Research Applied To National Needs Research Articles

Warranty Scope and Reliability Under Imperfect Information and Alternative Market Structures

Modern society offers consumers a wide variety of durable goods which possess complex characteristics. These characteristics are imbedded in the products and affect the flow of services provided. Safety, durability, and reliability are important examples of such characteristics. Because of the technical complexity of many modern consumer goods, these quality features display differences. Also, because of the inherent complexity of the service provided by some consumer goods, the performance of any product is difficult to assess and is partly the consequence of individual actions. As a result, evaluation of these characteristics is a costly process and in a given market situation information will be There have been three types of responses to this problem. The first is to legislate minimum quality features, as the FDA has done. This paper presents an economic analysis of warranties when consumer information regarding product liability is imperfect. It deals specifically with the supply of reliability and its relationship with voluntary liability (warranty). The market system generally provides a more appropriate solution than is usually thought of. Even though some difficulties are still present, their nature is such that regulation may not be necessary and the supply of additional information may produce adverse effects. The effect of market structure on the supply of reliability and warranty is examined; it is found that a monopolist will not alter the levels of these variables compared to the competitive market solution. Finally, while a market solution does not produce unambiguous results, the preliminary empirical evidence presented suggests that market forces alone may bring optimality. * This paper is based on research conducted in association with the Center for Policy Alternatives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) program. Additional support was provided by the Consumers and Corporate Affairs Department of the government of Canada. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for Policy Alternatives, the National Science Foundation, or the Canadian government. We are indebted to Keith Bryant, Stewart Butler, Marshall Freimer, Jennifer Gerner, Walter Oi, John Pettengill, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

General government management capability : The federal responsibility

The National Government must concern itself with State and I.ocal government management capability. Management capability is defined as directing roles of general government elected officials and senior-level managers. The Federal Government's interest in State and local management is based on the national government's dependence on these other jurisdictions for actual administration and delivery of services. The Federal Government is also a major cause of such management capability deficiences as exist at the State and local level. Despite recognition of need, little commitment has been made by the Federal Government to improve the central machinery of State and local government. There is no established data base from which to appraise the quality of current State and local management. The available assessments of personnel management, budgeting and accounting, policy analysis, and evaluation systems indicate that there is far to go in providing State and local chief executives with adequate management a...

Research on the Effects of Television Advertising on Children: A Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research. Report Prepared for the National Science Foundation and Research Applied to National Needs (RANN)

Research on the Effects of Television Advertising on Children: A Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research. Report Prepared for the National Science Foundation and Research Applied to National Needs (RANN)

NSF sets up successor to RANN program

The National Science Foundation finally has unveiled its successor to the Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) program. It comes under the initials ASRA, which stand for Applied Science & Research Applications. Although the ASRA name rings with redundancy, the architects of the new setup labored long and hard to give it managerial consistency in an effort to satisfy the heartiest of RANN boosters as well as its harshest of critics. ASRA went through a couple of name changes (Science Applications Directorate and Science & Engineering Applications Directorate) before taking its present easy-on-the-tongue initials. But its director remains the same physicist Jack Sanderson, a 42-year-old NSF veteran. He is excited over the prospects and thinks NSF finally may have the right organizational and conceptual formula for giving applied science an intellectual integrity and a concrete usefulness without the imminence-of-success braggadocio that accompanied some of the RANN promotion and eventually did it in. A...

Two-way cable television trial — a preliminary report

The Spartanburg two-way cable project of the Rand Corporation consists of a series of experiments to determine the benefits of interactive cable for the delivery of public services. The work is supported by the Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) programme of the National Science Foundation. Like the other projects funded in the NSF cable research programme, the Spartanburg project is intended to provide data on the costs and benefits of cable television systems that can be used both to receive and send signals from a home, agency, or business.

Architects to study ways to reduce earthquake damage

The American Institute of Architects Research Corporation will undertake to determine how architects can help reduce earthquake damage to buildings in the United States estimated at $660 million each year.The seven‐month study will be funded under a $64,100 grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) program. A team of AIA investigators will seek information from architects and engineers who have designed buildings in high earthquake risk areas of the country. Emphasis will be placed on the features that architects can influence during the initial stages of design conception planning.

Utilizing research in curriculum development

The findings of research make continuing contributions to knowledge. Utilizing researchand utilizing it effectively-is rarely simple, and often results in problems. This is true for utilizing research in the findings of curriculum development. It is true in many other areas as well. The National Science Foundation, for example, has set up a special division on research applied to national needs (RANN) because of the realization that more is known than is being used and more could be known that would be helpful. In some fields, like agricultural production and the treatment of disease, there is a very rapid utilization of research. Yet in many other fields, there seems to be a much slower reaction.

Six RANN projects announced by NSF

The National Science Foundation has announced support of six major projects under its Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) program.The projects, totaling $8.35 million, will involve interdisciplinary investigations of subjects ranging from environmental quality to criminal justice, and from energy conversion and power to industrial processing. The program supports research efforts on problems of regional and national scope and concern.

NSF Program for Research Applied to National Needs

The National Science Foundation can play a crucial role as a ‘pilot plant’ in the application of science to solutions of important problems of our society, according to Raymond L. Bisplinghoff, NSF Deputy Director.Among the objectives of the program of Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) cited by Bisplinghoff in testimony. before the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Development, Committee on Science and Astronautics, House of Representatives are:Advanced Technology Applications. Projects will seek to develop and apply advanced technology relating to energy resources, earthquake engineering, fire research, enzyme technology, urban engineering problems, particle accelerator applications, and technology for rapid excavation and tunneling.