The Political Economy of Public-Private Compensation Differentials: The Case of Federal Pensions

1995 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee A. Craig
Keyword(s):  
Wage Differential ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Pension Plan ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Mandatory Retirement ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Compensation Differentials ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference

Numerous empirical studies indicate that, as a result of rent-seeking behavior, public-sector workers are overcompensated relative to their private-sector counterparts, with pensions representing part of the difference. I present a history of the Federal Employees Retirement Act of 1920 and show that rent seeking by federal workers cannot explain several features of the act. Instead, I argue that the act represented an optimal incentive contract between Congress and civil service employees in which civil servants accepted mandatory retirement and a compensating wage differential in exchange for the federal pension plan.

A Common Brotherhood for Their Mutual Benefit: Sir Charles Macara and Internationalism in the Cotton Industry, 1904–1914

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 847-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
JONATHAN E. ROBINS
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Mutual Benefit ◽  
Trade Associations ◽  
Cotton Industry ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
History Of ◽  
Collective Negotiations

Unlike their national counterparts, international trade associations are a little-studied aspect of the global economic system. Much of the literature on trade associations has focused on rent-seeking behavior, although theories of transaction costs and social capital have been gaining influence. This article uses the early history of the International Federation of Master Cotton Spinners’ and Manufacturers’ Associations (IFMCSMA), still operating today as the International Textile Manufacturers’ Federation, to test different explanations for the formation and persistence of international trade associations. The IFMCSMA case illustrates the challenges of rent-seeking on an international scale, and highlights the importance of social ties in building cooperation. Firms and individuals used the IFMCSMA to pursue reforms across the cotton textile industry and enjoyed some success in collective negotiations with other actors and organizations.

Media Psychology and Complex Modes of Entertainment Experiences

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Klimmt
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Media Psychology ◽  
Mixed Emotions ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Complex Modes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media Enjoyment

This comment briefly examines the history of entertainment research in media psychology and welcomes the conceptual innovations in the contribution by Oliver and Bartsch (this issue). Theoretical perspectives for improving and expanding the “appreciation” concept in entertainment psychology are outlined. These refer to more systematic links of appreciation to the psychology of mixed emotions, to positive psychology, and to the psychology of death and dying – in particular, to terror management theory. In addition, methodological challenges are discussed that entertainment research faces when appreciation and the experience of “meaning for life” need to be addressed in empirical studies of media enjoyment.

Harsdörffers Geschirr

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Natalie Binczek
Keyword(s):  
Design History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference

Der deutsche Barockdichter Georg Philipp Harsdörffer skizziert eine Theorie der Emblematik, die vor allem dessen Anwendungsvielfalt hervorhebt. Er hebt dabei besonders den Unterschied zwischen buchinterner und buchexterner Verwendung auf, indem er sich nicht nur für die Aufnahme der Embleme in Büchern, sondern auch auf Geschirr und Tapeten ausspricht. Der Beitrag liest Harsdörffers extensive Überlegungen nicht nur als Beiträge zur Theorie und Geschichte der Embleme als ›Sinn-Bilder‹, sondern auch als Beitrag zur Designgeschichte. German Baroque poet Georg Philipp Harsdörffer delineates a theory of emblematics that clearly sets itself apart from other contemporary theories, especially by its versatility. In particular, the author negates the difference between internal and external usage of emblems in books not only by promoting the incorporation of emblems into printed works but also by supporting their depiction on dishes and tapestries. This article strives to read Harsdörffer’s extensive thoughts on the matter of emblems not simply as another work on the theory and history of emblematics but rather as a contribution to design history as well

On Capital Allocation And The Real Cost Of Labour (Notes & Comments)

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-499
Author(s):  
F. E. Banks
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Wage Differential ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Capital Allocation ◽  
Marginal Product ◽  
Developing Economy ◽  
Real Cost ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Industrial Wage ◽  
Two Sectors

This note is an extension of several contributions to the problem of re¬source allocation in a developing economy. In separate papers, I.M.D. Little and F. Seton* have introduced a model in which labour in a developing economy cannot be shifted from the subsistence to the industrial sector at zero opportunity cost, even though this labour displays zero marginal product in its 'traditional' occupations; and in what follows this problem will be attacked via a diagramma¬tic analysis. A short appendix will treat a side issue of the topic. As Little presented the model, there was an initial amount of capital K to be divided between two sectors, the I (industrial) sector, and the C (subsistence, traditional, or agricultural) sector. In the C-sector, there is excess labour or dis¬guised unemployment, in the sense of Professor W. A. Lewis2, in that the marginal product of labour in this sector is taken as equal to zero. As it happens, however, this labour cannot be moved to the I-Sector without an increase in production in the C-sector. The reason for this is because as labour is transferred to the industrial sector, consumption per head increases in the C-sector, thus decreasing the surplus available for workers being transferred to the I-sector. The transfer can only be carried out if a surplus equal to the difference between the industrial wage in C-goods and the amount of C-goods 'released' by the C-sector is forth¬coming, and for this an increased production of C-goods (via the input of capital into the C-sector) must take place. A similar situation would exist if transferring workers required a wage differential; or if C-goods had to be exported to obtain certain types of capital goods for the labour being reallocated, and/or housing, training, etc.

Auditors' and Investors' Perceptions of the “Expectation Gap”

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. McEnroe ◽  
Stanley C. Martens
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Primary User ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
User Group ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Accounting ◽  
Expectation Gap ◽  
The Difference

The auditing “expectation gap” refers to the difference between (1) what the public and other financial statement users perceive auditors' responsibilities to be and (2) what auditors believe their responsibilities entail. The notion of this divergence receives much attention in the accounting literature (i.e., Commission on Auditors' Responsibilities 1978; Guy and Sullivan 1988; AICPA 1993; U.S. Government Accounting Office 1996). Although prior empirical studies encompass certain expectations associated with a range of audit services, these papers often involve the opinions of bankers as the primary user group employed in the research (Nair and Rittenberg 1987; Lowe and Pany 1995). In contrast, this study extends the prior research by directly comparing audit partners' and investors' perceptions of auditors' responsibilities involving various dimensions of the attest function. We conducted the study to determine if an expectation gap currently exists and we find that it does; investors have higher expectations for various facets and/or assurances of the audit than do auditors. Our findings serve as evidence that the accounting profession should engage in appropriate measures to reduce this expectation gap.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Kirchin
Keyword(s):  
Hilary Putnam ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
General Methodology ◽  
Thick Concepts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
The Difference

This chapter introduces the distinction between thin and thick concepts and then performs a number of functions. First, two major accounts of thick concepts—separationism and nonseparationism—are introduced and, in doing so, a novel account of evaluation is indicated. Second, each chapter is outlined as is the general methodology, followed, third, by a brief history of the discussion of thick concepts, referencing Philippa Foot, Hilary Putnam, Gilbert Ryle, and Bernard Williams among others. Fourth, a number of relevant contrasts are introduced, such as the fact–value distinction and the difference between concepts, properties, and terms. Lastly, some interesting and relevant questions are raised that, unfortunately, have to be left aside.

The Early History of Financial Economics, 1478–1776. By Geoffrey Poitras. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar, 2000. Pp. x, 522.

2002 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 268-269
Author(s):  
Larry Neal
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Financial Analysis ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Financial History ◽  
X 522 ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Simon Fraser University

Economic historians usually have to explain to their economist colleagues the difference between economic history, which focuses on facts, and history of economic thought, which focuses on ideas. Our colleagues in finance departments, typically fascinated by episodes in financial history treated by economic historians, are bound to be disappointed in the lack of attention given to the development of ideas in finance by historians of economic thought. Geoffrey Poitras, a professor of finance at Simon Fraser University, makes a valiant effort to remedy these oversights in his collection of vignettes that highlight the sophistication of financial instruments and analysts of financial markets well before the time of Adam Smith. Starting in 1478 with the publication of the Treviso Arithmetic, a typical textbook of commercial arithmetic for Italian merchants, and ending with brief snippets from the Wealth of Nations, Poitras treats the reader to a fascinating potpourri of excerpts from various manuals, brief biographies of pioneers in financial analysis, and historical discursions on foreign-exchange and stock markets.

scholarly journals Reproducibility and Instruction Following in the Shop Floor Laboratory Work: The Case of a TMS Experiment

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110323
Author(s):  
Kristina Popova
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Procedure ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Experimental Uncertainty ◽  
Local Measurement ◽  
Replication Crisis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Methodological Guidelines ◽  
Local Procedure

The article addresses the production of reproducibility as a topic that has become acutely relevant in the recent discussions on the replication crisis in science. It brings the ethnomethodological stance on reproducibility into the discussions, claiming that reproducibility is necessarily produced locally, on the shop floor, with methodological guidelines serving as references to already established practices rather than their origins. The article refers to this argument empirically, analyzing how a group of novice neuroscientists performs a series of measurements in a transcranial magnetic stimulation experiment. Based on ethnography and video analysis, the article traces a history of the local measurement procedure invented by the researchers in order to overcome the experimental uncertainty. The article aims to demonstrate (1) how reproducibility of the local procedure is achieved in the shop floor work of the practitioners and (2) how the procedure becomes normalized and questioned as incorrect in the course of experimental practice. It concludes that the difference between guidelines and practical actions is not problematic per se; what may be problematic is that researchers can be engaged in different working projects described by the same instruction.

Incidence of postural headache after lumbar puncture requiring epidural blood patch: Effects of needle caliber; 2-year experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 197140092110006
Author(s):  
Warren Chang ◽  
Ajla Kadribegic ◽  
Kate Denham ◽  
Matthew Kulzer ◽  
Tyson Tragon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Lumbar Puncture ◽  
Conservative Management ◽  
Epidural Blood Patch ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Regional Hospital ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Blood Patch ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference

Purpose A common complication of lumbar puncture (LP) is postural headaches. Epidural blood patches are recommended if patients fail conservative management. Owing to a perceived increase in the number of post-lumbar puncture headaches (PLPHs) requiring epidural blood patches at a regional hospital in our network, the decision was made to switch from 20 to 22 gauge needles for routine diagnostic LPs. Materials and methods Patients presenting for LP and myelography at one network regional hospital were included in the study. The patients were contacted by nursing staff 3 days post-procedure; those patients who still had postural headaches after conservative management and received epidural blood patches were considered positive cases. In total, 292 patients were included; 134 underwent LP with 20-gauge needles (53 male, 81 female, average age 57.7) and 158 underwent LP with 22-gauge needles (79 male, 79 female, average age 54.6). Results Of 134 patients undergoing LP with 20-gauge needles, 15 (11%) had PLPH requiring epidural blood patch (11 female, 3 male, average age 38). Of 158 patients undergoing LP with 22-gauge needles, only 5 (3%) required epidural blood patches (all female, average age 43). The difference was statistically significant ( p < 0.01). Risk factors for PLPH included female gender, younger age, lower body mass index, history of prior PLPH and history of headaches. Conclusion Switching from 20-gauge to 22-gauge needles significantly decreased the incidence of PLPH requiring epidural blood patch. Narrower gauge or non-cutting needles should be considered in patients with risk factors for PLPH, allowing for CSF requirements.

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