Journal Article
Disallowances and overcapitalization in the U.S. electric utility industry
Rhine, Russell M.; Garrett, Thomas A.; Douglas, Stratford (2009-01)
Regulation of an industry often produces unintended consequences. Averch and Johnson (1962) argue that certain regulation of electric utilities provides utilities the incentive to purchase an inefficiently large amount of capital. Another possible and related unintended consequence of electric utility regulation is that regulatory cost disallowances on capital may also increase utilities' incentives to overcapitalize. The authors provide theoretical evidence that capital expenditure disallowances will increase the Averch and Johnson effect in some instances and thus may have contributed to ...
Review , Volume 91 , Issue Jan , Pages 23-32

Working Paper
Measuring relative quality of life from a cross-migration regression, with an application to Canadian provinces
Wall, Howard J.; Douglas, Stratford (1999)
We discuss specification of regression models for using migration data to infer the living standards of different regions, and for observing how much of the standard of living is determined by economic opportunities versus non-pecuniary amenities. We estimate a regression using Canadian data from 1976-95, which results in rankings of the provinces with respect to overall living standards and amenities, with different rankings for different age groups. The regression also uncovers some interesting evidence as to the existence of equilibrium
Working Papers , Paper 1999-007

Journal Article
The revealed cost of unemployment
Wall, Howard J.; Douglas, Stratford (2000-03)
The costs of unemployment usually are stated in terms of the amount of aggregate income that is foregone because of resources left idle. Although useful, this method does not provide all of the information necessary for normative analysis. In this article, Stratford Douglas and Howard J. Wall propose an alternative that measures the cost of regional and national unemployment by the amount that people would be willing to pay to avoid it. The authors' model treats unemployment as a region-specific disamenity, and uses regional cross-migration data to reveal preferences towards income and ...
Review , Volume 82 , Issue Mar , Pages 1-10