Andy Barnett - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Andy Barnett
Energy Economics, 2005
The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regul... more The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regulated state monopolies during the early 1900s. The present paper examines this restructuring with an empirical model that includes the introduction of natural gas and steam turbine generators. The restructuring resulted in fewer firms, higher costs, and higher prices, consistent with increased monopoly power and captured
Southern Economic Journal, 1994
In a recent paper in this Journal, Possai and Goetz [10] (PG) offer an explanation of why a hospi... more In a recent paper in this Journal, Possai and Goetz [10] (PG) offer an explanation of why a hospi-tal might choose to provide a service (organ transplants) or continue to provide a service that, on its own merits, may appear to be unprofitable. Their explanation is based upon ...
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2000
ABSTRACT In the 1998 article ‘The Shortage in Market-Inalienable Human Organs: A Consideration of... more ABSTRACT In the 1998 article ‘The Shortage in Market-Inalienable Human Organs: A Consideration of ‘Nonmarket‘ Failures’ in this journal, Emanuel D. Thorne advocates increased exhortation and advises against the adoption of markets in cadaveric organ procurement. In support of this view, Thorne offers analysis in which he purports to show that, with more effective exhortation, a donative system is capable of procuring more organs at lower costs than market procurement. We argue that Thorne's analysis is seriously flawed and that his conclusions are suspect, if not entirely illogical. The flaws in his analysis include both logical errors and empirical fallacies. Importantly, the issues we, and Professor Thorne, address are not mere matters of academic quibbling—human lives are at stake. Simply put, we argue that Thorne uses faulty analysis to support a policy that is so ill-conceived that it needlessly allows people to die. In this comment, we discuss some of the errors in Thorne's article and explain why we believe that his policy recommendation is ill-conceived.
Journal of Gambling Studies, 1999
Much of the opposition to legalized gambling is based on analyses of the social costs that occur ... more Much of the opposition to legalized gambling is based on analyses of the social costs that occur as a result of pathological gambling. It is our contention that many, if not most, authors who have contributed to this literature are either unclear or misguided in what they define as social costs. Instead of starting with a clear definition of what
Issues in law & medicine, 1993
... 325 New Eng. J. Med. 1243 (1991); L. Dwayne Barney, Jr. & R. Larry Reynolds, An Economic ... more ... 325 New Eng. J. Med. 1243 (1991); L. Dwayne Barney, Jr. & R. Larry Reynolds, An Economic Analysis of Transplant Organs, 17 Atlantic Econ. ... Wash. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Jesse Dukeminier, Jr., Supplying Organs for Transplantation, 68 Mich. L. Rev. ...
Social Philosophy and Policy, 2009
In the early 1970s, we and others in the economics profession became enamored with the notion of ... more In the early 1970s, we and others in the economics profession became enamored with the notion of externalties—a cost or benefit imposed on or provided to others but not taken into account by the economic agents who generate the effect. We, and others, seemed to see external effects everywhere. There was polluted water and air, noise, urban blight, traffic congestion, and other features of modern life that seemed to call out for some form of corrective action. As the externalities revolution unfolded, economists and other social scientists overlooked the importance of evolved legal and other institutions that formally and informally establish property and liability rules that cause decision makers to face the cost of their actions, including what otherwise could be external costs imposed on unwilling third parties.While markets seemed always to fail, political institutions were seen systematically as without blemish, or so it seemed. It was this two-pronged failure, 1) a failure to c...
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1974
WHEN DISCUSSIONS in economics turn to the problem of land, its allocation, and monopoly rent, the... more WHEN DISCUSSIONS in economics turn to the problem of land, its allocation, and monopoly rent, the ideas of Henry George quickly appear on the agenda: George's association with land tenure systems is well established. It is as though his arguments could be applied to little else (1). Because of this single-minded association there are some who would relegate George and his theories to a position among those who offered interesting yet impractical schemes for the solution of social ills (2). Still others find new applications for his ideas and thus view his writings as a valuable contribution to the field of economics (3). It is our contention that much of the current analysis of environmental quality makes implicitly the same assumptions regarding natural resources as did George. In fact, had George faced the issues of water quality, its growing scarcity and the unyielding competition for its use, it is quite likely that he would have extended his emphasis on land to include water, for he regarded 'land' as meaning all of man's physical environment. In this article we show how George's policy pronouncements regarding property rights relate themselves to problems of water quality and the current literature in that field. By so doing, we present an argument that leads inexorably to the conclusion that his contribution may be a foundation for the analysis of any environmental resource.
Journal of Regulatory Economics, 1998
Handbook of Public Finance, 2005
This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of ... more This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of accomplishing specific regulatory ends than as a means of raising general revenues. Many of these instances involve claims about the control of external costs, as through various environmental taxes and fees.
Energy Economics, 2005
The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regul... more The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regulated state monopolies during the early 1900s. The present paper examines this restructuring with an empirical model that includes the introduction of natural gas and steam turbine generators. The restructuring resulted in fewer firms, higher costs, and higher prices, consistent with increased monopoly power and captured
The Electricity Journal, 2002
Retail electric competition has been touted as having the potential to lower electricity prices a... more Retail electric competition has been touted as having the potential to lower electricity prices across the country. The motivation behind retail competition has been to give consumers a choice among suppliers with the idea they would force more competition onto the industry. The ...
The Electricity Journal, 2002
Phase II regulations of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) aimed at sulfur dioxides (... more Phase II regulations of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) aimed at sulfur dioxides (SO 2 ) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) along with international initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions will raise the relative cost of generating electricity with coal-fired base ...
Journal of Economic Studies, 2015
Handbook of Public Finance, 2005
This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of ... more This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of accomplishing specific regulatory ends than as a means of raising general revenues. Many of these instances involve claims about the control of external costs, as through various environmental taxes and fees.
Journal of Regulatory Economics, 1998
The goal of universal service has dominated the telecommunications policy landscape for at least ... more The goal of universal service has dominated the telecommunications policy landscape for at least the past half century. This policy objective has been promoted with cross subsidies from long-distance telecommunications services to subscribers to local telecommunications service. The economic rationale for these cross subsidies is network externalities. In this paper, we show that: (1) the presence of network externalities, even
The Review of Economics and Statistics, 1988
Abstract-The rising incidence of co-authorship in economics has been well documented. This study ... more Abstract-The rising incidence of co-authorship in economics has been well documented. This study builds on earlier work by using less aggregate data to test various hypotheses about the causes of this rise. Evidence presented here provides cor-roboration for the hypothesis ...
The Electricity Journal, 2002
The Electricity Journal, 2002
While free trade leads to overall welfare gains, there will be losers as well as winners with ret... more While free trade leads to overall welfare gains, there will be losers as well as winners with retail electric competition and interstate trade. In low-price states, producers win but consumers lose, and the opposite occurs in high-price states. Unusual coalitions can be expected to form as the debate over retail competition evolves.
Southern Economic Journal, 1993
Regulation of the health care sector of the US economy is pervasive. Virtually all industries con... more Regulation of the health care sector of the US economy is pervasive. Virtually all industries contained in this sector are subjected to myriad government controls over one or more dimensions of performance-price, output, investment, entry, and quality [7; 8]. It is our general thesis that, ...
Energy Economics, 2005
The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regul... more The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regulated state monopolies during the early 1900s. The present paper examines this restructuring with an empirical model that includes the introduction of natural gas and steam turbine generators. The restructuring resulted in fewer firms, higher costs, and higher prices, consistent with increased monopoly power and captured
Southern Economic Journal, 1994
In a recent paper in this Journal, Possai and Goetz [10] (PG) offer an explanation of why a hospi... more In a recent paper in this Journal, Possai and Goetz [10] (PG) offer an explanation of why a hospi-tal might choose to provide a service (organ transplants) or continue to provide a service that, on its own merits, may appear to be unprofitable. Their explanation is based upon ...
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2000
ABSTRACT In the 1998 article ‘The Shortage in Market-Inalienable Human Organs: A Consideration of... more ABSTRACT In the 1998 article ‘The Shortage in Market-Inalienable Human Organs: A Consideration of ‘Nonmarket‘ Failures’ in this journal, Emanuel D. Thorne advocates increased exhortation and advises against the adoption of markets in cadaveric organ procurement. In support of this view, Thorne offers analysis in which he purports to show that, with more effective exhortation, a donative system is capable of procuring more organs at lower costs than market procurement. We argue that Thorne's analysis is seriously flawed and that his conclusions are suspect, if not entirely illogical. The flaws in his analysis include both logical errors and empirical fallacies. Importantly, the issues we, and Professor Thorne, address are not mere matters of academic quibbling—human lives are at stake. Simply put, we argue that Thorne uses faulty analysis to support a policy that is so ill-conceived that it needlessly allows people to die. In this comment, we discuss some of the errors in Thorne's article and explain why we believe that his policy recommendation is ill-conceived.
Journal of Gambling Studies, 1999
Much of the opposition to legalized gambling is based on analyses of the social costs that occur ... more Much of the opposition to legalized gambling is based on analyses of the social costs that occur as a result of pathological gambling. It is our contention that many, if not most, authors who have contributed to this literature are either unclear or misguided in what they define as social costs. Instead of starting with a clear definition of what
Issues in law & medicine, 1993
... 325 New Eng. J. Med. 1243 (1991); L. Dwayne Barney, Jr. & R. Larry Reynolds, An Economic ... more ... 325 New Eng. J. Med. 1243 (1991); L. Dwayne Barney, Jr. & R. Larry Reynolds, An Economic Analysis of Transplant Organs, 17 Atlantic Econ. ... Wash. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Jesse Dukeminier, Jr., Supplying Organs for Transplantation, 68 Mich. L. Rev. ...
Social Philosophy and Policy, 2009
In the early 1970s, we and others in the economics profession became enamored with the notion of ... more In the early 1970s, we and others in the economics profession became enamored with the notion of externalties—a cost or benefit imposed on or provided to others but not taken into account by the economic agents who generate the effect. We, and others, seemed to see external effects everywhere. There was polluted water and air, noise, urban blight, traffic congestion, and other features of modern life that seemed to call out for some form of corrective action. As the externalities revolution unfolded, economists and other social scientists overlooked the importance of evolved legal and other institutions that formally and informally establish property and liability rules that cause decision makers to face the cost of their actions, including what otherwise could be external costs imposed on unwilling third parties.While markets seemed always to fail, political institutions were seen systematically as without blemish, or so it seemed. It was this two-pronged failure, 1) a failure to c...
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1974
WHEN DISCUSSIONS in economics turn to the problem of land, its allocation, and monopoly rent, the... more WHEN DISCUSSIONS in economics turn to the problem of land, its allocation, and monopoly rent, the ideas of Henry George quickly appear on the agenda: George's association with land tenure systems is well established. It is as though his arguments could be applied to little else (1). Because of this single-minded association there are some who would relegate George and his theories to a position among those who offered interesting yet impractical schemes for the solution of social ills (2). Still others find new applications for his ideas and thus view his writings as a valuable contribution to the field of economics (3). It is our contention that much of the current analysis of environmental quality makes implicitly the same assumptions regarding natural resources as did George. In fact, had George faced the issues of water quality, its growing scarcity and the unyielding competition for its use, it is quite likely that he would have extended his emphasis on land to include water, for he regarded 'land' as meaning all of man's physical environment. In this article we show how George's policy pronouncements regarding property rights relate themselves to problems of water quality and the current literature in that field. By so doing, we present an argument that leads inexorably to the conclusion that his contribution may be a foundation for the analysis of any environmental resource.
Journal of Regulatory Economics, 1998
Handbook of Public Finance, 2005
This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of ... more This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of accomplishing specific regulatory ends than as a means of raising general revenues. Many of these instances involve claims about the control of external costs, as through various environmental taxes and fees.
Energy Economics, 2005
The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regul... more The electric industry lobbied for its first step in restructuring, from local franchises to regulated state monopolies during the early 1900s. The present paper examines this restructuring with an empirical model that includes the introduction of natural gas and steam turbine generators. The restructuring resulted in fewer firms, higher costs, and higher prices, consistent with increased monopoly power and captured
The Electricity Journal, 2002
Retail electric competition has been touted as having the potential to lower electricity prices a... more Retail electric competition has been touted as having the potential to lower electricity prices across the country. The motivation behind retail competition has been to give consumers a choice among suppliers with the idea they would force more competition onto the industry. The ...
The Electricity Journal, 2002
Phase II regulations of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) aimed at sulfur dioxides (... more Phase II regulations of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) aimed at sulfur dioxides (SO 2 ) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) along with international initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions will raise the relative cost of generating electricity with coal-fired base ...
Journal of Economic Studies, 2015
Handbook of Public Finance, 2005
This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of ... more This chapter examines some cases where taxation seems perhaps to be supported more as a means of accomplishing specific regulatory ends than as a means of raising general revenues. Many of these instances involve claims about the control of external costs, as through various environmental taxes and fees.
Journal of Regulatory Economics, 1998
The goal of universal service has dominated the telecommunications policy landscape for at least ... more The goal of universal service has dominated the telecommunications policy landscape for at least the past half century. This policy objective has been promoted with cross subsidies from long-distance telecommunications services to subscribers to local telecommunications service. The economic rationale for these cross subsidies is network externalities. In this paper, we show that: (1) the presence of network externalities, even
The Review of Economics and Statistics, 1988
Abstract-The rising incidence of co-authorship in economics has been well documented. This study ... more Abstract-The rising incidence of co-authorship in economics has been well documented. This study builds on earlier work by using less aggregate data to test various hypotheses about the causes of this rise. Evidence presented here provides cor-roboration for the hypothesis ...
The Electricity Journal, 2002
The Electricity Journal, 2002
While free trade leads to overall welfare gains, there will be losers as well as winners with ret... more While free trade leads to overall welfare gains, there will be losers as well as winners with retail electric competition and interstate trade. In low-price states, producers win but consumers lose, and the opposite occurs in high-price states. Unusual coalitions can be expected to form as the debate over retail competition evolves.
Southern Economic Journal, 1993
Regulation of the health care sector of the US economy is pervasive. Virtually all industries con... more Regulation of the health care sector of the US economy is pervasive. Virtually all industries contained in this sector are subjected to myriad government controls over one or more dimensions of performance-price, output, investment, entry, and quality [7; 8]. It is our general thesis that, ...