An Incentive-Compatibility Approach to the Problem of Monitoring a Bureau

An incentive-compatibility framework for regulating a monopolist with unknown costs is applied to the sponsor’s problem of monitoring a bureau. Following Mueller (1989), the bureau does not make take-it-or-leave-it budget proposals to the sponsor. Rather, the bureau must announce a marginal cost per unit of output to the sponsor. Given that report, the sponsor chooses a price that it will pay to the bureau for each unit of output, and the sponsor chooses the level of output as well. The analysis reveals the price per unit of output that the sponsor must pay to the bureau to maximize social welfare.Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption; Asymmetric and Private Information; Incentive Compatibility; Monitoring

Is the NAIRU More Useful in Forecasting Inflation than the Natural Rate of Unemployment?

Recent studies have indicated that the terms 'NAIRU' (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) and 'natural rate of unemployment' are not interchangeable. While NAIRU is an empirical macroeconomic relationship estimated via a Phillips curve, the natural rate is an equilibrium condition in the labour market, reflecting the market's microeconomic features. This study evaluates comparatively the inflation-forecasting power of alternative time-varying estimates of the natural rate of unemployment relative to the NAIRU. The natural rate of unemployment in the USA since the Second World War is estimated. Three alternative methods are utilized: the Kalman filter, a structural determinants approach, and the Hodrick-Prescott filter. The section that follows assesses how each estimator of the natural rate compares with the others - as well as with the NAIRU derived from a Phillips curve - in forecasting inflationary changes in the USA in the second half of the twentieth century. The analysis reveals that the overall inflation-forecasting utility of the natural rate of unemployment relative to the NAIRU is not very different. Moreover, the conclusion appears to be quite robust to various estimators of the natural rate.Employment, Unemployment, Wages, Intergenerational Income Distribution; Price Level, Inflation, Deflation; U.S.; Northern America; Inflation; Macroeconomics; NAIRU; Natural Rate; Phillips Curve; Unemployment

High-temperature molten salt thermal energy storage systems for solar applications

Alkali and alkaline earth carbonate latent-heat storage salts, metallic containment materials, and thermal conductivity enhancement materials were investigated to satisfy the high temperature (704 to 871 C) thermal energy storage requirements of advanced solar-thermal power generation concepts are described. Properties of the following six salts selected for compatibility studies are given: three pure carbonates, K2CO3, Li2CO3 and Na2CO3; two eutectic mixtures, BaCO3/Na2CO3 and K2CO3/NaCO3, and one off-eutectic mixture of Na2CO3/K2CO3

A correlational study comparing the relationship between school leader intercultural development, selected demographic variables, and student achievement

Public schools in the 21st century are faced with multiple challenges, many of which are guided by State and Federal mandates aimed at closing the achievement gap that continues to exist between our White, Non-Hispanic children and children of color, and a growing number of children living in poverty. From No Child Left Behind to the ESEA Flexibility Initiative, adoption of the Common Core, and most recently, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), school leaders have been called on to provide greater accountability, more uniform instruction, higher academic standards, and stricter teacher evaluation standards. Amidst this flood of managerial and instructional demands, public school leaders are faced with meeting the needs of increasingly racially, ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse school populations. No longer is it enough to be an effective school leader; today’s school leaders must also be culturally competent, and must possess the transformational leadership skills that can guide their schools toward becoming culturally responsive institutions. This study, utilizing the intercultural Development Inventory (IDI, v3) developed by Mitchell R. Hammer (2012) as the base instrument, examines the relationship between the intercultural development of school leaders, selected demographic variables, and student achievement. The focus of the study involves 53 school leaders and 18 different schools in Illinois. Through correlations of school leader IDI (v3) results, self-reported demographic data, and in-depth reviews of publicly available school data, knowledge of how a school leader’s intercultural development impacts student achievement is explored

An Analysis of the Services Offered to Cancer Patients in the State of Maine

People who are diagnosed with cancer should have access to information about their disease. These patients require the proper supportive care to meet their needs, and in order to do that; many people are turning to cancer support centers. These centers offer complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) such as yoga, meditation, reiki, support groups, etc. Cancer support centers have been developed that try to reach as many people as possible with their services. Maine is a very rural state so not everyone has easy access to complementary and alternative medicine practices, but these cancer support services can be found at various facilities throughout the state. Cancer support centers do everything that they can to make sure that patients and families affected by cancer receive high-quality information and support. In order to make sure that these centers are responsive to the needs of the people affected by the disease, I have conducted a study to determine what services the patients have found to be beneficial. One hundred and twenty two participants took the survey. Survey participants found a majority of the services listed to be beneficial to their health. Exercise/fitness group was the most beneficial and hypnosis was the least beneficial. Common themes came up in the survey that included topics such as the need for more support centers and less traveling for members

Spreading Academic Pay over Nine or Twelve Months: Economists Are Supposed to Know Better, but Do They Act Better?

Our paper empirically considers two general hypotheses related to the literature of behavioral economics. First, we test the null hypothesis that individuals behave, on average, in a manner more consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis than with the idea of self-control in the face of hyperbolic discounting in their saving decisions. Second, along a variety of dimensions, we examine whether individuals exhibit Herbert Simon’s notion that the goal formation of individuals will differ depending upon their relative levels of experience and knowledge. Perhaps there are significant differences among groups in their saving decisions that depend upon their apparent levels of intelligence, education, and knowledge. Finally, using a variety of individual-specific control variables, we test for robustness of the results.Consumer Economics, Empirical Analysis, Life Cycle Models and Saving

Spreading Academic Pay over Nine or Twelve Months: Economists Are Supposed to Know Better, but Do They Act Better?

Our paper empirically considers two general hypotheses related to the literature of behavioral economics. First, we test the null hypothesis that individuals behave, on average, in a manner more consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis than with the idea of self-control in the face of hyperbolic discounting in their saving decisions. Second, along a variety of dimensions, we examine whether individuals exhibit Herbert Simon’s notion that the goal formation of individuals will differ depending upon their relative levels of experience and knowledge. Perhaps there are significant differences among groups in their saving decisions that depend upon their apparent levels of intelligence, education, and knowledge. Finally, using a variety of individual-specific control variables, we test for robustness of the results.Consumer Economics, Empirical Analysis, Life Cycle Models and Saving