Franchising the american elementary and secondary educational system

To solve the education “woes” of the U.S., many experts have looked to both command economies (standardized curriculum), and competitive markets (e.g. school choice and school vouchers), for answers. This normative research explores an optimal mix between market economies and command economies in education through the use of the business-format franchising structure. Franchising, an organizational form lying between the extremes of markets and hierarchies, would establish a standardized curriculum composed of those components of education that are deemed essential to the educational growth of our students. At the same time, franchising allows for levels of autonomy for educational institutions that would enable them to effectively target the additional needs and preferences of their local area, which in turn develops competitive markets in which schools compete for student enrollment thereby remedying the moral hazard problem. Finally, two additional characteristics that make this format attractive in tackling the problems in education are its continuous transfer of “know how” and its regular technical assistance. In the context of education, these characteristics translate into necessary links between educational theory and practice as well as national research and training grounds for teachers and administrators.     

The Mediterranean Fruit Fly and the United States: Is the Probit 9 Level of Quarantine Security Efficient?

Cold treatment periods, and associated levels of quarantine security, that maximize net US welfare under USDA's current medfly detection and control program are examined using a deterministic bioeconomic optimization model . As anticipated, the efficient level of quarantine security is shown to increase with indices of medfly pressure (initial infestation rates) in areas in which the medfly is known to exist (the QCs) . Efficient cold treatment periods and weighted mean medfly survival rates are 8, 11, and 12 days and 5.0 × 10^–2, 1.7 × 10^–3, and 5.2 × 10^–4 under low, moderate, and high initial infestation rates, respectively. When model output is averaged across initial infestation rates, an 11‐day cold treatment period, resulting in a weighted mean medfly survival rate of 1.6 × 10^–3, maximizes US welfare. These findings suggest that the current minimum cold treatment period of 14 days and the current objective of US cold treatment policy—the probit 9 level of quarantine security—are economically inefficient. Adopting the 11‐day cold treatment period is shown to increase US social surplus by an annual $24.9 million, of which $21.5 and $3.4 million would accrue to US consumers and producers, respectively, and QC producer surplus by an annual $24.8 million. Nous avons examiné, à l’aide d’un modèle déterministe d’optimisation bioéconomique, les périodes de traitement par le froid et les niveaux de quarantaine de sécurité connexes qui maximisent le bien‐être net des États‐Unis d’après le programme actuel de détection et de lutte contre la cératite, instauré par le USDA. Comme prévu, le degré de quarantaine de sécurité efficace augmente en fonction des indices de pression des ravageurs (indices d’infestation initiale) dans les pays où la cératite est présente (pays dont les produits sont soumis à une quarantaine). Selon qu’il s’agit d’un indice d’infestation initiale faible, moyen et élevé, les périodes de traitement par le froid efficaces sont de 8, 11 et 12 jours respectivement et les taux de survie moyens pondérés de la cératite de 5,0 × 10^–2, 1,7 × 10^–3, et 5,2 × 10^–4 respectivement. Lorsque l’on établit la moyenne pondérée de la sortie du modèle par taux de survie, une période de traitement de 11 jours et un taux de survie moyen pondéré de 1,6 × 10^–3 maximisent le bien‐être des États‐Unis. Ces résultats donnent à penser que la période minimale actuelle de traitement par le froid de 14 jours et la politique actuelle concernant le traitement par le froid (la norme probit 9) sont économiquement inefficaces. L’adoption d’une période de traitement par le froid de 11 jours augmenterait le surplus collectif des États‐Unis de 24,9 millions (M$) par année, dont 21,5 M$ et 3,4 M$ reviendraient aux consommateurs et aux producteurs des États‐Unis respectivement, et un surplus de 24,8 M$ par année aux producteurs des pays dont les produits sont soumis à une quarantaine.     

Do Formula or Competitive Grant Funds Have Greater Impacts on State Agricultural Productivity?

This article examines the impact of public agricultural research and extension on agricultural total factor productivity at the state level. The objective is to establish whether federal formula or competitive grant funding of agricultural research has a greater impact on state agricultural productivity. A pooled cross-section time-series model of agricultural productivity is fitted to annual data for forty-eight contiguous states over 1970–1999. Our results show that public agricultural research and agricultural extension have statistically significant positive impacts on state agricultural productivity. In addition, Hatch formula funding has a larger impact on agricultural productivity than federal competitive grant funding, and a reallocation of Hatch formula funds to competitive grant funding would lower agricultural productivity. This seems unlikely to be a socially optimal policy. Furthermore, from a cost–benefit perspective, our study shows that the social marginal annualized real rate of return to public resources invested in agricultural research is 49–62%, and to public agricultural extension, the rate is even larger.     

Natural resource accounting in theory and practice: A critical assessment

In this paper an extensive review of the theoretical and applied literature on natural resource accounting (NRA) is provided. The review begins by explaining the economic theory that underpins NRA, contrasting welfare and sustainability as policy goals, and presenting various distinct conceptions of national income. The state of play regarding official revisions to the system of national accounts (SNA) with respect to natural resources and the environment is presented and controversial areas are highlighted. Finally, the economic literature on proposed revisions, and applied studies that have proceeded using these methods, is summarised and critiqued. We argue that much of the literature proceeds with weak conceptual foundations, and that typical case studies produce results that are ambiguous in interpretation. Moreover, we highlight fundamental tensions between economic theory and national accounting methodology, and conclude that one outcome of this has been the insufficient attention paid by economists to the revisions to the SNA; instead devoting time and effort to 'freelance' NRA case studies utilising sometimes ad hoc methods from the economic literature.     

Risk, uncertainty, and learning in adoption of a crop innovation

Risk and uncertainty have often been suggested as causes of poor adoption of rural innovations, but empirical evidence has been scarce. This study focuses on a new crop‐type, chickpeas, in Western Australia to gather such evidence. The empirical models developed are based on a theoretical framework that conceptualizes adoption as a dynamic decision process involving information acquisition and learning‐by‐doing by growers who vary in their managerial abilities, risk preferences, and their perceptions of the profitability and riskiness of the innovation. Learning encompasses improvements in skill as well as reductions in uncertainty. An annual face‐to‐face survey of over 100 farmers was conducted over 3 years, eliciting the farmers' risk attitudes and their subjective distributions of yields and prices. Two limited dependent variable models, Tobit and Probit, are used to estimate the empirical model. There is a high degree of goodness‐of‐fit for both models. The study provides strong empirical support for the primarily economic character of the adoption decision, and highlight the importance of economic risk in the process. The two risk‐related factors with greatest impact on the adoption decision were risk aversion and relative riskiness of the innovation. Risk aversion tended to reduce adoption, and to do so to a greater extent as relative riskiness and scale increased. Results also reveal the key role that trialing of the innovation plays in adoption.     

Technology choice under changing peanut policies

The effect of marketing quotas and price supports on technology adoption are examined for peanut production in the southeastern United States using a real options model of investment with output price and yield uncertainty. The optimal choice of peanut production technology (dryland versus irrigated) in the southeast is shown to depend on price supports and how they change. The manner in which price supports change will have an effect on the choice and rates of abandonment or adoption of production technologies.     

Technology, Labor Wars, and Producer Dynamics: Explaining Consolidation in Beefpacking

Beefpacking underwent a dramatic transformation in the 1970s and 1980s, as plants got much larger and industry concentration rose dramatically. We use individual Census Bureau plant records to analyze the sources of the transformation. We find that there were modest but extensive scale economies in packing plants, covering the full range of plant sizes, and that such economies became more important throughout the period of the study. As production shifted to larger plants, we estimate that the industry's aggregate processing costs fell by 35.3% by 2002, compared to what they would have been without consolidation.