Returns on initial public offerings of closed-end funds

Examination of 41 closed-end fund initial public offerings (IPOs)during the period from January 1986 to June 1987 reveals thatthe mean initial day's return is not significantly differentfrom zero in contrast to previous findings for nonfund IPOs.New funds also show significant negative after-market returnsunlike other new issues. Despite the disparity between our findingsand previous results, our results are consistent with existingmodels.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Relative Efficiency of Policy Instruments to Reduce Nitrate Water Pollution in the U.S. Southern High Plains

This paper develops a modeling framework for evaluating alternative water quality protection policies. The framework integrates the EPIC-PST crop growth/chemical transport model and a mathematical programming model. The framework is applied to the evaluation of four water quality policies in the southern high plains of the United States:
• restrictions on per-acre nitrogen use,
• taxes on nitrogen use,
• taxes on irrigation water use, and
• incentives to convert conventional irrigation systems to modem irrigation technology. The results indicate that producers would make a variety of adjustments in responding to these policies. Important responses might include reductions in nitrogen and water use, crop substitution, removal of land from crop production and conversion from irrigated to dryland production. These four policies are evaluated based on changes in farm income and social welfare. The irrigation system conversion incentive clearly outperforms other policies from both society's and producers points of view. Producers would prefer nitrogen use restrictions to nitrogen or water use taxes because farm income would be reduced less under the restrictions than under the taxes. Nitrogen use taxes, however, are more desirable than nitrogen use restrictions from society's point of view.     

What do schools produce? Implications of multiple outputs in education

This article introduces the hypothesis that secondary schools create at least two competing 'outputs' standardized test scores and high school completion - which may be seen as substitutes. This hypothesis provides an explanation for the decrease in standardized test scores that occurred over the last 40 years along with an often overlooked increase in high school graduation rates. The article presents evidence supporting this hypothesis as well as evidence that different schools face different tradeoffs and discusses the policy implications of such trade-offs.