Economics Commons^™

Introduction: What Have We Learned About Academic Leadership, Elizabeth Hoffman

Elizabeth Hoffman

When Bob Sternberg embarked on this project in May of 2013, I was nearing the end of a year's administrative leave after stepping down from my fifth major administrative position, an administrative career spanning twenty-three years. My latest position was a five-year term s executive vice president and provost at Iowa State University. I had been one of the Big XII provosts who formed the original set of contributors to this important book.

An Empirical Application Of Laboratory Experimental Auctions In Marketing Research, Dale J. Menkhaus, George W. Borden, Glen D. Whipple, Elizabeth Hoffman, Ray A. Field

Elizabeth Hoffman

A laboratory experimental auction was used to determine factors influencing the relative value consumers place on alternative retail beef packaging. Results indicate information is very important for the successful introduction and marketing of the vacuum skin package. Physical appearance of the beef plays a major role in purchasing decisions by consumers, with fat and shape significantly decreasing the value of beef in the vacuum skin package relative to beef in the overwrapped styrofoam tray package. Experimental economics procedures, when combined with traditional marketing research techniques, can provide useful information for marketing decisions and economic analyses.

The Impact Of Transportation Costs On Spatial Competition Of Grain Buyers: An Iowa Case Study, Miguel Carriquiry, Bruce A. Babcock

Bruce Babcock

Hotelling’s classic model of spatial competition is adapted to estimate the impacts on grain price of the closure of one of three grain buyers on the Mississippi River in the vicinity of Scott County, Iowa. The customers of the buyer who is closing (River Gulf Grain Company) in Davenport, Iowa, are assumed to deliver their grain to a buyer in either Buffalo, Iowa, to the south or to a buyer in Clinton, Iowa, to the north. Calibration of Hotelling’s framework to this situation leads to an estimated decline in grain bids of 1.5¢ per bushel for the ...

U.S. Farm Policy And The Wto: How Do They Match Up?, Chad E. Hart, Bruce A. Babcock

Bruce Babcock

The debate over a new farm bill has focused on how to spend an additional $73.5 billion in funding for the agricultural budget over ten years. The House of Representatives, the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Senators Cochran and Roberts (supported by the Bush Administration) have each proposed a structure for the next farm bill. A critical question becomes whether these proposals conflict with U.S. commitments to limit subsidies under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. This paper explores this issue and concludes with a discussion of the future direction of U.S. farm subsidies and new WTO agreements.

Estimating The Value Of Guaranteed Rail Service, Gregory R. Pautsch, Bruce A. Babcock, C. Phillip Baumel

Bruce Babcock

The purpose of this research is to develop a framework to estimate the value of guaranteed rail service to grain shippers. The analysis consists of estimating density functions for the days waiting for conventional tariff service. A shipper loss function for waiting for rail service was also estimated. Three qualitative results were established. First, the value of guaranteed rail service increases as the quality of guaranteed service rises. Second, the value of guaranteed rail service increases as conventional tariff service becomes less reliable. Finally, when grain is stored on the ground, the value of guaranteed rail service increases.

Economies Of Size, Tax Reform And Profitability Of Alternative Midwestern Feedlot Systems, Mark R. Weimar, Arne Hallam, Larry D. Trede

Arne Hallam

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 may have substantial impacts on cattle feeding operations in the Midwest. Changes in the tax laws may encourage different investment patterns in feedlots as to size, type of facility, feeding programs, and age of animal fed. Cost and returns are computed for a variety of feeding systems under the new and old tax laws.Substantial economies of size were found under both tax laws, bu they were more extreme under the new tax system.

Factors Impacting Production And Economic Variability In Traditional Midwest Swine Enterprises, John D. Lawrence, John Shaffer, Arne Hallam, Thomas J. Baas

Arne Hallam

Traditional swine enterprises report competitive cost of production for the “top one-third”herds.Further analysis shows that individual herds are seldom in the most profitable group every year, and nearly all farms have an occasional good year.While long-run differences exist in cost of production across farms, the wide variability from year to year in efficiency, costs, and returns provides a greater challenge to existing swine enterprises.

Sandwiches, Social Capital And Barriers To Mobility, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

Land, Patents And Copyright, Lester G. Telser

Lester G Telser

Quota Flexibility In Multi-Species Fisheries, Rajesh Singh, Quinn Weninger

Economics Working Papers

We evaluate management implications of cross-species flexibility in a multiple-species individual fishing quota regulation. We derive fishermen’s privately optimal harvesting and discarding choices under a joint-in-inputs, costly-targeting technology and the complex mapping between quotas set by the regulator and harvest and discard outcomes. Flexibility can reduce fishery rent due to reduced control of harvest outcomes. Empirical evidence from the Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery is presented to test model predictions. We find no evidence that flexibility reduced discards caused by random quota overages. Discarding in the data is attributed to a particularly small quota and a much ...

Jan-Werner Müller, What Is Populism? (2016), Özgür Gökmen

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Turkey At A Crossroads: The Political Economy Of Turkey’S Transformation, Turan Subaşat

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Economics and politics are inextricably linked in all countries. This is particularly true for Turkey, which is at a crossroads where politics overwhelmingly dominates economics. An accurate understanding of the way in which the Turkish economy integrates into the global markets, therefore, will not be possible unless the broader political context is understood. This paper argues that Turkey is geared up for a regime change, which is likely to be more authoritarian and less secular. It first emphasizes the Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) radical policy discrepancies, which appear as inconsistencies at first glance but in effect complement ...

The Paramountcy Of Context: Introduction To Special Issue On Popular Culture And Markets In Turkey, Güliz Ger

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

A House Of Cards: Free Banking In Antebellum Chicago, Miles J. Holtzman

Business and Economics Summer Fellows

The Chicago free banking market of the antebellum period has more than once aroused the interest of historians and economists alike. Implemented in the state of Illinois in 1851, free banking was a common, though not universal occurrence in the United States at the time. The city of Chicago’s experience with free banking was anything but common, however. Within the first 18 months after the Illinois legislature enacted the Illinois Free Banking Law, 9 free banks had begun operation in Chicago and between them had an aggregate note issue of over $800,000. But by 1860, Chicago was home ...

Essays On Debt In Macroeconomics, James G. Partridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My dissertation consists of three chapters, where the common theme among them is debt and saving. My work contributes to our understanding of how debt markets function for entrepreneurs, large corporations and households.

The first chapter studies how entrepreneurs used personal borrowing to fund their businesses during the Great Recession. One of the defining characteristics of this period was a “credit crunch” during which the supply of credit dropped for all borrowers. I show that changes in the finances of entrepreneurs between 2007 and 2009 are consistent with entrepreneurs using personal assets to secure lending for their businesses and overcome ...

Rennet Extracts Of Commerce, A Preliminary Study, G. E. Patrick

Bulletin (Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station)

In February of the present year the Station received from a cheese manufacturer of the State two samples of rennet extract, with request for analysis and an explanation of the superior efficiency of one of them, suggesting the possibility that an extra (added) amount of free acid might be the cause. In accordance with custom, the request was complied with so far as possible. In June the same gentleman sent two more samples, and in August several more. Some of the results of investigation were so remarkable that the writer, now interested and desirous of getting at the truth, suggested ...

A Study In Churning, Henry C. Wallace

Bulletin (Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station)

In studying the question of how to make the dairy most profitable, two problems are presented for solution. The first off these problems is, how to produce the greatest amount of butter fat at the least cost; the second, how to save all of the fat produced and market it in the form of a high-priced product. Both of these problems are being studied, not only on thousands of dairy farms, but at many experiment stations. During the past nine months we have been devoting especial attention to a study of the loss of fat in the butter-milk in churning ...

Socioeconomic Status, Air Quality And Geographic Variation In Emergency Room Visits For Acute Bronchitis On The California Central Coast, Sean Lang-Brown, Heather W. Starnes, Gary B. Hughes

Symposium

IMPORTANCE: Analysis of geospatial variation in acute bronchitis due to socioeconomic and environmental factors can allow the efficient delivery of resources to populations most at risk.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine if small scale variation in socioeconomic factors and emergency room (ER) visits for acute bronchitis are associated in small cities or rural communities. We also modeled the effects of air quality on daily rates of ER visits for acute bronchitis in the context of socioeconomic factors to investigate modifying relationships.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We examined ER visits for acute bronchitis in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties ...

Entrepreneurship Vs Paid Employment: Multiple Skills And Financing, Felipe Balmaceda Assoc Prof.

Felipe Balmaceda

Equilibrium Play In Voluntary Ultimatum Games: Beneficence Cannot Be Extorted, Vernon L. Smith, Bart J. Wilson

ESI Working Papers

One robust result in experimental economics is the failure to observe equilibrium play in the ultimatum game. A heretofore unnoticed feature of the game is that neither player voluntarily chooses to play the game. Motivated by Adam Smith’s proposition that beneficence—like that of non‐ equilibrium play in the ultimatum game—cannot be extorted by force, we offer the responder the opportunity to opt out of the game for a mere $1 payoff for both players. We observe high rates of equilibrium play with highly unequal splits when responders choose to play such ultimatum games with both fixed and ...