Local Climatological Data : Urbana, 1889-1970

Urbana has a temperate continental climate with characteristics reflecting its geographical position in Illinois. Urbana's climate is representative of the conditions found in East Central Illinois, which is primarily an area of climatic transition between the northern and southern sectors of the state.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewedOpenOpe

The effect of opening up ANWR to drilling on the current price of oil

The Effect of Opening up ANWR to Drilling on the Current Price of Oil R. Morris Coats and Gary M. PecquetEveryone knows that oil discovered today, perhaps in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), has no effect on prices until that oil hits the market. For instance, on its website, the Democratic Policy Committee, (http://democrats.senate.gov/~dpc/pubs/107-1-72.html) states that “it will require seven to twelve years from approval before there is any oil production from the ANWR area. Therefore, production in ANWR will have no impact on current or short-term gasoline and oil supplies and prices.” While this is something that everyone seems to know, it is a case that the theory held by everyone just happens to be wrong. Since future prices are expected to be lower, future profits are also lower, so the value of oil not produced now, but held for future sales, is lower, making it more profitable to go ahead and produce and sell now instead of waiting for future profits. Using oil now reduces the amount of oil available for the future, which involves the opportunity cost of forgone future profits, which are sometime called the marginal user costs or scarcity rents. In this paper, we use simple two-period models to show that if an amount of newly discovered oil is significant enough to reduce prices in the future, any drop in future prices reduces the future profitability of oil, reducing the marginal user costs of oil now. That reduction in the marginal user costs reduces the current price of oil just as if there were a reduction in the marginal costs of extracting oil now. We explore the effects of the reduction in marginal user costs in the competitive or price-taker case as well as the price-searcher case, where a monopolist or dominant supplier responds to a substantial discovery by another seller, but where the discovery will not contribute to production for some years to come. In both cases, we find that oil that is expected to reach the market at some time in the future has an immediate impact on oil prices. Topic Area: Q4 EnergyANWR; resource discovery; timing of price impact; speculation

Japan's Lost Decade: Origins, Consequences, and Prospects For Recovery

Introduction

An Economic Analysis of Replacing Existing Bermudagrass Stands with Tifton 85 Bermudagrass for Beef Cow-Calf, Stocker and Hay Production

Comparisons of simulated NPV for Coastal and Tifton 85 bermuda-grass using experimental data, current input prices and historical hay and feeder cattle prices indicates that many producers would benefit by adopting this new cultivar. Cow-calf producers would benefit the most followed by stocker/replacement heifer producers and finally hay producers. When risk-aversion is introduced into the model, all cow-calf and stocker producers regardless of the level of risk-aversion should consider adopting T85. Moderately or extremely risk-averse hay producers would consider adopting T85, while those that are slightly risk-averse would be indifferent.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Japan's Lost Decade: Origins, Consequences, and Prospects For Recovery

Chapter Abstracts

Ultrasound-induced emulsification of subcritical carbon dioxide/water with and without surfactant as a strategy for enhanced mass transport

Pulsed ultrasound was used to disperse a biphasic mixture of CO2/H2O in a 1 dm3 high-pressure reactor at 30 °C/80 bar. A view cell positioned in-line with the sonic vessel allowed observation of a turbid emulsion which lasted approximately 30 min after ceasing sonication. Within the ultrasound reactor, simultaneous CO2-continuous and H2O-continuous environments were identified. The hydrolysis of benzoyl chloride was employed to show that at similar power intensities, comparable initial rates (1.6 ± 0.3 × 10–3 s–1 at 95 W cm–2) were obtained with those reported for a 87 cm3 reactor (1.8 ± 0.2 × 10–3 s–1 at 105 W cm–2), demonstrating the conservation of the physical effects of ultrasound in high-pressure systems (emulsification induced by the action of acoustic forces near an interface). A comparison of benzoyl chloride hydrolysis rates and benzaldehyde mass transport relative to the non-sonicated, ‘silent’ cases confirmed that the application of ultrasound achieved reaction rates which were over 200 times faster, by reducing the mass transport resistance between CO2 and H2O. The versatility of the system was further demonstrated by ultrasound-induced hydrolysis in the presence of the polysorbate surfactant, Tween, which formed a more uniform CO2/H2O emulsion that significantly increased benzoyl chloride hydrolysis rates. Finally, pulse rate was employed as a means of slowing down the rate of hydrolysis, further illustrating how ultrasound can be used as a valuable tool for controlling reactions in CO2/H2O solvent mixtures

FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY IN A NEW ALTERNATIVE ENTERPRISE: THE CASE OF THE RATITE INDUSTRY

Technical efficiency measures are calculated for ratite producers using data envelopment analysis. Regression analysis is then used to determine producer characteristics that are likely to lead to higher technical efficiencies. Results indicate that the most technically efficient ratite producers in Louisiana are not producing at the benchmark efficiency level advocated by the industry. Producer experience with other livestock, specialization, and labor are factors likely to lead to higher technical efficiency. These results are expected to hold for most new, alternative livestock enterprises.Data envelopment analysis, Ratite, Technical efficiency, Livestock Production/Industries, Productivity Analysis,