Technology, agglomeration, and regional competition for investment

Abstract.  Competition for firms by region has a long-standing history, and the academic literature has debated whether such competition is efficient. We develop a model that explores technology development by firms facing regional competition for their investment and examine the endogenous determination of region policy, firm technology, and agglomeration externalities. We find a new source of inefficiency – regional competition leads firms to inefficiently distort their development and selection of production technology to improve their standing in the regional competition for their investment. We show that these inefficient firm decisions on technology and location can also weaken agglomeration externalities.     

Urban housing density and the price of housing services

Theoretical research has shown that urban housing density, defined as housing services per unit of land, is an increasing function of the price of housing services. However, this concept of density hides as well as provides information because housing services per unit of land equals the product of housing services per dwelling unit and dwelling units per unit of land. This paper proves that housing density, defined as dwelling units per unit of land, can vary either directly or inversely with the price of housing services.     

Managing the Risk of European Corn Borer Resistance to Bt Corn

New pesticidal crops are taking advantage of advances in geneticengineering. For example, corn has been engineered to express Bt proteinsthat are toxic to the European corn borer. These crops are effective pestmanagement tools for United States growers. However, there is concern thatpests will develop resistance to these crops resulting in the increased useof more hazardous pesticides. The purpose of this paper is to develop astochastic dynamic bioeconomic simulation model to help guide regulatorypolicy designed to mitigate the threat of resistance to new pesticidal crops.The model is used to evaluate the insect resistance management guidelinesmandated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for theuse of Bt corn in the Midwestern United States.     

Regulatory takings and constitutional repair the 1990s' property-rights rebellion

In spite of the fact that the Constitution's fifth amendment states that nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation, politicians systematically impose almost confiscatory land-use restrictions on citizens. Growth of regulation and property-rights uncertainty have spawned grass roots opposition and political efforts to reinforce constitutional protections. Lacking success at the national level, property-rights advocates moved to the states where by August 1994 more than forty introduced property-rights legislation. Statistical estimates of the likelihood that such legislation would be introduced reveal strong support of the notion that the property-rights movement is a reaction to growth of government regulation.