Asset prices in dynamic production economies with time-varying risk

We examine the effect of changes in output uncertainty on theprice of aggregate capital and on the prices of levered claimson capital. The relation between the volatility of the marginalproduct of capital and the price of capital depends on the levelof capital adjustment costs and the elasticity of intertemporalsubstitution. For available estimates of this elasticity thevalue of capital and risk are directly related while the valueof levered equity claim on capital may be decreasing in risk.We use these results to analyze the argument that increasedrisk was responsible for the U.S. stock market decline of the1970s.     

Producers Get Squeezed up the Farming Food Chain: A Theory of Crop Portfolio Composition and Land Use

There are a number of seemingly contradictory trends in the structure of American agriculture. For example, total revenues from agriculture in the United States continue to increase nearly every year, yet the total acreage of land in farms continues to decrease. This article presents an explanation using portfolio theory that is consistent both with the trends and with rational behavior of individual producers. The results have implications for commodity markets, land prices, and, in the long run, for the economic viability of American production agriculture.     

Not Only Gender: More on Debating Markets

The paper by Gudeman and Gudeman on the nature of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) is a valuable contribution. This comment argues that they neglected one important aspect affecting CMC, namely ideology, and suggests that the ''Debating Markets'' exchange had long-term negative impacts on Femecon.     

Interregional exchange as a development factor of the cluster structure of a regional economy

This article considers theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of the formation of the cluster structure of a regional economy, shows the role of interregional exchange in this process and presents parameter estimates of interregional exchange on the basis of a gravity model (on the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan).