Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bioenergy, Safety Net Tools Are Producers’ Top Priorities For Next Farm Bill, Bradley Lubben, Mary Thompson

Department of Agricultural Economics: Presentations, Working Papers, and Gray Literature

Bioenergy and the structure of safety net programs are of high interest to farmers and ranchers as the next farm bill is debated, according to more than 15,000 farmers and ranchers in 27 states surveyed by Farm Foundation’s National Public Policy Education Committee (NPPEC). The survey was released today as part of Farm Foundation's 2007 Farm Bill Forum.

Producers ranked renewable energy, enhancing opportunities for small and beginning farmers, and assuring a safe and affordable food supply as their top three goals for the next farm bill. “All the goals presented to producers to rank were decades-old rationales for farm …

The Cost Of Reducing Irrigation, Ray Supalla, Brian Mcmullen, Tom Buell

Cornhusker Economics

For several decades Nebraska has proudly and appropriately regarded irrigation development as an important source of economic growth. However, in some parts of the state we now have too much of a good thing! To meet our Compact obligations to Kansas and Colorado in the Republican Basin and to comply with the proposed Cooperative Agreement for the Platte Basin we must find a way to consume less irrigation water. The cost of reducing irrigation and the equity implications will depend on what methods the state uses to achieve this objective.

The "Dance Of Disaster", Caroline Walles

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

For almost three years, Nebraska has been viewing disaster behavioral health as an integral component of the response which takes place at the time of a disaster. In fact, the need for disaster behavioral health as part of the immediate or first response to a disaster has been written into the state’s formal disaster plan. However, because there is a shortage of behavioral health providers in Nebraska (88 of 93 counties are considered shortage areas) partnerships with “natural helpers” – including clergy and faith leaders – are being forged. Out of this necessity has come the Nebraska Disaster Chaplain Network, …

Developmental Disabilities Service Coordination In Nebraska (Final Report Summary)

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The LR 42 Service Coordination Workgroup, coordinated by the office of State Senator Dennis Byars, asked the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center to conduct a study of developmental disabilities service coordination in Nebraska. The Public Policy Center explored the perceptions and experiences of a variety of stakeholders involved in the service coordination system for people with developmental disabilities. The goal of the research project was to better understand:

• Stakeholder satisfaction with service coordination
• The roles and responsibilities service coordinators currently are fulfilling
• The importance of various aspects of service coordination
• How service coordination may be …

Developmental Disabilities Service Coordination In Nebraska

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Table of Contents:

Executive Summary
Introduction
Statewide Results
Service Coordinator Activities -- Proportion of Time Spent and Importance
Mean Comparisons -- Service Coordinators and Provider Employees
Service Coordinator Responses by Service Area
Service Coordinator Responses by Years of Experience
Service Coordinator Responses by Education Level
Service Coordinator Responses by Number of Providers
Provider Employee Responses by Service Area
Provider Employee Team Experience by Service Area
Provider Employee Responses by Years of Team Experience
Comparisons across Three Surveys
References

Enhancing The Global Fight To End Human Trafficking, U.S. House Of Representatives Committee On International Relations

Human Trafficking: Data and Documents

When I held the first hearing on human trafficking as Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights back in 1999, only a handful of countries had laws explicitly prohibiting the practice of human trafficking. Individuals who engaged in this exploitation did so without fear of legal repercussions. Victims of trafficking were treated as criminals and illegal immigrants and had no access to assistance to escape the slavery-like conditions in which they were trapped. Few seemed to be even aware that this modern form of slavery was taking place and even some of those who did failed to …

The 2007 Farm Bill: U.S. Producer Preferences For Agricultural, Food And Public Policy, Bradley Lubben, Nelson L. Bills, James B. Johnson, James L. Novak

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

The development of the next farm bill is a complex, comprehensive process that involves numerous issues. The process will, in part, be driven by the economic climate, the budget situation, the trade arena, and the political setting at the time of the debate. The economic setting and the political setting invite a significant debate on the shape of the farm bill and the potential for new directions or alternatives. The budget setting and the trade setting both present challenges for this farm bill debate in terms of program priorities and potential program trade-offs.

In this complex environment, understanding producer attitudes …

2006 Nebraska Rural Poll Results: Views Of Life In Nebraska’S Rural Communities, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bruce B. Johnson, Alan J. Tomkins

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Many rural communities have experienced population growth during the past decade. Communities can continue to attract new residents and maintain their current population by enhancing and promoting their amenities and services. How do rural Nebraskans feel about their community? Are they satisfied with the services provided? Are they planning to move from their community next year?

This report details 2,482 responses to the 2006 Nebraska Rural Poll, the eleventh annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their community. Trends for some of these questions are examined by comparing data from the ten …

Developmental Disabilities Service Coordination In Nebraska, Nancy Shank

Nancy Shank Publications

At the request of the LR 42 Service Coordination Workgroup, coordinated by the office of State Senator Dennis Byars, the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center conducted a study of developmental disabilities service coordination in Nebraska. The Public Policy Center explored the perceptions and experiences of a variety of stakeholders involved in the service coordination system for people with developmental disabilities. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from consumers of developmental disabilities services, consumers’ family members or guardians, Service Coordinators, and Service Provider Employees resulted in the following general observations.

Stakeholder satisfaction with service coordination:
• Many respondents …

Work Now To Paint A Rosey Financial Picture For The Future, Carla Kimbrough

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

How's your money, honey? That question may cause you to cringe and cry, or it may give you a confident smile. For those who cringe and cry, it's time to start painting a new financial picture that keeps the future in mind.

Money affects the ability to pursue your goals and the future lifestyle you want. I've worked with people who are trying to get out of debt and preparing for retirement. Fortunately, some I've worked with have stayed on top of their finances: saving, investing and preparing for the topsy turvy world of layoffs, buyouts and the eventual bliss …

Most Popular Downloads -- August 2006

Institutional Repository Information

This document lists the 150 (or so) most often downloaded documents from the UNL Digital Commons for the month of August 2006.

Understanding Farmers’ Forecast Use From Their Beliefs, Values, Social Norms, And Perceived Obstacles, Qi Hu, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Gary Lynne, Alan Tomkins, William J. Waltman, Michael Hayes, Kenneth Hubbard, Ikrom Artikov, Stacey Hoffman, Donald A. Wilhite

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Although the accuracy of weather and climate forecasts is continuously improving and new information retrieved from climate data is adding to the understanding of climate variation, use of the forecasts and climate information by farmers in farming decisions has changed little. This lack of change may result from knowledge barriers and psychological, social, and economic factors that undermine farmer motivation to use forecasts and climate information. According to the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the motivation to use forecasts may arise from personal attitudes, social norms, and perceived control or ability to use forecasts in specific decisions. These attributes are …

Understanding The Influence Of Climate Forecasts On Farmer Decisions As Planned Behavior, Ikrom Artikov, Stacey Hoffman, Gary Lynne, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Q. Steven Hu, Alan Tomkins, Kenneth Hubbard, Michael Hayes, William J. Waltman

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Results of a set of four regression models applied to recent survey data of farmers in eastern Nebraska suggest the causes that drive farmer intentions of using weather and climate information and forecasts in farming decisions. The model results quantify the relative importance of attitude, social norm, perceived behavioral control, and financial capability in explaining the influence of climate-conditions information and short-term and long-term forecasts on agronomic, crop insurance, and crop marketing decisions. Attitude, serving as a proxy for the utility gained from the use of such information, had the most profound positive influence on the outcome of all the …

Adaptive Management, Economic Realities And The Platte River Cooperative Agreement, Karina Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

In the past several years, the term ‘adaptive management’ has been used a lot with reference to the Platte River Cooperative Agreement. This leads to many questions – what exactly is adaptive management? How does it relate to economic and policy choices? How does it affect management choices made on the Platte River?

Individual And Familial Stressors Among Rural Nebraskan, Bilingual, Paraprofessional Educators, Rochelle L. Dalla, William E. Lopez, Vicky O. Jones, Yan Ruth Xia

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Individual (e.g., depression, learning styles) and familial (e.g., social support) factors affecting the psychosocial well-being of bilingual, rural Nebraska, paraprofessional educators were examined. Of 26 participants, 15 were first and 5 were second generation Hispanic immigrants. All were currently (n = 20) or formerly (n = 6) involved in an online, distance education, bachelor’s degree program in elementary education, with English as a second language certification. Results from data analyses are presented, as are suggestions for working with unique populations.

Race And Gender Matter: Refining Models Of Legislative Policy Making In State Legislatures, Byron D. Orey, Wendy Smooth, Kimberly S. Adams, Kisha Harris-Clark

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

In this article, we explore the degree to which African American state legislators have been able to translate election to office into substantive representation. We are particularly interested in the impact of race and gender on the likelihood of legislative bill submission and passage. While previous studies have focused on inter-group representation, our analysis examines intra-group representation by disaggregating race, gender, and party identification. By doing so, we are able to capture the intra-group variation between various groups such as black Democratic men and black Democratic women and white Democratic women and white Republican women. Using the case of Mississippi, …

Reducing The Pace Of Global Warming: Can The Environmental Buyer Compete With The Climate Exchange In Buying Carbon Offsets?, Natalia Ovchinnikova, Gary D. Lynne

Cornhusker Economics

The term “global warming” was coined in 1896 by the Swedish chemist Svante August Arrhenius. He observed that as the consumption of hydrocarbon fuels and industrial production had grown over the years, the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gasses (GHG), mainly carbon dioxide (CO2, which accounts for 80 percent of these gasses), began to correlate with a global increase in temperature. There is now general agreement in the scientific community that it is the burning of these carbon containing fuels that is causing global warming. There are two means to combat this warming: first, to reduce CO2 emissions; second, to offset …

Economic And State Budget Cost Of Reducing The Consumptive Use Of Irrigation Water In The Platte And Republican Basins, Ray Supalla, Thomas V. Buell, Brian Mcmullen

Department of Agricultural Economics: Presentations, Working Papers, and Gray Literature

The potential costs to irrigators, the state economy and the state budget were estimated for different methods of reducing consumptive use (CU) of irrigation water in the Platte and Republican Basins. The policy methods considered included: leased retirement of irrigated land using a willing buyer-willing seller approach; required land retirement with lease payments equal to actual producer losses; retirement of irrigated land by purchasing water rights using a willing buyer-willing seller approach; forced retirement of irrigated land with the purchase price equal to actual market value; allocation with 100 percent producer compensation; and allocation with 50 percent producer compensation. Both …

Farm Lease Termination, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Many farm leases, especially those between family members, are not written but are verbal "handshake" agreements. Because nothing is in writing, the parties may have different recollections of their agreement, making lease disputes more difficult to resolve. In legal terms, verbal farm leases in Nebraska may be either "year-to-year" leases or "holdover" leases. Holdover leases result when a written lease terminates but the landlord and tenant continue the lease with an oral agreement, either directly or implied, without entering into a new written lease. The most common legal issue associated with verbal farm leases is how a lease may legally …

Assessing The Forecasting Accuracy Of Alternative Nominal Exchange Rate Models: The Case Of Long Memory, David Karemera, Benjamin J. C. Kim

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

This paper presents an autoregressive fractionally integrated moving-average (ARFIMA) model of nominal exchange rates and compares its forecasting capability with the monetary structural models and the random walk model. Monthly observations are used for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom for the period of April 1973 through December 1998. The estimation method is Sowell’s (1992) exact maximum likelihood estimation. The forecasting accuracy of the long-memory model is formally compared to the random walk and the monetary models, using the recently developed Harvey, Leybourne, and Newbold (1997) test statistics. The results show that the long memory model is …

The U.S. Tax System In International Perspective, John E. Anderson, Council Of Economic Advisers

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

All governments face two important decisions. They must choose the scope and scale of public goods and services to provide for their citizens, and they must also decide how to collect the funds to finance those public services. Chapter 5, The U.S. Tax System in International Perspective, examines U.S. choices in the context of other countries. It makes three key points:

• Fundamental choices about tax systems matter because they affect the living standards of citizens.

• The United States has made different choices from other countries. The United States has a relatively low tax burden compared to the rest …

What Makes An Efficient Farm?, Tina N. Barrett

Cornhusker Economics

It seems that answers to questions often bring more questions. It is certainly true for both my fouryear- old daughter and our study of efficient farms. Natalie’s favorite question is “Why?” and our studies seem to ask “How can they do that?”

Most Popular Downloads -- July 2006

Institutional Repository Information

The 200 most-often downloaded documents from the UNL Digital Commons during July 2006. With links.

A Long Run Of Profit, Al Prosch

Cornhusker Economics

According to data1 from Iowa State University, the longest run of profits for Iowa hog producers was from December of 1976 through August of 1979 (Chart 1). If hog prices continue as expected through October of 2006, that thirty-three month record will be broken. Already, this is the longest series of profitable months since the mid-1980s.

Locked Out: Locke V. Davey And The Broken Promise Of Equal Access, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

This Article analyzed Chief Justice Rehnquist's Footnote Three dictum, and concluded that the Promise Scholarship Program in Davey was clearly designed to encourage Promise Scholars to choose from an infinitely broad array of subjects, viewpoints, and courses of study that make up the marketplace of ideas of higher education in the State of Washington. Since the exclusion of devotional theology majors from the Program was clearly based on the viewpoint from which theology is taught and studied, and since it is clear that government may not discriminate on the basis of viewpoint--even in the context of a funding program--if the …

Forum: In Memory Of Fred Jablin: What Might Have Been And Still Might Be, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

I begin my term as forum editor by honoring the memory of Fred Jablin, an early leader in the field of organizational communication. I am quite certain that Fred would like to be remembered less for the tragic circumstances of his death than for the considerable contribution of his early work and the promising new directions in which his work was headed. Fred was, perhaps, best known for his early work in the area of superior-subordinate communication and then his later work in organizational socialization and communication. For at least a decade, his agenda-setting pieces on communicative issues in organizational …

Western Nebraska Visitors Survey

Rural Initiative Program: Publications and Reports

During the months of September, 2005 through August, 2006 the Western Nebraska Tourism Coalition, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Rural Initiative and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension conducted a survey of visitors to 16 counties in Western Nebraska.

The survey was designed to provide information related to the activities and experiences of tourists and other visitors to Western Nebraska, especially as related to the hospitality industry.

University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension Connect, August 2006

Connect (University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension)

Inside this issue:

pg. 3 Robotics technology
pg. 5 Going for goats
pg. 7 Teen parenting

Newcomers In Nebraska’S Rural Communities, Rebecca J. Vogt, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bruce B. Johnson, Alan Tomkins

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Population loss in rural Nebraska communities has been a concern, but many communities across the state have experienced population gains during the past decade. Are rural Nebraskans aware of new residents living in their community? How do they feel about their community’s new residents? What do they think will happen to their community’s population during the next ten years?

This report details 2,482 responses to the 2006 Nebraska Rural Poll, the eleventh annual effort to understand rural Nebraskans’ perceptions. Respondents were asked a series of questions about new residents in their community and their expectations regarding population growth in their …

Discriminating Between Cognitive And Supportive Group Therapies For Chronic Mental Illness, Sarah A. Hayes, Debra A. Hope, Lori S. Terryberry-Spohr, William D. Spaulding, Melanie Vandyke, Dirk T. Elting, Jeffrey Poland, Somaia Mohamed, Calvin P. Garbin, Dorie Reed, Mary Sullivan

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This descriptive and comparative study employed a Q-sort process to describe common factors of therapy in two group therapies for inpatients with chronic mental illness. While pharmacological treatments for chronic mental illness are prominent, there is growing evidence that cognitive therapy is also efficacious. Groups examined were part of a larger study comparing the added benefits of cognitive versus supportive group therapy to the treatment milieu. In general, items described the therapist’s attitudes and behaviors, the participants’ attitudes and behaviors, or the group interactions. Results present items that were most and least characteristic of each therapy and items that discriminate …