Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evolution As Learning Yields Hyperbolic Discounting, James Woods

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Learning is modeled as an infection, which jumps from person to person. The rate of infection mimics individual discount rates and induces savings behavior on its own. It is shown that the apparent discount rate, the combination of the agents’ true discount rate and the infection rate, decreases over time and approaches the agents’ true discount rate. This decrease, known as hyperbolic discounting, is consistent with what is observed in psychology studies, while the limiting case, exponential discounting, is consistent with market level observations. This model closes the gap between individual and market level observations of discounting behavior without explicitly …

University-Industry Relationships: Framing The Issues For Academic Research In Agricultural Biotechnology, David E. Ervin, Terri Lomax, Steven T. Buccola, Kristen Kim, Elizabeth Minor, Hui Yang, Leland L. Glenna, Elizabeth Jaeger, Dina Biscotti, Walter J. Armbruster, Kate Clancy, William B. Lacy, Rick Welsh, Yin Xia

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

More must be done to understand how academic researchers involved in agricultural biotechnology are impacted by a growing number of relationships with industry partners, concluded a new report released today by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology (the Pew Initiative) and Portland State University. The report, University-Industry Relationships: Framing the Issues for Academic Research in Agricultural Biotechnology looks at the advantages and disadvantages to universities and academic scientists who engage in relationships with industry. It specifically outlines the need for information regarding influences on academic scientists' research agendas, the intellectual property rights and technology innovations involved in the relationships, …

Networking And Foreign Direct Investment Activity, Bruce A. Blonigen, Rossitza B. Wooster

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We conduct an empirical investigation into whether networking effects affect foreign direct investment (FDI) activity. Using bibliographical information on CEOs’ birth and education locations, we are able to identify changes from U.S. to foreign-connected CEOs that occurred in U.S. manufacturing firms of the S&P 500 from 1992 through 1997. Robust to a variety of specifications, we find that a U.S. firm’s switch from a U.S.- to a foreign-connected CEO leads to substantial increases in the firm’s proportion of its assets and sales that are in foreign markets. In fact, our preferred specification indicates that foreign asset and sales proportions increase …

Transgenic Crops And The Environment: Missing Markets And Public Roles, David E. Ervin, Sandra S. Batie

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapidity of change has left scant opportunity for investigation of the consequences of adoption of transgenic crops on long-term ecosystem or economic system functioning. Economic theory suggests that, if the "Biotechnology Revolution" is left to market forces alone, there will be neglected public goods. Theory and limited empirical evidence suggests that there are significant incentives for private firms to discount and neglect certain environmental impacts and to develop products that meet mainly the needs of those able and willing to pay. Negative distributional impacts on rural societies and economies will not normally enter the private calculus nor will the …

Biotechnology And The Environment: Issues And Linkages, Sandra S. Batie, David E. Ervin

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapidity of change has left scant opportunity for investigation of the consequences of biotechnology adoption on long-term ecosystem or economic system functioning. Economic theory suggests that, if the "Biotechnology Revolution" is left to market forces alone, there will be neglected public goods. Theory and limited empirical evidence suggests that there are significant incentives for private firms to discount and neglect negative environmental impacts and to develop products that meet only the needs of those able and willing to pay. Negative distributional impacts on rural societies and economies will not normally enter the private calculus nor will the long-term problems …

An Informal Review Of The Crisis Of Global Capitalism: A Letter To George Soros, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The author presents a review and critique of George Soros' The Crisis in Global Capiltalism, published by Public Affairs press in 1998, and attempts to draw attention to systems-theoretic ideas that pertain to the arguments proposed by Soros.

Climate, Water Navigability, And Economic Development, Andrew D. Mellinger, Jeffrey D. Sachs, John Luke Gallup

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Geographic information systems (GIS) data was used on a global scale to examine the relationship between climate (ecozones), water navigability, and economic development in terms of GDP per capita. GDP per capita and the spatial density of economic activity measured as GDP per km2 are high in temperate ecozones and in regions proximate to the sea (within 100 km of the ocean or a sea-navigable waterway). Temperate ecozones proximate to the sea account for 8 percent of the world’s inhabited land area, 23 percent of the world’s population, and 53 percent of the world’s GDP. The GDP densities in temperate …

Portable Wood Burning Camp Stove: United States Patent, John B. Hall Professor

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portable camp stove, wherein solid-fuel, especially of dried tree and bush twigs, is burned upon a supporting fuel grate positioned at bottom of a combustion-chamber. Solid-fuel is added directly into the combustion-chamber during operation through alligned stoke holes in a chimney and a vented-fire-ring, and then dropped vertically downward through an exhaust vent. Air for primary combustion is drawn into the combustion-chamber through a ring of intake apertures adjacent to and above the stove's bottom plate. Stove's outer wall is spaced apart from the wall of the combustion-chamber and the two walls are joined together and sealed by a top …

The Role Of Soil Test Information In Reducing Groundwater Pollution, Ronald A. Fleming, Richard M. Adams, David E. Ervin

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Testing soils for nutrients is expected to improve groundwater quality. However, it is unknown whether soil testing will improve groundwater quality sufficiently to decrease the demand for direct regulation of agricultural practices. Focusing on an irrigated agricultural region in eastern Oregon, the economic and environmental aspects of soil testing are assessed using a spatially distributed, dynamic simulation model which links economic behavior with the physical processes that determine groundwater quality. Results indicate that soil testing of all fields increases farm profits and reduces groundwater nitrate concentration. However, the benefits are small in terms of potential improvements in groundwater quality.

Will Business-Led Environmental Initiatives Grow In Agriculture?, Sandra S. Batie, David E. Ervin

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article was stimulated by a 1997 American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting preconference designed by Batie and Ervin. The authors felt that there was considerable interest and activity in business-led environmental management (also caLLed corporate environmental management)-but most of the interest was found outside of the agricultural sector and the profession. The conference was a means to investigate the extent, motivation, and consequences of business-led poLLution prevention activities. The DuPont and the StahLbush Island Farms examples used in this article were drawn from discussions that took place at the conference and which were published in the proceedings. In the …

Leaner Environmental Policies For Agriculture, David E. Ervin, Elisabeth A. Graffy

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Farmers and ranchers face a most troubling dilemma. Complex political forces have mapped two quite different paths to environmental management-a rollback of federal regulations or a buildup of traditional subsidies. In the words of a famous modern philosopher, "When you reach a fork in the road, take it!" But either choice poses risk for the industry and will not likely ameliorate nettlesome environmental problems. A third path could help the industry maintain competitiveness and meet environmental challenges. This path uses me latest science to identify agroenvironmental problems and emphasizes economically attractive technology to sustain environmental improvements.

A New Era Of Water Quality Management In Agriculture: From Best Management Practices To Watershed-Based Whole Farm Approaches, David E. Ervin

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Why is reducing water pollution from agriculture such a stubbornly slow process? Despite several policy initiatives since the 1970s, farms and ranches rank as the primary contributors to impairments of the nation's surface waters [U.S.EPA, 1994b]. Emerging research also points to agricultural chemicals in many cases of groundwater contamination [Barbash and Resek; Mueller, et al.]. After a little reflection, the industry's negative distinction may not be surprising. Covering nearly half the U.S. land base, crop and livestock production inevitably alter natural vegetative cover, apply fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water, and involve animal wastes. All of these processes can degrade water …

Structural Change And Employment Decline In Oregon's Wood Products Industry, James G. Strathman, Anthony M. Rufolo, Lois M. Bronfman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Employment in the wood products industry in Oregon has declined over the past decade despite a recent resurgence in demand for the industry's products. Reviewing employment and productivity data over the last decade, it is apparent that wood products employment in the state has been reduced as a result of productivity increases. Thus the industry processed more timber in 1986 than in 1979, but with about fifteen percent fewer workers. Continued reductions in wood products employment pose potentially serious adjustment problems because much of rural Oregon remains heavily dependent economically on the industry. There are also indications that timber supply …

Labor Productivity In Wood Products: Using Interviews To Supplement Statistical Estimates, Anthony M. Rufolo, Lois M. Bronfman, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In 1986 the wood products industry in Oregon was producing more output than in 1979 but with about fifteen percent fewer workers. The employment decline in the wood products industry in Oregon can be traced to a variety of causes, including reductions in timber harvest and changes in output mix between the more labor-intensive plywood production and the less labor-intensive lumber production; but increasing labor productivity in the industry was a major factor. Despite substantial amounts of research regarding such productivity increases, there is still ample room for debate about the specific causes of the observed productivity improvement.

In section …

Employment Decline I Timber Dependent Regions, Anthony M. Rufolo, James G. Strathman, Lois M. Bronfman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Employment in the wood products industry in Oregon has declined over the past decade despite the resurgence in demand for the products of the industry in the last few years. Because of the dependency of rural regions on this industry, the Ford Foundation funded the authors to undertake a study of the causes and consequences of employment decline within the industry. Such information can contribute to the development of strategies for improving the economic viability of these regions.

Tunber dependent regions in Oregon fit the classic export-base model of economic development These areas produce wood products for export to other …

Portland State University's Impact On The Portland Smsa Economy, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Portland State University's contribution to the metropolitan Portland economy is both diverse and considerable. A 1982 study estimated that the expenditures made by the University, its faculty and staff, and its full-time students generated over $150 million in gross output in the region. Given the changes that have taken place over the past five years, a re-examination of the University's economic impacts is warranted. This report examines Portland State University's contribution to metropolitan economic activity based on data from the 1985-86 academic year.

The approach taken in this report differs in several respects from the 1982 study. In addition to …

Entropy Measure In Input-Output Analysis, Martin Zwick, Abbas Heiat

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Applications of Shannon's entropy measure to the matrices of technical and interdependence coefficients, to the final demand vector, and to other aspects of input- output tables are proposed. These entropy measures serve as indices of different types of economic diversity. The relevance of such indices for economic planning and for analyses of economic structural complexity and development is discussed.

"Energy Resources", Harrison Scott Brown

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

With: Salter, C. L. The urban enigma.

"The Call For A New International Economic Order, Part 1", Joaquin González, Ruth Hinerfield

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

"The Call For A New International Economic Order, Part 2", Jeffrey Garten

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.

"The United States Grants Economy", Kenneth Ewart Boulding

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

No abstract provided.