The Duke Journal of Economics is published each year to showcase outstanding research in economics by Duke undergraduates.

This volume contains three honors theses and four essays written under the guidance of Professor Craufurd Goodwin in his class, “The Uses of Economics.” These essays are preceded by Craufurd’s introduction.

We congratulate the authors of the papers presented in this issue.

Some honors theses lead ultimately to publication. Justin Knowles (Duke BA 1996 & MA 1997) coauthored with Omer Gokcekus and Ed Tower a revised version of his honors thesis, “Sweetening the Pot: How American Sugar Buys Protection,” as chapter 8 of The Political Economy of Trade, Aid and Foreign Investment Policies, edited by Devashish Mitra and Arvind Panagariya, Elsevier, 2004.

For support of the journal we thank the Allen Starling Johnson, Jr. Endowment Fund and donors to the Havrilesky Fund as well as Molly Brown, who put the journal on line, Kevin Campbell, and Jennifer Socey.

Charles Becker & Ed Tower, Faculty Advisors to the Journal

Articles

Time Well Spent? An economic rationale for the negotiation of confidentiality agreements during corporate mergers and acquisitions by Roy Ben-Dor

Another Pricey European Import? An Economic Analysis of the Artist’s Resale Right by Yuanshu Deng

The Demographic Determinants of Savings, Investment, and Foreign Capital Dependence: An Inquiry into Latin America, 1960-2000 by Steve Poliner

Essays

Introduction by Craufurd Goodwin

Is a Full Scholarship Enough? How various segments of American society have debated whether college athletes should be paid by Jeffrey Ackermann

The Economics of Space Tourism: NASA and the Entrepreneur by Christopher Carr

Should Executive Compensation Be Regulated? An investigation of the economics involved in the societal discussion of this topic by Lauren Kellis

How Wealthy is Our Intellectual Estate, and Does It Really Matter? Assessing Economic Knowledge and Its Diffusion in the Immigration Debate by Jeffrey K. Lee