Strategic targeting of agricultural conservation easements as a growth management tool

Public and private programs have preserved an estimated 730,000 ha of agricultural land in the United States by acquiring agricultural conservation easements (ACEs) that retire a property's development rights. ACEs could be a potent tool for smart growth if strategically targeted. This paper attempts to quantify measures of strategic targeting of ACEs as guidance for planners. Evaluating the placement of 157 ACEs in the San Francisco Bay Area of California produced mixed results. Preservation and development of agricultural land were both consistent with general plans. In contrast, we found little evidence of ACEs being used on a regional scale either to reinforce urban growth boundaries or to coalesce with other open space to form large contiguous blocks of protected areas. We used the TOPSIS method (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) to identify the most strategic agricultural lands, which are quite different from where easements have been established through 2002. We encourage planners to consider strategic targeting of ACEs as a politically acceptable mechanism to complement traditional planning tools to minimize low density sprawl.     

Joining the European Monetary Union—Comparing First and Second Generation Open Economy Models

We log-linearise the Dellas and Tavlas (DT) model of monetary union and solve it analytically. We find that the intuition of optimal currency area analysis of DT’s second generation open economy model is essentially the same as that of first generation models. Monetary union results in no welfare loss if its member states are symmetric. However, asymmetry causes loss in welfare both due to the failure of the union policy to deal suitably with a country’s asymmetric shocks and due to an active monetary policy by the union in pursuit of its distinct objectives. The asymmetry in DT is largely due to the differing wage rigidities across countries. JEL Classification Numbers: F41, F42, E4     

“What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards

Previous studies show evidence of double standards in terms of individuals being more tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices. However, whether these double standards are necessarily due to the fact that one party is a business company while the other is a consumer was not addressed. The results of our two experimental studies, conducted among 277 (Study 1) and 264 (Study 2) participants from a Western European country by means of an anonymous self-administered online survey, demonstrate that the respondents were not only harsher in their judgments of unethical business (vs. consumer) behavior, but also harsher in their judgments of unethical behavior by prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) consumers and prosperous (vs. non-prosperous) business companies (Study 1). Further, they were also less tolerant of unethical behavior by consumers (vs. one’s best friend) and business companies with which they have a less than good (vs. a good) relationship (Study 2). These results indicate that double standards are due to differences in perceived wealth between subjects and in the individual’s relationship with subjects. These two factors imply that double standards are not strictly reserved to consumer–business relations, but might also be used in business–business and consumer–consumer relations. Further, these results indicate that companies need to be aware of the fact that good financial figures may backfire as they might lead individuals to be more critical of a company’s deceptive practices. Moreover, these findings point to the importance of businesses investing resources—and to keep investing resources—in developing a good relationship with stakeholders as these good relationships lead to stakeholders being less prone to make moral condemnations.     

DOES FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY REDUCE INVESTMENT DISTORTIONS?

The average U.S. firm has less leverage than one would expect based on the trade‐off between tax shields and bankruptcy costs. We focus on firms’ financial flexibility and examine whether firms preserve debt capacity to reduce investment distortions in the future. We find that firms with high unused debt capacity invest more in future years than do firms with low unused debt capacity. Furthermore, firms that are reluctant to borrow in unconstrained periods are more likely to issue debt in periods in which access to capital markets is more constrained.     

An Evaluation Instrument for Collaborative Processes: Application to Organizational Policy-Making

Decision-making in organizations is guided by policies. Organizational policy-making is a complex process in which several parties are involved, with multiple backgrounds, incompatible interests, and diverging areas of interest, yet they all have to be brought together to produce an acceptable policy result. Therefore, we propose to use techniques from collaboration engineering (CE) in this context. There is hardly any experience with CE in the field of organizational policy-making. In order to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of CE in organizational policy-making, it is important to have a systematic evaluation instrument. We distinguish between general and domain-specific indicators. Moreover, we consider measurement means and operationalization tools, such that organizational policy-making stakeholders can apply our instrument in their own organization.