Filibustering In the Senate by Franklin L. Burdette

Review of "Filibustering In the Senate by Franklin L. Burdette" by Robert W. Coo

Collective Bargaining and Public Education: A Public Choice Approach

This paper applies the theory of bureaucracy to a collective bargaining arrangement in the public education labor market. A cyclical voting model is used to explain homogeneous wage demands by education associations. The bilateral monopoly problem is explored under the assumption that educators bargain as Niskanen-type bureaus when local school boards lack the ability to quantity adjust between bargaining periods. Increased appropriations to educators are shown to accrue only to existing organization members with no new teachers hired to share in the gains. The results imply that arguments for lower student-teacher ratios are spurious, while the appropriation gains from collective bargaining could represent social waste

How Much Are You Paying To Teach?

Those of us who have the good fortune to be married to a member of the teaching profession share a common bond; the depressing, from the educator\u27s viewpoint, state of teacher salaries is a frequent topic of conversation in our homes. These discussions usually begin with our mate bemoaning the fact that his or her income lags far behind this or that other occupation. We then respond in order to soothe the ego, and perhaps if the discussion occurs at the dinner table, to move the conversation to a more palatable subject that the hours are short, the vacations long, and the nonpecuniary rewards of the profession are without equal. Often as not, if the students have been manageable that day, this answer will suffice. As an economist, married to an educator employed by the Virginia public school system, the proper response to this familiar dissatisfac­tion with salaries is a more vexing problem

The Influence of Representation in Intrastate Grant Disbursement

A common rationale in allocating government grants and aid is income redistribution. Consider receipts by individuals for example. Under a host of programs, economic hardship is a necessary and often sufficient condition for receiving benefits. A second major beneficiary category for federal and state aid is municipalities and localities. There again equity considerations frequently affect grant receipts, although purely demographic factors such as population can also influence the level of assistance. Considered together, one would expect disbursements across these two broad aid categories to be explained by varying economic and demographic factors consistent with the intended equity rationale. Recently, however, economists have begun to question the primacy of the proffered redistributive motive. They suggest instead that political influence vested in committee assignments, chairmanships, and legislative tenure accounts significantly, if not exclusively, for the allocation of federal grants across states. At present, the empirical support for this hypothesis is growing, but neither overwhelming nor without its critics. Perhaps the fairest assessment of the empirical literature on this issue is that it is in its incipiency

Wrongful Death and Disability Awards: Gross or After-Tax Income?

The present value of future wage losses represent an important part of the total economic loss that results from a wrongful death. The econo­mist\u27s task, in the role of expert witness, is to provide to the interested parties a lump sum amount of income equal to the losses experienced by the decedent\u27s beneficiary. This amount is obtained. by increasing the decedent\u27s wage at the time of death, by an appropriate annual wage growth rate, to generate estimates of what future wages would have been had the decedent been able to continue in his or her employment. Each of the annual future wages is then discounted to determine today\u27s value of the future annual wage. The sum of these discounted future annual wages produces an amount of money, which when invested, will provide an income stream exactly equal to the decedent\u27s lost income stream

Compound-specific Carbon Isotope Compositions of Aldehydes and Ketones in the Murchison Meteorite

Compoundspecific carbon isotope analysis (13C) of meteoritic organic compounds can be used to elucidate the abiotic chemical reactions involved in their synthesis. The soluble organic content of the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite has been extensively investigated over the years, with a focus on the origins of amino acids and the potential role of Streckercyanohydrin synthesis in the early solar system. Previous 13C investigations have targeted amino acid and hydroxy acid Strecker products and reactant HCN; however, 13C values for meteoritic aldehydes and ketones (Strecker precursors) have not yet been reported. As such, the distribution of aldehydes and ketones in the cosmos and their role in prebiotic reactions have not been fully investigated. Here, we have applied an optimized O(2,3,4,5,6pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine (PFBHA) derivatization procedure to the extraction, identification, and 13C analysis of carbonyl compounds in the Murchison meteorite. A suite of aldehydes and ketones, dominated by acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, and acetone, were detected in the sample. 13C values, ranging from 10.0 to +66.4, were more 13Cdepleted than would be expected for aldehydes and ketones derived from the interstellar medium, based on interstellar 12C/13C ratios. These relatively 13Cdepleted values suggest that chemical processes taking place in asteroid parent bodies (e.g., oxidation of the IOM) may provide a secondary source of aldehydes and ketones in the solar system. Comparisons between 13C compositions of meteoritic aldehydes and ketones and other organic compound classes were used to evaluate potential structural relationships and associated reactions, including Strecker synthesis and alterationdriven chemical pathways