Consumer Surplus Estimates and the Source of Regression Error

Contrary to widely held belief, we show that the source of regression error does not matter when calculating Marshallian surplus. A misspecified demand curve, not the assumed source of regression error, leads to differences in estimates of consumer surplus.Regression Error, Marshallian Surplus, Welfare Analysis, Consumer/Household Economics, D60, C24, Q51,

The Dispute Between the Creek Nation and the State of Georgia: United States Diplomacy in the Formation of the Federal Union, 1784-1790

During George Washington\u27s first presidential term, Federal authorities faced the challenging task of defining what the new republic meant to themselves, their constituents and diverse populations on both sides of the United States\u27s border with the Indian nations. The Constitution of 1787 had created a plan for government; the task of Federal officials was to make that plan a concrete reality, in the face of opposition from entrenched political and economic interests that neither trusted nor favored the new government in New York City. The most pressing domestic task facing the new government was to define the relationship between the Federal union and the several states, who had yielded their sovereignty only grudgingly. The process of defining federalism involved both internal and external facets, as the United States interacted with nations beyond its borders, as well as the Indian tribes within the borders as defined by the Treaty of Paris (1783). The internal facet involved the exercise of diplomacy toward the Indians in the same manner that U.S. diplomats exercised their mission toward European powers. One notable incident in the diplomatic effort to assert Federal control over Americans\u27s relations with the Indians involved the United States\u27s involvement in an intractable dispute between the Creek Nation and the State of Georgia. This dispute, which revolved around the validity of cessions of land that the Georgians claimed the Creeks had made in the mid-1780s, would create the Federal govenment\u27s role as the hegemon of peace and stability on the southwestern borderland in the early 1790s. The ultimate failure of the United States to impose a stable peace in Georgia and Alabama laid the foundations for the dominant role that the Federal government would play in white Americans\u27s relations with their Indian neighbors. This study relies heavily on primary sources, including reports and correspondence of U.S. and Georgia state officials, to define the processes by which the Creeks and Georgians futilely tried to resolve their dispute by their own efforts, and how the U.S. became embroiled in that dispute

Mercury advisories: Information, education, and fish consumption

This paper examines responses to a national FDA advisory that urged at-risk individuals to limit store-bought fish consumption due to the dangers of methyl-mercury. We investigate consumer response using both parametric and nonparametric methods. Some targeted consumers significantly reduced canned fish purchases as a result of the advisory, suggesting that information-based policies can achieve the issuing agency’s goals. Education and newspaper readership were important determinants of response, suggesting that information acquisition and assimilation are key factors for risk avoidance. While some groups reduced consumption as a result of the advisory, we do not find a response among the relatively large group of at-risk households which met neither the education nor readership criteria. The advisory also had unintended spillover effects; some consumers not considered at-risk reduced consumption in response to the advisory.mercury; health information; health advisory; environmental health; fish consumption; children’s health; environmental risk; pollution;