Expected Benefits of Voting and Voter Turnout

This empirical study seeks to identify key aggregate-level economic and non-economic determinants of the expected benefits from voting and hence aggregate voter turnout. A unique dimension of this study is the hypothesis that PAC (political action committee) election campaign contributions, e.g., to U.S. Senate races, may reduce the expected benefits of voting and hence voter turnout because the greater the growth of real PAC contributions, the greater the extent to which eligible voters may become concerned that these contributions lead to PAC political influence over elected officials. Indeed, this study finds for the period 1960-2000 that the voter participation rate has been negatively impacted by the growth in real PAC contributions to Senate election campaigns. Another interesting finding is that voter turnout is directly/positively related to strong public approval or strong public disapproval of the incumbent President. This study also finds that the voter participation rate has been positively impacted by the opportunity to vote in Presidential elections, the Vietnam War, a “too slowly” growing real GDP, and inflation rates when they exceed five percent per annum. Furthermore, this study also finds the voter participation rate to have been negatively impacted by the public’s general dissatisfaction with government.

Individual and institutional determinants of the male female wage gap among U.S. economics faculty

This paper provides new evidence on the male female wage gap in academia. Using unique data from the economics discipline, we estimate a human-capital based model to explore the nature of wage differentials among male and female economics professors. Results indicate the salary gap varies across systematically across individual and institutional characteristics.discrimination, wages, academia

Volume 31, Issue 1 Individual and institutional determinants of the male female wage gap among U.S. economics faculty

Abstract This paper provides new evidence on the male female wage gap in academia. Using unique data from the economics discipline, we estimate a human-capital based model to explore the nature of wage differentials among male and female economics professors. Results indicate the salary gap varies across systematically across individual and institutional characteristics

Publishing in The Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy and an Evaluation (via Citation Counts) of JRAP’s Influence on Scholarship in Regional Science

In this paper we provide an analysis of publishing in the Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy and attempt, through extensive citation counts, to determine the relative influence and importance of both the journal and the authors who have published in JRAP. Much of this information updates the work of an earlier paper (2001) by David Marcouiller and Steve Deller, who were editors of the journal at the time they wrote. We present tables to show multiple authorship and the affiliations of all authors publishing in the journal since its inception. What is new here is the citation analyses which were made possible by the recently constructed web-site “Google Scholar”. Using this website we were able to determine which were the most cited papers in JRAP and also to list the journals and books from which the citations to the most cited papers came. We found that, while JRAP is not heavily cited, there were more than 260 sources of citations to those papers in the journal that were cited 25 or more times. We also computed total citations to the bodies of work by authors of multiple JRAP articles, with sev-eral having 3,000 or more and three having more than 6,000. Our conclusion is that JRAP has had a considerable influence on regional science, primarily through the importance of bodies of work of those who have published in the journal. Finally, as Marcouiller and Deller noted in their 2001 paper, there is still a need to encourage highly influential regional scientists to participate in the various activities of the MCRSA and to submit papers to JRAP