Hirschel Kasper

Toward Estimating the Incidence of Journey-to-Work Costs

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent to which the daily travel to work costs are passed forward to employers in the form of higher wages. The incidence is estimated from a sample of Glasgow, Scotland workers who relocated their residences within the city. It was found that the elasticity of wages with respect to travel costs is greater than zero for both men and women and, perhaps, as much as one for men. Since the relocation within the city led to substantial job change, it would seem that wages should be expected to adjust to changes in policy areas such as transport and land zoning which make it cheaper or more expensive for workers to get to employment opportunities.

Peer to Peer: Right and Wrong Lessons for Department Reviews

The author describes his experience with the process of peer reviews by economists of economics departments. On the bases of roughly 20 reviews of departments in the public and private sectors over two decades, he discusses how the process works and what can be accomplished by it and identifies some pitfalls that should be avoided. He offers lessons that are illustrated by actual examples of the effectiveness and mistakes of the process.

Rethinking the Scope of Economics

the foundations of the discipline. More and more of the recent criticisms are coming, however, from individuals well known and widely respected within the mainstream of the discipline (e.g., from individuals such as Albert Hirschman, Daniel Suits, Lester Thurow, Melvin Ulmer, and many others). These critics are challenging more successfully than their predecessors at least some of the principal legs on which the foundation of economics science rests. The Joint Council on Economic Education (JCEE), an organization dedicated to imparting economic knowledge favored by most economists, has watched the debate with increasing interest. This is so because all teaching materials produced by the JCEE, all training it provides to teachers, and all curricular activities it conducts with schools reflect the consensus of main