The Local Economic Impacts of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in Saskatchewan

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan seeks to improve wildlife habitat and increase waterfowl numbers through voluntary transactions with farmers to modify their land management practices. The impact of modified land use practices on the incomes of participating farmers and the regional economy are estimated. The compensation offered under the Plan for modification of land use is determined to adequately offset any loss in participants' income. Income losses to the community due to reduced farm input sales were more than offset by the increase in NAWMP direct expenditures (excluding compensation payments). Distributional effects and externalities must be recognized and monitored to ensure success of the program     

Of lessees,lessors, and discount rates and whether pigs have wings

Recent articles on leasing suggest five principles that should aid analysts to understand this durable, much misunderstood financial instrument. The principles are 1) the lessor must be happy too, 2) the operating inflows have nothing to do with the case, 3) financial, like physical, matter tends to be preserved, 4) debt is a function of after-tax flows, and 5) inability to use tax shelters cuts two ways. In this paper we illustrate these principles and use illustrations to demonstrate that each of these principles has merit. We argue as well that the impression, often left by the principles, that leasing seldom benefits all parties to the transaction is incorrect.     

SOME RECENT RESEARCH INTO HOME HEATING

As part of an investigation into the performance of heating systems and the effectiveness of energy saving measures, temperatures have been monitored in forty centrally heated homes. The addition of extra insulation had no effect on the way people operated their heating system or on the temperature level set in the main living room. However, bedrooms were warmer and the importance of individual room temperature controls demonstrated. Differences between people's thermal requirements in domestic and office environments are considered.     

ASPECTS OF FARM PROFITABILITY: AN OUTMODED CONCEPT? PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

The paper begins by recording Journal articles since 1952 of relevance to farming incomes and efficiency, and follows by reviewing the literature on measuring farmers' incomes and the problems entailed, including consideration of non-farming incomes and capital gains and their relevance to agricultural policy. Definitions of ‘profit’ in selected economic texts are then compared, together with attempts to measure ‘pure profit’ from farming. Suitable charges for management and interest are then determined and estimates made of net profits and losses from different types of farming in 1986/7 and 1987/8 for both average and ‘top’ farms. Real farming incomes and capital gains from land from 1938 to 1988 are then discussed. The paper concludes by summarising why the concept of profitability from farming has now largely lost its significance—though not for all farmers.     

Business Ties and Information Advantage: Evidence from Mutual Fund Trading

This article examines whether ties to portfolio firms’ management via pension business relationships provide mutual funds with an informational advantage. Funds become related to portfolio companies when fund families serve as trustees for firms’ employee pension plans. Selling by related funds is more likely to be motivated by an information advantage than their buying, because the latter is heavily influenced by the desire to secure pension inflows. We find that stocks with larger net sales by related funds experience lower future returns. Information appears related to firm fundamentals, as the return predictability of related funds’ selling concentrates in stocks with negative future earnings surprises. Consistent with an information‐based explanation, the predictive power of related funds’ selling for future returns is more pronounced when information uncertainty about the stock is higher. Our results contribute to a growing literature that shows the sources of informed trading by institutions.     

Estimating Key Economic Variables: The Policy Implications

The current monetary policy debate has focused on current estimates and the future path of the natural rate of unemployment and the equilibrium interest rate. Estimates of the natural rate of unemployment should vary over time with changes in demographics and improvements in human capital. However, these changes should be gradual. This paper shows that the estimates of the natural rate of unemployment by Federal Reserve officials and private-sector economists seem to move pro-cyclically, potentially showing too much weight given to short-term fluctuations in economic variables. As with the natural rate, there are good reasons to expect the equilibrium interest rate to change over time. In fact, the level may actually be more responsive to current economic data, reflecting changes in aggregate savings and investment. Yet, we see that equilibrium interest rate estimates by both Federal Reserve officials and private-sector economists have declined quite dramatically over the past five years. A potential concern raised in this paper is that estimates of these critical economic variables for policy determination appear to be overly sensitive to high frequency economic data.     

CONCURRENT ENGINEERING: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES AND MODERN DESIGN TOOLS EDITED BY HAMID R. PARSAEJ AND WILLIAM G. SULLIVAN Chapman & Hall,London, 1993, xiii + 497 pp. ISBN 0-412-46510-8. List: $75.00.

In a recent paper, Jones and Zydiak [2] discuss the steady state fleet design problem, which has no natural initial distribution of vehicles. For this problem, they develop a new optimality criterion of minimizing annual equivalent cost per vehicle because the traditional optimally criterion of minimizing annual equivalent cost can lead to paradoxical results, as shown by example, when applied to the fleet design problem. In a subsequent note, Hartman [1] argues that this paradox is actually a result of a replacement convention that ignores opportunity costs. In this response, we demonstrate that paradoxical replacement behavior can occur with the traditional criterion even when opportunity costs are accounted for in the replacement analysis. We further conclude that the problems considered respectively by Jones and Zydiak [2] and Hartman [1] are fundamentally different in nature.