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.

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.

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.