Twenty-Five Years of Taming Tourism

This tribute discusses Professor Bosselman\u27s contributions to understanding, conceptualizing and managing tourism growth. The author includes a discussion of Professor Bosselman\u27s works: In the Wake of the Tourist: Managing Special Places in Eight Countries; and Managing Tourism Growth: Issues and Applications. As a coauthor of the second work, the author offers a unique insight into the mind of one of the leaders in land use and environmental law

The Stellar Populations of Low-redshift Clusters

We present some preliminary results from an on-going study of the evolution of stellar populations in rich clusters of galaxies. This sample contains core line-strength measurements from 183 galaxies with b_J <= 19.5 from four clusters with ~0.04. Using predictions from stellar population models to compare with our measured line strengths we can derive relative luminosity-weighted mean ages and metallicities for the stellar populations in each of our clusters. We also investigate the Mgb'-sigma and Hbeta_G'-sigma scaling relations. We find that, consistent with previous results, Mgb' is correlated with sigma, the likely explanation being that larger galaxies are better at retaining their heavier elements due to their larger potentials. Hbeta', on the other hand, we find to be anti-correlated with sigma. This result implies that the stellar populations in larger galaxies are older than in smaller galaxies.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of IAU Colloquium 195: "Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters: intense life in the suburbs", Torino Italy, March 12-16 200

Amortization of Legal Land Use Nonconformities as Regulatory Takings: An Uncertain Future

This Article analyzes the effect that recent developments in takings jurisprudence might have on the constitutionality of amortization of nonconformities and how the rapidly evolving standards imposed by the Court might be applied to amortization techniques

Does Corporate Law Matter? Legal Capital Restrictions on Stock Distributions

This paper consists of five sections, including this introduction. The background section of this article consists of several parts. First, we provide an historical overview of the legal capital doctrines restricting dividends. Second, we briefly summarize and illustrate six basic types of state statutory restrictions on dividends and other distributions to shareholders. Third, we examine the criticisms of legal capital that has led many states to abandon the use of concepts like stated capital and surplus to restrict financial distributions to shareholders. Fourth, a discussion of the generally accepted accounting principles ( GAAP ) and mechanics of legal capital and stock distributions is provided for the benefit of readers not already familiar with this topic. Fifth, we examine prior research that suggests the market value of a firm increases when it announces a stock distribution, i.e., the announcement of a stock split or dividend increases the common stock price. This research suggests that shareholder reaction to stock distribution announcements stems from the information that the stock distribution decision conveys about the firm’s future earnings potential and other fundamentally important information. In the data and method section, we test the hypothesis that if stock distribution announcements increase share prices, then the choice between stock split and stock dividend accounting treatment may also have an effect on share prices. We correct for specific flaws found in the research design of other empirical studies and present the results in the fourth section of this article. Our tests of the empirical evidence support the hypothesis that investors react more positively to the announcement of a large stock dividend than a stock split. In addition, market response is more pronounced when managers are constrained by the combination of legal capital doctrines restricting cash distributions to shareholders and the method used to account for large stock distributions. In the final section of this article, we conclude, based on the results of our empirical tests, that statutory dividend restrictions based on legal capital enhance management’s ability to use stock distributions to communicate with shareholders. This suggests that the critics of legal capital may have been too harsh and that state legislatures may be acting too hastily in replacing legal capital doctrines with other types of statutory restrictions on dividends

Choice Experiments to Assess Farmers' Willingness to Participate in a Water Quality Trading Market

Interest has grown in Water Quality Trading (WQT) as a means to achieve water quality goals, with more than 70 such programs now in operation in the United States. Substantial evidence exists that nonpoint sources can reduce nutrient loading at a much lower cost than point sources, implying the existence of gains from trade. Despite the potential gains, however, the most commonly noted feature of existing WQT markets is low trading volume, with many markets resulting in zero trades. This paper evaluates one explanation for the lack of participation from agricultural nonpoint sources. We test for and quantify the intangible costs that may deter farmers from trading even if the monetary benefits from doing so outweigh the observable out-of-pocket costs. We do so by designing and implementing a series of choice experiments to elicit WQT trading behavior of Great Plains crop producers in different situations. Attributes of the choice experiment included market rules and features (e.g., application time and effort, penalties for violations, means of monitoring compliance) that may affect farmers willingness to trade. The choice experiments were conducted with a total of 135 producers at four locations in the state of Kansas between August 2006 and January 2007. A Random Parameters Logit model is appropriate to analyze the resulting data, revealing diversity in the way that the attributes affect farmers choices.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,