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Anyone who reads the papers or watches the evening news is all too familiar with how variations of the word monster are used to describe unthinkable acts of violence. Jeffrey Dahmer, Timothy McVeigh, and O. J. Simpson were all monsters if we are to believe the mass media. Even Bill Clinton was depicted with the term during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But why is so much energy devoted in our culture to the making of monsters? Why are Americans so transfixed by transgression? What is at stake when the exclamatory gestures of horror films pass for descriptive arguments in courtrooms, ethical speech in political commentary, or the bedrock of mainstream journalism? At Stake is an analysis of popular culture, a critique of a secularized religious discourse, as well as a plea of a plea for cleaning up the ethics of public speech. Edward J. Ingebretsen explores the social construction of monstrousness in public discourse, examining the uses of transgression and deviancy in tabloids, mainstream press, television, magazine, sermons, speeches, and popular fiction. The two students who took aim at Columbine High School, for instance, were declared monsters by Time magazine. Like wise, on the eve of his execution, Timothy McVeigh was decried as a monster who deserved to die. These examples typify the inept way the word broadly eliminates the very humanity upon which ethical judgment must depend. Ingebretsen argues that monsters serve as convenient tokens whose narratives contain trauma as well as solution; they provide easy answers to intractable problems. Susan Smith, the South Carolinian who murdered her children, is thus thought to embody the crisis of maternal neglect; nonetheless, keeping focus on her leaves unaddressed larger questions about the crisis of marriage and single motherhood. Monster, then, return us to the ancient language that once termed them "omens of the Gods." They show and tell; fright and point.

As the global economy continues to evolve, events such as the unification of European markets have prompted economists and policymakers to consider whether the current system of taxing income is inconsistent with the trend toward liberalized world financial flows and increased international competition. To help assess the effectiveness of existing tax policies and incentives, this volume presents new research on how taxes affect the investment and financing decisions of multinationals today. The authors examine international financial management, business investment, and international income shifting. The first three papers focus on financial management. Chapter 1 analyzes how tax and non-tax factors affect the relative importance of portfolio equity investments versus foreign direct investments and finds that the composition of equity flows differs dramatically according to tax differences. The authors of the second chapter look at the impact of U.S. and Canadian tax reforms on the financing of U.S. multinationals operating in Canada. Chapter 3 uses new data from 1986 corporate income tax returns to examine the effects of taxes on decisions by foreign subsidiaries to repatriate dividends to U.S. parent corporations. The next three chapters address international business investment. The authors of Chapter 4 consider why most models fail to show how tax policy affects foreign direct investment, and they offer improved models. Chapter 5 models U.S. tax incentives for the level and location of R&D performed by multinationals, and reveals that changes in the after-tax price of R&D have a significant effect on spending decisions of U.S. multinationals. Chapter 6 offers descriptive evidencefrom a careful field study of location and sourcing decisions in nine U.S. multinational manufacturing corporations. The final two papers examine income shifting. In chapter 7, the authors consider the fact that foreign-controlled companies in the United States pay lower taxes than do domestically-controlled companies. Unlike other studies, this one uses firm-level data files, including the actual tax returns filed by foreign-controlled companies. The eighth paper quantitatively assesses the importance of income shifting of U.S. multinationals, using Compustat data for 1984 through 1988 as well as information from annual reports. This volume will guide the development of new theoretical models in public finance and international economics, as well as inform the ongoing policy debate about reforming the taxation of multinational businesses in the United States and abroad.

American schoolteaching is one of few occupations to have undergone a thorough gender shift yet previous explanations have neglected a key feature of the transition: its regional character. By the early 1800s, far higher proportions of women were teaching in the Northeast than in the South, and this regional difference was reproduced as settlers moved West before the Civil War. What explains the creation of these divergent regional arrangements in the East, their recreation in the West, and their eventual disappearance by the next century? In Women's Work the authors blend newly available quantitative evidence with historical narrative to show that distinctive regional school structures and related cultural patterns account for the initial regional difference, while a growing recognition that women could handle the work after they temporarily replaced men during the Civil War helps explain this widespread shift to female teachers later in the century. Yet despite this shift, a significant gender gap in pay and positions remained. This book offers an original and thought-provoking account of a remarkable historical transition.

In the 1980s, the formerly planned markets of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the developing nations of Latin America and East Asia embarked upon unprecedented efforts to alter their economic regimes. These first-stage reforms involved a major reconceptualization of the principal elements of the economy, private property, and trade. But in the wake of these reforms, the need for second-stage reforms--thechanges--arose implementation of more structural changes-arose; without the development of new regulatory agencies, tax reform initiatives, adjustments to trade policies, and enhancements in education, labor, and telecommunications, the prospects for economic growth engendered during the first-stage reforms might not be realized. Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage provides an incisive overview of the context of these crucial second-stage reforms with a thorough examination of the issues confronting the policymakers involved. Edited by Anne O. Krueger, it features studies from distinguished experts in various fields of economics. Each chapter of this book addresses a key issue in economic policy, examines the progress of reforms in the markets considered, and then explores what research might further aid leaders as they embark on fundamental changes. Both a handbook for economists and practitioners and a theoretical exploration of the most significant challenges currently facing the economic world, this new book will be indispensable to anyone involved in the global economic scene. Contributors: Vittorio CorboCimon CowanSebastian EdwardsStephan HaggardMichael KremerSteven MatuszFrederic S. MishkinJonathan MorduchRoger G. NollMiguel A. SavastanoT. Paul ShultzMary M. ShirleyT.N. SrinivasanJoseph E. StiglitzVito TanziDavid TarrAaron Tornell

Our current social security system operates on a pay-as-you-go basis; benefits are paid almost entirely out of current revenues. As the ratio of retirees to taxpayers increases, concern about the high costs of providing benefits in a pay-as-you-go system has led economists to explore other options. One involves "prefunding," in which a person's withholdings are invested in financial instruments, such as stocks and bonds, the eventual returns from which would fund his or her retirement. The risks such a system would introduce--such as the volatility in the market prices of investment assets--are the focus of this offering from the NBER. Exploring the issues involved in measuring risk and developing models to reflect the risks of various investment-based systems, economists evaluate the magnitude of the risks that both retirees and taxpayers would assume. The insights that emerge show that the risk is actually moderate relative to the improved return, as well as being balanced by the ability of an investment-based system to adapt to differences in individual preferences and conditions.

From all sides, we hear that computer technology, with its undeniable power to disseminate information and connect individuals, holds enormous potential for a reinvigoration of political life. But will the Internet really spark a democratic revolution? And will the changes it brings be so profound that past political thought will be of little use in helping us to understand them? In Prometheus Wired, Darin Barney debunks claims that a networked society will provide the infrastructure for a political revolution and shows that the resources we need for understanding and making sound judgments about this new technology are surprisingly close at hand. By looking to thinkers who grappled with the relationship of society and technology, such as Plato, Aristotle, Marx, and Heidegger, Barney critically examines such assertions about the character of digital networks. Along the way, Barney offers an eye-opening history of digital networks and then explores a wide range of contemporary issues, such as electronic commerce, telecommuting, privacy, virtual community, digital surveillance, and the possibility of sovereign governance in an age of global networks. Ultimately, Barney argues that instead of placing power back in the hands of the public, a networked economy seems to exacerbate the worst features of industrial capitalism, and, in terms of the surveillance and control it exerts, reduces our political freedom. Of vital interest to politicians, communicators, and anyone concerned about the future of democracy in the digital age, Prometheus Wired adds a provocative new voice to the debate swirling around "the Net" and the ways in which it will, or will not, change our political lives.

Talking dogs pitching ethnic food. Heart-tugging appeals for contributions. Recruitment calls for enlistment in the military. Tub-thumpers excoriating American society with over-the-top rhetoric. At every turn, Americans are exhorted to spend money, join organizations, rally to causes, or express outrage. Image Makers is a comprehensive analysis of modern advocacy-from commercials to public service ads to government propaganda-and its roots in advertising and public relations. Robert Jackall and Janice M. Hirota explore the fashioning of the apparatus of advocacy through the stories of two organizations, the Committee on Public Information, which sold the Great War to the American public, and the Advertising Council, which since the Second World War has been the main coordinator of public service advertising. They then turn to the career of William Bernbach, the adman's adman, who reinvented advertising and grappled creatively with the profound skepticism of a propaganda-weary midcentury public. Jackall and Hirota argue that the tools-in-trade and habits of mind of "image makers" have now migrated into every corner of modern society. Advocacy is now a vocation for many, and American society abounds as well with "technicians in moral outrage," including street-smart impresarios, feminist preachers, and bombastic talk-radio hosts. The apparatus and ethos of advocacy give rise to endlessly shifting patterns of conflicting representations and claims, and in their midst Image Makers offers a clear and spirited understanding of advocacy in contemporary society and the quandaries it generates.

Until the 1940s, social life in Taiwan was generally organized and given meaning through the family - marriages were arranged by parents, for example, and senior males held authority. In the following years, as Taiwan evolved rapidly from an agrarian to an industrialized society, individual decisions became less dependent on the family and more strongly influenced by outside forces. Social Change and the Family in Taiwan provides an in-depth analysis of the complex changes in family relations in a society undergoing revolutionary economic and social transformation. This thorough, interdisciplinary study explores the patterns and causes of change in various aspects of society, including education, work, income transfers, leisure time, marriage, living arrangements, and interactions with extended kin. Theoretical chapters enunciate a theory of family and social change centered on the life course and modes of social organization. Other chapters look at the shift from arranged marriages toward love matches, as well as changes in dating practices, premarital sex, fertility, and divorce. The authors bring together perspectives from sociology, demography, economics, anthropology, and history to provide a thorough and informative study of the many ways social and economic changes affect the family.

In the increasingly global economy, domestic tax policies have taken on a new importance for international economics. This unique volume compares the tax reform experiences of Canada and the United States, two countries with the world's largest bilateral flow of trade and investment. With the signing of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement and the tax reforms of the 1980s, there has been some harmonization of tax systems. But geographic, cultural, and political characteristics shape distinct national social policies that may impede harmonization. As the U.S. and Canadian economies become even more integrated, differences in tax systems will have important effects, in particular on the relative rates of economic growth. Scholars from both countries examine the extent to which conformity between these national programs has taken place, focusing on tax reforms of the 1980s, and assess the effects over the long term. The authors carefully consider the policy environment in which social programs are established and implemented, including such aspects as property rights, incentive structures, the degree and kind of economic freedoms, and the systems of private and public decision making. By comparing these environments, the authors show that certain aspects of the tax systems of Canada and the United States are converging, while in other respects they are diverging. For instance, both countries exhibit similar corporate tax structures and income tax systems, but they have very different approaches to sales taxes and social security taxes. Another interesting conclusion from these investigations is that although tax policies differ, outcomes are often quite similar. For example, they generateroughly the same amounts of revenue, produce similar costs of capital, and produce comparable distributions of income. The methodology and results of this research will have significant implications for the analysis and development of trade policies among other nations, as well as for understanding domestic social policy in a global economy.

In this insightful work, Martin H. Krieger shows what physicists are really doing behind the nearly impenetrable cloud of mathematical models they use as research tools. He argues that the technical details of these complex calculations serve not only as a means to an end, but also reveal key aspects of the physical properties they model. Using two tours de force of modern physics as case studies - proofs that ordinary matter is stable, and solutions to the Ising model of a phase transition (how a liquid freezes to a solid, for instance) - Krieger uncovers the philosophical foundations on which the mathematical models of these phenomena are built. In so doing, he gives the reader a better feel not just for how physicists believe the natural world is structured, but also for how they have arrived at those conclusions. Krieger's lucid discussions will help students of physics and applied mathematics appreciate the larger physical issues behind the mathematical details of modern physics. Historians and philosophers of science will gain deeper insights into how theoretical physicists do science, while technically advanced general readers will get a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of modern physics.

The rapid emergence of East Asia as an important geopolitical-economic entity has been one of the most visible and striking changes in the international economy in recent years. With that emergence has come an increased need for understanding the problems of interdependence. As a step toward meeting this need, the National Bureau of Economic Research joined with the Korea Development Institute to sponsor this volume, which focuses on the complexities of tax reform in a global economy. Experts from Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand, as well as the United States, Canada, and Israel examine the major tax programs of the 1980s and their domestic and international economic effects. The authors provide overviews, country studies, and analyses of the effect of taxes on specific economic behavior, including saving and economic growth. The overviews include an examination of the link between taxes and domestic capital formation in open economies, and a look at the similarities and differences in the tax structure of eight East Asian countries. Other papers address broad issues related to tax policy and economic performance. Contributors evaluate the effects of changing the marginal tax rate on income from capital; analyze the relation between Korea's tax structure and its rate of economic growth; study the impact of tax reform and the aging Japanese population on savings; compare and contrast the gift and estate tax systems of the United States and Japan; and examine whether the tax systems of Korea and Taiwan, particularly the taxation of foreign capital, distort resource allocation. Studies of the political and economic interactions that underlie tax reform in the UnitedStates, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan reveal that in au of these countries domestic political considerations were far more important than international issues when deciding on tax reforms. Economists, policymakers, and members of the business community will benefit from these studies.

This timely volume addresses important recent trends in the internationalization of equity markets. These trends include increasing securitization as many countries come to rely more than ever before on markets in equities and bonds, extensive market integration through foreign investment and resulting links among stock prices around the world, and the opening of national financial systems of newly industrializing countries to international financial flows and institutions as governments remove capital controls and other barriers. Eight essays examine such issues as the current extent of international market integration, gains to U.S. investors through international diversification, fundamental macroeconomic determinants of securities prices, home-country bias in investing, securities transactions taxes, the role of time and location around the world in stock trading, and the behavior of country funds. Other long-standing questions about equity markets are also addressed, such as market efficiency and the accuracy of models of expected returns, including a particular focus on variances, covariances, and the price of risk, as in the Capital Asset Pricing Model. The Internationalization of Equity Markets will interest academic and business economists concerned with stock market behavior around the world.