Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nonparametric Estimation Of A Hedonic Price Function, Christopher Parmeter, Daniel Hnederson

Christopher F. Parmeter

Rosen’s (1974) theory of hedonic prices is implemented econometrically using recently developed nonparametric techniques to examine the influence of qualitative factors on the price of a house. Our ability to smooth categorical variables leads to greater generalization in the valuation process and provides a canvas for interactions between categorical and continuous variables that is difficult to exploit in parametric and semiparametric models. This is illustrated with a replication of a previously used partially linear model specification.

Market And Welfare Effects Of The U.S. Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act, Kenneth Njoroge, Amalia Yiannaka, Azzeddine Azzam, Konstantinos Giannakas

Azzeddine Azzam

This paper analyzes the market and welfare effects of the United States Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act enacted in 2001. The act mandates meat packers to report their transactions daily to a government agency and requires the agency to make a summary of those transactions available to the public through the Mandatory Livestock Meat Market News Reports. Considering the case of an imperfect packer cartel that uses trigger price strategies, this paper examines the impact of market information provided by the reports on equilibrium livestock slaughter and the welfare of the groups involved and identifies the determinants of the socially optimal …

Vertical Economies And The Structure Of U.S. Hog Farms, Azzeddine Azzam, Cari Skinner

Azzeddine Azzam

Scale economies are often touted as the factor behind the trend in the structure of the U.S. hog industry toward fewer and larger hog farms. However, since hog production is multistage and farms either integrate or separate the stages, the appropriate measures are multistage economies. In theory, a smaller and, presumably, high-cost operation, by the standards of single stage/output scale economies, may still be cost-competitive if it enjoys multistage economies--that is if vertical scope economies more than offset stage-specific scale diseconomies. Whether that holds in practice remains heretofore unexplored in the agricultural economics literature. Using a unique data set on …

A Long And Winding Road: The Regulation Of Private Native Forestry In New South Wales, Australia, Jerome K. Vanclay, J Doland Nichols

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

This special issue of Small-Scale Forestry is concerned with private native forestry (PNF) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Private native forests comprise indigenous species in a semi-natural formation on privately owned land. Such forests are usually uneven-aged, and regenerated naturally rather than by sowing or planting. These forests are of major conservation and commercial importance in NSW, covering 8 M ha and comprising one-third of all native forest in the state (Thompson 2007). The management and harvesting of these forests is known as PNF, and has been the focus of public attention for several years, as the desirability and …

Potential Contributions Of Statistics And Modelling To Sustainable Forest Managment: Review And Synthesis, Keith Rennolls, Margarida Tomé, Ronald E. Mcroberts, Jerome K. Vanclay, Valerie Lemay, Biing T. Guan, George Z. Gertner

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

This chapter provides a review of the statistical and modelling disciplines, their techniques and potential contribution to sustainable forest management (SFM). The main topics covered are:

Mensuration and models for sustainable forest management (SFM) Inventory and monitoring for forest sustainability: criteria and indicators Models of tropical forests for the conservation of biodiversity Integrating information and models across spatial and temporal scales for SFM Climate and carbon models in relation to sustainability New techniques for the statistical analysis of sustainability data Uncertainly analysis in modeling and monitoring for SFM Forest data, information and model archives

There are major contributions to be …