of control over corporate equity, in combination with rules changes has enhanced the feasibility of shareholder activism. This has led to firms to put greater emphasis on shareholder value which has led to stock buy backs, downsizing, and re-engineering. J. Econ. Issues, September, 1998, 32(3), pp.803-821, Arkansas State University, State University, Arkansas, U.S.A.
Last Updated on February 12, 1999