ECONOMIC RESEARCH TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN EFFICIENCY AND EQUITY

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

FORCES AFFECTING THE WORLD FOOD SITUATION

Food Security and Poverty,

The Determinants of Environmental Awareness and Behavior

This paper investigates the determinants of environmental values across countries. Its purpose is to put the role of economic affluence into perspective by challenging the conventional wisdom that states that the level of economic affluence influences the level of environmental concern expressed by the population. While this paper does not question the fact that large scale environmental defensive activities are likely to be influenced by the level of income in a country, it is hypothesized that environmental awareness and individual involvement in environmental protection need not be a function of the level of economic affluence. To test this hypothesis, three variables are created-Positive Environmental Attitudes, Willingness to Pay to Protect the Environment, and Human-Environment Relationship-using data from the World Values Survey (1995-1997). The variables are regressed against a set of economic, demographic, political, psychological and education variables. The results show that economic affluence has, at best, a marginal direct influence on environmental awareness and no direct impact on environmental behavior. The paper demonstrates that the degree of urbanization, the level of subjective well-being and the level of income equality have direct effects on awareness, while education, population pressure and happiness are significantly correlated with environmental behavior.

WORLD FOOD--LOOKING BEYOND THE CRISIS

Food Security and Poverty,

Growth and the Environment in Canada: An Empirical Analysis

Standard reduced form models are estimated for Canada to examine the relationships between real per capita GDP and four measures of environmental degradation. Of the four chosen measures of environmental degradation, only concentrations of carbon monoxide appear to decline in the long run with increases in real per capita income. The data used in the reduced form models are also tested for the presence of unit roots and for the existence of cointegration between each of the measures of environmental degradation and per capita income. Unit root tests indicate nonstationarity in logs of the measures of environmental degradation and per capita income. The Engle-Granger test and the maximum eigenvalue test suggest that per capita income and the measures of environmental degradation are not cointegrated, or that a long-term relationship between the variables does not exist. Causality tests also indicate a bi-directional causality, rather than a uni-directional causality, from income to the environment. The results suggest that Canada does not have the luxury of being able to grow out of its environmental problems. The implication is that to prevent further environmental degradation, Canada requires concerted policies and incentives to reduce pollution intensity per unit of output across sectors, to shift from more to less pollution-producing-outputs and to lower the environmental damage associated with aggregate consumption.environment, economic growth, Canada

Limits on violations of Lorentz Symmetry from Gravity Probe B

Generic violations of Lorentz symmetry can be described by an effective field theory framework that contains both general relativity and the standard model of particle physics called the Standard-Model Extension (SME). We obtain new constraints on the gravitational sector of the SME using recently published final results from Gravity Probe B. These include for the first time an upper limit at the 10^(-3) level on the time-time component of the new tensor field responsible for inducing local Lorentz violation in the theory, and an independent limit at the 10^(-7) level on a combination of components of this tensor field.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Productivity of Cropland in Cache County, Utah

In order for land to best serve the present and future generations it should be put into the use for which it is best adapted. To determine the proper use of land, the factors which influence its use, such as soil, climate, and location, should be studied. Then the land should be classified as to its most economic use, based on these factors. In Cache County there is much work to be done toward a classification of the land. An ideal study; not limited by time nor expense; would include a complete study of all the factors associated with land-use. From this study an economic classification of the land in the county could be made. This present study was very limited as to time and expense. Its scope included only a study of those factors, principally soil and irrigation water, associated with the productivity of cropland. Productivity was defined to be the power of the land to produce crops. The objectives of this study were: (1) to develop a method for determining productivity, adaptable to the cropland in Cache County, Utah, and (2) to collect the necessary data and classify the cropland in Cache county according to productivity