"The Parking Lot Problem"

If there is queueing for an underpriced good, the queueing can eat up the entire surplus, eliminating the social value of the good. An implication is that there is a discontinuity in social welfare between "enough" and "not enough" for certain goods such as parking spaces. This implies that if there is uncertainty in the number of demanders, the amount of the good should be set well in excess of the mean demand

The Fruits of Our Labors: An Empirical Study of the Distribution of Income and Job Satisfaction Across the Legal Profession

In this study we undertake a simple empirical analysis to examine the distribution of pecuniary and nonpecuniary benefits across the legal profession. Using the University of Michigan alumni data set, we conduct a series of regressions to examine how the participants\u27 self-reported income and job satisfaction vary across the legal profession according to type of practice, gender, and whether the respondent is black or Hispanic. Regression analysis allows us to undertake this analysis while correcting for the effects of several other variables, including years of practice, hours worked, law school grades, satisfaction with family life, and population of the respondent\u27s city of residence. We conduct the analysis on two separate subsamples of respondents - one for respondents who were surveyed five years after graduation and another for respondents surveyed fifteen years after graduation. Separate analysis of these subsamples allows us to obtain snapshots of the distribution of rewards across the profession at two distinct stages in lawyer careers. With the exception of certain tests that are performed on coefficients for minority status, the University of Michigan alumni data set is large enough and rich enough to allow a very interesting and detailed analysis of how the benefits of legal practice are distributed across the legal profession

CONSUMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR FOOD SAFETY: A PATHOGEN SPECIFIC ANALYSIS

Estimates of the economic benefits of intervention strategies to make food safer from specific pathogens for different durations of protection are not available. We estimated consumers' willingness to pay for a hypothetical vaccine that would deliver a 1-year, 5- years, 10-years, or lifetime protection against Salmonella, E. coli, or Listeria. We used logit and Tobit models to estimate the economic benefits of food safety measures against these major foodborne pathogens. Based on FoodNet 2002 population survey data, consumers were willing to pay for protection against foodborne pathogens. They were willing to pay more for longer protection and for protection against E. coli compared to Salmonella or Listeria. However, they were less willing to pay if the protection was costly.Contingent valuation, Food Safety, Economic benefits, population survey, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Income and Career Satisfaction in the Legal Profession: Survey Data from Indiana Law School Graduates

This article presents data on graduates of a law school located at a large, midwestern public university. It presents responses to survey questions relating to various personal and job characteristics, including income from the practice of law and career satisfaction. It compares the responses across various demographic groups, including type of practice, gender, race, and ethnicity. We find that lawyers in large private law firms make more money than lawyers in small private practices, who, in turn, make more than those in government or public interest positions. Career satisfaction is greatest for lawyers in corporate counsel, public interest, and government jobs, followed by larger firms, and then smaller private firms. We find that women earn substantially lower incomes than men, but most of the difference can be eliminated by accounting for time taken away from paid work for childcare, among other factors. Both blacks and Hispanics make significantly less money than majority lawyers 15 years after graduation. Regarding overall satisfaction with careers, women appear to be sensitive to the number of hours of work, probably because of child-care responsibilities. Our analysis suggests that blacks and Hispanics enjoy career satisfaction in the practice of law that is not significantly lower than that of majority lawyers

Income and Career Satisfaction in the Legal Profession: Survey Data from Indiana Law School Graduates

This article presents data on graduates of a law school located at a large, midwestern public university. It presents responses to survey questions relating to various personal and job characteristics, including income from the practice of law and career satisfaction. It compares the responses across various demographic groups, including type of practice, gender, race, and ethnicity. We find that lawyers in large private law firms make more money than lawyers in small private practices, who, in turn, make more than those in government or public interest positions. Career satisfaction is greatest for lawyers in corporate counsel, public interest, and government jobs, followed by larger firms, and then smaller private firms. We find that women earn substantially lower incomes than men, but most of the difference can be eliminated by accounting for time taken away from paid work for childcare, among other factors. Both blacks and Hispanics make significantly less money than majority lawyers 15 years after graduation. Regarding overall satisfaction with careers, women appear to be sensitive to the number of hours of work, probably because of child-care responsibilities. Our analysis suggests that blacks and Hispanics enjoy career satisfaction in the practice of law that is not significantly lower than that of majority lawyers

Men and Women of the Bar: The Impact of Gender on Legal Careers

In this study, we use the University of Michigan Law School Alumni Data Set to undertake an empirical analysis of the impact of gender on the legal profession and the differences that gender makes in the careers and lives of attorneys. With regular survey responses from Michigan alumni from 1967 until the present, the University of Michigan Law School Alumni Data Set provides a unique opportunity to examine these questions from the days when female attorneys were rare, to the arrival of the first generation of women to achieve significant presence in the legal profession

Men and Women of the Bar: The Impact of Gender on Legal Careers

In the last three and a half decades, the legal profession has undergone a dramatic transformation in the gender composition of its members. During that time, the number of women applying to law school and entering the profession has gone from a few gallant pioneers to roughly equal representation with that of men. Between 1970 and 2000, the proportion of first-year law students who were female climbed from 8% to 49%. Because the existing bar consisted primarily of male lawyers, the percent of women in the legal profession changed more slowly, but still rose dramatically. Women, as a percent of all practicing lawyers, have risen from 3% in 1970 to 27% in 2000, while the percent of lawyers who are men has made a corresponding decline. In just the thirty years from 1970 to 2000, the number of women in the legal profession increased from fewer than 10,000, to almost 300,000, marking a steady growth rate of 12% a year. Over the same period, the number of male lawyers has increased from approximately 290,000 to 780,000, for an annual growth rate of just 3.3% per year