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The scientific community is just that - a community - and the success/influence of any one individual likely reflects, at least in certain measure, the contributions made previously by others. This suggests that rather than merely ranking economists on the basis of raw citation counts, one might gain real insights about the giants laboring in relative obscurity by identifying who the authors of exceptionally influential papers drew their inspiration from. We identify the most-highly-cited (409) papers published in economics from 2001-2005, then examine who the authors of these high-impact papers drew from in terms of developing the ideas/arguments/applications presented in these papers. We find that a very small group of individuals had a comparatively large impact on the economics profession, in terms of influencing the subsequent work of authors of extraordinarily highly-cited papers. Further, there is relatively little consistency between our list of 'giants' and Nobel Prize winners in Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trees cast shade on homes and buildings, lowering the inside temperatures and thus reducing demand for power to cool these buildings during hot times of the year. Drawing from a large sample of residences in Auburn, Alabama, we develop a statistical model that produces specific estimates of the electricity savings generated by shade-producing trees in a suburban environment. This empirical model links residential energy consumption during peak summer (winter) months to average energy consumption during non-summer/non-winter months, behaviors of the occupants, and the extent, density, and timing of shade cast on the structures. Our estimates reveal that tree shade generally is associated with reduced (increased) electricity consumption in the summertime (wintertime). In summertime, energy savings are maximized by having dense shade. In wintertime, energy consumption increases as shade percentage in the morning, when outdoor temperatures are at their lowest, increases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a study on the impact of tree shades on the energy consumption of residential houses in Auburn, Alabama. It states that the researchers used hedonic model as the analytical framework in 160 residencies in Auburn based on monthly electricity consumption. It concludes that tree shade reduces the electricity usage of an average house depending on the percentage of shade coverage of a house compared to those with no shades.

We weave together two strands of the scientific literature: we have been presented with the proposition that economic freedom and corruption are linked to economic prosperity and with the proposition that economic prosperity is related to environmental degradation. The question we explore empirically is whether economic freedom and corruption are linked, albeit perhaps indirectly through economic prosperity, to environmental degradation. Using data from 152 countries, we estimate models of factors that influence species imperilment and, controlling for cross-border effects, find evidence across several taxa groups of a statistically significant relationship between economic freedom and species imperilment. However, we find consistent evidence of a similar relationship between corruption and species imperilment for only one taxa group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which analyzes the impact of tree shade on electricity consumption in the U.S. The study was administered by comparing the electricity consumption of two identical buildings with the same temperature and located in different shade conditions using regression model. The study reveals that shade from trees helps lower inside temperature and power consumption since trees serves as a natural complement to artificial air-conditioning.

We analyzed data for 39 states to identify factors that influence sales of wildlife-related specialty license plates. Wildlife plate sales were not statistically influenced by specialty plate price, the number of other specialty plates available, or the requirement to display two plates. There was some evidence that sales of wildlife plates are positively related to per capita income. In addition, sales of wildlife plates appeared to be influenced positively by the percent of individuals who engage in wildlife-related recreation. We failed to observe strong ethnicity impacts on sales of wildlife plates, but did find consistent evidence that wildlife plate sales were related negatively to the percentage of the population in the 18-24 age range. Finally, there was evidence that sales of wildlife plates are significantly higher in the South than elsewhere in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We explore the consequences of including both general and specific controls for spatial autocorrelation in country-level models of species imperilment. A general spatial autocorrelation term constructed as a binary contiguity matrix aggregates an unknown number of possible influences, some of which exert a negative impact on species imperilment in the referent country, others of which exert a positive impact. Adding spatial dependency measures that are based on specific cross-border effects can substantially change not only the size and statistical significance of the general spatial dependency term but also the size, sign, and/or statistical significance of the explanatory variables. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Modeling the determinants of species'' ecological fragility using country-specific data may be complicated by the fact that factors that influence species imperilment may extend or operate beyond arbitrary political boundaries. Following McPherson and Nieswiadomy [McPherson, M.A. and Nieswiadomy, M.L., 2005. Environmental Kuznets curve: threatened species and spatial effects. Ecol. Econ. 55: 395–407.], we confirm the advisability of controlling for spatial autocorrelation in models focusing on imperilment of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and vascular plants. We also compare the performance of different definitions of the spatial dependency. Although our a priori expectation was that measures that more accurately reflect the degree of spatial interaction between countries, such as the percentage of shared border, would be superior to a measure of simple adjacency, in fact we find that the simple adjacency measure outperforms the other measures in most cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Conservation biologists and others hypothesize that humankind's “ecological footprint” is affected not only by the sheer intensity of human activity but also by its spatial arrangement. We used a multivariate statistical model and state-level data to evaluate correlations between species imperilment and the level and spatial distribution of human settlement and infrastructure development in the United States. The level of human activity—measured by the number of people and households, incidence of roads, and intensity of nighttime lights—was significantly correlated with the ecological imperilment of species. Our regression models consistently showed that a 1% increase in the level of human activity across the United States was associated with about a 0.25% increase in the proportion of plant and animal species considered at risk of extinction by The Nature Conservancy. The distribution of human activity did not affect species imperilment. Our results point to rising levels of human activity—and not some particular (e.g., sprawling) distribution of human activity—as the most relevant anthropogenic factor explaining biodiversity loss in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality problems that are known to the seller of a product, but will become known to the buyer only after the purchase have the potential to frustrate voluntary exchanges. Where the determination of quality after the sale is cut-and-dried, brand names and unconditional guarantees will bond contract performance. When the problem is more subtle or confounded by the extent of consumer inputs, requiring risk-sharing by the contracting parties, these bonding devices typically are not sufficient. Under the circumstances, seller financing may be an efficient contracting solution for bonding the quality dimension of the contract. This form of financing makes both the buyer and the seller share the risk that the product may not suit the buyer’s needs in the way promised by the seller. This paper provides further empirical evidence on the quality assurance role of seller financing. We consider seller-financed second mortgages in the National Association of Realtors database. Seller financing in second mortgages may be a supplement to first mortgages supplied by conventional lenders. The role of seller financing as a quality assurance mechanism in second mortgages is more complex than its role in first mortgages, but is also less subject to an alternative interpretation of credit rationing than is its role in seller-financed first mortgages. To avoid further complexities, we do not consider second seller financing transactions that supplement first assumption mortgage transactions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In theory, not-for-profit organizations will be characterized by higher production costs per unit of output than for-profit producers of otherwise-identical goods/services, since profit maximization implies cost minimization per unit of output; breaking even does not imply cost minimization and, indeed, may imply inflated costs. We explore the empirical validity of this hypothesis in the context of higher education. Using 1996 data, we estimate multiproduct cost functions for 1,450 public, 1,316 private, not-for-profit, and 176 private, for-profit institutions of higher education in the United States. We fail to find a statistically significant difference between for-profit and not-for-profit private providers, but do find a statistically significant difference between private, not-for-profit institutions and public institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed empirical factors that predicted academic performance of wildlife sciences majors at Auburn University who graduated during the period 1995-2000 in the required courses in the wildlife sciences curriculum (not the university core curriculum or supporting courses). Controlling for a variety of factors, we found no evidence that academic performance of native students (i.e., those entering the program as freshmen) in the required wildlife sciences curriculum exceeded that of transfer students. Rather, we found that high-school grade-point average (GPA) and Academic College Testing (ACT) or Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores were the most important predictors of future academic performance. Among transfer students, transfer GPA was a strong, positive predictor of subsequent academic performance in the required wildlife sciences curriculum. We suspect that transfer students in a wildlife sciences program are able to meet challenges associated with entering a new university setting because of small class sizes and personal relationships that often develop with faculty. Our results suggested a bifurcated strategy when recruiting students: recruitment efforts aimed at native students should focus on ACT or SAT scores and high-school GPA, while transfer students should be targeted on the basis of transfer GPA, regardless of whether they have taken the ACT or SAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the “thanking” behavior of economists to see which economists are thanked the most in the asterisk footnote of papers published in three major economics journals over the period 1960–1999. Not surprisingly, the names of the great economists show up on these lists most frequently. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary Between 1974 and 1996, there was a substantial increase in the emphasis on academic research in universities located in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world. This increased emphasis was, and continues to be, reflected in a variety of increased incentives for faculty to produce research, including higher salaries, reduced teaching loads, increased money for travel, on so on. Yet, as we report in this paper, during this time period the rate of uncitedness of economics papers remained constant (at 26 percent). Clearly, universities and taxpayers/supporters of universities are obtaining no enhancement of research output (in terms of citations) from the increased subsidy to faculty research. We discuss the implications of this result for the publication and organization of economic research. In particular, we discuss the fact that resources devoted to up-front screening of papers by authors and journals have risen substantially over this period, but to no avail with respect to reducing the incidence of dry holes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the use of product price as an empirically pliable measure of the expected benefits to consumers of acquiring information about product and vendor performance prior to purchase. As the purchase price of an item increases, so does the cost of making a disappointing purchase and, accordingly, the expected benefit from acquiring prepurchase information, ceteris paribus. A continuous price variable (a proxy for the cost of making a disappointing purchase) generates results similar to those obtained by Nelson [1970; 1974] for search versus experience goods, but can be applied to a broader range of goods and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly examines the causes and consequences of article popularity. Tracing subsequent citations to nearly 6,000 articles published during 1974-76 reveals that most articles are cited rarely, if ever. Over 90% are cited fewer than 20 times over the ensuing 6 years, whereas only 3/10ths of 1% are cited over 100 times. Regression analysis demonstrates that author reputation, article length, and quality of publishing journal are strong determinants of article popularity. The relative importance of various economics journals, though not their rankings, is sensitive to inclusion of "hit" articles; the differential impact of a journal may be more closely approximated by its ability to attract a significant proportion of the "hit parade" of articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the intergenerational wealth transfer among politicians in the U.S. Mitigation of the structure of politics against occupational following; Legacy of the restrictions of sons on electoral jurisdictions; Impact of politician father on the political career of the son.

In this article, we report on the extent of voluntary compliance by ASA members with the Association dues structure. Comparing our findings from a random survey of ASA members with the distribution of member payments by income-based dues category, we find a fairly high degree of noncompliance in the highest dues category. This implies, and we observe, that higher fractions of ASA members pay dues in the lower income categories than is consistent with their self-reported income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article responds to an article in the current 2007 issue which is critical of the authors' earlier publication in the journal. The authors agree that populations of most states are growing, that cities are sprawling, and that species around growing cities may be imperiled by urban population growth and expansion. To do an actual experiment using cities with a control would be unrealistic. The statistical findings of the authors was that there was no evidence that spatial-distribution aspects of sprawl are ecologically relevant, but that human population growth was the primary cause of species imperilment in the U.S.

Examines whether medical articles published in journals using blinded peer review receive significantly more or fewer citations than those published in journals using nonblinded peer review. Use of citation analysis to evaluate the relative efficiency of double-blind versus single-blind refereeing of medical articles; Comparison of type I error between blinded and nonblinded peer review.

Replies to the comments made by Thomas Mayer (2004) regarding the productivity of economic research. Optimal rate of scientific exploration and little evidence of socially efficient investment, at least with respect to economics; Technical issues raised by Mayer; Increased production of highly-cited papers.

The article analyzes the responses of respondents to a public opinion poll about the implications of attitudes about children learning to hunt for game management. The poll reveals that the changing deer population dynamics combined with changing patterns of human hunting may create conditions that make management of deer populations in the U.S. by the traditional means of public sector licensing of citizen hunters increasingly ineffective in a number of states. Factors that contribute to the decline population of hunters in the country are mentioned.

We find significant style differences between articles written by economists for their professional journals and articles by the same economists in the Wall Street Journal. We find no evidence that style influences the professional success of economists, which suggests that the private rewards to improving the quality of writing are low. Indeed, each community of scholars has probably adopted a "professionally correct" writing style, from which its members diverge little. However, scholars do alter their rhetorical style to communicate effectively with audiences other than the professional community. This suggests that intra- and inter-group (written) communication by economists is efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Environmental Scorecard ratings of Congressmen and Senators published annually by the League of Conservation Voters, we explore empirically whether political support for pro-environment legislation, aggregated across each legislative body, is sensitive over time to changing economic conditions — that is, whether there is a political trade-off between economic conditions and the environment. Using LCV scorecard ratings from 1970 to 2008, we find evidence, consistent across both the House and Senate, that political support for the environment is related to per capita income, but this general tendency can be decomposed into sharp differences by party. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]