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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.

We investigate empirically the importance of a conjectured linkage between economic conditions and increasing party divergence with respect to national-level environmental policy in the US. Using data from 1970-2008, we find that increases in the rate of unemployment are associated with increases in divergence between the two parties with respect to voting on environmental legislation; a result that is consistent for both the House and Senate. We also report evidence of a positive relationship between party divergence on environmental legislation and real per capita income (inflation) in the House (Senate). [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 examine the impact of hunting and fishing on rankings in NatureServe’s 2005 “at-risk” list using 24,291 observations on individual vertebrate animal species for 47 states (we omit Alaska, Hawaii, and Missouri). We use 1) a probit analysis of the binary “at-risk” designation and 2) an ordered probit analysis of the five categories of endangerment. We control for species type (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and turtles), population density, farming area, forest cover, coastline existence, endemism, and per capita income. We find that states with higher hunting and fishing participation (or higher per capita expenditures) have fewer “at-risk” species. States with larger per capita big game spending have fewer “at-risk” non–big game species. States with larger wildlife agency budgets have fewer endangered species.( JEL Q57) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The authors examine the impact of environmental and political variables on two measures of species imperilment across 49 U.S. states: the fraction of all species in a state identified by NatureServe as being "at-risk" of extinction, and the fraction of species in a state listed under the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service's (FWS) Endangered Species Act (ESA). A highly significant determinant of both measures is the fraction of species endemic to the state. Population growth increases the at-risk measure, hut not the ESA listings. There is a significant concern for plant imperilment by NatureServe, but not by the FWS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the costs of regulation are borne by individuals outside of their political jurisdiction, an elected politician arguably will vote in favor of socially costly regulations because from his/her narrow perspective even small marginal benefits outweigh zero marginal costs. Our empirical analysis of the environmental voting records of U.S. Senators from 1991 to 2002 reveals a pronounced tendency for Senators to vote against (in favor of) environmental bills that impose costs in their (other) states. The straightforward implication is that elected politicians overgraze the regulatory pasture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a public choice analysis of endangered species listings in the U.S. Listing under the Endangered Species Act; Political consideration in the listing

Assesses whether students who transfer into undergraduate forestry programs perform better as well as students who enter these programs as freshmen. Assessment of a bachelor of science graduates at Auburn University's forestry program in Alabama; Advice for recruitment efforts to consider applicants' entrance tests.

Focuses on specific political and economic structures in the U.S. and Brazil that promoted or restricted the establishment of domestic mercantilism in those economies. Economic history of the nations; Relative factor endowments; Role of institutions in economic conditions.

Presents information on a study which examined the evidence of 'home grown-ness' in politics using precinct-level data from the 1998 election for the third congressional district in Alabama. Mechanisms used by voters to minimize the expected agency costs associated with representative government; Information on the 1998 election for the third congressional district in Alabama; Model, data and findings; Conclusions.

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.

Presents a reply on the comment made by professor Otis W. Gilley on economics departments ranking in the U.S. made by the author. Variance of productivity in graduates; Derivation of faculty productivity; Type of criticism applicable to the rankings of economics departments; Fact that noneconomics department graduates as well as economics department graduates are well schooled enough to subsequently produce publishable research.

Looks at the first attempts to empirically verify and quantify the alleged social waste due to rent-seeking in the U.S. Overview of the theoretical trade-off between investment in socially unproductive rent-seeking and socially productive profit-seeking behavior; Evidence of rent-seeking and economic well-being; Factors that constitute measures of real economic activity over time in the economy.

Analyzes the geographic distribution of federal funds in the U.S. for fiscal year 1981. Categories of information collected by the U.S. House Information Services on federal expenditures; Potential explanations for the observed inequality in the flow of federal funds; Statistical relationship between the dollar amount of federal funds spent in each specific congressional district.

Provides information on the public funds reduction measures implemented by officers in the U.S. as of 1984. Authority of administrative agency heads in deciding on employee layoffs; Agencies which show increases in employment during budgetary reductions; Comparison of reduction measures between 1982 and 1984.

It has been observed from various experiences of many academic colleagues that transfer students who take micro and macro "Principles of Economics," from community colleges perform worse in upper-division economics classes than students who take the principles courses at the four-year institution. By state law many, if not most, of the four-year state colleges and universities in the United States are required to admit transfer students from community colleges in their state, without requiring that they take the Standard Achievement Test, which is a normal requirement of non-transfer applicants. If there were a quality-of-instruction difference between community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, students would be well advised to adjust accordingly in their decision to attend one type of educational institution or the other. In addition, the registrars of four-year colleges and universities might want to reconsider the policy of accepting transfer credit from community colleges. Obviously, these are significant implications that should not be acted upon unless and until our findings are substantiated by subsequent researchers.

Potential purchasers "demand" advertising as one means of reducing the time-price of consumption; sellers respond by "supplying'' advertising qua information. This simple theory, as presented by Ehrlich and Fisher (1982) and Nelson (1974) implies that advertising behavior of sellers can be predicted based upon characteristics of buyers. In this paper I find that signalling in the Yellow Pages occurs to a greater extent in the relatively mobile Washington, D.C area than in the more stable Baltimore, MD area where consumers develop alternative sources of product/vendor-related information. Also, high-price, infrequently purchased items are signalled more heavily than low-price, frequently purchased items [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper details resource expenditures on nonexchange, noncharity transfer activity in the United States in 1985 Expenditures designed to facilitate and inhibit nonexchange transfers, executed privately or through the state, are reported The numbers indicate that individuals plausibly invested nearly a trillion dollars in transfer activity that year Nominal GNP in 1985 was just over $4 trillion, which includes numerous transfer-related resource investments that arguably should be subtracted out Transfer activity thus apparently constitutes a much larger fraction of all economic activity conducted on the United States than previously recognized [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the concept of occupational inheritance in U.S. agriculture. Result of an examination of inter- and intragenerational occupational mobility in the U.S. farming sector in 1962; Ways in which human capital skills required for survival in any occupation may be acquired; Key issues in occupational inheritance in farming.

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.

Replies to comments of Michael L. Marlow on a paper which examined the success of U.S. President Ronald Reagan at decreasing the size and scope of the federal Leviathon. Argument presented by Marlow concerning actual and proposed budget reductions; Failure of Marlow to come to grips with the response of agency heads to reductions in budget allocations.

The authors reflect on the suggestion to make the idea of sustainability actualized in the U.S. They cite the United Nations Brundtland Commission Report which says that development is sustainable if it meets the demand of the present without jeopardizing the need of the future generation. They mention that sacrifice is needed for sustainability to be realized. They note that sustainability means to decrease the usage of timber, petroleum and other natural resources.

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.

The article focuses on a study that estimated a multi-product cost function for public institutions of higher education in the U.S. in relation to the provision of extension services. It discovered evidence of significant economies of scale with respect to the provision of such services. The report recommends the shifting of the provision of extension services from the largest institutions to smaller ones to improve cost-effectiveness.

This article provides an empirical analysis of the gender gap for farming in the United States. Using the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture we show that farms operated by women earn forty percent less farm income than farms operated by men after controlling for farm and operator characteristics. These findings indicate that farming is one of the most unequal professions in the United States today. Further, we investigate whether three forms of sustainable agriculture improve incomes for women farmers. We find that only farms engaging in Community Supported Agriculture experience a marked decline in the gender income gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changing nature of attitudes toward and reports of sexual harassment using data for 1978-94 drawn from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (USMSPB) of the U.S. federal government. The authors find that although unwanted sexual behavior reported by federal government employees changed only slightly in overall incidence over the period, its pattern changed noticeably. Unwanted sexual attention by supervisors, for example, declined in incidence; crude and offensive behavior by co-workers increased; and the likelihood that harassment would occur only once (rather than repeatedly) increased. Employees' attitudes toward sexual harassment changed markedly, with a dramatically increased willingness to define unwanted sexual behavior as sexual harassment. This trend appears to have been due not to changes in employees' demographic, human capital, and job characteristics, but rather to structural changes in their views of what constitutes sexual harassment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterize the factors that determine who becomes an inventor in the United States, focusing on the role of inventive ability ("nature") versus environment ("nurture"). Using deidentified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records, we first show that children's chances of becoming inventors vary sharply with characteristics at birth, such as their race, gender, and parents' socioeconomic class. For example, children from high-income (top 1%) families are 10 times as likely to become inventors as those from below-median income families. These gaps persist even among children with similar math test scores in early childhood—which are highly predictive of innovation rates—suggesting that the gaps may be driven by differences in environment rather than abilities to innovate. We directly establish the importance of environment by showing that exposure to innovation during childhood has significant causal effects on children's propensities to invent. Children whose families move to a high-innovation area when they are young are more likely to become inventors. These exposure effects are technology class and gender specific. Children who grow up in a neighborhood or family with a high innovation rate in a specific technology class are more likely to patent in exactly the same class. Girls are more likely to invent in a particular class if they grow up in an area with more women (but not men) who invent in that class. These gender- and technology class–specific exposure effects are more likely to be driven by narrow mechanisms, such as role-model or network effects, than factors that only affect general human capital accumulation, such as the quality of schools. Consistent with the importance of exposure effects in career selection, women and disadvantaged youth are as underrepresented among high-impact inventors as they are among inventors as a whole. These findings suggest that there are many "lost Einsteins"—individuals who would have had highly impactful inventions had they been exposed to innovation in childhood—especially among women, minorities, and children from low-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article analyzes the differences between economists and non-economists with respect to observed corruption behavior used as a proxy for selfishness. For this purpose, I analyzed real world data of relating to the 109th-111th US Congress between 2005 and 2009, including 695 representatives and senators. I show that those who hold a degree in economics are significantly more prone to corruption than 'non-economists'. These findings hence support the widespread, but controversial hypothesis in the 'economist vs. non-economist literature' that economists lack what Frey and Meier (2004) call 'social behavior'. Moreover, by using real world data, these findings overcome the lack of external validity, which impact on the (low cost) experiments and surveys to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal cases are won or lost on the basis of statistical discrimination measures, but workers' perceptions of discriminatory behavior are important for understanding labor supply decisions. Workers who believe that they have been discriminated against are more likely to leave their employers, and workers' perceptions of discrimination likely drive formal complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Yet the relationship between statistical and self-assessed measures of discrimination is far from obvious. We expand on the previous literature by using data from the After the J.D. study to compare standard Blinder-Oaxaca measures of earnings discrimination to self-reported measures of client discrimination, other work-related discrimination, and harassment. Our results indicate that conventional measures of earnings discrimination are not closely linked to the racial and gender bias that new lawyers believe they have experienced on the job. Moreover, statistical earnings discrimination does not explain the disparity in self-assessed bias across gender and racial groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic journals may especially influence the development of an emerging field; early editors of public policy journals were explicit about that goal. Two leading journals-the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and the Policy Studies Journal-were compared for changes between the early 1980s and 2007-2010. Over time, both journals published far fewer research articles by practitioners, and the non-university share of both editorial boards also declined. The journals continued to focus largely on the United States. Both showed a dramatic increase in the proportion of co-authored articles. Over time, JPAM became far more likely to publish studies by economists and far less likely to publish political scientists while PSJ increasingly published political scientists. JPAM authors now primarily reference economics journals. PSJ authors often cite political science, public administration, and other public policy journals. Both journals moved away from broad policy essays, with JPAM heavily trending to multivariate (essentially econometric) secondary analyses of large data sets and PSJ including a broader range of methodologies. Contrary to early predictions of a progressively more interdisciplinary field, the opposite trend-stronger alignments with specific disciplines-reflects public policy's ongoing challenge in transcending long-standing academic legacies and boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists argue that rich information environments and formal enforcement of contracts are necessary to prevent market failures when information asymmetries exist. We test for the necessity of formal enforcement to overcome the problems of asymmetric information by estimating the value of information in an illegal market with a particularly rich information structure: the online market for male sex work. We assemble a rich data set from the largest and most comprehensive online male sex worker Web site to estimate the effect of information on pricing. We show how clients of male sex workers informally police the market in a way that makes signaling credible. Using institutional knowledge, we identify the specific signal male sex workers use to communicate quality to clients: face pictures. We find that there is a substantial return to the signal in this market. The findings provide novel evidence on the ability of rich information environments to overcome problems of asymmetric information without formal enforcement mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine how federal financial support of academic scientists shapes their collaborative behavior. More specifically, it investigates two questions: (i) are there threshold sizes of federal grants that have effects on collaboration? and (ii) do the threshold sizes differ by discipline? To test and model these questions, this paper uses data collected in a 2004-2005 survey by the Research Valuing Mapping Project (a project based at Georgia Tech and led by Barry Bozeman) of 2,086 academically based research scientists and engineers. The analysis in this paper reaffirms the positive relationship between federal funding and collaboration seen in previous works, but the findings suggest that there is in fact a threshold effect-as the positive relationship has a diminishing influence. The findings of this paper are more limited with respect to how academic disciplines' threshold levels differ. The results indicate a difference in the threshold levels between disciplines for three of the eight models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace sexual harassment is illegal, but many workers report that they have been sexually harassed. Exposure to the risk of sexual harassment may decrease productivity, which would reduce wages. Alternatively, workers may receive a compensating differential for exposure to sexual harassment, which would increase wages. Data on claims of sexual harassment filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are used to calculate the first measures of sexual harassment risks by industry, age group, and sex. Female workers face far higher sexual harassment risks. On balance, workers receive a compensating wage differential for exposure to the risk of sexual harassment. [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]

Given the recent efforts in several countries to reorganize the research institutional setting to improve research productivity, our analysis addresses the following questions: To which extent has the recent awareness over international quality standards in economics around the world been reflected in research performance? How have individual countries fared? Do research quantity and quality indicators tell us the same story? We concentrate on trends taking place since the beginning of the 1990s and rely on a very comprehensive database of scientific journals, to provide a cross-country comparison of the evolution of research in economics. Our findings indicate that Europe is catching up with the USA but, in terms of influential research, the USA maintains a dominant position. The main continental European countries, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, experienced some of the largest growth rates in economic scientific output. Other European countries, namely the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, have shown remarkable progress in per capita output. Collaborative research seems to be a key factor explaining the relative success of some European countries, in particular when it comes to publishing in top journals, attained predominantly through international collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A natural experiment in an economics field journal afforded time-series observations on payments to referees for on-time reviews. The natural experiment yielded 15 months' worth of data with no payments and about two subsequent years of data with payments. Using referee- and manuscript-specific measures as covariates, hazard models were used to gauge the effects of payments on individual referee's review times. All models indicate statistically significant reductions in review times owing to referee payments. Reductions in review times translate into significant reductions in first-response time (FRT). Median FRT was reduced from 90 to 70 days, a 22% reduction in the presence of payments. With payments, only 1% of the FRTs exceeded six months; without payments, 16% of the FRTs exceeded six months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs new rankings of economics journals, economics departments, and economists that employ a measure of teaching-focused research productivity, an area of growing importance in recent years. The ranking methodologies presented here use information from articles that were published from 1991 through the early part of 2005 within the Journal of Economic Literature's "economic education" classifications (A200-A290). The Journal of Economic Literature tops the list of journals, followed by the Review of Economics and Statistics and the American Economic Review. Among the top institutions are Vanderbilt University, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin. Others that rank high here, such as Oberlin College and Denison University, do not often fare as well using methodologies that evaluate more traditional types of economics research. Finally, among the economists we find that John Siegfried, William Becker, and Michael Watts are ranked above other economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors examine the academic labor market for newly graduated degree holders from American and foreign universities. Those who graduate from elite universities are likely to find academic positions at similarly elite institutions. Those who are further down the ladder in terms of academic achievement, but also from a top college, do not fair as well. The highest-ranked graduates at second ranked institutions do better in initial employment than the average group at an elite college. The paper compares the career trajectories in all three graduate categories.

Employment-related sexual harassment imposes large costs on both workers and their employers and many organizations have responded by implementing formal policies, grievance procedures, or training programs. However, limited evaluation of these interventions leaves us knowing very little about their impact. Our goal is to add to this limited empirical literature by analyzing the relationship between sexual harassment training and employees' views about what behaviors in fact constitute sexual harassment. We use probit analysis and data drawn from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (USMSPB) of the U.S. federal government to determine—separately by gender—the impact of sexual harassment training on the propensity of workers to define specific unwanted sexual behaviors in the workplace as forms of sexual harassment. We find that sexual harassment training is associated with an increased probability—particularly for men—of considering unwanted sexual gestures, remarks, touching, and pressure for dates to be a form of sexual harassment. We also find that the proportion of agency staff receiving training is positively related to the propensity that an individual employee has a definition of sexual harassment that includes these forms of unwanted sexual behavior. Our results suggest that sexual harassment training programs may be useful in leading workers to be more sensitive to the issue of sexual harassment. Widespread training within the agency has an effect over and above that attributable to the individual's receipt of training itself and training appears to be particularly successful in clarifying men's views about the “gray” area generated by unwanted sexual behavior originating with co-workers rather than supervisors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of unions on productivity is explored using meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis. It is shown that most of the variation in published results is due to specification differences between studies. After controlling for differences between studies, a negative association between unions and productivity is established for the United Kingdom, whereas a positive association is established for the United States in general and for U.S. manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the importance of the study regarding intra- and interdisciplinary communication of economic journals in the U.S. The first objective of this article is to document communication flows between journals in economics using citation analysis. The second objective is to contribute to the ongoing discussion about interdisciplinary communication between economics, other social sciences, and business. The next section introduces the framework underlying the authors' investigation of intra- and interdisciplinary communication flows.

Examines the use of citations analysis as an empirical tool for understanding aspects of the legal system in the United States. Improvement of the performance of the system with use of citations; Efficacy of the system as judicial-management tool; Role of economic models on the use of citations analysis in law.

We present publication data for recent graduates of 50 economics Ph.D. programs. The data show that publishing output is highly concentrated among graduates of the top programs; the top three programs, for example, generate more than 25% of aggregate publishing output in our sample. We use the data to construct a set of program rankings based on both per capita and aggregate graduate publication and a comparison of faculty performance to graduate performance. The graduate/faculty comparison repeals that programs may be identical in the output of their faculties but starkly different in the output of their graduates. (JEL A10, A14) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines data on the institutional backgrounds of editors and authors of the top 30 economics journals, identified by their 1995 citation impact. It is revealed, for example, that 70.8% of the journal editors were located in the United States, and twelve U.S. universities accounted for the location of more than 38.9%. Concerning journal article authors, 65.7% were located in U.S. institutions and twelve U.S. universities accounted for 21.8%. Arguably, the degree of institutional and geographical concentration of editors and authors may be unhealthy for innovative research in economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the relative productivity of economics departments in the United States, based on the publications in a core set of mainstream journals. Design of conceptual problems; Differences in the professional standing and impact of the journals.

Consumer evaluations of the quality of hospital services have become increasingly important as the patient and the patient's family have become more involved in hospital selection. The authors investigate the appropriateness of the search, experience, and credence typology of economics of information theory as a framework for analyzing how consumers judge the quality of specific hospital services. Advertising strategies are recommended for each category for hospitals seeking to create images of quality and excellence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the publishing trends in eight leading economic journals in the United States. Multi-authorship over time; Potential reasons for the rising trend in multi-authorship.