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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Effect Of Snap Benefits For Food Insecurity, David E. Davis, Rui Huang Nov 2015

The Effect Of Snap Benefits For Food Insecurity, David E. Davis, Rui Huang

David E. Davis

This paper investigates the effect of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for food insecurity. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) temporarily increased SNAP benefits. We use that increase as a natural experiment to identify the causal effect of endogenous SNAP benefits. We estimate models of food insecurity with linear two-stage least squares and non-linear instrumental variable (IV) probit. Results suggest that a per person SNAP dollar decreases food insecurity by 0.4% to 0.9%. However, effects are nonlinear. The probability of food insecurity is highest, and marginal effects are largest, when benefit amounts are small.


Implications Of Global Warming: Two Eras, Philip E. Graves Oct 2015

Implications Of Global Warming: Two Eras, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

The purpose of the present paper is to attempt to gain insights into the implications of global warming that is anticipated in the future. In attempting to think about really long-term regional implications, it seems naïve to look at global warming without thinking about long-standing trends in other variables that would be expected to interact with climate change over time. I envision two quite different “eras,” a first filled with considerable danger of both economic and environmental collapse. But—if humanity survives the first period—a second period of great promise for humanity and the global ecosystem is likely to take place. …


B833: A Residential Waste Stream Analysis: Orono, Maine, 1990, George K. Criner, Steven L. Jacobs, Chet A. Rock Sep 2015

B833: A Residential Waste Stream Analysis: Orono, Maine, 1990, George K. Criner, Steven L. Jacobs, Chet A. Rock

George K. Criner

George Criner and Chet Rock of the University of Maine, and students from their Waste Management class analyzed household wastes from 33 residences in Orono. The purpose of the analysis was to obtain an estimate of total weekly residential waste weight and its composition by category (paper versus glass, etc.).


B807: A Study Of The Maine Lamb Industry, George Criner, Russell C. Parker Sep 2015

B807: A Study Of The Maine Lamb Industry, George Criner, Russell C. Parker

George K. Criner

This study of the Maine lamb industry is concerned not only with farm-level sheep and lamb production, but also with all aspects of the marketing chain—from the farm to the consumer. Although this study relies primarily upon Maine data the set of opportunities and constraints discussed are generally representative of those found throughout New England.


B848: Economic Analysis Of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Wood Beams, Noel D. Stevens, George K. Criner Sep 2015

B848: Economic Analysis Of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Wood Beams, Noel D. Stevens, George K. Criner

George K. Criner

This study assesses the costs of producing an innovative structural beam developed at the University of Maine that employs Maine’s underutilized timber resources. The new beams are composite beams that are made by reinforcing glue-laminated timber beams, commonly known as glulam, with fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) in the tension region of the beam. The current study addresses the following research objectives: (1) developing cost models for a range of FRP-reinforced eastern hemlock and non-reinforced southern pine glulam beam alternatives; and (2) conducting sensitivity analyses on key cost parameters.


B841: Maine's Household Garbage, George K. Criner, Jonathan D. Kaplan, Svjetlana Juric, Nicholas R. Houtman Sep 2015

B841: Maine's Household Garbage, George K. Criner, Jonathan D. Kaplan, Svjetlana Juric, Nicholas R. Houtman

George K. Criner

The objective of this report is to present findings from an analysis of Maine's nonbulky domestic waste stream.


B835: Landfills And Municpal Solid Waste In Maine, George K. Criner, John M. Halstead, Elizabeth Curtin, Steven C. Deller Sep 2015

B835: Landfills And Municpal Solid Waste In Maine, George K. Criner, John M. Halstead, Elizabeth Curtin, Steven C. Deller

George K. Criner

Municipal leaders need current information about alternative disposal methods to make rational decisions on handling their town's waste. To provide an overview of landfilling and other waste-handling methods used in the upper New England states, a group of university researchers from New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont initiated a study of landfills and solid waste management practices. The study involved a comprehensive mail survey of municipalities in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. This report focuses upon and discusses the results of the landfill and solid waste management survey for Maine.


The Ghana National Economic Forum In May 2014, Another Implementation Curse?, George E. Ekeha Aug 2015

The Ghana National Economic Forum In May 2014, Another Implementation Curse?, George E. Ekeha

George E Ekeha

More than one year after the above consensus was developed and read to the whole world, which was subsequently followed by the full report, many are of the view that little efforts have been done to implement the consensus. In this article, I decided to choose just about five of the Senchi Consensus that in my opinion can change the country very much and place her on the international radar for reckoning when implemented with the seriousness that they deserve. It is my strongest belief that many Ghanaians and other development partners are aware of many issues raised in this …


The Relationship Between Stock Market Capitalization And Money Demand In Tanzania: Evidence From Ardl Approach And Granger Causality Test, Abel A. Kinyondo, Mwoya Byaro Jul 2015

The Relationship Between Stock Market Capitalization And Money Demand In Tanzania: Evidence From Ardl Approach And Granger Causality Test, Abel A. Kinyondo, Mwoya Byaro

Abel Alfred Kinyondo

This paper investigates the relationship between stock market capitalization (MC) and money demand in Tanzania between 2000 and 2010. Findings show the presence of a long-run relationship between MC, extended broad money (M3) and interest rate when real GDP serves as dependent variable. Furthermore, saving deposit rate/real interest rate, M3 and MC variables were found to have a positive and significant influence on real GDP. However, the study captures the absence of long-run relationship between MC and money demand when M3 act as dependent variable. Also the study found a unidirectional relationship between MC and real GDP with causality running …


Nature, Extent, Causes And Issues In Agricultural Distress, Srijit Mishra Jul 2015

Nature, Extent, Causes And Issues In Agricultural Distress, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

This paper explains the nature and extent of distress in Indian agriculture by analytically separating the issues therein into two interrelated domains—the agricultural and the agrarian—the former being about production and the latter about distribution; the former about the farm and the latter about the farmer; the former about the inadequacies and inappropriateness of the agricultural developmental programmes, and the latter about the livelihood of the people involved in or dependent upon agrarian activities. In this broader thinking farmers’ suicides and indebtedness become symptoms of a larger malaise. Drawing on our understanding of farmers’ suicides, we show some interrelated demand-side …


Statistical Analysis Of Corn Storage Costs: Iowa Elevators , David Nobles Harrington Jun 2015

Statistical Analysis Of Corn Storage Costs: Iowa Elevators , David Nobles Harrington

David E. Harrington

No abstract provided.


Work Participation And Income Generation From Sericulture: A Case Study Of Alomtola Village Of Kaliachak-Ii Block In Malda District, West Bengal, Pankaj Roy Apr 2015

Work Participation And Income Generation From Sericulture: A Case Study Of Alomtola Village Of Kaliachak-Ii Block In Malda District, West Bengal, Pankaj Roy

Pankaj Roy

Livelihood generation is one of the major potentials of sericulture and silk industry. Sericulture with its high employment potentiality and more income generation in the households itself has been identified as one of the major sources of rural development by empowering women through the financial self-dependent. Men and women have been contributing in all the stages starting from on-farm activities such as Mulberry plantation, indoor rearing of silk worm, feeding the silk worm, processing the cocoons etc. to off-farm activities. This takes one to inspect the proportion of labour in the total labour absorption in the process of sericulture operation …


Creating An Action Agenda For Rural Idaho/Public Lands States, Jaap Vos Mar 2015

Creating An Action Agenda For Rural Idaho/Public Lands States, Jaap Vos

Jacobus J. "Jaap" Vos

Presentation about the future of planning education in Idaho.


The Dynamics Of House Price Responsiveness And Locational Sorting: Evidence From Air Quality Changes, Corey Lang Mar 2015

The Dynamics Of House Price Responsiveness And Locational Sorting: Evidence From Air Quality Changes, Corey Lang

Corey Lang

Despite extensive use of housing data to reveal valuation of non-market goods, the process of house price adjustment remains vague. Using the restricted access American Housing Survey, a high-frequency panel of prices, turnover, and occupant characteristics, this paper examines the time path of prices and preference-based sorting in response to air quality changes caused by differential regulatory pressure from the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The results suggest that owner-occupied units capitalize changes quickly, whereas rent prices lag behind amenity levels. The delayed but sharp rent response temporally coincides with evidence of sorting, indicating a strong link between location choices …


The Dynamics Of House Price Responsiveness And Locational Sorting: Evidence From Air Quality Changes, Corey Lang Mar 2015

The Dynamics Of House Price Responsiveness And Locational Sorting: Evidence From Air Quality Changes, Corey Lang

Corey Lang

Despite extensive use of housing data to reveal valuation of non-market goods, the process of house price adjustment remains vague. Using the restricted access American Housing Survey, a high-frequency panel of prices, turnover, and occupant characteristics, this paper examines the time path of prices and preference-based sorting in response to air quality changes caused by differential regulatory pressure from the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The results suggest that owner-occupied units capitalize changes quickly, whereas rent prices lag behind amenity levels. The delayed but sharp rent response temporally coincides with evidence of sorting, indicating a strong link between location choices …


The Mitigating Effect Of Strategic Behavior On The Net Benefits Of A Direct Load Control Program, Corey Lang, Edson Okwelum Feb 2015

The Mitigating Effect Of Strategic Behavior On The Net Benefits Of A Direct Load Control Program, Corey Lang, Edson Okwelum

Corey Lang

Demand response is an important tool for utilities to manage load during peak periods. While the effects of demand response programs on peak load reductions are well studied and intuitive, assessments typically fail to recognize the potential for off-peak behavioral responses that may mitigate the total benefits of the program. Using smart meter consumption data on residential air conditioning units enrolled in a direct load control program, this paper examines changes in consumption prior to and after curtailment events. The results suggest substantial increases in off-peak consumption, which reduce energy, monetary, and environmental benefits of the program by over 40%.


Back To The Agriculture - The Development Of The Comparative Advantage Of Sudan’S Commodities, Yagoub Elryah Dr. Jan 2015

Back To The Agriculture - The Development Of The Comparative Advantage Of Sudan’S Commodities, Yagoub Elryah Dr.

Yagoub Elryah (PhD)

In recent years, the Dutch disease created by losing the oil revenues has encouraged countries to diversify the comparative advantage in other products and services, and for many countries including Sudan agricultural products are at the top of the exports. Hence, this paper analyzed the comparative advantages of Sudan’s agricultural products and to show the extent to which products that Sudan should specialize in to regain some of missed comparative advantages. In order to figure out this, data were extracted from the International Trade Center (ITC)’s Trade map, the UNCTAD COMTRADE database and Central Bank of Sudan. In this study, …


Can Peers Improve Agricultural Revenue?, Tisorn Songsermsawas, Kathy Baylis, Ashwini Chhatre, Hope Michelson Jan 2015

Can Peers Improve Agricultural Revenue?, Tisorn Songsermsawas, Kathy Baylis, Ashwini Chhatre, Hope Michelson

Kathy Baylis

Crop revenues vary greatly among farmers and the source of that variation is not fully understood. Using a household survey from India, we estimate peer effects on cash crop revenue. Results show that 60% of farmers' revenue can be explained by peers. Peer effects in input expenditure and land allocation cannot fully explain the variation in revenue, implying peers may also associate with management, negotiation and marketing strategies. Although caste-based networks are important, their effect is substantially smaller than that of self-reported peers. Peer effects are strongest for agricultural peers and in the cultivation of a new crop.


Nuevo Producto Exportable, Guillermo Arosemena Jan 2015

Nuevo Producto Exportable, Guillermo Arosemena

Guillermo Arosemena

No abstract provided.


Towards Measuring Interventions In Rainfed Areas, Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan, Rajendra, Srijit Mishra Jan 2015

Towards Measuring Interventions In Rainfed Areas, Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan, Rajendra, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

This paper underlines the process through which we have arrived at the indicators for various thematic nodes to measure and evaluate interventions or comprehensive pilots in rainfed areas. We conceptualize a simple four stage process, i.e., ‘objective or goal formulation’, 'means finding', 'targets settings' and 'indicator identification', which we refer to as OMTI (Objective-Means-Target-Indicators) framework. In indicator literature, this kind of framework can be categorized under "thematic framework" or "goal oriented framework". The operationalization of OMTI framework highlights its nuances and brings forth its limitations. In order to overcome some of these limitations, we validate the OMTI framework using the …


Towards Arctic Resource Governance Of Marine Invasive Species, Melina Kourantidou, Brooks Alexandra Kaiser, Linda Fernandez Jan 2015

Towards Arctic Resource Governance Of Marine Invasive Species, Melina Kourantidou, Brooks Alexandra Kaiser, Linda Fernandez

Melina Kourantidou

Scientific and policy-oriented publications highlighting the magnitude of uncertainty in the changing Arctic and the possibilities for effective regional governance are proliferating, yet it remains a challenging task to examine Arctic marine biodiversity. Limited scientific data are currently available. Through analysis of marine invasions in the Arctic, we work to identify and assess patterns in the knowledge gaps regarding invasive species in the Arctic that affect the ability to generate improved governance outcomes. These patterns are expected to depend on multiple aspects of scientific research into invasive species threats in the Arctic, including the ways in which known marine invasions …


Roads And Resources: Groundwater Depletion In Lankao Country In The North China Plains, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Xiangzheng Deng, Yazhen Gong, Martino Pelli, Zhang Qian Jan 2015

Roads And Resources: Groundwater Depletion In Lankao Country In The North China Plains, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Xiangzheng Deng, Yazhen Gong, Martino Pelli, Zhang Qian

Ujjayant Chakravorty

China produces most of its food grains in the North China Plains. However, there is evidence that groundwater aquifers in this region are being overexploited. We use a unique GIS-referenced dataset of the depth of the water table for all the 12,000 odd tube wells in Lankao county. We find that the construction of new highways has led to a depletion of the water table in wells close to the highways. This relationship is robust to a variety of controls, including distance to river and primary canals, village and township fixed effects, the date of drilling of the well and …


Providing User Preferred Information Resources For A New Faculty Of Agriculture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria, Chinwe Veronica Anunobi Dr, Uche Andrew Ogbonna Jan 2015

Providing User Preferred Information Resources For A New Faculty Of Agriculture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria, Chinwe Veronica Anunobi Dr, Uche Andrew Ogbonna

Chinwe Veronica Anunobi Dr

Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Nigeria was established as a federal government financed university on August 1992. Because the university was unprepared to start any agriculture program at that time, there were limited provisions for agricultural information services. However, in 2010 the University established a Faculty of Agriculture; to prepare the university library to serve this group, a survey was carried out to ascertain the faculty’s library literacy status as well as their information needs. e result showed that, among other things, members of the new Faculty preferred hybrid (electronic and print) library services and were open to innovative social …


Predicting Consumer Demand Responses To Carbon Labels, Sharon Shewmake, Abigail Okrent, Lanka Thabrew, Michael Vandenbergh Jan 2015

Predicting Consumer Demand Responses To Carbon Labels, Sharon Shewmake, Abigail Okrent, Lanka Thabrew, Michael Vandenbergh

Sharon Shewmake

Providing carbon footprint labels for all food products is a daunting and potentially infeasible project. Knowing how consumers substitute away from high carbon goods and what they choose as substitutes is essential for understanding which goods are likely to result in meaningful reductions in carbon emissions. This paper proposes a model to systematically estimate how consumers will respond to information from a carbon footprint label. Our model uses consumers’ value of their individual carbon footprint with own- and cross-price elasticities of demand data on carbon emissions from life cycle analysis to simulate shifts in consumer demand for 42 food products …


An Empirical Analysis Of Poverty Alleviation Through Livestock Development In Pakistan, Sharafat Ali, Imran Sharif Chaudhry Dec 2014

An Empirical Analysis Of Poverty Alleviation Through Livestock Development In Pakistan, Sharafat Ali, Imran Sharif Chaudhry

Sharafat Ali

No abstract provided.


Food Sovereignty As Decolonization: Some Contributions From Indigenous Movements To Food System And Development Politics, Sam Grey, Raj Patel Dec 2014

Food Sovereignty As Decolonization: Some Contributions From Indigenous Movements To Food System And Development Politics, Sam Grey, Raj Patel

Sam Grey

The popularity of ‘food sovereignty’ to cover a range of positions, interventions, and struggles within the food system is testament, above all, to the term’s adaptability. Food sovereignty is centrally, though not exclusively, about groups of people making their own decisions about the food system—it is a way of talking about a theoretically-informed food systems practice. Since people are different, we should expect decisions about food sovereignty to be different in different contexts, albeit consonant with a core set of principles (including women’s rights, a shared opposition to genetically modified crops, and a demand for agriculture to be removed from …


Gender Budgeting: A Theoretical Perspective And Experiences, Professor Vibhuti Patel Dec 2014

Gender Budgeting: A Theoretical Perspective And Experiences, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

Budget is an important tool in the hands of state for affirmative action for improvement of gender relations through reduction of gender gap in the development process. It can help to reduce economic inequalities, between men and women as well as between the rich and the poor Hence, the budgetary policies need to keep into considerations the gender dynamics operating in the economy and in the civil society. There is a need to highlight participatory approaches bottom up budget, child budget, green budgeting, local and global implications of pro-poor and pro-women budgeting and inter-linkages between gender-sensitive budgeting and women’s empowerment. …


The Aspirational State: State Effects In Putumayo, Winifred L. Tate Dec 2014

The Aspirational State: State Effects In Putumayo, Winifred L. Tate

Winifred L. Tate

At the turn of the millennium, conditions in the Putumayo region of Colombia challenged
virtually every aspect of the standard narrative of the relations between state, society, territory,
citizenship, and rights. The normative ideal of modern state-society relations assumes territorial
control via a state apparatus capable of guaranteeing citizens’ rights and the rule of law when
threatened by illegal activities, armed actors undermining the state’s monopoly of force, or
interference from other nation-states. In Putumayo, however, it was not the national state
apparatus that attempted to safeguard the rights of citizens but rather a criminalized population of
smallholding cocaleros (coca …


Benefit Transfer Combining Revealed And Stated Preference Data: Nourishment And Retreat Options For Delaware Bay Beaches, Robert J. Johnston, Mahesh Ramachadran, George R. Parsons Dec 2014

Benefit Transfer Combining Revealed And Stated Preference Data: Nourishment And Retreat Options For Delaware Bay Beaches, Robert J. Johnston, Mahesh Ramachadran, George R. Parsons

George Parsons

Abstract appears in attached article


The Political Economy Of Export Restrictions: The Case Of Vietnam And India, Kathy Baylis, Murray E. Fulton, Travis Reynolds Dec 2014

The Political Economy Of Export Restrictions: The Case Of Vietnam And India, Kathy Baylis, Murray E. Fulton, Travis Reynolds

Kathy Baylis

No abstract provided.