DYNAMIC INPUT DEMAND FUNCTIONS AND RESOURCE ADJUSTMENT FOR U.S. AGRICULTURE: STATE EVIDENCE

The paper presents an econometric model of dynamic agricultural input demand functions that includes research based technical change and autoregressive disturbances and fits the model to data for a set of state aggregates pooled over 1950-82. The methodological approach is one of developing a theoretical foundation for a dynamic input demand system and accepting state aggregate behavior as approximated by nonlinear adjustment costs and long-term profit maximization. Although other studies have largely ignored autocorrelation in dynamic input demand systems, the results show shorter adjustment lags with autocorrelation than without autocorrelation. Dynamic input demand own-price elasticities for six input groups are inelastic, and the demand functions poses significant cross-price and research stock effects.

Climate Change, Corporate Strategy, and Corporate Law Duties

Although greenhouse-gas management now ranks among the world’s great challenges, this status did not obtain instantly—or easily. Today, however, reservations about the validity of global warming as a major threat are fading. They are fading, appropriately, as rapidly as some ice sheets and glaciers are melting. Indeed, the steady flow of new, compelling evidence joins an already considerable base of scientific, economic, and other certainties about the subject. The result of this evolution in climate-change certainty has been major change of global dimensions. In notable ways, the structures and the functions of governmental, economic, and social institutions around the world are now being revised. Moreover, these revisions typically derive from one model or another of a carbon-constrained planet. Corporations, because of their past and continuing roles in creating the problem, will be substantially affected by emerging market and regulatory cultures. “The consequences [of these market and regulatory dynamics] are not confined to ‘obvious’ sectors such as power generation, transport and heavy industry; virtually every company’s activities, business models and strategies will need to be completely rethought.” This Article explores the question of whether corporate- and securities-law duties can (or will in the future) play a role in influencing the rapidly growing movement toward corporate strategic planning for greenhouse gas management. Part I of the Article discusses corporate strategic-planning methodologies for such management. This Part describes the basic features of corporate approaches to developing and implementing strategies, policies, and practices. Important here are the risks, and also the opportunities, facing corporations and their stewards. Part II then evaluates the potential applicability of corporate- and securities-law provisions that might appear to be implicated in climate-change corporate strategic planning and implementation

Securities Arbitration After McMahon, Rodriguez, and the New Rules: Can Investors\u27 Rights Really Be Protected?

Securities arbitration\u27 is now ascendant as a favored device for resolving disputes between broker-dealers and their customers, and much of this recent status derives from a series of United States Supreme Court decisions.\u27 Culminating in Shearson/American Express,Inc. v. McMahon and Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Ex-press, Inc., these decisions have ended the reign of certain restrictive judicial decisions that previously governed the availability of arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA or Arbitration Act) Accordingly, such developments presage a greatly expanded use of arbitration as a future means of resolving disputes between broker-dealers and customers. Indeed, since the Supreme Court placed its imprimatur on the arbitration process, the arbitral forum already has become the likely, and in some instances the mandated, situs of deliberative proceedings on such conflicts. Logically, the focus of the debate and inquiry on the general subject of brokerage agreement dispute resolution must turn to the nature of this specific process. Given the prominence that securities arbitration is likely to enjoy in the future, probing questions must be asked now regarding the effectiveness, basic fairness, and even legality of the procedures that effectuate it. Underscoring the importance of such inquiry are certain basic facts about securities arbitration in America today. First, this dispute resolution process is most often administered by organizations affiliated with, and indeed part of, the securities industry; and second, the process is predictably preferred by that industry to traditional litigation. Unquestionably, then, the inquiry must begin by addressing the circumstances under which a customer elects or agrees to have disputes resolved through arbitration, and continue through the hearing, final award, and any subsequent judicial challenges

Understanding student evaluations : a black faculty perspective.

Student evaluations of faculty teaching are critical components to the evaluation of faculty performance. These evaluations are used to determine teaching effectiveness and they influence tenure and promotion decisions. Although they are designed as objective assessments of teaching performance, extraneous factors, including the instructors’ race, can affect the composition and educational atmosphere at colleges and universities. In this reflection, we briefly review some literature on the use and utility of student evaluations and present narratives from social work faculty in which students’ evaluation contained perceived racial bias