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Downscaled climate projections need to be linked to downscaled projections of population and economic growth to fully develop implications for land, natural resources, and ecosystems for future scenarios. We develop an empirical spatiotemporal approach for jointly projecting population and income at the county scale in the United States that is consistent with neoclassical economic growth theory and overlapping labor markets and that accounts for labor migration and spatial spillovers. Downscaled projections generated for the five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways used to support global scenario analysis generally show growth focused around relatively few centers especially in the southeast and western regions, with some areas in the Midwest and northeast experiencing population declines. Results are consistent with economic growth theory and with historical trends in population change and convergence of per capita personal income across US counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal risks are increasing from both development and climate change. Interest is growing in the protective role that coastal nature-based measures (or green infrastructure), such as reefs and wetlands, can play in adapting to these risks. However, a lack of quantitative information on their relative costs and benefits is one principal factor limiting their use more broadly. Here, we apply a quantitative risk assessment framework to assess coastal flood risk (from climate change and economic exposure growth) across the United States Gulf of Mexico coast to compare the cost effectiveness of different adaptation measures. These include nature-based (e.g. oyster reef restoration), structural or grey (e.g., seawalls) and policy measures (e.g. home elevation). We first find that coastal development will be a critical driver of risk, particularly for major disasters, but climate change will cause more recurrent losses through changes in storms and relative sea level rise. By 2030, flooding will cost $134–176.6 billion (for different economic growth scenarios), but as the effects of climate change, land subsidence and concentration of assets in the coastal zone increase, annualized risk will more than double by 2050 with respect to 2030. However, from the portfolio we studied, the set of cost-effective adaptation measures (with benefit to cost ratios above 1) could prevent up to $57–101 billion in losses, which represents 42.8–57.2% of the total risk. Nature-based adaptation options could avert more than $50 billion of these costs, and do so cost effectively with average benefit to cost ratios above 3.5. Wetland and oyster reef restoration are found to be particularly cost-effective. This study demonstrates that the cost effectiveness of nature-based, grey and policy measures can be compared quantitatively with one another, and that the cost effectiveness of adaptation becomes more attractive as climate change and coastal development intensifies in the future. It also shows that investments in nature-based adaptation could meet multiple objectives for environmental restoration, adaptation and flood risk reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the site of human subjects research has public health, regulatory, ethical, economic, and social implications, we sought to determine the global distribution and migration of clinical research using an open-access trial registry. Methods: We obtained individual clinical trial data including location of trial sites, dates of operation, funding source (United States government, pharmaceutical industry, or organization), and clinical study phase (1, 1/2, 2, 2/3, or 3) from ClinicalTrials.gov. We used the World Bank's classification of each country's economic development status ["High Income and a Member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)", "High Income and Non-Member of the OECD", "Upper-Middle Income", "Lower-Middle Income", or "Low Income"] and United Nations Populations Division data for country-specific population estimates. We analyzed data from calendar year 2006 through 2012 by number of clinical trial sites, cumulative trial site-years, trial density (trial site-years/106 population), and annual growth rate (%) for each country, and by development category, funding source, and clinical study phase. Results: Over a 7-year period, 89,647 clinical trials operated 784,585 trial sites in 175 countries, contributing 2,443,850 trial site-years. Among those, 652,200 trial sites (83%) were in 25 high-income OECD countries, while 37,195 sites (5%) were in 91 lower-middle or low-income countries. Trial density (trial site-years/106 population) was 540 in the United States, 202 among other high-income OECD countries (excluding the United States), 81 among high-income non-OECD countries, 41 among upper-middle income countries, 5 among lower-middle income countries, and 2 among low-income countries. Annual compound growth rate was positive (ranging from 0.8% among low-income countries to 14.7% among lower-middle income countries) among all economic groups, except the United States (-0.5%). Overall, 29,191 trials (33%) were funded by industry, 4,059 (5%) were funded by the United States government, and 56,397 (63%) were funded by organizations. Countries with emerging economies (low- and middle-income) operated 19% of phase 3 trial sites, as compared to only 6% of phase 1 trial sites. Conclusion: Human clinical research remains concentrated in high-income countries, but operational clinical trial sites, particularly for phase 3 trials, may be migrating to low- and middle-income countries with emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a diffusion process to describe the global dynamic evolution of credit operations at a national level given observed operations at a subnational level in a sovereign country. Empirical analysis with a unique dataset from Brazilian federate constituents supports the conclusions. Despite the heterogeneity observed in credit operations at a subnational level, the aggregated dynamics at a national level were accurately described by the proposed model. Results may guide management of public finances, particularly debt manager authorities in charge of reaching surplus targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we extend some usual techniques of classification resulting from a large-scale data-mining and network approach. This new technology, which in particular is designed to be suitable to big data, is used to construct an open consolidated database from raw data on 4 million patents taken from the US patent office from 1976 onward. To build the pattern network, not only do we look at each patent title, but we also examine their full abstract and extract the relevant keywords accordingly. We refer to this classification as semantic approach in contrast with the more common technological approach which consists in taking the topology when considering US Patent office technological classes. Moreover, we document that both approaches have highly different topological measures and strong statistical evidence that they feature a different model. This suggests that our method is a useful tool to extract endogenous information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely held that foreign direct investment (FDI) has a positive effect on economic growth. To test this hypothesis, we perform convergence regressions derived from a theoretical model on the impact of FDI on endogenous technological change in small economies. The model includes FDI externalities that enhance growth, but also shows that FDI can crowd out host country income and reduce local innovation. The empirical analysis employs disaggregated US data for various FDI-related activities—in addition to the conventionally used aggregate FDI stocks and flows. We estimate the net FDI impact on the convergence rate of per-capita income to US levels, controlling for human development, financial development, and trade. We find that FDI accelerates convergence for high-income countries only, otherwise slowing it down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the growth and expansion of entrepreneurship education in the U.S. It is reported that entrepreneurship education first emerged in 1947 with the offering the first college-level entrepreneurship course by Harvard University. It is stated that entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities in Canada has grown in terms of course offerings over the last twenty years at rates of 444% at the undergraduate level and 232% at the graduate level. The institutionalization of cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship education has also been identified as a contributing factor to economic development in the knowledge economy.

Standard economic indicators suggest that the USA experienced long-run economic growth throughout the nineteenth century. However, biological indicators, including human stature, offer a different picture, rising early in the century, falling (on average) mid-century, and rising again at the end of the century. This pattern varied across geographical regions. Using a unique data set, consisting of mean adult stature by state, we test for convergence in stature among states in the nineteenth century. We find that during the period of declining mean stature (1820–1870), heights actually diverged. Later in the century (1870–1890) we find a type of “negative” convergence indicating that stature among states tended to converge to a new, lower steady state. Only towards the end of the century (1880–1900) do we find classic convergence behavior. We argue that the diversity of economic experiences across regions, including urbanization, industrialization, and transportation improvements, explain this pattern of divergence and then convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the period of market revolution in the U.S. Market revolution centers on the general displacement of traditional controls over production, distribution and exchange that are governed by economic factors such as supply, demand and price. The author claims that the general liberation that resulted from the American Revolution as it led individuals free access to natural resources, free from the restraining authority of kings or governors. It is believed that three colonial habits persisted and one new expediency provided the energy following American independence. These include pioneering, innovation, slavery and exploitation, which in turn gave rise to market revolution. For a long time, market revolution has been known in history simply as progress, the story of America's success.

Focuses on workforce placement and training system in the U.S. Complicatiosn in the federal workforce system; Building effective workforce and economic development partnerships; Coordination of supply and demand. INSETS: Case in Point: The Difficulty of Matching Supply and Demand;Finding the Niche: Helping Washington State Manufactuerers....

Focuses on the power of information in economic development in the U.S. Opportunities that inner cities offer for retailers, financial institutions, real estate developers and other businesses. INSETS: San Antonio;Supermarket: Gary, Indiana;Home Improvement Retailer: Chicago, Illinois.

The article focuses on the influence of national economic development on the approach of the United States to the economics of agricultural land. Land reform has become an important aspect of the United States foreign policy. The country has reduced its concern for land reform and increased the importance given to land markets. History plays a role in the growth and changes in land markets. The economic framework which explains land economics around the world lacks several elements to be complete.

The article looks at African immigration to the U.S. Since the end of World War II, a dramatic expansion of the global capitalist economy is linking countries of the world together into a complex network of trade, finance and technology flows. One result of expanding global trade and economic integration is that global gross national product has grown to unprecedented heights. But most of the benefits so far have gone to already wealthy countries. Political turmoil is closely linked to this failure of economic development. As pressures of poverty, rapid population growth, disease and illiteracy and environmental degradation mount, they produce a volatile cocktail of insecurity. In Western Europe large-scale labor recruitment, often from previous colonies, began in the 1960s and ended after 1973, when energy crises and recessions led to restrictive immigration policies.

The article discusses that franchising methods that emerged in the late years as significant strategy for business growth, job creation, and economic development both in the U.S. and the world markets. The franchisers are sorted as product-trademarked or as business format franchisers. The business format of franchising is anticipated to be dominant form of franchising internationally in the twenty-first century . However, the business format of franchising has been experiencing rapid growth in the U.S., the period of rapid international expansion of some U.S. franchisers increased their overseas units.

The simultaneous emergence of a technological and a political revolution offers the possibility of an enormous and widely distributed explosion in world trade and world output-if only people can take advantage of the new opportunities. This will produce a tendency toward convergence in economic capability on a world scale. Market and enterprise based policies lead not just to economic development, but to a rise in levels of education, so necessary for an individual's and a society's continued advancement; to an increased willingness to work, since work pays off; and to a willingness to save, since accumulated funds retain value and can be invested. Individuals gain wider choices of goods and services to buy in the market and of where and how to live. Their knowledge of conditions in other countries grows. The quality of their lives imposes. This adds up to greater individual independence, which in turn amounts to political change and leads to more open societies.

Development Economics deals with the structure and behavior of economies where output per head is less than 1980 $2,000. Whether this dividing line is somewhat too high or too low is of no significance in this context. A search for precision would cause economists to abandon dollars in favor of other indexes; like the proportion of the labor force required in agriculture to feed the whole population; or more nebulous measurements of entrepreneurial potential. However defined, Development Economics is said to be now in the doldrums, after a couple of spirited decades. It seems to be true that the subject has been deserted by American Ph.D. students. Their antennae tell them where to find the best jobs. In this contest, Development Economics no longer competes. Foreign aid has been cut, the multilateral institutions cannot keep up with the inflation, and the Ford Foundation has changed its priorities. At the graduate level, the subject still beckons only one group. The number of Third World students in the United States still runs high, and they are thirsty for the subject; so universities that admit a lot of Third World students continue to have flourishing teams of development economists.

Public policies are often made without much recourse to economic reasoning. Economists are often unaware of what is happening in the world of public affairs As a result, both the quality of public decision-making and the role that economists play in it are less than optimal. This new feature on current policy issues will offer short articles on topics that are on the current agendas of policy makers and provide nonspecialists with a better understanding of the role of economic analysis in illuminating current debates. Suggestions for future columns and comments on past ones should be sent to Isabel V. Sawhill, c/o Journal of Economic Perspectives, The Urban Institute. 2100 M Street N.W., Washington. D.C. 20037. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This supplement comments on an article written on Richard T. Ely who contributed immensely in the origin of the magazine "Land Economics." The original article was in two parts. The first part of this essay is a selected summary from Ely's letters to his family while he was a graduate student in Germany, 1877-1880. The ideas, experiences, activities and personal contacts which are set forth throughout this article were chosen for their significance in foreshadowing some facets in the development of Ely's American career. The second part of this supplement is made up of some comments and observations by this writer based on a skimming review of selected course lecture notes, outlines, or hand-written manuscripts from the Ely Papers. Judging from Ely's family letters there were several high points of his work at Heidelberg. Two writings by Ely, one called a "treatise" and the other an "essay," plus reading for his doctor's examination in March 1879, fully occupied the aggressive student from the time of his arrival in Heidelberg in May 1978.

A great search is under way to try to unravel the problems of economic growth of the poor countries. As if this problem were not. difficult enough we do not completely understand the experience of the past growth of the rich countries such as the United States. When changes in the inputs—capital, land and labor—are related to increases m output there is a troublesome residual which is left unexplained. What is the missing ingredient? As one might expect, there are many candidates. A prime contender is technological change. The concept both explains too much and too little. It is largely a name for a residual and we little understand just how technology is generated and becomes embedded in the general workings of an economy. This has not kept us from moving ahead with huge technical assistance programs for the poor countries. However, the limited success of these programs is related to our lack of knowledge of the dynamics of technological adoption. A variation on the technological change explanation of growth is changes in the quality of human capital. This is the solution emphasized by T. W. Schultz and others and it leads to great emphasis on investment in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about various developments in the field of economics. The forty-third annual meeting of the American Economic Association will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, during December 29-31, 1980, with headquarters at the Hotel Cleveland. On April 18 and 19 a conference on the teaching of undergraduate courses in the social sciences was held at Northwestern University, Chicago in Illinois. One hundred and thirty-one instructors in economics, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology and anthropology were in attendance, representing fifty-six colleges in the Middle West. The Indiana Association of Economists and Sociologists held a conference on May 9-10 at Indiana University. A round table on college economics considered the purpose and content of the course in elementary economics. This was led by economist W.V. Owen of Purdue University and E.R. Beckner of Butler University. An affiliation between the University of Nanking and the Institute of Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities of Northwestern University has just been consummated. Recently a member of the staff of the Institute left for Nanking, China, to participate there in the land utilization-population research planned by the department of agriculture of the University of Nanking.

The U.S.A. alone can trace its history of planning to the constitutional period of political planning and the Hamiltonian industrial development economics of the late 1700's. There were earlier distinctive illustrations of contemporary planning, as in Australasia and Scandinavia. If not for their complete success, then by virtue of their interesting linkage, European, Russian, and American planning systems are worthy of comparative study. In fact, unlike other administrative innovations in the contemporary nation-state, planning is peculiarly susceptible to international imitation despite some distinctive national variations in style and scope. The actual history of New Deal planning is cloaked by the fact that many American historians regard the war period as a dramatic aberration and contend that the New Deal died in 1939 after suffering various political defeats in 1938. If the New Deal did die, and that is still an open question-its demise may be more precisely dated 1943, when, along with other belligerencies.

In the great revival of interest in economic development in the U.S. that has marked the past decade, attention has centered on two main questions: the determining factor of the over-all rate of economic advance; and the optimal allocation of given resources to promote growth. Analysis of the growth rate has relied mainly on the Keynesian tools and has produced a multiplicity of aggregate growth models. In the field of resource allocation, controversy centers around the implications of the classical principle of comparative advantage, according to which growth is promoted by specialization. The present paper discusses the analysis of resource allocation in less developed economies from three points of view. One section tries to ascertain the extent to which the allocation principles derived from trade theory and from growth theory can be reconciled with each other without losing their operational significance. Another section compares various approaches to the measurement of optimal resource allocation in terms of their logical consistency and their applicability to different conditions. One section examines some of the practical procedures followed in setting investment policy in underdeveloped countries in the light of the earlier discussion. Some of the theoretical issues are re-examined to indicate their practical importance.

This article focuses on the book "The Industrialization of Agriculture: Vertical Coordination in the U.S. Food System," edited by Jeffrey S. Royer and Richard T. Rogers. The book examines vertical coordination in the U.S. food system. It discusses the industrialization of agriculture and questions of coordination, the institutional analysis of vertical coordination in agribusiness, market structure, vertical integration, and contract coordination, a method for quantifying vertical coordination, contractual arrangements at the farm gate, grower response to broiler production contract design, the effect of ownership on contract structure, costs, and quality in the U.S. beet sugar industry, the microeconomics of agricultural commodity grading and impacts on the marketing channel, the changing U.S. pork industry, the industrialization of hog production, vertical relationships and producer independence in the pork sector, alternative models for the future of pork production.