Harold J. Barnett

Discounting Surgical Benefits Enucleation versus Resection of the Prostate

This manuscript introduces and demonstrates a modification of the popular cost-effectiveness methodology. Because arbitrarily selected discount rates for future health effects can radically change the cost-effect ratio, the determinants of the ratio—differences in the present values of effects and costs—are examined for a wide range of discount rates. Treatment selection then follows directly from explicit judgments about expected patient longevity and appropriate combinations of cost and effect discount rates. The decision to select resection or enucleation of a benign prostatic hypertrophy is developed with data from a small number of clinical patients from Washington University.

Economic growth and environmental quality are compatible

Mans relationship to the natural environment and natures influence upon human life are among the oldest topics of speculation. Until modern times the major reason for concern was the prospect of “diminishing returns.” It was thought that population and economic growth would press against natural resource limits, and that economic welfare would fall to subsistence levels.In modern times in developed nations the prospect of “diminishing returns” has been avoided. Population increase has abated to rates which promise stability in population numbers. Technology, capital accumulation, and improvements in labor force have yielded “increasing returns.” Per capita output grows at 2 or 3 % per year.The modern concern is quality of environment and quality of life. The technology, industrialization and agglomeration which have yielded increasing returns of goods per capita have side effects. These are pollution and crowding, increased needs for public goods, expanded monopoly in the market places, and dilemmas of choice from affluence. The task for modern societies is to bend their enlarged technology and productive power to improving quality of environment and, more generally, quality of life.

Regulating CATV Systems: An Analysis of FCC Policy and an Alternative

CATV systems, like negotiable certificates of deposit and containerized rail transportation, hold a special place in the hearts of those who believe in free markets. All are innovations which developed before the government regulators of the respective industries knew quite what was happening. The innovators saw gaps in the existing services and-attracted of course by the opportunity to earn good rewardsremedied these by utilizing rather ordinary technology in an ingenious fashion. With his faith in the market revived by such innovations, why would an economist ever recommend regulation? In certain situations, a free market is likely to produce undesirable results. In some of these cases, it may be possible to introduce regulations on the industry to improve its performance.1 There are several points to note about this economics approach to regulation:

Research and Development, Economic Growth, and National Security

Vital interest exists today in government research and development. Thinking people will discuss the underly ing causes for the new interest. They may question, as Dr. Barnett does, the prevalent belief that research and develop ment can be equated with economic transformation or that an increase in economic growth necessitates only an increase in government-sponsored research and development efforts. Ac cepting the fact that a correlation exists between research and development and economic growth, it is necessary to examine the paths open to the government in selecting its policy. Does not the uncertainty involved in research for future military innovations demand a recognition that multiple paths must be tried to achieve the desired results? The ends may best be achieved if government policy indicates only the objectives and allows the decisions for research-in-particular to be made by the separate research organizations. In the nonmilitary fields of research and development, it may be useful for the govern ment to allocate funds to the universities for their research candidates and for the equipment to be used. Though research and development efforts do not necessarily cause economic transformation, there have been some demonstrable positive results, such as the revision of the negative premises for eco nomic growth of natural scarcity theory.—Ed.