EXPLAINING DEER POPULATION PREFERENCES: AN ANALYSIS OF FARMERS, HUNTERS AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC

Wildlife managers must consider the public's preferences for wildlife population levels when determining management policies. In 1996, Maryland farmers, hunters and the general public were surveyed to determine their preferences for increasing, maintaining, or decreasing deer population numbers. Using a random utility theoretic framework with an ordered response probit model, the factors that explain preferences such as residential location, socioeconomic characteristics, landscape damage, agricultural yield loss and vehicle accidents were analyzed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Development of Empirical Models to Rate Spruce-Fir Stands in Michigan\u27s Upper Peninsula for Hazard From the Spruce Budworm (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): A Case History

The procedure used to develop empirical models which estimate potential spruce budworm impact to spruce-fir stands in Michigan\u27s Upper Peninsula is reviewed. Criteria used to select independent variables, to select the best of alternative multiple linear regression models. and to validate final models are discussed. Preliminary, intermediate, and final results demonstrate a cyclic pattern to the development procedure. Validation is emphasized as an important step in the procedure. Implications of using the hazard-rating system as a pest management tool in the stand management process are discussed

Nontaxpayer Suits: Seeking Injunctive and Declaratory Relief Against IRS Administrative Action

Who should be entitled to challenge Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax policy decision making? Should the concerned citizen or the aggrieved competitor of a company receiving favorable treatment from the IRS be precluded from seeking review of allegedly illegal action when his own taxes are not specifically involved? ... It is clear from an analysis of recent decisions that several federal courts have been unwilling to accept the proposition that the Anti-Injunction Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act exception insulate the IRS from judicial scrutiny even when judicial intervention would pose no threat to federal revenues. An analysis of the history of the Anti-Injunction Act indicates that no such insulation was ever intended by Congress. ... [T]he APA has accorded nearly across the board reviewability of agency actions that aggrieve individuals or entities. There is no basis for excluding IRS rulings from the scope of this act. Gradually, the lower federal courts, while deferring to the policy of the Anti-Injunction Act when appropriate, have properly permitted review of such IRS action

Shifting of Income Within the Family: Will 1986 I.R.C. Changes Bring Significant Reform

In challenging Congress and the citizenry to embrace tax reform, President Reagan stated: While most Americans labor under excessively high tax rates that discourage work and cut drastically into savings, many are able to exploit the tangled mass of loopholes that has grown up around our tax code to avoid paying their fair share-sometimes to avoid paying any taxes at all. Fairness and simplicity were clearly overriding objectives of the tax reform movement that culminated in the Tax Reform Act of 1986. From the perspectives of both fairness and simplicity, one of the most egregious features of prior law was the ability of taxpayers with accumulated wealth to thwart the effects of the progressive taxation by shifting income from such accumulated wealth from the accumulator of such wealth to family members in lower tax brackets. Often, such shifting of income has been accomplished through the use of trusts, which since the earliest days of federal income taxation have been recognized as separate taxpayers

Taxation of Below-Market Loans Under 7872: This Could be a Lot Simpler!

This article will explore § 7872: what it is, why it was enacted, how it has developed judicially and administratively since its enactment, and how it might be improved - mostly by reducing its complexity. It shall be contended generally that the reform intended with respect to § 7872 in several instances overshot the mark and serves no useful purpose