Jeffrey W. Steagall

An analysis of ITC decisions in antidumping, countervailing duty and safeguard cases

An Analysis of ITC Decisions in Antidumping, Countervailing Duty and Safeguard Cases. — This paper investigates the economic factors that best explain the decisions of the International Trade Commission in administering the injury provisions of U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard laws during the 1980s. Utilizing the economic data collected by the Commission for each investigation, it attempts to ascertain through regression analysis how strictly the commissioners have been interpreting these laws in recent years in terms of the economic conditions required for finding that an industry has been injured and for establishing a casual relationship between imports and this injury.ZusammenfassungEine Analyse von Entscheidungen der Internationalen Trade Commission (ITC) in Fällen von Antidumping, Ausgleichszöllen und Schutzklausein. — In dem Aufsatz werden die wirtschaftlichen Faktoren untersucht, die die Entscheidungen der International Trade Commission bei der Anwendung der Schadensregeln in den US-Gesetzen über Antidumping, Ausgleichszölle und Schutzklauseln in den 80er Jahren am besten erklären. Die Autoren verwenden die ökonomischen Daten, die die Kommission für jede Untersuchung zusammengestellt hat, und versuchen mit Hilfe von Regressionsanalysen zu ermitteln, wie streng die Kommissionsmitglieder in den letzten Jahren diese Gesetze interpretiert haben, im Hinblick auf die ökonomischen Bedingungen, die Voraussetzung für die Feststellung sind, daß eine Industrie einen Schaden erlitten hat und daß ein Kausalzusammenhang zwischen Einfuhren und diesem Schaden besteht.

Unions, PAC contributions, and the NAFTA vote

Political action committees (PACs), especially those controlled by organized labor and business, have been shown to affect Congressional voting. We explore how PACs influenced the House of Representatives’ vote on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The NAFTA vote is analyzed because organized labor strongly opposed the treaty while business generally supported it and because of the straight-forward voting generated by its fast-track status. Probit analysis of a unique, unpublished data set containing information about PAC and non-PAC contributions to the 1992 House election campaigns demonstrates that Representatives who depended largely on labor PACs tended to oppose NAFTA, while Representatives who derived a large proportion of their campaign contributions from business PACs tended to favor its passage.

The Elasticity of Demand for Lotto Tickets and the Corresponding Welfare Effects

The results of an analysis of lotto demand for the state of Florida during the first 254 weeks of its lotto suggest that the price elasticity of demand is near unity when employing a measure of lotto ticket price that is superior (at least for the state of Florida) to that used by others. The results imply that, relative to other states, Floridas lotto has room for increases in the odds to increase the price elasticity of demand to the revenue-maximizing level. However, revenue maximization is not the goal that the state should seek. Rather, the data indicate that Florida could poten tially improve social welfare through increasing the odds, thereby expanding the consumer surplus of ticket buyers and reducing the excess burden associated with the lottery tax.

Publication delays in articles in economics: what to do about them

The issue of publication delays in economics journals is addressed based on survey responese from members of the American Economic Association. The results imply that there is both a perceived and actual problem with the length of time it takes to have journal articles published in economics. The fundamental realization is that there is no one to blame for the delays but ourselves. The survey results imply that if economists were more efficient in reviewing documents and returning the results, the delays could be reduced considerably. To help enhance efficiency, there seems to be considerable support for the idea o fpaying reviewers, and for doing so on a sliding scale relative to expeditiousness, adn paying for this service through larger assessments upon submission. However, there is also an emphasis that editors need a restructuring of their selection process, and enhanced policing of reviewers.

The Use of the ETS Major Field Test for Assurance of Business Content Learning: Assurance of Waste?.

Exit exams have become the currency of choice for both institutions and accrediting bodies seeking to demonstrate student learning. Most researchers have ignored the opportunity costs of these tests and the fundamental question of whether the exams add value to the assessment process already in place on college campuses (course testing and GPA). A statistical model that uses a students GPA, SAT score, and demographic characteristics predicts the students Major Field Test (ETSB) score quite well. Furthermore, the opportunity cost of administering these exams at the institution in question exceeds

Voter Bias in the Associated Press College Football Poll

25,000 annually. The authors argue that the cost-benefit tradeoff of the ETSB exit exam is unfavorable.

The changing quality of business education

The authors investigate multiple biases in the individual weekly ballots submitted by the 65 voters in the Associated Press college football poll in 2007. Using censored Tobit modeling, they find evidence of bias toward teams (a) from the voter’s state, (b) in conferences represented in the voter’s state, (c) in selected Bowl Championship Series conferences, and (d) that played in televised games, particularly on relatively prominent networks. They also find evidence of inordinate bias toward simplistic performance measures—number of losses, and losing in the preceding week—even after controlling for performance using mean team strength derived from 16 so-called computer rankings.

Technology in the classroom: using PCs to teach business and economic statistics

Abstract There is a pervasive perspective that both students and college courses are not what they used to be. A utility maximization model exhibits why students prefer easier courses to those that provide more challenge, and presumably more knowledge. The model also demonstrates why faculty members accommodate these students with less stringent courses. Survey data from professors in various disciplines in colleges of business across the United States verify the perception of declining quality in many of 18 different categories.

Evaluating the Life Cycles of Education-Supporting Lotteries

Abstract Rapid advances and declining prices in computer technology have made its use as a classroom tool affordable. However, while it has been clear that diverse disciplines can effectively utilize computer technology to improve instruction, the implementation of computer-intensive pedagogy has been hindered by the lack of knowledge about redesigning courses to employ computers effectively. This paper offers insights learned in teaching business and economic statistics over a period of several years. Both tools and techniques are discussed in the hopes that the paper will serve as a blueprint for others who wish to incorporate computer use into their statistics courses.

Management trends in the EU: three case studies

This article examines the history of total lottery sales for eleven education-supporting lottery states. Controlling for the influence of multistate games, state income differentials, and unemployment, unbalanced fixed-effects models investigating four measures of lottery sales indicate that nominal lottery sales continue to climb, but sales adjusted for inflation are either falling or soon will. Per capita sales across all states have not grown much beyond the first several years in the lottery life cycles, but per student sales are still rising due to declining school-age populations and purchases of lottery tickets made by other than state residents. Forecasts for real per capita lottery sales are provided for each of the states in the sample through 2030.