Robert B. Archibald

State Higher Education Spending and the Tax Revolt

State policies resulting from the tax revolt of the late 1970s play an important role in determining the timing and magnitude of the decline in state tax effort for higher education. An understanding of the fiscal environment caused by these provisions is critical for the future of state-supported higher education.

An Analysis of the Short-Run Consumer Demand for Gasoline Using Household Survey Data: A Reply

A short-run analysis of consumer demand for gasoline for nonbusiness automobile use estimates demand on the basis of a Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics during 1972-1973. The use of pooled time-series/cross-section data permits the examination of effects of location, family characteristics, and household automobile stock as well as prices and household income. The results show that gasoline price increases will constrain demand, with price elasticity of -0.43 for both one-car and multi-car households. 8 references, 2 tables. (DCK)

Explaining Increases in Higher Education Costs

This paper presents new evidence on the conflict between two competing explanations of the increase in college costs, the cost disease theory of William Baumol and William Bowen and the revenue theory of cost of Howard Bowen. Using cross section data, the paper demonstrates that the cost disease explanation dominates.

Subjective framing and attitudes towards risk

Abstract Numerous examples of framing effects have been reported since Kahneman and Tverskys (1979) original article on prospect theory. However, the focus has been on imposed frames. We design an experiment to elicit subjective frames and to verify if these frames yield the same systematically different choices observed in experiments using imposed frames. We then compare the predictive power of frames with that of knowledge of risk preferences. For our experiment, we find no relationship between choice and attitudes towards risk, while a clear relationship exists between choice and frame.

Universities in the Marketplace, and: Academic Capitalism, and: Remaking the American University: Market Smart and Mission Centered

This article presents new evidence on the conflict between two competing explanations of the increase in college costs, the cost disease theory of William Baumol and William Bowen and the revenue theory of cost of Howard Bowen. Using cross-section data, the article demonstrates that the cost disease explanation is more important than the revenue theory.

Evaluating the NASA small business innovation research program: preliminary evidence of a trade-off between commercialization and basic research

Abstract In 1982, the Small Business Innovation Development Act established the small business innovation research (SBIR) program. This program reserves a percentage of federal agencies’ extramural R&D budgets for research projects conducted by small businesses. When this Act was reauthorized in 1992, the selection criteria for funding dramatically increased the likelihood of funding for projects that promised to lead to commercial success. Using data from a survey of the SBIR program award recipients at NASA Langley Research Center, we address three questions about this change: (i) was there a shift to projects with more commercial potential? (ii) did these projects experience higher rates of commercial success? and (iii) was there a reduction in basic research accompanying the increased commercial success? Our analysis suggests, the answer to all three of these questions is ‘yes’.

The Distributional Impact of Alternative Gasoline Conservation Policies

This article provides a methodology for evaluating the direct distributional impacts of energy conservation plans. Focusing on gasoline conservation, we analyze two different types of plans: excise taxes and white market coupon rationing. Using a sample which focuses on the nonbusiness use of individual households and a gasoline demand function estimated on data from these households, we provide simulated burdens for the different conservation plans. We analyze in detail the distribution of the burden, partitioning the population by income class as well as by several important demographic characteristics.

Revealed preferences for car tax cuts: an empirical study of perceived fiscal incidence

Voting in an election in which elimination of the local car tax is the central issue shows how a highly visible universal tax cut can prevail in the electoral process even if benefits are skewed toward upper income households. These results are consistent with positive models of fiscal structure choice in which fiscal systems are the consequence of support maximizing politicians attempting to supply net benefits to easily identifiable interest groups without generating significant opposition from other groups.

A Quality-Preserving Increase in Four-Year College Attendance

We use the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 data sets to evaluate changes in the college matching process. Rising attendance rates at 4-year institutions have not decreased average preparedness of college goers or of college graduates, and further attendance gains are possible before diminishing returns set in. We use multinomial logit models to demonstrate that measures of likely success (grade point average) became more predictive of college attendance over time, while other student characteristics such as race and parents’ education became less predictive. Our evidence suggests that schools have become better at sorting while students have efficiently responded to changes in the return to higher education.

Effective rates of protection and the Fordney-McCumber and Smoot-Hawley Tariff Acts: comment and revised estimates

This paper provides corrected calculations of the effective rate of protection for a wide disaggregation of US industries under the two important interwar tariff regimes.