Matthew S. Goldberg

Discrimination, Nepotism, and Long-Run Wage Differentials

The wage discrimination model developed by Becker has been criticized for predicting that competitive forces will lead to the disappearance of racial discrimination in the long run. We have reformulated the model in terms of nepotism toward white workers rather than discrimination against black workers. In this new framework, both nepotistic and taste-neutral firms are expected to survive the competitive struggle in the long run. Therefore, the new framework is consistent with long-run as well as short-run racial wage differentials.

The relationship between material failures and flight hours

Abstract : This paper attempts to clarify the relationships among the following four hypotheses: (1) The number of material failures across intervals of calender time containing equal accumulated flight hours follows a Poisson distribution; (2) the number of elapsed flight hours between successive independent material failures follows an exponential distribution; (3) the expected number of monthly material failures is strongly correlated with monthly flight hours. By a well-known result, hypotheses (1) and (2) are equivalent. By a second well-known result, hypotheses (1) and (3) are also equivalent. However, hypotheses (1) and (4) are not equivalent. That is, while the expected number of failures is exactly proportional to flight hours under a Poisson distribution, this relationship is not revealed by a linear regression between failures and flight hours. For example, we demonstrate that if the mean and variance of flight hours across months are equal and if the failure rate per flight hour equals .01, then the correlation between failures and flight hours will equal .10. Additional keywords: Goodness of fit tests; A-7 aircraft; Naval aircraft.

Employment and utilization of engineers among defense contractors

Defense contractors retain engineers for two reasons. First, engineers work on current-period production contracts. Second, engineers conduct independent research and development (IR&D) and write bids and proposals (B&P) for future contracts. The amount of IR&D/B&P activity, however, understates the amount of devoted to learning that reduces the cost of future production. This article develops and implement a model for estimating the volume of learning activity undertaken by four large manufacturers of military aircraft