From the editor

Business Economics, Jan, 2002

In addition to its regular articles, Business Economics benefits greatly from regular contributions to its Focus on Industries and Markets, Focus on Statistics, and Book Reviews. These require dedicated efforts by their editors. Therefore, it is appropriate to recognize them and their contributions. Over the next few issues, we will recognize them by telling you about their background and accomplishments.

Andrew Charles Gross

Andy Cross has edited the Focus on Industries and Markets since 1994. He is a Professor in the Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, of Cleveland State University, having joined the faculty in 1968. He began his career as an engineer, being registered in the State of Ohio and the Province of Saskatchewan, after graduating from Case Institute of Technology with a B.Sc. in electrical engineering. Interests in business led him to an MBA from Western Reserve University and co-founding Predicasts, Inc. Further studies in economics and marketing led to his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

Although Cleveland State has been his home base, he has also spent time in Hungary as a Fulbright Scholar and has been a visiting professor in California, Canada and Australia. In addition, he has been a consultant, has co-authored several books, and has published articles in marketing, international business and economics.

I would like to express my personal appreciation to Andy for his efforts to provide insight on specific industries and how they function and look forward to his contributions in the future.

In This Issue

This issue opens with Richard B. Berner's NABE presidential address on the role of profits in analysis of business conditions. In particular, he highlights the increasing dangers of operating leverage as the economy becomes more capital-intensive and also emphasizes the ongoing need for better statistics.

Anthony M. Santomero, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, argues that while limited, incremental monetary policy actions have proven to be effective in taming inflation, there are serious risks associated with aggressive fine-tuning.

Michael D. Bordo of Rutgers University and the National Bureau of Economic Research summarizes an NBER conference on globalization in a historical perspective and other pertinent literature. The conference participants explored why globalization has waxed and waned since the middle of the 19th century. While the lessons of the past provide a warning for our current period of robust globalization, much is different.

One of the raging debates in economics concerns whether the infusion of information technology has improved productivity beyond its own manufacture. Kevin J. Stiroh provides strong, affirmative evidence at the aggregate, industry and firm levels.

Rising and unpredictable costs of health care are leading businesses to reconsider how they contribute to company-sponsored programs. One approach is to shift from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans. Eric Ford explores the pros and cons of such a shift and the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives.

Given that economic models based on differentiable functions and dominant equilibria have severe limitations in explaining the real world, Lewis L. Smith contends that complexity theory provides an alternative, productive way to look at some of these vexing problems. He outlines its basic principles and how they apply to economics.

In the Forum on Emerging Issues, Parry D. Quick and Mary T. Goldschmid discuss the problems of evaluating intangible assets in corporate accounting statements. Recent accounting rules create fertile ground for economists to contribute to valuation of intangibles and thinking through the strategic issues that accompany such valuation.

In the Focus on Statistics, Robert P. Parker describes the reports of the Social Security Administration. These provide information on the demographics and income of those eligible for Social Security programs, as well as other data. In the Focus on Industries and Markets, Michael A. Dineen and Andrew C. Cross describe the global commercial refrigeration equipment market.

The Book Reviews include Institutional Investors, a thorough review of institutions that manage assets collectively, and Great Bubbles, a compilation of multidisciplinary writings on the three classical financial bubbles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

I would like to welcome Hossein Askari to the Editorial Board. Hossein is Aryamehr Professor of International Business at George Washington University. He has worked in a wide range of topics related to business economics, particularly in issues concerned with international trade.

Robert Thomas Crow

Rerow@stanford.edu