Measuring efficiency of the Farm Credit System

The paper measures the U.S. Farm Credit System’s technical efficiency from 2000 to 2009 using a stochastic frontier production function model with quarterly unbalanced panel data. The paper's results suggest that the FCS has not efficiently utilized their inputs. On an average, the system realizes only 9.7% of their technical abilities in raising their loans, leases and investment. The efficiency of the whole system is estimated to slightly increase over time even during financial crisis period from 2007. Among the system, a significant difference in efficiency between the 5 Banks and the Associations has been found. On average, the Banks have higher technical efficiency of 62.4% compared to that of 7.7% of the associations. The efficiency of the latter increases by a small rate over time during 2004-2009 periods while efficiency of the former is more time-varying and experiences the opposite pattern. No evidence about the impact of financial crisis on the system efficiency was found.Farm Credit System, agricultural lenders, technical efficiency, financial crisis, stochastic frontier production function, financial reform, Agricultural Finance,

Forecasting Housing Prices: Dynamic Factor Model versus LBVAR Model

The purpose of this paper is to compare the forecasting power of DFM and LBVAR models as they are used to forecast house price growth rates for 42 metropolitan areas in the United States. The forecasting performances of these two large-scale models are compared based on the Theil U-statistic.Housing market, DFM, LBVAR, dynamic PCA, Demand and Price Analysis,

THE EFFECTS OF HOLDING NONFARM RELATED FINANCIAL ASSETS ON RISK-ADJUSTED FARM INCOME

A discrete stochastic, programming model is formulated to study the gains from diversification when farming operations are augmented with off-farm financial assets that are not highly correlated with returns from farming. We extend past research by considering the dynamics of accumulating these financial assets and the farm's leverage and tenure position. Results show that farmers' income level and stability can be improved by including nonfarm financial assets in their portfolios.Agricultural finance, Certainty equivalents, Discrete stochastic programming, Land investments, Off-farm investments, Agricultural Finance,

Dynamic Analysis of Land Prices with Flexible Risk Aversion Coefficients

Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty,

FACTORS AFFECTING COMMERCIAL BANK LENDING TO AGRICULTURE

A tobit econometric procedure was used to examine the effect of selected demand and supply factors on nonreal estate agricultural lending by commercial banks in Texas. Results show that banks have reduced their agricultural loan portfolios in response to increased use of interest sensitive deposits after deregulation. Moreover, almost half of this decrease came from banks that stopped making agricultural loans. Also, results show that banks affiliated with multi-bank holding companies lend less money to agriculture relative to their assets than do independent banks.Agricultural lending, Commercial banks, Deregulation, Tobit, Agricultural Finance,

COMMERCIAL BANKS' RESPONSE TO COSTLY DEPOSITS IN A DEREGULATED ENVIRONMENT

The study examines balance sheet changes at Texas commercial banks following the 1980 bank deregulation. A comparison of selected deposit and asset variables for 1978 (pre-deregulation) and 1987 (post- deregulation) reveals a rapid increase in costly deposits and a decline in the proportion of loans in general, and agricultural loans in particular, relative to total bank assets. Although a weak Texas economy during this time period contributed to the observed asset reallocation, banks were also responding to the increased deposit costs and interest rate volatility following deregulation. This conclusion is consistent with previous findings cited in the study.Commercial banks, Agricultural loans, Bank deregulation, Financial Economics,

Effects of A Classroom Intervention on Academic Engagement of Elementary School Students with Anxiety

This study evaluated the impact of anxiety reduction on academic engagement for eight students experiencing significant anxiety in grades three through five. All participating students showed high anxiety levels that appeared to be impacting performance on at least one academic task in the classroom, according to teacher report. Student participants received a modified cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in the form of five 20-minute sessions, in the school setting. Also as part of treatment participants completed exposure tasks, which involved the child participating in anxiety provoking academic tasks, with adult support. To assess whether or not anxiety was reduced, participants completed Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) ratings several times weekly and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) both pre- and post-treatment. The Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) was used to monitor students’ academic engagement and was completed by the teacher. Results of this study show that this intervention, conducted in the school setting, has promising outcomes. The findings provide initial support that a modified anxiety treatment with adult support can be effective in reducing anxiety and increasing academic engagement

Indigenista Hermeneutics and the Historical Meaning of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Mexico

Article

Beyond the Spectacle? A Comparative Critique of the ‘Green Consumer’ in Global and Chinese Sustainability Transitions

This thesis presents the findings of a comparative analysis between the neoliberal sustainable development narrative and the fast-emerging Chinese ecological civilization narrative from a political ecological perspective. The contradictory role of the ‘sustainable consumer’ that the narratives employ is used to draw conclusions on the extent of convergence and divergence between the two potentially competing discourses. This allows for original contributions on how subjects are created and governed in discourses of sustainability transitions. As sustainable development increases its reach as a mode of governance, covering new spaces and even ‘future generations’, it brings into being new kinds of citizens: the ‘sustainable consumer’. This citizen type reconciles the contradictory demands on the citizen to be both a consumer and an environmentalist. Environmental citizens are thus incorporated into market architecture as ‘sustainable consumers’ to assume the role of the privileged agent of change whose political possibilities are limited. This paradox is analysed from a poststructuralist perspective, where the consumer subject performs the market-sanctioned role of sustainability while contributing to its ongoing depoliticization. The extension of market logics into the governance of crises, transition, and imagination is arguably challenged by a Chinese narrative that promotes a ‘different form of development’. Some have argued this offers ‘hope’ for a counter-narrative to the dominance of market logics. This thesis, however, shows such arguments are flawed in two ways. First, the treatment of ecological civilization as a singular discourse fails to account for the opposing articulations of it between domestic and international audiences. Second, the role of consumerism in absorbing care for the environment is fundamental to both ecological civilization and neoliberal sustainable development: neither discourse offers a different form of environmental citizenship beyond the consumer. Markets continue to mediate human-nature and socio-nature relations, with implications for considering China’s emergent role in global environmental governance

A Study of a Heron Nesting Colony

Herons are well known because of their gregarious nesting habits. Like many others of the lower orders of birds they nest together in pure or mixed colonies of many different combinations and under diverse living conditions. The population of different colonies may vary from a few pairs to many thousands of pairs depending upon the nature and extent of the breeding area, the food supply available and the protection afforded either by natural or artificial means. In Utah and adjacent areas of bordering states, many types of heron associations have been studied and reported by ornithological workers. reeding colonies of Treganza Herons, Black Crowned Night Herons and Snowy Herons in pure species associations and mixed communities have been recorded. The tendency of herons to associate with other unrelated orders of birds in nesting situations has also been noted. Such colonies as the Gull-Pelican-Heron associations of the Great Salt Lake Islands and the Heron-Cormorant communities of Cache Valley and Bass Pond Reservoir support this observation. At least eight different communal associations involving herons in the nesting season are known in Utah. The question of the economic status of herons has long been debated among ornithologists and those engaged in the propagation of wild life, especially fish culture. The fish eating propensities of herons are known all over the world. In some regions the birds are condemned as a menace by the sportsman and in other areas they are considered to be his benefactors. Adequate studies have not been published to definitely establish the economic status of this group of birds. It is the purpose of this thesis to contribute to the knowledge of Ornithology by a presentation of the writer\u27s observations and findings on a colony of nesting herons, noting, especially, certain factors influencing the behavior of the birds, their relationships to other animals of the community, economic importance and development of the colony