David E. Kaun

Negro Migration and Unemployment

In this article an effort is made to show that while the pattern of Negro migration 1955-60 conforms to economic rationality based on income maximization, this pattern of migration is not responsive to reported unemployment rate differentials. A brief review of past migration is followed by a comparison of actual migration out of the South with a hypothetical distribution among states based on the goal of unemployment minimization. Multiple regression analyses are applied to 93 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas, utilizing measures of income, welfare payments, past employment growth, population size, and unemployment. All but the latter variable appear to have significant influence on migration patterns.

Lying as standard operating procedure: Deception in the weapons testing process

Abstract The Supreme Court, in Boyle vs. United Technology (1988), limited the ability of citizens to sue private defense contractors. The core reasoning assumed a high degree of honesty in the procurement process, and in particular in the weapons testing program. The extent to which we should expect such candor is examined, from the perspective of neoclassical economics and from the broader views derived from social-science and philosophical literature. The neoclassical view that honesty should be treated within the narrow context of profit-maximizing behavior seems most suited to an analysis of the joint contractor-DOD relationship. That such an approach is warranted is born out by the long history of distorted testing procedures and the repeated recognition of such dissembling. Data supporting this conclusion is analyzed.

The power of Babel

Abstract In this paper, I seek to determine the extent to which a particular form of information—the published book review—is helpful in public policy discussion. In pursuing this question a number of reviews dealing with recent critiques of American education are analyzed. The works of Bloom, D’Souza, Moe et al.—studies funded by ideologically conservative foundations—offer a seemingly respectable underpinning for the efforts to eliminate all aspects of affirmative action in higher education, while installing “choice” in the lower grades. Thoughtful critiques of these jeremiad-like works are all but ignored by the mainstream media. The review sources themselves, conservative, liberal, and academic, do follow a predictable pattern. However, an analysis of the totality of reviews considered reveals a cacophony of voices, many as partisan as the authors under review. It is argued that the original works, in substance and tone, along with the secondary analysis available to the interested public are unlikely to promote a thoughtful “democratic-friendly” dialogue. To this extent, the public policy is likely to be ill-informed. Present funding sources available to many in the social sciences suggest that an improvement in this situation will not come easily.

What does economic freedom buy

Abstract The debate regarding “positive” versus “negative” freedom is discussed in terms of past theoretical and empirical studies. This is followed by an analysis of the impact of “negative” freedom, using a recently developed index of economic freedom for each of the 50 U.S. states allowing for an analysis of otherwise quite homogenous political entities, an advantage not realizable in previous international comparisons. Using several indicators of social well-being, the analysis suggests that the minimalist government aspects of negative freedom are often perversely related to other conditions of well-being, across states, and by implication among nations. Further, it is argued that such an adverse relationship may well flow from the behavior patterns embodied in and encouraged by a single-minded focus on negative freedom.