The economic evolution of petroleum property rights in the United States.

We examine Harold Demsetz's (1967) prediction that property rights emerge and are refined as the benefits of doing so exceed the costs in the context of oil and gas resources in the U.S. Familiar influences on the development of petroleum property rights, technology, market demand, and politics, provide support for the hypothesis, and those issues are examined. Our primary contribution is to demonstrate the important role of a less familiar factor, the presence in the reservoir of both oil and gas with differentially volatile prices. This factor has affected the nature of the property rights assigned with unitization, an institutional arrangement to internalize the common pool externality. Information asymmetries and conflicting price expectations have resulted in unit agreements that would not have been predicted in a strict neo-classical sense. Our analysis provides new insights regarding the nature of voluntary unitization contracts, inherent limits to producers' ability to internalize externalities, and the welfare implications of compulsory unitization.

The Self-Enforcing Provisions of Oil and Gas Unit Operating Agreements: Theory and Evidence

This paper extends the existing theory and empirical investigation of unitization contracts. It highlights the importance of incentive-compatibility and self-enforcement and the bargaining problems faced in achieving viable, long-term contracts. We argue that only if the parties to a unitization contract have unit production shares that are the same as their cost shares will the contract be incentive compatible. Using a data base of sixty unit operating agreements, we measure the industry's actual behavior against the principles of production from a common pool. Our survey of units that have only one production phase and that are relatively homogeneous reveals that such equal sharing rules are always found and they appear to encourage the parties to behave optimally. In more complex units with multiple production phases and/or separate concentrations of oil and gas (gas caps) we find deviations from the theoretical ideal. In the case of multi-phase units, we find equal cost and production shares within phases, but not across phases. A pre-set trigger for shifting from one production phase to the next helps to maintain optimal behavior. For gas cap units, however, we generally do not find the equal sharing rule. Conflicts and rent dissipation follow as illustrated by the case of the Prudhoe Bay Unit. The paper describes the desirable contract rules for avoiding moral hazard. It also shows how the effects of those rules can be replicated in difficult situations.

Structural efficiency study of composite wing rib structures

A series of short stiffened panel designs which may be applied to a preliminary design assessment of an aircraft wing rib is presented. The computer program PASCO is used as the primary design and analysis tool to assess the structural efficiency and geometry of a tailored corrugated panel, a corrugated panel with a continuous laminate, a hat stiffened panel, a blade stiffened panel, and an unstiffened flat plate. To correct some of the shortcomings in the PASCO analysis when shear is present, a two step iterative process using the computer program VICON is used. The loadings considered include combinations of axial compression, shear, and lateral pressure. The loading ranges considered are broad enough such that the designs presented may be applied to other stiffened panel applications. An assessment is made of laminate variations, increased spacing, and nonoptimum geometric variations, including a beaded panel, on the design of the panels

Analyzing Repeated Measures Marginal Models on Sample Surveys with Resampling Methods

Packaged statistical software for analyzing categorical, repeated measures marginal models on sample survey data with binary covariates does not appear to be available. Consequently, this report describes a customized SAS program which accomplishes such an analysis on survey data with jackknifed replicate weights for which the primary sampling unit information has been suppressed for respondent confidentiality. First, the program employs the Macro Language and the Output Delivery System (ODS) to estimate the means and covariances of indicator variables for the response variables, taking the design into account. Then, it uses PROC CATMOD and ODS, ignoring the survey design, to obtain the design matrix and hypothesis test specifications. Finally, it enters these results into another run of CATMOD, which performs automated direct input of the survey design specifications and accomplishes the appropriate analysis. This customized SAS program can be employed, with minor editing, to analyze general categorical, repeated measures marginal models on sample surveys with replicate weights. Finally, the results of our analysis accounting for the survey design are compared to the results of two alternate analyses of the same data. This comparison confirms that such alternate analyses, which do not properly account for the design, do not produce useful results.

The Size and Service Offering Efficiencies of U.S. Hospitals.

Hospital productivity has been a research topic for over two decades. We expand on this research to include measures of dis/economies of scope. By using the Free Coordination Hull (FCH) we are able to determine if hospitals in our sample can become more efficient if they provide more services (diseconomies of scope) or if two smaller hospitals with a reallocation of resources could become more efficient (economies of scope). Using data from the American Hospital Association for the years 2004-2007, we found variations among hospital markets (measured by the Core Based Statistical Area). We can determine whether dis/economies of scope exist by comparing the results from two linear programming problems. Focusing on four markets: Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Madison, WI, and New Orleans we found variations in how best these hospitals operating in these markets could change in order to increase both scale and scope efficiencies. This approach could be used by policy makers and managers in order to reduce costs by sharing, reducing, or expanding services in hospitals. Findings from a study such as this should aid reform programs by providing more information on the sources of hospital inefficiency.Hospital, Efficiency, Economies of Scope, Hospital Markets

Analysis of Arkansas Fur Harvest Records - 1942-1984: II. Species Accounts

Fur harvest records were maintained by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on the following 16 furbearers: badger, beaver, bobcat, eastern spotted skunk (civet), coyote, gray fox, long-tailed weasel, mink, muskrat, nutria, opossum, raccoon, red fox, red wolf, river otter, and striped skunk. These harvest records were analyzed for each species in terms of mean pelt price and numbers of pelt sold by region (Ozark Mountains, Ouachita Mountains, Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi Delta) per year. Historical or biological influences important in interpreting species accounts are presented

Analysis of Arkansas Fur Harvest Records - 1942-1984: III. Harvest-Price Relationships

Correlation and linear regression analyses between mean annual pelt price and total harvest of 13 Arkansas furbearer species between 1965 and 1983 were performed for state and regions (Ozark Mountains, Ouachita Mountains, Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi Delta). Statewide, strong correlations (r \u3e 0.80) were identified for bobcat (Felis rufus), coyote (Canis latrans), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), mink (Mustela vison), nutria (Myocastor coypus), opossum (Didelphis virginiana), and raccoon (Procyonlotor). Moderate correlations (r = 0.55 - 0.79) were identified for eastern spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), river otter (Lutra canadensis), and striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). Nonsignificant correlations (r \u3c 0.468) were shown for beaver (Castor canadensis) and long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata). Regional differences were noted for each species

Defining Software Quality Measures: A Systematic Approach Embedded in the Objectives, Principles, Attributes Framework

Currently, software quality measures and metrics are being developed in isolation and often without the benefit of a guiding framework. In this paper we describe a systematic process for identifying measurement approaches and defining corresponding metrics that definitively support software quality assessment. That systematic process embodies five well-defined steps that reflect quality assessment within a framework which links the achievement of desirable software engineering objectives to the use of appropriate principles, and the use of principles to the manifestation of desirable product attributes. Ada is the language we have chosen to examine; the Ada package is used to illustrate the identification and definition process

Development implementation, and assessment of course learning outcomes: Working paper series--02-01

This paper describes a process for developing program learning outcomes for an undergraduate business major program and mapping more specific course-level learning outcomes to these program-level outcomes. Also described is a process for assessing the effectiveness with which the course-level learning outcomes have been achieved. The processes is designed to provide a mechanism for making broad program level outcomes meaningful to instructors in their ongoing delivery of the program