Honeybees : market for pollination services grow

Related link(s): http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focus/2009/spring/feature1_weblinks.cfmAgriculture ; Farm income

Are Agricultural PACs Monolithic? An Empirical Investigation

This paper analyzes donation strategies of agricultural PACs by examining and testing a variety of variables theoretically related to contributions and formally testing for equivalence of donation strategies across PACs of varying levels of aggregation. Both chambers of the 108th Congress were modeled, with particular attention paid to the targeting of different power or influence sources within the legislature. Results showed significant heterogeneity across PAC subaggregates within a chamber, as well as between chambers, in terms of overall strategy and magnitude of marginal impacts. Evidence supporting the conditional party government hypothesis where PACs target top Party officials rather than influential legislative members was mixed and subindustry specific, with chairmanships apparently less important in the Senate than in the House.Monolithic Behavior, Political Action Committee, Political Donation Strategies, Tobit model, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Adapting Human Rights

Governmental leaders, scholars, and activists have advocated for human rights to food, water, education, health care, and energy. Such rights, also called positive rights, place an affirmative duty upon the state to provide a minimum quantity and quality of these goods and services to all citizens. But food, education, water, and health care are so different–in how they are produced, consumed, and financed–that the implementation of a positive right must be adapted to the distinctive characteristics of the good or service it guarantees. The primary aims of this adaptive implementation are transparency, enforceability and sustainability in the provision of positive rights. Only by adapting a positive right to its policy environment can such a right function as a viable means of protecting disadvantaged members of society. This article uses the example of positive rights to public utilities, such as water and energy, to illustrate adaptive implementation of positive rights. In doing so, this article explains why and how a positive right must be adapted to the unique policy environment of a given public utility

Incidence and Environmental Effects of Distortionary Subsidies

Government policies that are not intended to address environmental concerns can nonetheless distort prices and affect firms\u27 emissions. We present an analytical general equilibrium model to study the effect of distortionary subsidies on factor prices and on environmental outcomes. We model an output subsidy, a capital subsidy, relief from environmental regulation, and a direct cash subsidy. In exchange for receiving subsidies, firms must agree to a minimum level of labor employment. Each type of subsidy and the employment constraint create both output effects and substitution effects on input prices and emissions. We calibrate the model to the Chinese economy, where government involvement affects emissions from both state-owned enterprises and private firms. Variation in production substitution elasticities does not substantially affect input prices, but it does substantially affect emissions

The Importance of Getting Names Right: The Myth of Markets for Water

In this article, I address one particular name much in vogue around the globe since the end of communism and the virtual demise of socialism-the word "market." I address the use of this word as applied to a particular context-namely the now fashionable claim that markets for water will provide a nearly painless means for resolving problems of water allocation, distribution, and preservation. What I find most alarming about this fashion is the misuse of the name market-at least as I understand that word

Markers that Matter: Success Indicators in Early Learning and Education

This new report developed by FSG with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, distills a set of 48 early childhood indicators that reflect healthy development of young children. The report also highlights 10 emerging themes, areas that are not sufficiently addressed by existing indicators and where further inquiry is needed

Managing Up: Managing Diversity in Challenging Times

Commonwealth Compact is an organization formed to help make Massachusetts a location of choice for people of color and women in the belief that their contributions are vital to the region’s social and economic future. The need for an initiative such as Commonwealth Compact stems from a number of factors. As racial and ethnic diversity increases across the nation, business and civic leaders agree that it is critical to reverse the reputation that Massachusetts and Greater Boston, in particular, have not been seen as a welcoming, diverse place to live and work for people of color. Without a better reputation for diversity, the Massachusetts economy is likely to lose the opportunity to attract and keep talented people of color in our workforce. Research about diversity in Massachusetts shows a tremendous need for organizational leadership in this area. To that end, leaders from the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, formed a partnership with other committed community leaders, including the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Boston Globe. The Commonwealth Compact Mission Statement is: To establish Massachusetts as a uniquely inclusive, honest, and supportive community of—and for—diverse people; To acknowledge our mixed history in this effort, and to face squarely the challenges that still need to be overcome, understanding that the rich promise of the region’s growing diversity must be tapped fully if Boston and Massachusetts are to achieve their economic, civic, and social potential. The Compact recognizes that diversity is a broad concept with a much larger goal of ensuring that all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, physical and other disabilities, sexual orientation, and religion are treated equally and are afforded equitable opportunities for employment and advancement. However, addressing all of these dimensions of workforce diversity is beyond the scope of Commonwealth Compact which has taken as its mission the promotion of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in Boston and Massachusetts

Honey Bees and Apple Trees : Hood River, Oregon as a Case Study for the Creation of the Honey Bee Pollination Industry

The use of honey bees to pollinate apple orchards seems natural, even inevitable. This dissertation examines the relationship of beekeeping and apple growing in Hood River, Oregon in the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, as a case study in the development of commercial pollination service. Within this time period the values of the progressive era, changing technologies, and expanding infrastructure shaped the possibilities that were available to beekeepers and apple growers. Additionally, I explore the role of science in decision-making and policy creation by Oregon beekeepers and apple growers as they each focus on personal success. As this dissertation reveals, the relationship between honey bees and apple trees is not as simple as you might think

Northside shopping center : community acquisition and control

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1984.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: leaves 89-91.by Karen S. Margolis.M.C.P

The Venezuelan housing policy of 1979-1983 and its effect on the formal private supply of housing

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1984.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.Bibliography: leaves 212-216.by Beatriz Coromoto Ramirez Correa.M.C.P