Other Economics Commons^™

(Review) Pierre Force, Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy Of Economic Science, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Pierre Force, Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. ix, 279, $65.00. ISBN 0-52183060-5.

(Review) Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy Of Economic Science, Spencer J. Pack

Economics Faculty Publications

Pierre Force, Self-Interest Before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. ix, 279, $65.00. ISBN 0-521 83060-5.

The Corporate Form As A Solution To A Discursive Dilemma, Edward B. Rock

All Faculty Scholarship

I examine the connection between the discursive dilemma and corporate law. The discursive dilemma (or doctrinal paradox) is a distinctive social choice problem that was first identified by Kornhauser and Sager and later used as the basis for a theory of organizational personality by Pettit. I examine the ways in which the corporate form prevents the emergence of the discursive dilemma in the firm context and the extent to which the presence of the discursive dilemma can provide the foundation for a theory of corporate personality.

Banking Sector Reforms And Bank Consolidation: Conceptual Framework., Moses Ajayi

Bullion

Reforms are predicated upon the need for reorientation and repositioning of an existing status quo in order to attain an effective and efficient state The objective of this paper is, therefore, to present the conceptual framework for banking sector reforms. particularly, consolidation. The paper is divided into five sections. following the introduction, section ll conceptualizes the facets of reforms and conceptual issues on consolidation in the banking sector, while section ll discusses the critical success issues in banking sector consolidation. section IV presents concepts associated with country elements of banking elements of banking reforms, while section five concludes the paper. …

Banking Sector Reforms And Bank Consolidation: The Turkey Experience., U. M. Ogubunka

Bullion

Countries reform their banking sectors for a number of reasons, including structural, capitalization and ownership issues. Consequently, the objectives of the reforms can hardly be the same in all countries. This paper is presented on the basis that an overview of the banking reform in the lessons Nigeria could learn from it. The paper is structured into seven sections. the next section following this introduction identifies some of the key features of Turkish banking system pre-reform era of 2001, section three deals on the drivers of banking reform in the country. section four reviews some of the actions taken in …

Challenges Of Banking Sector Reforms And Bank Consolidation In Nigeria., Odufu I. Imala

Bullion

This paper intended to look at the number of reforms that have since been created, several of them was intended to enhance the risk management capability of both the regulated institutions and the regulators. the current reforms are part of the broader and on-going national economic reforms. This paper x-rays the challenges envisaged in their implementation. Following the introduction, section 2 examines the role of the banking system in the economy, while section 3 provides the rationale for the reforms in Nigeria. Section 4, the reform agenda is discussed with a brief on the journey so far. Section 5 identifies …

Post-Consolidation Challenges., Biodun Adedipe

Bullion

This paper tend to look at the huge complexity of a consolidation programme of the kind embarked upon by the CBN demands caution, constant reappraisal of strategies and actions, and full attention to the identified and emerging challenges. The paper is structured into three parts, dealing with the benefits of a properly conceived and effectively implemented consolidation programme, which has several components. beyond the benefits, the challenges that the banking industry stakeholders (especially the Central Bank of Nigeria) will face when the "dust settles". The final part offers some advice on what the CBN and other stakeholders should do in …

Non-Performing Assets Of The Banking System In Nigeria: Complementary Measures., Moses F. Otu

Bullion

The article examines the structure of the non-performing assets of the banking system in Nigeria with the view of ascertaining loan concentration. further attempt would be made to examine the causes of deteriorating assets and explore the complementary options for managing the non-performing loans. Following an introduction as section one, the rest of the paper is thus: section two focuses on definitional and conceptual issues, section three covers the literature review while section four addresses the methodology and trend of non- performing assets and the sectoral contributions. Section five, presents the complementary options and the concluding remarks. The study concluded …

Banking System Consolidation In Nigeria And Some Regional Experiences: Challenges And Prospects., Y A. Bello

Bullion

This paper examines banking sector development in Nigeria from the Structural Adjustment era of the mid-1980s and the current reforms taking place in the financial service industry in terms of consolidation. In addition, the paper tries assess the banking system consolidation in Nigeria and the challenges and prospects expected. The paper is structured into six parts. following this introduction\, the part two discusses an overview of the banking system in Nigeria. part three reviews some regional experiences, while part four evaluates banking system consolidation in Nigeria and part five examines the challenges and prospects. while part six, summarizes and concludes …

Connections Between U.S. Consumer Magazine Cover Characteristics And Single Copy Sales Circulation, Stephanie C. Barlow

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In the realm of journalism, conventional wisdom suggests that magazine covers “sell” magazines at newsstands. This study explores this idea by looking at the econometric relationship between cover characteristics such as presence of people and “catch” words and single copy sales. Several significant characteristics influencing such sales are found. In addition, this study is based on a new data set developed by the author indicating various characteristics of numbers of magazine covers over a five-year time span.

Specifically, a set of 14 magazines were observed for 10 characteristics. The percentage of the presence of these characteristics on magazine covers over …

Economic Contributions Of Atv-Related Activity In Maine, Jonathan Rubin, Charles Morrris

Economic Development

Riding ATVs has become a highly visible recreational activity in Maine. During the 2003/2004 season from July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004 there were 59,057 ATVs registered in Maine to 45,561 separate households in Maine and from outside of Maine. During 2004, the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine in conjunction with the Maine Department of Conservation conducted a study to determine the total contribution to Maine’s economy that results from the spending related directly to the purchase and use of ATVs in Maine. We also examined the environmental and economic damages caused by ATVs.

A Laboratory Investigation Of Compliance Behavior Under Tradable Emissions Rights: Implications For Targeted Enforcement, James J. Murphy, John Stranlund

PERI Working Papers

This paper uses laboratory experiments to test the theoretical observations that both the violations of competitive risk-neutral firms and the marginal effectiveness of increased enforcement across firms are independent of differences in their abatement costs and their initial allocations of permits. This conclusion has important implications for enforcing emissions trading programs because it suggests that regulators have no justification for targeting their enforcement effort based on firm-level characteristics. Consistent with the theory, we find that subjects’ violations were independent of parametric differences in their abatement costs. However, those subjects that were predicted to buy permits tended to have higher violation …

What Motivates Common Pool Resource Users? Experimental Evidence From The Field, Maria Alejandra Vélez, John K. Stranlund, James J. Murphy

PERI Working Papers

This paper develops and tests several models of pure Nash strategies of individuals who extract from a common pool resource when they are motivated by a combination of self-interest and other motivations such as altruism, reciprocity, inequity aversion and conformism. We test whether an econometric summary of subjects’ strategies is consistent with one of these motivations using data from a series of common pool resource experiments conducted in three regions of Colombia. As expected, average extraction levels are less than that predicted by a model of pure self-interest, but are nevertheless sub-optimal. Moreover, we find that a model of conformism …

Landowner Driven Sustainable Forest Management And Value-Added Processing, David T. Damery

PERI Working Papers

The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative, LLC (MWC) is working to help members conduct sustainable forestry of the highest standards while increasing financial returns from harvest activities. The forests of Massachusetts, the 3rd most densely populated of the United States, are threatened. Decades of high grading and the threat of conversion to alternative use present challenges for maintaining a forested landscape. Despite being 60% forested Massachusetts imports approximately 98% of the wood fiber that its citizens consume. MWC is a forest management, processing and marketing cooperative organized by and on behalf of forest landowners in western Massachusetts. The cooperative was envisioned in …

Heterogeneity And Common Pool Resources: Collective Management Of Forests In Himachal Pradesh, India, Sirisha C. Naidu

PERI Working Papers

In the past two decades, theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that communities of resource users are capable of overcoming social dilemmas, and are capable of creating and sustaining institutions designed to prevent degradation of common pool natural resources. However, there is incomplete understanding of what motivates this group-level behavior and why some communities are better adept at solving collective action problems than others. This paper specifically explores the role of group heterogeneity in collective action among forest communities in the northwestern Himalayas. Heterogeneity can have important social and ecological consequences and understanding both its nature and effects can help in …

Bearing The Costs Of Human-Wildlife Conflict: The Challenges Of Compensation Schemes, Philip J. Nyhus, Steve A. Osofsky, Paul Ferraro, H Fischer, Francine Madden

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Houses Of Straw, David A. Bainbridge

David A Bainbridge

Straw bale building offers high performance at a low cost. Bale building, developed on the grasslands of Nebraska at turn of the last century, has been rediscovered. High insulation values and high interior thermal mass make straw bales a good choice for passive solar design.

Market Power In Direct Marketing Of Fresh Produce: Community Supported Agriculture Farms, Daniel A. Lass, Nathalie Lavoie, Robert T. Fetter

Daniel A. Lass

CSA farms establish a loyal customer base and, potentially, market power. A new empirical industrial organization (NEIO) approach and survey data from Northeast CSA farms are used to determine whether CSA farms have market power and the extent to which they exercise their market power. Results suggest CSA farms exert about two percent of their potential monopoly power.

Market Power In Direct Marketing Of Fresh Produce: Community Supported Agriculture Farms, Daniel A. Lass, Nathalie Lavoie, Robert T. Fetter

Nathalie Lavoie

CSA farms establish a loyal customer base and, potentially, market power. A new empirical industrial organization (NEIO) approach and survey data from Northeast CSA farms are used to determine whether CSA farms have market power and the extent to which they exercise their market power. Results suggest CSA farms exert about two percent of their potential monopoly power.

Risk Management In The Integrated Nafta Market: Lessons From The Case Of Bse, Julie Caswell, David Sparling

Julie Caswell

No abstract provided.

Sources Of Gender Difference In Rural To Urban Migration In Kenya: Does Human Capital Matter?, Richard U. Agesa, Jacqueline Agesa

Economics Faculty Research

Using data from Kenya this article estimates the urban to rural gender gap in the rate of migration and then decomposes the gap into the explained portion and the portion due to gender differences in coefficients. The former is further decomposed to unveil the relative influence of each explanatory variable on the explained portion of the gender gap in the rate of migration. A non-trivial finding suggests that human capital variables may exert the strongest influence on gender differences in migration, partially explaining the higher incidence of male migration.

Architectural Censorship And The Fcc, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Most First Amendment analyses of U.S. media policy have focused predominantly on “behavioral” regulation, which either prohibits the transmission of disfavored content (such as indecent programming) or mandates the dissemination of preferred content (such as children’s educational programming and political speech). In so doing, commentators have largely overlooked how program content is also affected by “structural” regulation, which focuses primarily on increasing the economic competitiveness of media industries. In this Article, Professor Christopher Yoo employs economic analysis to demonstrate how structural regulation can constitute a form of “architectural censorship” that has the unintended consequence of reducing the quantity, quality, and …

An Investigation Of Voluntary Discovery And Disclosure Of Environmental Violations Using Laboratory Experiments, James J. Murphy, John K. Stranlund

PERI Working Papers

This paper uses laboratory experiments to test individual responses to policies that seek to encourage firms to voluntarily discover and disclose violations of environmental standards. We find that while it is possible to motivate a significant number of voluntary disclosures without adversely affecting environmental quality, this result is sensitive to both the fine for disclosed violations and the assumption that firms know their compliance status without cost. When firms have to expend resources to determine their compliance status, motivating a significant number of violation disclosures yields worse environmental quality. Finally, relative to conventional enforcement, disclosure polices will result in more …

Interaction Between Food Attributes In Markets: The Case Of Environmental Labeling, Gilles Grolleau, Julie A. Caswell

PERI Working Papers

Some consumers derive utility from using products produced with specific processes, such as environmentally friendly practices. Means of verifying these credence attributes, such as certification, are necessary for the market to function effectively. A substitute or complementary solution may exist when consumers perceive a relationship between a process attribute and other verifiable product attributes. We present a model where the level of search and experience attributes influences the likelihood of production of eco-friendly products. Our results suggest that the market success of ecofriendly food products requires a mix of environmental and other verifiable attributes that together signal credibility.

Inspections To Avert Terrorism: Robustness Under Severe Uncertainty, L. Joe Moffitt, John K. Stranlund, Barry C. Field

PERI Working Papers

Protecting against terrorist attacks requires making decisions in a world in which attack probabilities are largely unknown. The potential for very large losses encourages a conservative perspective, in particular toward decisions that are robust. But robustness, in the sense of assurance against extreme outcomes, ordinarily is not the only desideratum in uncertain environments. We adopt Yakov Ben-Haim’s (2001b) model of information gap decision making to investigate the problem of inspecting a number of similar targets when one of the targets may be attacked, but with unknown probability. We apply this to a problem of inspecting a sample of incoming shipping …

Market Power In Direct Marketing Of Fresh Produce: Community Supported Agriculture Farms, Daniel A. Lass, Nathalie Lavoie, T. Robert Fetter

PERI Working Papers

CSA farms establish a loyal customer base and, potentially, market power. A new empirical industrial organization (NEIO) approach and survey data from Northeast CSA farms are used to determine whether CSA farms have market power and the extent to which they exercise their market power. Results suggest CSA farms exert about two percent of their potential monopoly power.

Bearing The Costs Of Human-Wildlife Conflict: The Challenges Of Compensation Schemes, Philip J. Nyhus, Steve A. Osofsky, Paul Ferraro, H Fischer, Francine Madden

Philip J. Nyhus

No abstract provided.

Treating Yourself Instrumentally Internalization, Rationality, And The Law, Robert D. Cooter

Robert Cooter

No abstract provided.

Methodological Reflections On The Short-Run Johansen Industry Model In Relation To Capacity Management, Kristriaan Kerstens, Dale Squires, Niels Vestergaard

Niels Vestergaard

The specification of a convex production technology is a potential issue in estimating firm-level Johansen plant capacity utilisation rates and their subsequent use in the short-run Johansen industry capacity model of the fishery. There are different plant capacity utilisation estimates with convex and nonconvex technologies. When entered as parameters in the short-run Johansen industry model, this leads to different distributions in the activity vectors. With non-convex technology, more vessels remain active in the fleet, and there is no longer an overestimation of the number of decommissioned vessels compared to the use of a convex technology. A second methodological reflection involves …

Fishing Capacity In Europe: Special Issue Introduction, Niels Vestergaard

Niels Vestergaard

No abstract provided.