Conservation practice complementarity and timing of on-farm adoption

The adoption of conservation practices is a dynamic process. Factors that vary over time can affect farmers’ decision to adopt and adoption timing. We used a duration model to evaluate the farmer's adoption time for continuous no-till (CNT), cover crops (CCs), and the variable-rate application of inputs (VRA). We found that producers who had previously adopted soil conservation practices were more likely to adopt additional complementary practices. Farmers using crop rotation adopted CNT and CCs approximately 48% and 62% faster than farmers without a crop rotation, respectively. The CC adoption time was also reduced by 70% for farmers who had adopted CNT. Complementarities between conservation practices may enhance the benefits from adoption and allow farmers to adopt bundles of conservation practices more quickly over time. This can be taken advantage of in conservation programs by promoting or requiring practices first that enhance adoption of other practices. We also found important heterogeneity in the adoption speed associated with farm management characteristics, producers’ attitudes, weather patterns, and crop prices.     

Representing climatic uncertainty in agricultural models – an application of state‐contingent theory

The state‐contingent approach to production uncertainty presents a more general model than the conventional stochastic production approach. Here we investigate whether the state‐contingent approach offers a tractable framework for representing climatic uncertainty at a farm level. We developed a discrete stochastic programming (DSP) model of a representative wheat–sheep (mixed) farm in the Central West of NSW. More explicit recognition of climatic states, and associated state‐contingent responses, led to optimal farm plans that were more profitable on average and less prone to the effects of variations in climate than comparable farm plans based on the expected value framework. The solutions from the DSP model also appeared to more closely resemble farm land use than the equivalent expected value model using the same data. We conclude that there are benefits of adopting a state‐contingent view of uncertainty, giving support to its more widespread application to other problems.     

Hong Kong: The Fragile Economy of Middlemen

The paper shows that standard trade models can be adapted to address crucial policy issues in our dynamic, imperfect-information world. It also shows that intermediated trade is essential to the modernization of the 1.2 billion-person Chinese economy; yet, notwithstanding sincere intentions in Beijing and Hong Kong, subtle changes may deny Hong Kong its irreplaceable catalyst role, leaving China ultimately to technical stagnation.     

Hollowing out of middle-pay jobs in Ohio: An exploratory analysis

Hollowing out is a term that refers to the decline in the share of middle-pay and middle-skilled jobs relative to low-pay and high-pay jobs. This study employs county-level occupational data at the place of employment to document hollowing out of middle-pay jobs across regions in Ohio. The county-level data with occupational information allow us to study how regions' economic heterogeneity contributes to the decline of middle-paying jobs in Ohio over the 2001–2019 period. Of 88 counties in Ohio, 77 counties experienced declines in the shares of middle-paying jobs. On average, Appalachian Ohio counties experienced higher hollowing out rates than other counties. We found that the hollowing out of middle-paying jobs in Ohio is associated with the declines in the shares of manufacturing and mining jobs.     

Gender differences in lying

Aversion to lying has been consistently observed in sender-receiver games. Women have demonstrated greater aversion to lying for a small monetary benefit in these games than men. We test the robustness of this gender difference in a sender-receiver game with larger stakes. We find no difference in lying by gender.     

An exploratory study of the impact of tax freedom on geographic living-cost differentials

In the United States, there exist enormous geographic differentials in the cost of living. A sound, basic understanding of factors that influence such geographic living-cost differentials is important to help formulate useful policies to address various contemporary economic and social problems such as public-school funding across counties. In this exploratory study of the effects of tax freedom on geographic living-cost differentials, the following hypothesis is investigated using panel data for the period 2009 through 2020. The higher the average overall freedom from taxation in a state in the forms of personal income taxation, property taxation, and sales taxation, the lower the overall cost of living in the state. In this exploratory study, strong empirical support is obtained for this heretofore effectively overlooked hypothesis.     

Third generation new entrants in the European mobile telecommunications industry

This paper focuses on new entrants within the European mobile telecommunications industry. More particularly, the paper identifies those new entrants that emerged from the third-generation (3G) licensing process across Europe before examining how they have fared. Four operators seeking to become new entrants across a range of countries are identified, although only one of them—Hutchison Whampoa trading as ‘3’—is considered to be fully active as a 3G new entrant. It is argued that the success of Hutchison Whampoa to date has been patchy, and that a supportive parent company has significantly contributed to its ability to remain active.