Mark Gersovitz
Biographic Data
| ID | 1103078 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark Gersovitz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark |
| FAMILY NAME | Gersovitz |
| SIGNATURE | GERSOVITZ M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Princeton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4765-1690 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 126 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
What is a Civil War? A Critical Review of its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
The authors argue that the academic literature, both qualitative and quantitative, has mislabeled most episodes of large-scale violence in Africa as civil war; these episodes better fit their concept of regional war complexes. The paper seeks to highlight the fundamental flaws in the conception of civil war in the econometric literature and their implications for econometric specification and estimation, problems that this literature is inherentl…
The Political Economy of Risk and Choice in Senegal
The Economical Control of Infectious Diseases
The structure of representative agents and decentralisation of the social planner's problem provide a framework for the economics of infection and associated externalities. Optimal implementation of prevention and therapy depends on: (1) biology including whether infection is person to person or by vectors; (2) whether the infected progress to recovery and susceptibility, immunity, or death; (3) costs of interventions; (4) whether interventions t…
Development Economics and Policy
The Theory and Practice of Tax Reform in Developing Countries
This 1991 study approaches the subject of tax reform from basic economic principles. The objectives are to develop guidelines for the design of tax policy; to show how the principles can structure systematic research into tax reform in terms of the consequences for households, producers and government; and finally, to combine the guidelines and applied research into a practical tax package for Pakistan. Professors Ahmad and Stern provide a cohere…
Hunger and Public Action
Journal Article Hunger and Public Action Get access Hunger and Public Action. By JEAN DREZE and AMARTYA SEN. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1989. Pp. xviii + 373. $27.50 hardback, £7.95 paperback. ISBN o 19 828634 i, o 19 828365 2.) Mark Gersovitz Mark Gersovitz University of Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 101, Issue 409, 1 November 1991, Pages 1591–1592, https://doi.org/10…
Transportation, State Marketing, and the Taxation of the Agricultural Hinterland
In raising revenues, governments of poor countries affect farm gate prices for export crops. Because agriculture is dispersed, interventions have spatial effects, leading to an integrated analysis of taxation, marketing, and transportation. Policies to be used singly or together include land, export, and transportation taxes/subsidies, and variants of state marketing, in which only government procures crops. An export tax and a transport subsidy …
Social Welfare Underpinnings of Urban Bias and Unemployment
The reallocation of labour from rural to urban areas, although an historical concomitant of growth in per capita incomes, is widely viewed to be a troublesome process. It is a general belief that poor countries are somehow over-urbanised and migration excess'ive, that urban unemployment or underemployment is a problem, and that the investments to accommodate an expanding urban population are unjustifiably burdensome. Many governments have reacted…
Consumer Subsidy Cuts, Violence, and Political Stability
Many observers have predicted that developing countries accept IMF conditions for new loans at the risk of their political stability. The Fund's conditions, which include devaluing a currency, restraining money supply, and cutting the government deficit, are seen as leading to economic austerity that in turn will provoke political instability.' We have argued that the IMF often provides resources that make adjustment easier and thus may lessen th…
Migration and the Labor Market in Developing Countries . Richard H. Sabot
Economic stabilization, conditionality, and political stability
IMF conditionality is seldom so important that it dominates all other considerations for political stability. IMF stabilization programs often shift benefits from one group to another. They expose elites to charges of selling the sovereignty of their countries. The imposition of IMF conditions, particularly subsidy cuts, may lead to sharp outbreaks of civil disorder. Nonetheless, the IMF provides resources that make adjustment easier and thus may…
A Theory of Expropriation and Deviations from Perfect Capital Mobility
This paper develops a theory of capital movements in the presence of potential expropriation. The threat of expropriation is derived from utility maximizing behavior by host countries. Potential investors, anticipating this behavior, modify their investment plans to avoid expropriation. When- ever the host country faces competitive foreign investors expropriation represents part of a time-consistent but suboptimal plan of the type discussed by Ky…
Savings and Nutrition at Low Incomes
While many development theorists assume saving propensities vary among different groups, there has been limited theoretical justification for this view. This paper analyzes two complementary theories stressing the effect on saving of physiological consequences of poor nutrition at low incomes. One influence is on the probability of survival; another is on workers' productivity. Either effect means that the average propensity to save can rise with…
The Theory and Experience of Economic Development
Journal Article The Theory and Experience of Economic Development Get access The Theory and Experience of Economic Development. Edited by Mark Gersovitz, Carlos F. Diaz-Alejandro, et al. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982. Pp. ix + 403. £25.00.) Pramit Chaudhuri Pramit Chaudhuri University of Sussex Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 93, Issue 371, 1 September 1983, Pages 642–643…
Debt with Potential Repudiation: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
Jonathan Eaton, Mark Gersovitz; Debt with Potential Repudiation: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 48, Issue 2, 1
LDC participation in international financial markets
Mis-Specification and Cyclical Models: The Real Wage and the Phillips Curve
This paper discusses some misinterpretations that can arise when cyclical data are incorrectly assumed to be generated by movements between equilibria. One example is the cyclical behaviour of the real wage, an issue discussed by Grossman (1973) and others. In Section II a small dynamic model is examined which can give a procyclical pattern of the real wage even though it has a negative equilibrium relation between employment and the real wage. T…
Educational benefits of the United States school feeding program: A critical review of the literature
In the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 it was stated that educational progress was an objective of the United States School Feeding programs. In spite of this fact no serious attempt has ever been made to evaluate whether this objective has been met; the few evaluations that have been conducted lack scientific rigor. As a whole the studies fail to provide a strong basis from which to make valid inferences regarding the long-term effects of the feedin…
Land reform: Some theoretical considerations
This paper discusses alternative explanations of the empirically established inverse relation between the size of farm and the output‐land and labour‐land ratios used in agricultural production in LDCs. The analysis establishes the implications of the various explanations for changes in income distribution and agricultural output associated with different types of land reform programmes. These implications are rather heterogeneous, and are extrem…
Aggregate demand, the wage gap and unemployment in LDC's
Consumer Subsidy Cuts, Violence, and Political Stability
Many observers have predicted that developing countries accept IMF conditions for new loans at the risk of their political stability. The Fund's conditions, which include devaluing a currency, restraining money supply, and cutting the government deficit, are seen as leading to economic austerity that in turn will provoke political instability.' We have argued that the IMF often provides resources that make adjustment easier and thus may lessen th…
Economic stabilization, conditionality, and political stability
IMF conditionality is seldom so important that it dominates all other considerations for political stability. IMF stabilization programs often shift benefits from one group to another. They expose elites to charges of selling the sovereignty of their countries. The imposition of IMF conditions, particularly subsidy cuts, may lead to sharp outbreaks of civil disorder. Nonetheless, the IMF provides resources that make adjustment easier and thus may…
The Theory and Experience of Economic Development
Journal Article The Theory and Experience of Economic Development Get access The Theory and Experience of Economic Development. Edited by Mark Gersovitz, Carlos F. Diaz-Alejandro, et al. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982. Pp. ix + 403. £25.00.) Pramit Chaudhuri Pramit Chaudhuri University of Sussex Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 93, Issue 371, 1 September 1983, Pages 642–643…
The Economical Control of Infectious Diseases
The structure of representative agents and decentralisation of the social planner's problem provide a framework for the economics of infection and associated externalities. Optimal implementation of prevention and therapy depends on: (1) biology including whether infection is person to person or by vectors; (2) whether the infected progress to recovery and susceptibility, immunity, or death; (3) costs of interventions; (4) whether interventions t…
Savings and Nutrition at Low Incomes
While many development theorists assume saving propensities vary among different groups, there has been limited theoretical justification for this view. This paper analyzes two complementary theories stressing the effect on saving of physiological consequences of poor nutrition at low incomes. One influence is on the probability of survival; another is on workers' productivity. Either effect means that the average propensity to save can rise with…
LDC participation in international financial markets
Transportation, State Marketing, and the Taxation of the Agricultural Hinterland
In raising revenues, governments of poor countries affect farm gate prices for export crops. Because agriculture is dispersed, interventions have spatial effects, leading to an integrated analysis of taxation, marketing, and transportation. Policies to be used singly or together include land, export, and transportation taxes/subsidies, and variants of state marketing, in which only government procures crops. An export tax and a transport subsidy …
A Theory of Expropriation and Deviations from Perfect Capital Mobility
This paper develops a theory of capital movements in the presence of potential expropriation. The threat of expropriation is derived from utility maximizing behavior by host countries. Potential investors, anticipating this behavior, modify their investment plans to avoid expropriation. When- ever the host country faces competitive foreign investors expropriation represents part of a time-consistent but suboptimal plan of the type discussed by Ky…
Social Welfare Underpinnings of Urban Bias and Unemployment
The reallocation of labour from rural to urban areas, although an historical concomitant of growth in per capita incomes, is widely viewed to be a troublesome process. It is a general belief that poor countries are somehow over-urbanised and migration excess'ive, that urban unemployment or underemployment is a problem, and that the investments to accommodate an expanding urban population are unjustifiably burdensome. Many governments have reacted…
Development Economics and Policy
Aggregate demand, the wage gap and unemployment in LDC's
Aggregate demand, the wage gap and unemployment in LDC's
Land reform: Some theoretical considerations
This paper discusses alternative explanations of the empirically established inverse relation between the size of farm and the output‐land and labour‐land ratios used in agricultural production in LDCs. The analysis establishes the implications of the various explanations for changes in income distribution and agricultural output associated with different types of land reform programmes. These implications are rather heterogeneous, and are extrem…
Educational benefits of the United States school feeding program: A critical review of the literature
In the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 it was stated that educational progress was an objective of the United States School Feeding programs. In spite of this fact no serious attempt has ever been made to evaluate whether this objective has been met; the few evaluations that have been conducted lack scientific rigor. As a whole the studies fail to provide a strong basis from which to make valid inferences regarding the long-term effects of the feedin…
LDC participation in international financial markets
Mis-Specification and Cyclical Models: The Real Wage and the Phillips Curve
This paper discusses some misinterpretations that can arise when cyclical data are incorrectly assumed to be generated by movements between equilibria. One example is the cyclical behaviour of the real wage, an issue discussed by Grossman (1973) and others. In Section II a small dynamic model is examined which can give a procyclical pattern of the real wage even though it has a negative equilibrium relation between employment and the real wage. T…
Debt with Potential Repudiation: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
Jonathan Eaton, Mark Gersovitz; Debt with Potential Repudiation: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 48, Issue 2, 1
Savings and Nutrition at Low Incomes
While many development theorists assume saving propensities vary among different groups, there has been limited theoretical justification for this view. This paper analyzes two complementary theories stressing the effect on saving of physiological consequences of poor nutrition at low incomes. One influence is on the probability of survival; another is on workers' productivity. Either effect means that the average propensity to save can rise with…
The Theory and Experience of Economic Development
Journal Article The Theory and Experience of Economic Development Get access The Theory and Experience of Economic Development. Edited by Mark Gersovitz, Carlos F. Diaz-Alejandro, et al. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982. Pp. ix + 403. £25.00.) Pramit Chaudhuri Pramit Chaudhuri University of Sussex Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 93, Issue 371, 1 September 1983, Pages 642–643…
A Theory of Expropriation and Deviations from Perfect Capital Mobility
This paper develops a theory of capital movements in the presence of potential expropriation. The threat of expropriation is derived from utility maximizing behavior by host countries. Potential investors, anticipating this behavior, modify their investment plans to avoid expropriation. When- ever the host country faces competitive foreign investors expropriation represents part of a time-consistent but suboptimal plan of the type discussed by Ky…
Migration and the Labor Market in Developing Countries . Richard H. Sabot
Economic stabilization, conditionality, and political stability
IMF conditionality is seldom so important that it dominates all other considerations for political stability. IMF stabilization programs often shift benefits from one group to another. They expose elites to charges of selling the sovereignty of their countries. The imposition of IMF conditions, particularly subsidy cuts, may lead to sharp outbreaks of civil disorder. Nonetheless, the IMF provides resources that make adjustment easier and thus may…
Social Welfare Underpinnings of Urban Bias and Unemployment
The reallocation of labour from rural to urban areas, although an historical concomitant of growth in per capita incomes, is widely viewed to be a troublesome process. It is a general belief that poor countries are somehow over-urbanised and migration excess'ive, that urban unemployment or underemployment is a problem, and that the investments to accommodate an expanding urban population are unjustifiably burdensome. Many governments have reacted…
Consumer Subsidy Cuts, Violence, and Political Stability
Many observers have predicted that developing countries accept IMF conditions for new loans at the risk of their political stability. The Fund's conditions, which include devaluing a currency, restraining money supply, and cutting the government deficit, are seen as leading to economic austerity that in turn will provoke political instability.' We have argued that the IMF often provides resources that make adjustment easier and thus may lessen th…
Transportation, State Marketing, and the Taxation of the Agricultural Hinterland
In raising revenues, governments of poor countries affect farm gate prices for export crops. Because agriculture is dispersed, interventions have spatial effects, leading to an integrated analysis of taxation, marketing, and transportation. Policies to be used singly or together include land, export, and transportation taxes/subsidies, and variants of state marketing, in which only government procures crops. An export tax and a transport subsidy …
Hunger and Public Action
Journal Article Hunger and Public Action Get access Hunger and Public Action. By JEAN DREZE and AMARTYA SEN. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1989. Pp. xviii + 373. $27.50 hardback, £7.95 paperback. ISBN o 19 828634 i, o 19 828365 2.) Mark Gersovitz Mark Gersovitz University of Michigan Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 101, Issue 409, 1 November 1991, Pages 1591–1592, https://doi.org/10…
The Theory and Practice of Tax Reform in Developing Countries
This 1991 study approaches the subject of tax reform from basic economic principles. The objectives are to develop guidelines for the design of tax policy; to show how the principles can structure systematic research into tax reform in terms of the consequences for households, producers and government; and finally, to combine the guidelines and applied research into a practical tax package for Pakistan. Professors Ahmad and Stern provide a cohere…
Development Economics and Policy
The Economical Control of Infectious Diseases
The structure of representative agents and decentralisation of the social planner's problem provide a framework for the economics of infection and associated externalities. Optimal implementation of prevention and therapy depends on: (1) biology including whether infection is person to person or by vectors; (2) whether the infected progress to recovery and susceptibility, immunity, or death; (3) costs of interventions; (4) whether interventions t…
The Political Economy of Risk and Choice in Senegal
What is a Civil War? A Critical Review of its Definition and (Econometric) Consequences
The authors argue that the academic literature, both qualitative and quantitative, has mislabeled most episodes of large-scale violence in Africa as civil war; these episodes better fit their concept of regional war complexes. The paper seeks to highlight the fundamental flaws in the conception of civil war in the econometric literature and their implications for econometric specification and estimation, problems that this literature is inherentl…
Economics (18 works) · Political science (9 works) · Economic Theory and Policy (7 works) · Market economy (6 works) · Business (5 works) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth (5 works) · Labour economics (4 works) · Macroeconomics (4 works) · Public economics (4 works) · Subsidy (4 works)