Showing papers on "Negative relationship published in 1992"

The Policy Consequences of Class Bias in State Electorates

Abstract: This paper tests the proposition that an electorate disproportionately representative of higherclass citizens will be rewarded with public policies in favor of its economic interests and at the expense of the interests of lower-class citizens. We find a consistent negative relationship between the degree of class bias favoring the upper class and the generosity of indigenous state social welfare spending. We also find that it is the underrepresentation of the poor, rather than the overrepresentation of the wealthy, that principally explains this relationship. These findings have important implications for democratic theory generally and for present-day concern about the composition of the U.S. electorate.

Supervision, Working Conditions, and the Employer Size‐Wage Effect

Abstract: Two hypotheses for the employer size-wage effect are explored using data from the 1980 Survey of Job Characteristics. We found that there is a strong establishment size effect in both medium-size and large companies and that employee-reported frequency of supervision has a negative relationship to pay but makes no difference in the effect. While 26 working conditions reduce the establishment size effect by one-third, it remains strong and significant.

All-equity firms and the balancing theory of capital structure

Abstract: Despite the benefits of leverage, many firms exist that at some point in their corporate history had no debt. This study provides evidence that the balancing theory of capital structure can predict the behavior of such firms. All-equity firms allow a more precise measurement of firm market value and risk, and provide a less ambiguous relationship between independent variables and dependent variables than the firms used in previous studies. Using a logit function to avoid spurious correlation between the dependent and independent variables, we find that for most years during 1964–88 all-equity firms listed in the Compustat industrial file exhibited a consistently significant negative relationship between the Myers growth option variable and the probability of borrowing. Positively significant but less consistent relationships exist between the risk measures and the nondebt tax shields, and the probability of borrowing. These results do not qualitatively change when the data are aggregated over twenty years or over five-year subperiods. The tests are also conducted by industry according to the one-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code. Significant relationships are found in the 2000 and 3000 SIC code manufacturing industries.

Public Expenditure and National Income Causality: Further Evidence on the Role of Omitted Variables*

Abstract: Whether changes in public expenditure growth help predict changes in national income growth (and/or vice versa) remains an important issue of sustained interest in the empirical public finance literature. In recent years, attention has mainly been confined to two specific areas, namely, estimation of the impact of the public sector on output growth (by means of regression analysis) and causality testing. Unfortunately, the outcome of both types of analysis has been inconclusive. Focussing on the impact studies, we note that a number of empirical investigations have attempted to measure the effect of the size of the public sector on overall economic growth. For instance, Ram [19], utilizing a two-sector model, found that growth of government size has a positive effect on economic growth. Landau [14; 15], however, presented opposite evidence, indicating that the government sector expansion led to a decline in output growth for many DCs and LDCs since 1960. In a recent study, Barth, Keleher and Russek [4] estimated variants of Ram's models with data for 30 countries. Their empirical results largely support a negative relationship between the scale of government and aggregate economic activity. Furthermore, using the Hausman procedure, they rejected the hypothesis that the independent variables (namely, real government spending or other measures of the scale of the government, depending on the specification) in the regression equations are exogenous. This strongly suggests that the conclusions reached by

A system‐wide approach to import demand for US fresh oranges

Abstract: An import allocation model was used to investigate import demand for US fresh oranges in Canada, the European Community (EC), Singapore, and Hong Kong. The results indicate that the US import share will increase significantly in Singapore and a fair amount in Canada and Hong Kong as these markets grow. The income elasticity in the EC for US oranges is statistically insignificant. Price elasticities indicate that a negative relationship exists between the price of US oranges and demand in all markets considered.

Regional versus Local Accessibility: Variations in Suburban Form and the Effects on Non-Work Travel

Abstract: Author(s): Handy, Susan L. | Abstract: This dissertation addresses the question of how particular forms of metropolitan development affect travel patterns, a question long of concern to planners but recently the subject of a heated debate. Critics identify sprawling, low-density, single-use, automobile-dependent suburban development as the problem, and recommend a return to the higher-density, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented design practices of the past as the solution, particularly as a way of reducing non-work automobile travel. Yet the question remains: can these “neo-traditional” communities reduce automobile travel when implemented within the broader context of freeways and regional shopping malls.The concept of accessibility provides an important tool for resolving this question. Accessibility measures the attractiveness of potential destinations and the cost of reaching them. By measuring both the accessibility to activity within the community, or “local” accessibility, and the accessibility to regional centers of activity from that community, or “regional” accessibility, the structure of a community and its relationship to the metropolitan area are more fully characterized. It is hypothesized that, for shopping trips, high levels of accessibility are directly associated with shorter distances and greater variety in destinations and indirectly associated with greater frequencies and some shift away from automobile use. Some degree of substitutability between local and regional accessibility is also hypothesized, suggesting that high levels of local accessibility may reduce the need for regional travel.This dissertation defines quantitative and qualitative measures of local and regional accessibility and uses them to test the implications for shopping travel of alternative forms of development in a case study of the San Francisco Bay Area. An aggregate-level analysis shows a significant negative relationship between the length of the shopping trip and both local and regional accessibility, but no significant relationship with trip frequency. Accessibility is more thoroughly evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively for four Bay Area communities, leading to several refinements in the definition and measurement of local and regional accessibility. A survey of residents in the case study areas reveals a more complex relationship, in that high levels of accessibility work to both decrease and to increase travel. The survey also shows that substitutability is limited: local accessibility seems to have little effect on regional travel. This dissertation concludes by reviewing policy implications, particularly the importance of finding an appropriate balance between the sometimes conflicting goals of minimizing travel and maximizing the range of alternatives available to residents.

Sentido de comunidad y privacidad

Abstract: Two empirical studies were carried out following a strategy of passive observation with causal models; using two samples of 339 and 95 subjects respectively. The aim of these studies was to test the hypothesis of the negative relationship between privacy and community; likewise, to study the implications of some psychological, social, and environmental characteristics for both concepts. The results support the expected negative relationship between privacy and community. The importance of the impact on said phenomena of the variables regarded as determining is confirmed, but the opposite effect to that expected of the variables related to population density was found.

Wagner's Hypothesis: A Local Perspective

Abstract: Wagner's hypothesis of an expanding public sector as an economy develops is tested using pooled time-series cross-sectional data for U.S. states from 1964 to 1986. Comparing government size among fiscal jurisdictions within a single nation reduces the problems of data comparability and of controlling for cultural and institutional differences that plague the more common international tests of this theory. Our results are inconsistent with Wagner's hypothesis, yielding a negative relationship between public-sector size and output. However, some empirical support is found in the protective services and public welfare components of government activity.

Economic Growth and Business Cycle Variability: 1870-1986

Abstract: From 1870 to the present the business cycle has become less volatile in major developed market economies. This could be a concern because according to the Schumpeter-Kuznets tradition a fall in business cycle volatility should result in a fall in the rate of economic growth. But has this been the case? If there is a trade-off between economic growth and cyclical volatility than government policies to reduce cyclical volatility could be reducing economic wealth. In light of this, a systematic and rigorous examination of the relationship between economic growth and cyclical volatility has been done. Using Spearman correlation, regression, and graphical analysis the relationship between per-capita GDP growth and cyclical volatility for thirteen developed market economies within the 1870-1908, 1870-1928, 1947-1986, and 1954-1972 time-frames and from the pre-Depression to the post-World War II periods has been examined. The results show that while in the short term there can be a positive relationship between growth and cyclical volatility, this relationship is weak with many outliers. High growth was accompanied by both high and low cyclical volatility. Moreover, in the long term of each country examined, increasing growth is accompanied by decreasing volatility. The increase in economic growth tended to be greater when the reduction of cyclical volatility was greater (a weak relationship of -0.10). These results are contradictory to the Kuznets-Schumpeter hypothesis. It can therefore be concluded that there is no evidence of a trade-off between business cyclical volatility and economic growth. There is even some evidence that a negative relationship exists. The wide array of growth rate and volatility level mappings suggests that the lower range of volatility levels represents what is realizable for other developed economies. The estimates presented provide some support to the hypothesis that relatively high rates of growth are possible with relatively low levels of business cycle volatility and that government policies to reduce cycle volatility would not necessarily result in lower economic growth.