Welfare Impacts of Cross-Country Spillovers in Agricultural Research

The welfare implications of intellectual property protection (IPP) for private sector agricultural research are analyzed, focusing on the realistic cases where countries provide different IPP levels, technology spills over across countries, and the public sector is involved in research. A model is developed to determine who benefits from, and who should pay for, the associated research. The article contains some interesting results on the implications of a harmonization of IPP policies through multilateral agreements or via technology that allows research firms to prevent the copying of plants and animals that express traits that have emerged from their research.     

An examination of financial impacts of SFAS No. 106

Conclusion SFAS No. 106 requires companies to accrue the expected cost of OPEB during the years employees provide services to the company. The Statement is based on the assumption that OPEB are a form of deferred compensation and the resulting obligation should be recognized when services are rendered. This article examined some provisions of the Statement and the possible impact on financial statements of affected companies as well as management efforts to control OPEB costs. The results indicate that adoption of SFAS No. 106 has caused companies to report OPEB transition obligations on their balance sheets and to show higher OPEB annual expenses on their income statements. These perceived negative financial impacts of adopting SFAS No. 106 do not appear to have encouraged management to take immediate actions to curtail the promised OPEB. However, in many cases, management is considering implementing changes in plan design such as increasing or imposing retiree contribution levels or retiree deductibles and higher coinsurance levels, reducing benefits and coverage, and changing coordination of benefits with Medicare in attempt to mitigate the possible negative financial impacts of adopting SFAS No. 106.     

将开放大学搬到互联网上

英国开放大学启动了一个800万美元的项目,用于开发一个综合的虚拟学习环境,以满足其20万远程学习者在线学习需求。此外,休利特基金会最近宣布将投资一个990万美元的项目,使开放大学的大部分教学内容能通过这个虚拟学习环境在互联网上免费获取。开放源代码虚拟学习环境即Moodle(魔灯),已被开放大学所采用,正在大规模的发展以提供必需的功能,这些新系统正被反馈到使用Moodle的世界开放源代码社区。在20世纪70年代,英国开放大学通过使用公共电视、广播以及制作纸质学习材料和最近开始使用的CD-ROMS和DVD,引领了远程学习的发展。目前,一些新的工具,如博客、维客和播客正在开始影响开放大学由课程组和七千名助理讲师支持的学习方式。本文概述了英国开放大学目前的重大发展,评价了技术本身及其对学习和课程材料制作的影响。比技术本身更为重要的是,对几十年前形成的教育模式的影响需要进行重大的组织变革管理。本文还将对开放大学在改变大学文化方面所做的广泛努力进行概述,这种改变旨在使互联网成为学生学习的中心,而不仅仅是文本资料的补充。     

Comment: Lucas on involuntary unemployment

Keynes distinguishes three concepts: voluntary, frictional and(Keynesian) involuntary unemployment. Frictional unemploymentis a Classical form of involuntary unemployment (not voluntary,as Lucas suggests), and reflects the Marshallian, rather thanWalrasian, treatment of time and equilibrium. Lucas contradictsboth Keynes and Pigou in asserting that there are always immediatevacancies for unskilled labour, and abstracts from the veryproblem that Keynes seeks to address. If voluntary unemploymentis re-defined appropriately, as De Vroey helpfully suggestselsewhere, the prefix ‘involuntary’ is dispensable,not because all unemployment is voluntary, as Lucas would haveit, but because it is all involuntary.     

Personal computers and society

The University of Southern California (USC) has initiated a technology assessment of the personal computer, partially supported by the US National Science Foundation. The ultimate purpose of a technology assessment is to help provide a more human future with less of a shock. The technology assessment at USC is directed towards examining the potential impacts of personal computers and identifying the public policy issues associated with these possibilities. This report explains the major factors being explored during the assessment.     

From ‘social club’ to ‘integrated membership scheme’: developing membership schemes strategically

Changes in the economic and political climate have resulted in income generation becoming increasingly important for cultural organisations and one method of achieving this is to develop closer relationships with individuals, for example, members. Friends' schemes (also known as membership schemes, societies and organisations) exist in a variety of formats and provide organisations with a range of benefits in addition to their income‐generation potential. These include advocacy, influence and a stable volunteer base. This paper makes a contribution in three areas of cultural management: it presents the findings of a study of friends' schemes within large museums and galleries in London and identifies distinctive typologies of scheme; creates a framework that practitioners can use as a diagnostic tool to analyse their own scheme; and finally, provides strategic direction to assist in the evolution of membership schemes. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Insuring Eggs in Baskets: Should the Government Insure Individual Risks?

The vast majority of crop and revenue insurance policies sold in North America are single‐crop policies that insure against low yields or low revenues for each crop grown on a particular farm. This practice of insuring one crop at a time runs counter to the traditional risk management practice of diversifying across several enterprises to avoid putting all of one's eggs in a single basket. This paper examines the construction of a whole‐farm crop revenue insurance program to include livestock price risk. The results show that at coverage levels of 95% or lower, the fair insurance premiums for this product on a well‐diversified Iowa farm are far lower than the fair premiums for the corn crop alone on the same farm. The calculation of premium rates for the whole‐farm insurance product is derived from a method for imposing correlations first proposed by Iman and Conover in 1982. The potential income transfer from crop insurance is also examined. We find that the income transfer due to the subsidization of single‐commodity policies is greater than the total premium for whole‐farm policies. La grande majorité de polices d'assurances de récolte et de revenu agricole vendues en Amérique du nord sont des polices de récolte individuelle qui assurent contre des rendements faibles ou bas revenu pour chaque récolte cultivée par une ferme particulière. Cette pratique de n'assurer une récolte à la fois fonctionne à l'opposé de la pratique traditionnelle de gestion des risques par la diversification à travers plusieurs entreprises pour éviter de mettre tous ses oeufs dans un seul panier. Cet article examine la construction d'un programme d'assurance agricole pour l'ensemble des récoltes produites par une ferme y compris le bétail évalue le risque. Les résultats montrent qu'aux niveaux d'assurance plus petits ou égaux à 95 pourcents, les primes d'assurance justes pour ce type de police pour une ferme bien diversifiée de l'Iowa sont bien inférieures aux primes justes pour une police de simple couvrant le maïs et ce pour la même ferme. Le calcul des taux de prime pour une police couvrant l'ensemble des récoltes est dérivé d'une méthode pour imposer des corrélations originalement proposée par Iman et Conover en 1982. Le transfert potentiel de revenu à partir de l'assurance de récolte agricole est également examiné. Nous trouvons que le transfert de revenu dûà la subvention des polices pour récolte singulière est plus grand que la prime entière pour une police couvrant l'ensemble des récoltes.