Social Capital and the Terms of Trade for Farmland

Social capital is a person or group's sympathy for or sense of obligation to another person or group. This article introduces social capital into a neoclassical model of farmland exchange and shows how relationships alter the terms of trade. Empirical evidence from a survey of farmers shows that the type of relationship farmland sellers have with farmland buyers has a statistically significant and economically important effect on the minimum-sell price for farmland. Compared to the minimum-sell price when selling to a total stranger in an arm's-length transaction, farmland sellers discount prices to friendly neighbors and relatives and require a premium from unfriendly neighbors and influential people in the community.     

How to build market societies: The paradoxes of neoliberal revolution

Neil Smith's Uneven Development has had profound impacts on the way geographers have come to understand questions related to space and nature. In this short piece I explain what UD brings to a longstanding literature and set of debates that is commonly named ‘the Agrarian Question’ and revolves around agriculture's unique relationship to capitalist relations of production. Smith's distinctive approach that sees nature and space as produced by capitalist relations of production helps resolve some of the longstanding debates within the study of agriculture. While this piece applies the production of nature thesis to one particular social scientific field, I hope it points to the currency and significance of this understanding for many other academic fields and for political economy more generally.     

Management and ethical decision-making

Every human activity has its characteristic features, the general tendencies that are often difficult to perceive for those engaged in the activity. Such general tendencies are of special concern to those managing in such activities, whether one is coaching soccer or running a corporation, for only with knowledge of such tendencies can one engage in intelligent managing and, more important, intelligent moral action. For the activity of business is not value-neutral, and if one is to manage morally in business, one must come to understand its general tendencies insofar as they affect values. Wade L. Robison is Associate Professor at Kalamazoo College, Department of Philosophy. He was formerly Assistant Professor at Ohio State University and Instructor at the University of Wisconsin. He has been Ford Area Foundation Fellow and NEH Fellow. He has been Editor of three books, Profits and Professions: Essays in Business and Professional Ethics (with J. Ellin and M. Pritichard), Medical Responsibility: Autonomy, Informed Consent, and Euthanasia (with M. Pritchard), and McGill Hume Studies (with N. Capaldi and D. Norton); author of eight articles on David Hume, including David Hume: Naturalist and Meta-sceptic, in Hume: A Re-evaluation, ed. J. King and D. Livingston and Hume's Sceptisism, Dialogue (Spring 1973).Paper presented at the 16th Conference on Value Inquiry, entitled: Ethics and the Market Place: An Exercise in Bridge-Building or On the Slopes of the Interface.     

The formation of public utility holding companies and their subsequent diversification activity

This paper examines the stock market reaction to announcements that utilities are converting to utility holding companies. There are negative abnormal returns associated with these announcements. Holding companies permit these utilities to diversify beyond the utility industry, and the announcements of their formation may signal the market of their intentions to diversify. The negative abnormal returns associated with these announcements and the negative abnormal returns associated with subsequent announcements of acquisitions are consistent with other research showing that diversifying bidders lose more (or gain less) than non-diversifying bidders.     

Solid waste disposal costs,product prices,and incentives for waste reduction

This paper uses a standard input-output technique to examine the impact of solid waste disposal costs on product prices for the years 1977, 1982, and 1985. Unlike air and water pollution, solid waste disposal is an example where markets, at least partially, deal with externality problems. As the cost of using land as a disposal site rises, firms are encouraged to improve efficiency, explore new technologies, and recycle materials to reduce the volume of wastes generated. Further, because the cost of waste disposal directly affects the price of the product, waste disposal costs also affect consumer demand. The findings of this study support the common notion that waste disposal costs are rising and leading firms are attempting to reduce waste volume.     

Book Reviews

Yoshihara Kunio, The Rise of Ersatz Capitalism in Southeast Asia, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Pang Eng Fong (Ed.), Labour Market Developments and Structural Change: The Experience of Asean and Australia, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1988, pp. 296 + xvii, index.

Michael T. Skully and George J. Viksnins, Financing East Asia's Success: Comparative Financial Development in Eight Asian Countries, Hong Kong: Macmillan, 1987, pp. 242 + xiii. cloth: $82.95.

Felix Schmidt Der Beitrag des Staedtischen Informellen Sektors zur Sozialoekonomischen Entwicklung Indonesiens. Dargestellt am Beispiel der Stadt Bandung [The Contribution of the Urban Informal Sector to Socio-economic Development in Indonesia: The Case of the City of Bandung], Schriften zu Regional - und Verkehrsproblemen in Industrie Bandung], Schriften zu Regional - und Entwicklungslaendem, Bd 45, Berlin: Duncker and Humbolt, 1988, pp. 295 + xix. DM 68,-.

Jennifer Alexander, Trade, Traders and Trading in Rural Java, Singapore: Oxford University Press/ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series, 1987.

Colin MacAndrews, Land Policy in Modern Indonesia, Boston: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain/The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1986, pp. 119 + viii.

Wolf Donner, Land Use and Environment in Indonesia, London: C. Hurst and Company, 1987, pp. 368 + xix.

Robert Repetto, The Forest for the Trees? Government Policies and the Misuse of Forest Resources, Washington: World Resources Institute, pp. 105 + viii. Cloth: $US 10.00.

Sjahrir, Kebijaksanaan Negara - Konsistensi dan Implementasi [Public Policy - Consistency and Implementation], Jakarta: LP3ES, 1987, pp. 230 + viii.

Mubyarto, Ekonomi Pancasila: Gagasan dan Kemungkinan [The Pancasila Economy: Concept and Possibilities], Jakarta: LP3ES, 1987, pp. 238 + ix.

M. Dawam Rahardjo, Perekonomian Indonesia: Pertumbuhan dan Krisis [The Indonesian Economy: Growth and Crisis], Jakarta: LP3ES, pp. 299 + xviii.

Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1460–1680. Volume One: The Lands Below The Winds, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 275 + xvii.

E.E. van Delden, Klein Repertorium: Index op Tijdschriften met Betrekking tot Voormalig Nederlands-lndie. Deel 1: Tijdschrift voor het Binnenlandsch Bestuur 1887–1900, Amsterdam: Koninlijk Instituut voor de Tropen, 1986, pp. 79.