CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN RURAL ECONOMIES

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

County Amenities and Net Migration

U.S. county-level net migration data and a general spatial model are used to examine the effects of various amenities on migration decisions. Results suggest that higher county cancer risks and the presence of superfund sites in a county, or a higher ranking on the Environmental Protection Agency's hazard ranking system, reduce the relative attractiveness of a county to prospective migrants, while natural amenities on balance attract migrants, ceteris paribus. The results also reveal spatial dependence among contiguous counties in terms of net migration behavior.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Synthesis of aircraft structures using integrated design and analysis methods

A systematic research is reported to develop and validate methods for structural sizing of an airframe designed with the use of composite materials and active controls. This research program includes procedures for computing aeroelastic loads, static and dynamic aeroelasticity, analysis and synthesis of active controls, and optimization techniques. Development of the methods is concerned with the most effective ways of integrating and sequencing the procedures in order to generate structural sizing and the associated active control system, which is optimal with respect to a given merit function constrained by strength and aeroelasticity requirements

On the Invariants of the Cohomology of Complements of Coxeter Arrangements

We refine Brieskorn's study of the cohomology of the complement of the reflection arrangement of a finite Coxeter group $W$. As a result we complete the verification of a conjecture by Felder and Veselov that gives an explicit basis of the space of $W$-invariants in this cohomology ring.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; final versio

MODELING ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH UNPREDICTABLE SHOCKS: A STATE-LEVEL APPLICATION FOR 1960-90

A Barro-type economic growth model is estimated for the 50 states in the U.S. using data for three decades beginning in 1960. Frontier estimation techniques are used to test for the presence of state-specific shocks to economic growth that are independent of the usual, normally-distributed random errors. We find that large, positive shocks to growth occur during the period 1960-90. Our results indicate that the error term structure assumed each other OLS may not be appropriate for modeling economic growth.Economic growth, Frontier estimation, Shocks, U.S. states, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

ON THE EXISTENCE OF STABLE EQUILIBRIA IN AGRICULTURE

Problems of instability and disequilibrium in U.S. agriculture are synthesized within a single conceptual framework. Agricultural and non-agricultural sector offer curves are used to illustrate why it may not be feasible to achieve and maintain equilibrium and price stability in U.S. agriculture. Empirical evidence on resource disequilibrium and instability in the ratio of prices paid and received by farmers is presented.Instability, Disequilibrium, Offer curves, U.S. agriculture, Policy, Demand and Price Analysis,

Optimal growth and land preservation

A model of optimal economic growth with a constant population subject to a constraint on the availability of land is presented. It takes account of the dual character of land as a production factor and as a consumption good (environmental amenities) by determining the optimal intertemporal allocation of land between productive and recreational uses. An extension of the analysis for the case of a growing population with endogenous growth based on human capital accumulation shows that if the rate of discount is not very low then there exists a set of balanced growth paths compatible with a constant allocation of land. En este trabajo se presenta un modelo de crecimiento económico óptimo con una población constante sujeto a una restricción sobre la disponibilidad de tierra. En el modelo se tiene en cuenta el carácter dual de la tierra como factor productivo y como bien de consumo para usos recreacionales y se determina cual es la asignación intertemporal óptima de la tierra entre estos dos usos. En la segunda parte del trabajo, se presenta una extensión del análisis para el caso de una población creciente con crecimiento endógeno basado en la acumulación de capital humano y se demuestra que si la tasa de descuento no es muy pequeña existe un conjunto de sendas de crecimiento equilibrado compatibles con una asignación constante de la tierra.Crecimiento óptimo, asignación intertemporal de la tierra, preservación medioambiental, crecimiento de la población, crecimiento endógeno, capital humano Optimal growth, intertemporal land allocation, environmental preservation, population growth, endogenous growth, human capital