Bruno S. Frey

Political participation and income level: An exchange

Let us first consider voting behavior. Freys explanation seems to imply one (or more) of several things: (1) that high income individuals are more efficient in the consummation of voting, where the act includes getting to the polling place, deciding upon whom to vote for, etc.; (2) that voting involves activities somewhat akin to those undertaken by high income individuals in the course of their daily business; or (3) that high income occupations involve relatively higher mental effort and lower physical effort than low income occupations.

‘Politico-Econometrics’—On Estimation in Political Economy

1. In recent years the study of the relationships between the economic and political systems has received increasing attention at the theoretical level.’ However there has been relatively little study of the empirical side, particularly with somewhat more than the most simple statistical techniques. The recent article by Goodhart and Bhansali in this journal2 concentrating on measurement therefore commands much attention. It is the most important contribution yet published in this new field which may be called ‘politico-econometrics’. 2. The two authors seek to examine empirically the impact of economic conditions on party popularity. The economic variables entering the estimation are the well-known ‘general goals of an economy’, given by such indices as unemployment rate, growth rate of prices, and real growth rate of income. Party popularity is measured by indices derived from regular monthly sample surveys by Gallup and National Opinion Poll. The statistical methods used by Goodhart and Bhansali are

A Roundtable on Foreign Aid Weapon Exports and Aid to Developing Countries

The goal of the rich countries should be to aid the poor countries to increase their standard of living but not to increase their holdings of weapons. It is shown that a basic dilemma arises. The structure of “consumption” of the recipient countries cannot be influenced by giving aid in the form of (civilian) goods rather than untied foreign exchange. The consumption of civilian goods can be increased by granting a price-subsidy but this leads to a smaller increase in utility than obtained with a transfer in money or kind. Transfers of goods with restricted substitutability and “all-or-none” schemes are suggested to overcome these conflicts, but they imply an interference with the internal affairs of the poor countries.