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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Adjustment Of Value Productivity Estimates To Changes In Price And Technical Relationships , David Brown Dec 2015

Adjustment Of Value Productivity Estimates To Changes In Price And Technical Relationships , David Brown

David C. Brown

No abstract provided.


Structural Shifts In Agricultural Markets Caused By Government Mandates: Ethanol And The Renewable Fuels Standard, John Olson Dec 2015

Structural Shifts In Agricultural Markets Caused By Government Mandates: Ethanol And The Renewable Fuels Standard, John Olson

John Olson

For many decades, demand for agricultural commodities has remained stagnant and its growth has been limited. In contrast, agricultural production continues to become ever more efficient by increasing output for stable or decreased inputs. Long-run profits have historically been near zero due to an ongoing relative equilibrium. But recent U.S. energy policy has changed to include a Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), the goal of which is to boost domestic energy independence in an environmentally sound way. Most of the RFS in the near-term relies on the production of 15 billion gallons of ethanol made from corn. This has the effect …


Testing The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis For Water Footprint Indicator: A Cross-Sectional Study, Maamar Sebri Nov 2015

Testing The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis For Water Footprint Indicator: A Cross-Sectional Study, Maamar Sebri

Maamar Sebri

The water footprint analysis has become a rapidly growing field of research although little attention has been paid to its relationship with economic growth. Using the available cross-section data, this study examines how the per capita water footprint varies as a function of per capita income within the environmental Kuznets curve framework at both aggregated and disaggregated level of water footprint. In addition, the issue of omitted variables is investigated by incorporating a number of control variables. Estimation results show no evidence in favour of an inverted-U environmental Kuznets curve, but they yield, in most cases, an evolution into an …


Powering America: The Impact Of Ethanol Production In The Corn Belt States, Luisa Blanco, Michelle Isenhouer Sep 2015

Powering America: The Impact Of Ethanol Production In The Corn Belt States, Luisa Blanco, Michelle Isenhouer

Luisa Blanco

This paper investigates the impact of ethanol production in the Corn Belt states (Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). Employing data at the county level, from 2005 and 2006, we investigate the effect of ethanol production on employment and wages. Our empirical results show that ethanol production has a positive significant effect on employment and wages, but this effect is of insignificant magnitude. We also find that counties with high and medium levels of ethanol production capacity show higher levels of employment and wages than those counties that do not produce ethanol. …


Effects Of Natural Resource Abundance On Institutions: Which, Where And When?, Luisa Blanco, Jeffrey Nugent, Graham Veenstra Sep 2015

Effects Of Natural Resource Abundance On Institutions: Which, Where And When?, Luisa Blanco, Jeffrey Nugent, Graham Veenstra

Luisa Blanco

Much research has gone into the effects of oil and other natural resources on growth in which political institutions are often seen as the link between the two. Since institutions are difficult to measure and change very slowly over time, the analysis has largely been confined to cross-country comparisons, most frequently investigating the effects on levels of democracy. This paper builds on recent analyses of the effects of oil endowments, prices and exports on democracy to examine the effects on several different types of institutional change, making use of panel data on over 100 countries between 1975 and 2005 wherever …


A Smiling Face Is Half The Meal: The Role Of Cooperation In Sustaining Maine’S Local Food Industry, Ethan Tremblay, Timothy Waring Feb 2015

A Smiling Face Is Half The Meal: The Role Of Cooperation In Sustaining Maine’S Local Food Industry, Ethan Tremblay, Timothy Waring

Timothy M Waring

The U.S. is experiencing a renaissance in local food production, and Maine is among the states leading that resurgence. This renaissance is influenced by many factors, and has both economic and social dimensions. This article examines the role of cooperation in the local food industry across a range of local food organizations. The authors conclude that cooperation plays different yet crucial roles in all local food organizations, and is an important part of the success of the local food industry as whole. The article considers the policy implications of these findings, and suggests that while the prevalence of cooperation is …