Public Expenditure and Poverty Reduction in the Southern United States

The objective of this research was to analyze the effects of education, health and hospital, parks and recreation, and public welfare expenditures on poverty, focusing particularly on how these relationships change over space and time. Government expenditure on parks and recreation has been the single most effective government expenditure category over time, although the marginal effects of the government expenditure on poverty alleviation have weakened over time. Clusters of the highest marginal effects of government expenditures on poverty reduction were identified for each time period using geographically weighted regression (GWR) and analysis of local indicators of spatial association (LISA)government expenditure, GWR, poverty, southern United States, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Measuring the Effects of a Land Value Tax on Land Development

The objective of this research is to evaluate a land value tax as a potential policy tool to moderate sprawling development in Nashville, TN, the nation’s most sprawling metropolitan community with a population of one million or more. To achieve this objective, the hypothesis is empirically tested that a land value tax encourages more development closer to preexisting development than farther from preexisting development. Specifically, the marginal effects of a land value tax on the probability of land development is hypothesized to be greater in areas around preexisting development than in areas more distant from preexisting development. The findings show that the marginal effects of a land value tax on the probability of developing parcels that neighbored previously developed parcels was greater than the probability of developing parcels that did not neighbor previously developed parcels. This finding suggests that land value taxation could be used to design compact development strategies that address sprawling development.Land value tax, Land development model, Urban sprawl, Land Economics/Use, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Negative Externalities on Property Values Resulting from Water Impairment: The Case of the Pigeon River Watershed

The following hypothesis was tested: Willingness to bear a negative water impairment externality differs between those who do and those who do not receive economic benefit from the impairment source, e.g., a paper mill. The hypothesis was tested using a hedonic analysis of ambient water quality in two discrete housing markets in the Pigeon River Watershed, which have been polluted by the operation of a paper mill. The results suggest that North Carolina residents of the subwatersheds with impaired river, who experience economic benefits from the paper mill in addition to harmful effects, do perceive the pollution as a negative externality, whereas they may have a willingness to bear a similar type of negative externality associated with impaired streams. In contrast, the effects of both degraded river and streams on property values is perceived as a negative externality by residents in the Tennessee side, who experience only harmful effects from the pollution. North Carolina residents may hold greater willingness to bear the harmful effects of pollution as a given condition in their decision-making process because they receive economic benefits from the paper mill, while this internalization of the negative externality is weaker for residents in the Tennessee side.negative Externalities, water quality, spatial hedonic model, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Forecasting Housing Prices under Different Submarket Assumptions

This research evaluated forecasting accuracy of hedonic price models based on a number of different submarket assumptions. Using home sale data for the City of Knoxville and vicinities merged with geographic information, we found that forecasting housing prices with submarkets defined using expert knowledge and by school district and combining information conveyed in different modeling strategies are more accurate and efficient than models that are spatially aggregated, or with submarkets defined by statistical clustering techniques. This finding provided useful implications for housing price prediction in an urban setting and surrounding areas in that forecasting models based on expert knowledge of market structure or public school quality and simple model combining techniques may outperform the models using more sophisticated statistical techniques.Clustering, Forecasting, Hedonic price, Housing Submarket, Demand and Price Analysis, C53, R21,

Impacts of the Boom-Bust Cycle on the Effectiveness of Policies for Moderating the Consequences of Sprawl on Residential Development

urban sprawl, spatial discrete-choice model, Land Economics/Use,

Effects of Forestland Ownership Conversion on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Case of South Korea

This research analyzed the effects of forestland conversion from private to public ownership on greenhouse gas emissions by quantifying the relationship between forestland ownership conversion and deforestation, and then examining the effects of the change in deforestation on greenhouse gas emissions in South Korea. Ex ante simulations forecast greenhouse gas emissions resulting from deforestation rates under the current level of national forestland and three scenarios of increased percentages of national forestland. The findings suggest that increasing the percentage of national forestland would mitigate the increase in the deforestation rate, which in turn would moderate the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.greenhouse gas emissions, Forestland Ownership, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q15, Q23, Q24, Q54,

Impacts of Highway Infrastructure Investment Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

This study evaluated the impact on highway demand of highway disbursements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Vehicle miles traveled were used to estimate a highway demand equation employing a spatial Durbin model for the 48 contiguous U.S. states during 1994-2008. Estimates from the equation were used to test the hypothesis that highway disbursements caused different upward shifts in the highway demand curves of states. We estimated $8.2 billion in total net benefits for the 48 states as a result of the$27.2 billion in ARRA highway disbursements, yielding an average net benefit of $0.30 per dollar spent

Regionally-varying and regionally-uniform electricity pricing policies compared across four usage categories

노트 : Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the 2015 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association and Western Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, July 26-2

The Arabidopsis R2R3 MYB transcription factor MYB15 is a key regulator of lignin biosynthesis in effector-triggered immunity

Lignin, a major component of the secondary cell wall, is important for plant growth and development. Moreover, lignin plays a pivotal role in plant innate immunity. Lignin is readily deposited upon pathogen infection and functions as a physical barrier that limits the spread of pathogens. In this study, we show that an Arabidopsis MYB transcription factor MYB15 is required for the activation of lignin biosynthesis genes such as PAL, C4H, 4CL, HCT, C3′H, COMT, and CAD, and consequently lignin formation during effector-triggered immune responses. Upon challenge with the avirulent bacterial pathogen Pst DC3000 (AvrRpm1), lignin deposition and disease resistance were reduced in myb15 mutant plants. Furthermore, whereas invading pathogens, together with hypersensitive cell death, were restricted to the infection site in wild-type leaves, they spread beyond the infected area in myb15 mutants. The exogenous supply of the lignin monomer coniferyl alcohol restored lignin production and rescued immune defects in myb15 plants. These results demonstrate that regulation at the transcriptional level is key to pathogen-induced lignification and that MYB15 plays a central role in this process

Tin doped indium oxide core-TiO <inf>2</inf> shell nanowires on stainless steel mesh for flexible photoelectrochemical cells

Photoanode architecture is built on highly conductive tin doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires (NWs) on a flexible stainless steel mesh (SSM). ITO nanowires were coated with the atomic layer deposition grown TiO 2 layer and the photoelectrochemical performance of the stainless steel mesh based photoanode were examined as a function of wire-length and shell-thickness. The photoanode consisting of 20 m-long nanowire core and 36 nm thick shell increased the photocurrent of the testing cell by 4 times, compared to a reference cell. This enhanced photochemical activity is attributed to higher light harvesting efficiency of nanowire arrays and suppressed charge recombination of core-shell structure. © 2012 American Institute of Physics