Social Security and Third World Poverty: The Challenge to Policymakers

Although social security emerged in the industrial countries as a mechanism for alleviating and preventing poverty, it has had a negligible impact on the problem of poverty in the developing countries. Because of the high incidence of poverty in the Third World and the need for effective interventions, conventional social security policies should be critically reexamined. Reviewing previous attempts to formulate social security policies that focus on the poor, this paper challenges policymakers to identify innovative social security programs that address the poverty problem directly.     

Kids,guns, and killing fields

He has written widely on problems of firearms and gun control, including two books. His is currently researching the effect of poverty on the urban underclass, alcohol and drug treatment programs for the homeless, and health and other social problems of street children in Latin America.     

The elements of candidate reputation: The effect of record and credibility on optimal spatial location

We build a model of two-candidate elections in which voters judge candidates on the basis of how well their announced campaign positions correspond with their records. Given different records, the candidates will adopt different campaign positions. Two types of reputational advantage are analyzed: proximity of the candidate's record to the median voter's ideal point, and the range of campaign positions that a candidate may adopt and still retain some credibility with the voters.An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the annual meetings of the Public Choice Society, Tucson, Arizona, 17 March 1990. The authors thank William Dougan and Brian Roberts for some helpful comments in the formative stages of this paper, and express our gratitude to Jay Dow for providing admirable research assistance. We also wish to thank Henry Chappell and William Keech for their discussant comments at the Public Choice meetings.     

Municipal Debt Issues in Foreign Markets: Managing Currency and Interest Rate Risk

Since the mid-1980s, there has been an acceleration of state and local government interest in the taxable bond market as a source of capital. This has resulted from, among other factors, restrictions imposed on economic and industrial development loan programs resulting from the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Increased state and local government involvement in the taxable bond markets has increased competition for such capital between the public and the private sectors. In turn, the developing capital competition has expanded into overseas securities markets. Private sector corporations have frequently accessed foreign capital markets to take advantage of lower interest rates and reduced financing costs. By contrast, state and local governments have accessed such markets only recently. This article discusses the policy issues considered by a state or local government entity when it decides to borrow funds in foreign markets and discusses the issues involved in managing currency and interest rate risk when issuing municipal bonds in foreign markets. It includes a review of the hedging techniques used by the Kentucky Development Finance Authority (KDFA) to protect against changes in the Yen/Dollar exchange relationship on a recent Samurai bond issue sold by KDFA as an example of such a transaction.     

Parasitic Integration: Win-Win Agreements Containing Losers

Parasitic integration involves agreements that are Pareto-superior for two or more of the negotiating parties, while being inferior for one or more of the remaining negotiating parties. The contrast between parasitic integration and integrative bargaining is highlighted. A taxonomy and examples of parasitic integration are provided, as well as linkages to specific areas in the negotiation literature.     

New ideas in political ecology

Alain Lipietz, Green Hopes: The Future of Political Ecology, (Polity Press, Cambridge 1995). 169pp. ISBN 0–7456–1327–6.

Andrew Dobson and Paul Lucardie, The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory, (Routledge, London and New York 1995). 240pp. ISBN 0–415–12471–9.

Tim Hayward, Ecological Thought: An Introduction, (Polity Press, Cambridge 1995). 259pp. ISBN 0–7456–1320–9.