Partial Adjustment Without Apology

Many kinds of economic behavior appear to be governed by discrete and occasional individual choices. Despite this, econometric partial adjustment models perform relatively well at the aggregate level. Analyzing the classic employment adjustment problem, we show how discrete and occasional microeconomic adjustment is well described by a new form of partial adjustment model that aggregates the actions of a large number of heterogeneous producers. We begin by describing a basic model of discrete and occasional adjustment at the micro level, where production units are essentially restricted to either operate with a fixed number of workers or shut down. We show that this simple model is observationally equivalent at the market level to the standard rational expectations partial adjustment model. We then construct a related, but more realistic, model that incorporates the idea that increases or decreases in the size of an establishment’s workforce are subject to fixed adjustment costs. In the market equilibrium of this model, employment responses to aggregate disturbances include changes both in employment selected by individual establishments and in the measure of establishments actively undertaking adjustment. Yet the model retains a partial adjustment flavor in its aggregate responses. Moreover, in contrast to existing models of discrete adjustment, our generalized partial adjustment model is sufficiently tractable to allow extension to general equilibrium.

[Review of] Michael Eric Dyson. I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr.

Michael Eric Dyson\u27s approach to his biography of Dr. Martin Luther King entitled I May Not Get There With You : The True martin Luther King Jr. is unlike the numerous other biographies of King in that the method he employs in recasting the life of Dr. King is described as Bio-criticism

[Review of] Adam Fairclough. To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Following David J. Garrow\u27s 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Bearing the Cross, Adam Fairclough makes extensive use of information gleaned from FBI wiretaps as well as other sources in an effort to peruse the soul of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr. Fairclough\u27s subtitle is no accident, for he focuses at least as much on the SCLC as he does on King. Significantly, this emphasis causes him to add a chapter about the SCLC after King\u27s death, a postscript not available in other books about King

Background of King\u27s Preaching Theology (Chapter One of King\u27s Speech: Preaching Reconciliation in a World of Violence and Chasm)

Excerpt: From birth, King was surrounded and influenced by the black faith community. Both his maternal grandfather and his father were successful African-American Baptist preachers in Atlanta, Georgia. Put simply, King was a product of the black church in America: How exactly, then, did the black Baptist church-or the black church in general-influence King\u27s reconciliatory preaching theology? There are at least three significant elements of the black church tradition that influenced King: the freedom tradition, open-ended Christian practices, and the particular interpretative tools of allegory and typology

Stephen King

Stephen King, popularly known as “The King of Horror,” is one of the more prolific and successful writers of the twentieth century. Despite a reputation for writing only horror and gore, however, King has written works that do not qualify as either horror or supernatural but rather are thoughtful, intricate slices of human experience that often cause us to reflect on our own childhoods, not always with fond nostalgia. He encourages his readers to get in touch with their own memories of what being a child really means, and innocence has little to do with King\u27s version of childhood. Believing that most adults have lost touch with their imaginations and a sense of the mythic, King constantly challenges his readers to expand their concepts of memory and experience

Design by RWU Professor’s Architectural Firm Among Finalists for MLK Memorial in Boston

RWU Professor of Architecture Julian Bonder’s architectural firm is among five finalists to design a multimillion-dollar memorial to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King on the Boston Common