The political economy of the peace dividend

We develop a model of the peace dividend and use it to predict the fiscal consequences of a reduction in the demand for military spending. The model is based on the assumption that the political process responds to political demands and costs in a way that maximizes net political benefits. The predictions of our model on how a peace dividend will be allocated over nonmilitary spending, tax relief, and deficit reduction is tested against the experience of eight major wars in United States history.     

Women on Top

THE contender swaggeringdown the lane drops his swag-ger to crouch in the reflectionoffered by a restaurant win-dow. He's either a stylist or he's tryingto look like Julian Casablancas. Hairfixed into the fastidiously-messy mopperfected by the Strokes frontman, heresumes his swagger, into the 13 Club,where about 200 people are swayingand shouting through a set by Caffee-In, a Sino-Japanese outfit specializing injump-along funk. Melody: They Have Itin Buckets. The guitarist is Chinese, th…     

The Intergenerational Transmission of Values in National and Immigrant Families: The Role of Zeitgeist

Correspondence in value orientation between parents and their offspring may be due to actual transmission processes between generations, but it may also be due to influences from the general value context in society that are common to parents and their offspring. This common value context is referred to as Zeitgeist. The present study deals with one family relationship value (i.e., parents’ and adolescents’ obligations toward the family). Participants were 1,252 immigrant and 726 national adolescent–parent dyads from 10 Western countries. There were significant relationships between the value placed on family obligations among parents and offspring, and these were independent of gender. Zeitgeist effects, both intergenerational and intragenerational, were found. The strength of these Zeitgeist effects depended on the basis for defining Zeitgeist, either a person’s own ethnic group or the wider community including both nationals and immigrants. For explaining national adolescents’ acceptance of their family obligations, both the ethnic and the national Zeitgeist played a role, whereas in the immigrant groups only the ethnic Zeitgeist played a significant role. In short, in an immigration context it makes sense to distinguish the influence of a person’s own ethnic group from the influence of the wider community, including other ethnic groups. Explanations are suggested and implications are discussed.

Slowing monetary growth since 1984: A public choice explanation

Until about 1984, the U.S. monetary base typically grew at an accelerating rate. Since then, that acceleration has stopped. Modern evidence suggests that the Federal Reserve responds to political pressure. We present empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that reduced monetary base growth reflects the fact that the political advantages of price inflation have been significantly reduced by the tax indexation provisions of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981.     

Den of Dins

HE doesn't do it to make money. Lu Ying has to sell a lot of beer to make the RMB 15.000 monthly rent on What?, a bar and rock club he opened last year in Beijing. But the painter-rocker ought to know what he's doing. Lu, a 30-year- old artist from Hebei, the province that encircles Beijing, opened one of the Chinese capital's first rock bars in the mid-1990s. His new bar in the north- ern tip of Beijing's Chaoyang District breaks tradition with his earlier estab- lishments - whereas bef…