Ethanol: Implications for Rural Communities

This paper presents an overview of the U.S. ethanol industry, its location, and the public policy umbrella that supports its growth. Then the paper analyzes what happens when a county adds an ethanol plant, demonstrates what must be done to modify input-output models to capture those effects realistically, and applies the approach to proposed plants in three counties.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Is geographical economics imperializing economic geography?

Geographical economics (also known as the ‘new economic geography’) is an approach developed within economics dealing with space and geography, issues previously neglected by the mainstream of the discipline. Some practitioners in neighbouring fields traditionally concerned with spatial issues (descriptively) characterized it as—and (normatively) blamed it for—intellectual imperialism. We provide a nuanced analysis of the alleged imperialism of geographical economics and investigate whether the form of imperialism it allegedly instantiates is to be resisted and on what grounds. From both descriptive and normative perspectives, our conclusion is: yes and no.Peer reviewe

Michael Harrington: An ``Other American\u27\u27

This talk was presented at Sacred Heart University on February 17, 1993 as part of a lecture series in memory of Max Dickstein, Daniel Friedman Gottlieb, and Ned Gottlieb. It will be included in Prof. Isserman\u27s forth-coming biography of Michael Harrington

I Harbor No Hate : A Study of Political Tolerance and Intolerance in Holocaust Survivors

The political attitudes of tolerance or intolerance of victims towards their former perpetrators have not been thoroughly researched prior to this study. Through the data collected by the Transcending Trauma Project, a study looking at three generations of Holocaust survivor families, I Harbor No Hate: A Study of Tolerance and Intolerance in Holocaust Survivors examined this question. One expects that survivors will until their dying days hate the Germans and the Poles who destroyed their families, their livelihoods, their homes, and their communities. Yet, to a significant group of survivors interviewed for the Transcending Trauma project, this response is the complete opposite of what they believe and how they behave. One can understand the intolerant survivors, the natural response to what has happened to them, but have trouble accepting or understanding the response of the tolerant survivor. Through grounded research methodology and the secondary analysis of eighteen in-depth life narratives this study examined what factors contributed to tolerance versus what factors contributed to intolerance in their lives after the war. The study found that a history of persecution changes the factors that contribute to tolerant and intolerant attitudes. Threat and one aspect of worldview are important but are affected by the experience of persecution. Gender is also an important factor, with males predominantly in the intolerant group. In addition, religiosity, defined as a change in beliefs about God and change in levels of observance between the survivor\u27s pre-war years and the post-war years showed a relationship to both intolerance and tolerance. Finally, this study studied psychological insecurity and intolerance through attachment theory, which analyzed family of origin relationships. By utilizing attachment theory, this study has offered a meaningful way to assess psychological insecurity. The strong relationship between quality of family relationships, psychological insecurity, and intolerance provides a base from which to expand this investigation into other mediating factors. Moreover, the similarities between the research on Armenian survivors and this research on Holocaust survivors show that this methodology is applicable to other survivors of persecution who are currently struggling to come to terms with rebuilding their lives and their societies

External Ownership and Bank Lending Behavior: Empirical Evidence Using Control Group Methods

As banking systems have become more integrated on both the international and national scales, banks in peripheral regions have been purchased by larger banks headquartered outside those regions. These externally controlled banks allegedly siphon funds from the regions by taking deposits but curtailing their lending activity. Such a practice would retard regional economic development efforts by making it more difficult for local businesses and residents to obtain commercial and industrial loans

Monitoring international migration flows in Europe. Towards a statistical data base combining data from different sources

The paper reviews techniques developed in demography, geography and statistics that are useful for bridging the gap between available data on international migration flows and the information required for policy making and research. The basic idea of the paper is as follows: to establish a coherent and consistent data base that contains sufficiently detailed, up-to-date and accurate information, data from several sources should be combined. That raises issues of definition and measurement, and of how to combine data from different origins properly. The issues may be tackled more easily if the statistics that are being compiled are viewed as different outcomes or manifestations of underlying stochastic processes governing migration. The link between the processes and their outcomes is described by models, the parameters of which must be estimated from the available data. That may be done within the context of socio-demographic accounting. The paper discusses the experience of the U.S. Bureau of the Census in combining migration data from several sources. It also summarizes the many efforts in Europe to establish a coherent and consistent data base on international migration. The paper was written at IIASA. It is part of the Migration Estimation Study, which is a collaborative IIASA-University of Groningen project, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The project aims at developing techniques to obtain improved estimates of international migration flows by country of origin and country of destination

Perceptions of emergency department crowding in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Introduction: The state of emergency department (ED) crowding in Pennsylvania has not previously been reported. Methods: We assessed perceptions of ED crowding by surveying medical directors/chairs from Pennsylvania EDs in the spring of 2008. Results: A total of 106 completed the questionnaire (68% response rate). A total of 83% (86/104) agreed that ED crowding was a problem; 26% (27/105) reported that at least half of admitted patients boarded for more than 4 hours. Ninety-eight percent (102/104) agreed that patient satisfaction suffers during crowding and 79% (84/106) stated that quality suffers. Sixty-five percent (68/105) reported that crowding had worsened during the past 2 years. Several hospital interventions were used to alleviate crowding: expediting discharges, 81% (86/106); prioritizing ED patients for inpatient beds, 79% (84/ 106); and ambulance diversion, 55% (57/105). Almost all respondents who had improved ED operations reported that it had reduced crowding. Conclusion: ED crowding is a common problem in Pennsylvania and is worsening in the majority of hospitals, despite the implementation of a variety of interventions. [West J EmergMed. 2013;14(1):1–10.