Framing the Valuation of Ecosystem Services: A Theoretical Discussion of the Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Articulating Values that Reflect the Economic Contributions of Ecological Phenomena

This paper presents a theoretical discussion concerning possibilities for designing environmental value articulation procedures that respect the basic non-economic character of ecological phenomena. The question of how to estimate the economic value of ecosystem services contributions is a particularly important issue for agricultural economics because of the dependence of agricultural production on the life cycles and biological viability of ecosystems (sic Georgescu-Roegen, 1966). Distinguishing between two basic types of ecosystem services values – demand vs supply based – this paper aims to describe a theoretical context within which it may be possible to develop recommendations regarding procedures and associated institutional structures that can support the expression of economically relevant measures of the economic worth of a given ecological phenomena that are also ecologically sound. Finally it is proposed that there are strong synergies between the problem structure of this issue and the theoretical contributions of Herbert Simon, concerning bounded rationality and further work on the details of these links is recommended.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Who are the Self-employed? A New Approach

Whilst the individual supply-side characteristics of the self-employed are well documented, the literature has largely neglected (or mis-specified) demand-side aspects. Our econometric framework, based on the parameterised DOGEV model, allows us to separately, and simultaneously, model supply and demand-side influences. We show that whilst individual characteristics are important determinants of type of employment contract held, there are important contract-specific factors influencing the contract an individual is employed under. Our results suggest that workers may be "captive" to particular types of employment because of the sectors in which they work, the number of hours they prefer to work and their ethnicity.self-employment, captivity

Who are the Self-employed? A New Approach

Modelling the incidence of self-employment has traditionally proved problematic. Whilst the individual supply side characteristics of the self-employed are well documented, the literature has largely neglected (or misspecified) demand side aspects. In this paper we present results from an econometric framework that allows us to separately, and simultaneously, model the supply and demand side characteristics that determine employment outcomes. We show that whilst individual characteristics are important determinants of the type of employment contract that individuals hold, there are also important contract specific factors that influence the nature of the contract an individual is employed under. Our results suggest that workers may be "captive" to a particular type of employment because of the sector in which they work, the number of hours they prefer to work and their ethnicity. The results are based on a new estimator, the parameterised DOGEV model, which allows for ordering and correlation in the observed alternatives, and for captivity within an observed alternative.Self-employment, captivity.

No Foreign Despots on Southern Soil: The American Party in Alabama and South Carolina, 1850-1857

During the 1850s in the South, the American Party, also known as the Know Nothing Party, rallied southerners culturally and politically around nativism, an anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic ideology. This thesis studies nativism in the Deep South and challenges existing scholarship by Tyler Anbinder and William Darrell Overdyke. Anbinder claims that southern Know Nothings held little in common with their northern counterparts and exhibited only regional characteristics. Overdyke maintains that the American Party in the Deep South participated in the national organization, but he argues that nativism appeared only as an incidental component. An analysis of private papers, speeches, and newspapers from Alabama and South Carolina reveals a different reality. Alabama and South Carolina are excellent representative case studies because their port cities attracted significant, but not exceptional, levels of immigration to the South. These states provide a mainstream picture of southern cultural and political nativism, indicating that southern Know Nothings shared core nativist ideals with northern members of the American Party. Southerners sympathized with nativist fears of criminal immigrants and the Catholic Church. Furthermore, Dixie Know Nothings used nativist ideology to explain the growing influence of abolitionism in America, which became a powerful political issue in the South. Though northerners maintained that Catholics and immigrants supported slavery, southern Know Nothings contended that they exerted abolitionist influences on the nation. Nativist ideology threatened to alter the southern political landscape by pushing southern nativists into an alliance with Fire Eaters and forced Democrats to radicalize their own states’ rights policies

Long-Run Effects of BSE on Meat Consumption

This paper considers the long-run effects of BSE on meat consumption in the United Kingdom using data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. We estimate a dynamic AIDS demand system of household food consumption, with long-run effects captured via an adstock index of adverse media coverage. The results suggest that there are long-run impacts on meat consumption that extend well beyond the period of the scare. In addition, press articles with pictures have a greater, and more long-lasting effect, on long-run consumption than articles with words alone.Food health scares, Adstock, BSE, demand systems, meat demand

Rationality of blocks of quasi-simple finite groups

Let l be a prime number. We show that the Morita Frobenius number of an l-block of a quasi-simple finite group is at most 4 and that the strong Frobenius number is at most 4jDj2!, where D denotes a defect group of the block. We deduce that a basic algebra of any block of the group algebra of a quasi-simple finite group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic l is defined over a field with la elements for some a ≤ 4. We derive consequences for Donovan's conjecture. In particular, we show that Donovan's conjecture holds for l-blocks of special linear groups

Buneman instability in a magnetized current-carrying plasma with velocity shear

Buneman instability is often driven in magnetic reconnection. Understanding how velocity shear in the beams driving the Buneman instability affects the growth and saturation of waves is relevant to turbulence, heating, and diffusion in magnetic reconnection. Using a Mathieu-equation analysis for weak cosine velocity shear together with Vlasov simulations, the effects of shear on the kinetic Buneman instability are studied in a plasma consisting of strongly magnetized electrons and cold unmagnetized ions. In the linearly unstable phase, shear enhances the coupling between oblique waves and the sheared electron beam, resulting in a wider range of unstable eigenmodes with common lower growth rates. The wave couplings generate new features of the electric fields in space, which can persist into the nonlinear phase when electron holes form. Lower hybrid instabilities simultaneously occur at $k_{\shortparallel}/k_{\perp} \sim \sqrt{m_e/m_i}$ with a much lower growth rate, and are not affected by the velocity shear.Comment: Accepted by Physics of Plasm

Elegant security: Concept, evidence and implications

Some security devices can be ugly, inconvenient or an infringement on civil liberties. This means that security is a quality of life issue as well as one of crime prevention. Here we propose that, in addition to preventing crime and being cost effective, security should preferably be ethical and unobtrusive, aesthetically neutral or pleasing, and the easy-to-use or default option. We describe security with such characteristics as ‘elegant’. We use two case studies to explore how, as many types of crime have declined in recent decades, there was an increase in elegant and a decrease in inelegant security. We suggest that the lifecycle of some security technologies sees them evolve from inelegant to elegant, that continual improvement is required to keep ahead of offender adaptations, and that inelegant security can fall into disuse even if it prevents crime. It is hoped that this conceptual contribution might inform discussions about the appropriate form and role of security

Elegant security: Concept, evidence and implications

Some security devices can be ugly, inconvenient or an infringement on civil liberties. This means that security is a quality of life issue as well as one of crime prevention. Here we propose that, in addition to preventing crime and being cost effective, security should preferably be ethical and unobtrusive, aesthetically neutral or pleasing, and the easy-to-use or default option. We describe security with such characteristics as ‘elegant’. We use two case studies to explore how, as many types of crime have declined in recent decades, there was an increase in elegant and a decrease in inelegant security. We suggest that the lifecycle of some security technologies sees them evolve from inelegant to elegant, that continual improvement is required to keep ahead of offender adaptations, and that inelegant security can fall into disuse even if it prevents crime. It is hoped that this conceptual contribution might inform discussions about the appropriate form and role of security