Implicit contract models of labor market equilibrium under work sharing and layoffs are constructed to examine several common explanations for the observed market bias in favor of layoffs. We first establish the optimality of work sharing in the absence of complicating factors. We then show that, contrary to the conventional view, fringe benefits can actually encourage work sharing, and that different hours and employment elasticities of output need not discourage it. Our findings confirm the view that tax distortions in the unemployment insurance system contribute to the bias toward layoffs. However, we show that unemployment benefits for those working reduced hours can help eliminate this bias.

The traditional classroom presentation of international macroeconomic issues obscures the link between budget deficits, exchange rates, and the trade deficit. The article offers a simple supply and demand framework to clarify the role of budget deficits in creating trade deficits. The same framework can also be used to present other comparative statics results where the effect on the trade deficit is of interest.

This paper presents new results on income distribution in Pakistan from an analysis of the full HIES data tapes for 1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87, and 1987-88. An explicit social welfare methodology is adopted to measure changes in inequality at the national level, and within and across provinces, over the period. Estimated Lorenz curves for Pakistan and each of its provinces, in each of the four years, are provided, and cardinally significant Atkinson-Kolm-Sen ethical relative indices of inequality are computed. Strong evidence is found that income distribution in Pakistan improved from 1984-85 to 1987-88, and this conclusion is robust to a wide range of distributional values. Judgements on the trend in inequality over time within and across Pakistan's four provinces are shown to depend more heavily on the investigator's choice of distributional values.

This paper examines the distribution of income in Pakistan, and in each of its four provinces, from an explicit and formal Islamic perspective. A cardinally significant Atkinson-Kolm-Sen relative index of inequality reflecting that perspective is proposed and computed from the full HIES data series for the years 1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87, and 1987-88. There is evidence of a significant decline in overall inequality in Pakistan from 1984-85 to 1987-88, but the level of inequality remains very high. Inter-province and inter-urban/rural differences in inequality profiles within Pakistan and each of its provinces are found to be generally less significant than intra-province and intra-urban/rural differences.

Constant returns to scale, always a simplifying assumption, is often also much more: many important results depend critically on the very special properties of this class of production function. This paper provides a unified set of simple proofs for most of the crucial analytical properties of constant returns production and their implications for firm costs. Only familiar diagrams and high school geometry are used, and the proofs are written to be easily accessible to college sophomores.

Francois Quesney's Tableau is reformulated as a two-sector linear system. Stationary state interclass exchanges are described by a sequential accounting Tableau of real and monetary holdings of each class at each step of the circulation process. A diagrammatic framework is also set up to illustrate the Physiocratic equilibrium. These tools are used to evaluate Quesnay's policy prescriptions against conspicuous consumption, indirect taxes on agriculture, and deviations from the proper price. It is shown that either these maxims are inconsistent with the underlying theory or arguments advanced in their favor are deficient.

This is a theoretical and empirical exploration into the motivation of volunteer firefighters. After a brief discussion of methodology, the activities in which these volunteers engage are described and a theoretical model of volunteer motivation is presented. The central hypothesis is that individuals engage in voluntary activities to struggle against the pervasive alienating nature of productive activity in capitalist economies in an effort to achieve a greater degree of self-actualization. This theoretical model is illustrated using data from a survey administered to 354 volunteer firefighters in Ulster County, New York. Lastly, the relationships between volunteer firefighting, alienation, and self-actualization are empirically explored, focusing upon comparisons between individuals' firefighting and career endeavors.

This article explores the multifaceted relationship between volunteer fire companies and their communities by examining a broad range of socioeconomic characteristics of volunteer fire fighters and general residents in rural New York State. The two data sets are generated by the author's survey instrument and the U.S. Census of Population and Housing. The personal attributes and their statistical significance are examined empirically, and the implications of this research for particular aspects of the fire fighters' relationship to their fellow citizens arc discussed.