Dispositions to Buy Postcards with Aboriginal Designs at Ulu ru-Kata Tjuta National Park

This research note assesses the probability of visitors to the cultural centre at UluruKata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, buying a post card bearing traditional Aboriginal designs. The sample comprised 358 respondents interviewed at two locations, the Desert Park, Alice Springs, and the cafeteria of the cultural centre at Uluru-Kata Tjuta NationalPark.Of the respondents approximately one-third indicated on a Juster Scale that there was a likelihood of 70% or more to purchase such a postcard. However, no specific socio-demographic variables were found to be associated with this group other than they were more likely to be female. It was also found that this interest in postcard purchases bearing 'Aboriginal designs' had no correlation with other items on the scale that related to Aboriginal culture. There is a discussion of ethical issues of any decision to produce 'Aboriginal postcards'.     

The Effects of Wind Turbines on Property Values in Ontario: Does Public Perception Match Empirical Evidence?

The increasing development of wind energy in North America has generated concerns from nearby residents regarding potential impacts of wind turbines on property values. Such concerns arose in Melancthon Township (in southern Ontario) following the construction of a large wind farm. Existing literature has not reached a consensus regarding the nature of these impacts. This paper applies a hedonic approach to detailed data on 5,414 rural residential sales and 1,590 farmland sales to estimate the impacts of Melancthon's wind turbines on surrounding property values. These impacts are accounted for through both proximity to turbines and turbine visibility—two factors that may contribute to a disamenity effect. The results of the hedonic models, which are robust to a number of alternate model specifications including a repeat sales analysis, suggest that these wind turbines have not significantly impacted nearby property values. Thus, these results do not corroborate the concerns raised by residents regarding potential negative impacts of turbines on property values.     

Productivity Differences and Foreign Market Entry in an Oligopolistic Industry

We show how productivity differences between foreign and indigenous firms affect the choice of the foreign market entry strategy. We identify the conditions necessary for the adoption of a particular strategy depending on the competing firms?? productivity differences as well as each strategy??s cost. In particular, we study tradeoffs between exporting and JV as well as between JV and WOS that were neglected in the firm heterogeneity literature. We find that high productivity differences led the foreign firm to enter host markets via WOS or exporting monopoly, while in the case of smaller productivity differences they entered via different types of JV. The share in joint venture depended positively on the productivity difference and negatively on trade and investment costs.