There, In the Shadows: The Grace of Art in a "River Runs Through It"

"Any man-any artist, as Nietzsche or Cezanne would say- climbs the stairway in the tower of his perfection at the cost of a struggle with a deunde-not with an angel, as some have maintained, or with his muse. This fundamental distinction must be kept in mind if the root of a work of art is to be grasped." -Frederico Garcia Lorc

The Glory of His Discontent: The Inconsolable Suffering of God

"He who is satisfied has never truly craved. And he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor." -Rabbi Abraham J. Hesche

The Dance of Truth

We want God to make sense, to be reasonable, to act according to how we think God should act. This kind of thinking, though, is not far from where we live today. If I give money to the church, then God will bless me financially. If I have my “quiet time” in scripture, then God will bless my day. If I raise my children right, then surely they will turn out right. In themselves these actions are good and right; however, we have to ask ourselves, “Do our motives emerge from the desire to give a place to the mystery of faith, or, rather, to conquer mystery?

THE IMPLICATIONS OF AN EXPORT TAX ON SECTORAL GROWTH: A CASE IN PAKISTAN

Impacts of an export tax on growth in the cotton and yarn markets were examined. Results of a simulation show that the export tax on raw fiber decreased the rate of growth in the fiber sector by 80%, and also decreased growth in yarn production by 0.7%.Crop Production/Industries, International Relations/Trade,

Searching for Our Fathers

"I tried to find out for myself, from the start, when I was a child, what was right and what was wrong-because no one around me could tell me. And now that everything is leaving me I realize I need someone to show me the way and to blame me and praise me, by right not ofp ower but ofa uthority, I need my father." -Albert Camus, The First Ma

Regional Productivity Differentials: Explaining the Gap

Issues of productivity and competitiveness at a regional level have increasingly been a focus for both academic and policy concern. Significant and persistent differences in productivity are evident both in the UK and across Europe as a whole. This paper uses data relating to individual business units to examine the determinants of regional productivity differentials across British regions. It demonstrates that the substantial differences in regional productivity can be explained by a fairly limited set of variables. These include industry mix, the capital employed by the firm, business ownership and the skills of the local labour force. Also important are location-specific factors including travel-time from London and population density. Taken together, these factors largely explain regional productivity differentials. The analysis extends those studies that have identified but not quantified the role of different ‘productivity drivers’ in a systematic fashion or that have focused on only a limited set of drivers. It has important policy implications particular in relation to the role of travel time and possible effects of density and agglomeration.Regional competitiveness; Productivity; UK; Regional development; business-data analysis;

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PHASE-OUT OF THE MFAs: MOVING FROM MANAGED DISTORTION TO MANAGED DISTORTION

Paper presented at 69th ICAC Meetings, Lubbock, TX, September 2010Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Country-level Business Performance and Policy Asymmetries in Great Britain

The HM Treasury identifies key ‘drivers’ of business performance and productivity differentials, which include skills, investment and competition. This paper presents an empirical investigation into the effects of these drivers on business-level productivity per employee across England, Scotland and Wales in order to identify whether spatial differences in the influence of these drivers exist. We adopt the Cobb-Douglas production function approach and our results suggest that, after taking account of sector specific effects, productivity differentials do exist between businesses across Great Britain and that policy instruments do potentially enhance productivity. The results indicate that these key drivers are equally applicable across countries of Great Britain. However, there is evidence to suggest that scale effects for labour and capital do differ across England, Wales and Scotland and that policy makers should be aware of these asymmetries.Productivity per employee; HM Treasury’s key drivers; scale effects

Macroeconomic Impacts of Water Use in Agriculture

The recent/current recession provides the opportunity to study the effects of the macroeconomic changes on the agricultural production systems in the Great Plains and trace some of its impacts through the system to changes in primary inputs such water resource use. Therefore, the objective of the study reported here was to determine the effects of the changes in macroeconomic conditions driven by the 2008 recession on irrigated crop production in a portion of the Southern Great Plains and its impacts on water use. The approach for the study was to: (1) use the 10-year baseline FAPRI projections, based on changes in macroeconomic conditions, of agricultural commodity prices and input costs between the beginning of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, and (2) apply these different conditions within the Southern High Plains Ogallala Model (OM) in three counties representing different water situations and cropping patterns in the region. Overall results indicate that the 2008 recession likely had a relatively small impact on water use in the Southern Great Plains. Water use within the region is responsive to economic forces only when increased pumping flexibility exists; when water withdrawals are already at or near capacity, macroeconomic changes and changes in pumping costs and commodity prices are not likely to change water use.Ogallala Aquifer, recession, macroeconomic, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, E00, Q15, Q30, Q31,

Crop Subsidies in Foreign Countries: Different Paths to Common Goals

This is an update of CERI-SR07-01, our report on international crop policies conducted in February of 2007. Since then, the landscape for agricultural products has undergone changes due to developments related to the use of ethanol and the recent economic recession. Also, in most of the world, both developed economies such as the EU, Australia, and the U.S., and developing countries such as China and Brazil, have increased their domestic agricultural supports and/or altered the types of support. It is uncertain if this increase is permanent or transitory.Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,