Our objective is to "explain" per capita GDPs by the countries' latitude, using PPP-based data for 138 countries in 1985 (PPP = purchasing power parity). A simple approach is formulated which nevertheless accounts for as much as two-thirds of the variance of the per capita GDPs.

An informational approach is used for the measurement of the inequality of each component of total consumption expenditure. The approach is applied to data of the International Comparison Project.

Using international comparison data for 1950-1990, we describe the GDPs of seven major regions of the non-Communist world: the North, the South ("down under"), Tropical Africa, Tropical America, and South-West, South Central and South-East Asia. The inequality among these regions accounts for...

A nine-region division of the United States is discussed and compared with the U.S. Census and BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) regional groupings. The discussion includes the population density of the regions as well as the inequality of the population densities between and within regions.

A Stein-like shrinking methodology is proposed for modifying sets of metropolitan area economic forecasts. The technique is applied to historical published quarterly forecasts of the twenty metropolitan statistical areas of Florida. Stein-like shrinking is found to yield modest improvement in...