Population Trends Among Iowa\u27s Amphibians and Reptiles

Sampling conducted from 1970 to 1980 indicates that ranges of about 69% of the species and subspecies of amphibians and reptiles found in the state are receeding. Of Iowa\u27s 76 forms, 15% are considered in danger of extinction in the state, 22% threatened with ultimate extinction if corrective action is not taken, and 32% are declining. Only 8% have shown improvement in recent years and the remaining 22% appears relatively stable. Further studies are needed to precisely determine the status of each form and outline protective strategies

Water Requirements For Waterfowl Areas Near the Great Salt Lake Parts V-VI

This report reviews activities on this project since the Progress Report, Part IV, June 1961. The summer of 1961 has been one of the driest on record for Ogden Bay and Howard Slough Refuge. The extreme shortage of irrigation water has resulted in very little flow in the Howard Slough which originates from return flow. The available water from the Weber River for the Ogden Bay Refuge was also the lowest on record. The scarcity of water at these two refuges has resulted in increased salinity. Most of the routine work on the project during the summer was done by Ming Change Tsai, graduate assistant in civil engineering who resided at the Ogden Bay Refuge. Mr. Tsai has been assisted in the care of the salinity lysimiters at Ogden Bay Refuge, and in the salinity surveys at the other refuges by Daya Kaushik, graduate assistant in wildlife resources

Cognitive capital, governance, and the wealth of nations

Good governance or “government effectiveness” (per the World Bank) is seen as a critical factor for the wealth of nations insofar as it shapes political and economic institutions and affects overall economic performance. The quality of governance, in turn, depends on the attributes of the people involved. In an analysis based on international data, government effectiveness was related to the cognitive human capital of the society as a whole, of the intellectual class, and of leading politicians. The importance of cognitive capital was reflected in the rate of innovation, the degree of economic freedom, and country competitiveness, all of which were found to have an impact on the level of productivity (GDP per capita) and wealth (per adult). Correlation, regression, and path analyses involving N=98 to 201 countries showed that government effectiveness had a very strong impact on productivity and wealth (total standardized effects of β=.56-.68). The intellectual class’s cognitive competence, seen as background factor and indicated by scores for the top 5 percent of the population on PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS, also had a strong impact (β=.50-.54). Cross-lagged panel designs were used to establish causal directions, including backward effects from economic freedom and wealth on governance. The use of further controls showed no independent impacts on per capita wealth coming from geographical variables or natural resource rents. Finally, we discuss background factors and ways in which governance might be improved

How environmental regulations affect innovation in the Australian oil and gas industry: going beyond the Porter hypothesis

The impact of environmental regulation on innovation is of central interest to many industries and policy makers alike. While traditional research adopts a top-down view of regulation and attempts to measure the innovation response, the more bottom-up view of contemporary theory argues that firms produce innovations that exceed compliance levels as a competitive strategy. We approach this dichotomy by investigating innovation introduced by Australian oil and gas firms in light of environmental regulatory compliance burden and firm-level characteristics, including competitive capabilities. Analyses of survey responses, executive-level interviews and conference proceedings reveal both regulatory (top-down) and competitive advantage (bottom-up) perspectives explain innovation in this industry. Regression analyses reveal that product/service and novel innovations (all types) are related to a high compliance burden, competitive skills, research and development activity, and engagement in formal collaborations. Interview and conference data add nuance to our findings revealing collaborative compliance frameworks result in similar innovation outcomes

James M. Buchanan: Neoclassical, Austrian, Neither, or Both?

James McGill Buchanan (1919-2013) received the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1986 for his work in public choice theory, set out in his The Calculus of Consent (1962), co-authored with Gordon Tullock. The Virginia School of Political Economy can be seen as a product of the work of Buchanan and Tullock, along with Ronald Coase, who published his ground-breaking paper on “The Problem of Social Cost” in 1960 while he was at the University of Virginia. This school of thought is generally thought to be in some ill-defined sense allied to the Austrian school of economics, mainly perhaps because of a shared pro-market policy stance. On the other hand, links between Buchanan and neoclassical economists such as Friedman and Stigler are frequently drawn, again probably with the pro-market policy recommendations of each in mind. It is notable that Buchanan, Hayek, and Friedman were all at various times presidents of the Mont Pelerin Society. Yet the differences between neoclassical and Austrian perspectives are profound. It has often been said that the one can be characterized as “equilibrium always” and the other as “equilibrium never”. The case of Buchanan and the Virginia School is therefore extremely interesting for the historian of economic thought. Significant questions are raised about the scope for reconciliation between schools of thought at the most profound levels of methodology and social philosophy. I posit that, allowing for a slight amount of breathing room, James Buchanan’s economic writings are more Austrian than anything else. From his earliest writings to his last publications, Buchanan clearly had an Austrian-leaning approach. Additionally, many of the criticisms he laid out about the economics profession were directed toward the more neoclassical minded among his peers. While the act of criticizing neoclassical economists does not indicate that Buchanan was an Austrian, it does seem to lay to rest any conclusions that he was a neoclassical economist himself

Western Europe and the U. S.: What We Ire Doing and What We Know

University of Wisconsin. The authors wish to thank Orley Ashenfelter, Irwin Garfinkel, and John Palmer for helpful comments on an earlier This paper examines the theory and empirical work relating to programs of direct job creation in Western industrialized countries. After an introductory section which discusses the historical context in which these programs have emerged, the paper looks at the possible forms such measures might take. Public employment is considered in the guises of special public service jobs, public works, and training and sheltered employment. Possible types of wage subsidy schemes include earnings supplements, wage ~ subsidies, and wage bill subsidies. The nature of existing schemes in the U.S. and Western Europe is outlined in section 2