ECONOMIC MALAISE SLOWS REFORM: A REVIEW OF CURRENT CONDITIONS IN THE SOVIET UNION

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Overview of the Evolution of China's Central Bank and Monetary Policy: Correlation to the European Union

As an innovator in the financial system, China was the first to use paper currency. Eventually the form of currency was held responsible for devastating inflation and was abandoned during the Ming Dynasty. Going forward in time, uprisings and discontent have emphasized the importance of controlling inflation. The central bank is pivotal in issuing monetary policy to control inflation and to maintain financial stability as the government transforms itself from a planned economy to a mixed market economy. The transforming economy is moving toward a free market system through series of economic reforms. The correlation between China’s structure and the European Union’s structure provides opportunities for further study to determine next steps for both.China; central bank; monetary policy; inflation; economy

A RANGELAND GRASSHOPPER INSURANCE PROGRAM

The incidence of benefits and costs from controlling rangeland grasshoppers on public grazing lands poses problems of economic efficiency and distributional equity. Public grasshopper control programs operate like public disaster assistance. However, grasshopper infestations are an insurable risk. This article proposes a rangeland grasshopper insurance program which reduces the economic inefficiencies and distributional inequities of the existing program.Risk and Uncertainty,

Ecological Art Exhibition as Transformative Pedagogy

Environmental degradation is considered one of the biggest issues facing humankind. The problem is deep and global with fast fashion playing a significant, yet underrealized role. Scholars have established that developing the sustainable behaviors necessary to mitigate the effects of environmental degradation is a complex process, that knowledge of environmental degradation alone is insufficient to develop sustainable behaviors, and that both attitudinal and behavioral transformations are necessary for global environmental action and stewardship. As a result, researchers have called for new approaches to environmental education to promote transformative learning. Art experiences can function as a powerful tool in learning and transformation, but art exhibition experiences are underutilized in environmental education. This quasi-experimental study was designed to determine whether an ecological art exhibition, Canary Concepts and the Hidden Danger of Ubiquitous Things, could be associated with internal factors related to sustainable behaviors in fast fashion consumption—specifically an environmental attitude consisting of knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors. This repeated measures study compared pre-exhibition and post-exhibition knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors test scores of 163 University of Nebraska-Lincoln student participants. They consisted of 148 females and 15 males ranging between 18 and 34 years-of-age. Two-tailed t-tests were used to determine whether there was a statistically significant increase in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors associated with the exhibition-intervention. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors supporting the primary hypothesis that an ecological art exhibition experience can be an effective educational intervention and transformative experience. Results also demonstrated the importance of the holistic nature of the exhibition experience, as the majority of participants attributed changes in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors to the exhibition-as-a whole rather than individual labels or installations. Relationships between participants’ characteristics and changes in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors were also explored. Advisor: Mary Alice Cast

SUSTAINABILITY: OBSERVATIONS, EXPECTATIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Agricultural and Food Policy,

The integration of alternative information systems: an application to the Hogs and Pigs report

Recent federal budget cuts have reduced the sample survey coverage of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop and livestock reports. These cuts have renewed the concerns of the adequacy and reliability of the reports, in general, and of the Hogs and Pigs report in particular. The object of this study is to demonstrate that more consistent and reliable initial estimates of key hog supply and inventory categories can be generated by augmenting the survey-based Hogs and Pigs report estimates with market information. Two alternative pork sector econometric models with alternative expectation regimes are proposed as a relatively costless means to expand the information set on which the Hogs and Pigs report estimates are based;The first econometric model is dynamic and nonlinear and incorporates the rational expectation hypothesis with forward looking expectations. The second incorporates futures market price expectations. Breeding herd decisions of pork producers are based on distant closing futures prices of live hogs and corn. Both econometric models integrate restrictions based on the biological processes of pork production as prior information in their supply components;The market information from the two econometric models are synthesized in one-step ahead forecasts of key hog supply and inventory categories. These model-based forecasts are combined with the USDA initial estimates using alternative composite forecasting techniques. The results suggest that the inclusion of market information in the data evaluation and estimation procedures can reduce errors in the USDA initial estimates. Market information often compensates for errors in the USDA estimates. Thus, econometric models and composite forecasting techniques may provide a viable, cost-effective means to improve the consistency and reliability of the initial Hogs and Pigs report estimates

Report on Honors Research: An Exploratory Study of Puerto Ricans in Lorain, Ohio

The Puerto Rican community in Lorain, Ohio dates from 1946, when the first 100 workers were imported by the steel company. Since that time the Latin community has grown to 10,000, comprising a proportionately large segment of the city\u27s total population of approximately 75,000. Most studies of the adaptation of Puerto Rican migrants to life in the United States are based on New York City; to my knowledge the Lorain population has never been the subject of a systematic sociological investigation. Although El Barrio in New York is still the largest continental settlement of Puerto Ricans and remains a reference point for many migrants in other cities, the great dispersal of the migration into all areas of the country makes studies of smaller, more typical cities important for understanding the experience of the Puerto Ricans. The question that originally interested me was whether or not the Puerto Ricans were becoming integrated into the structure of American society, as opposed to forming an exploited underclass in the urban slum culture. In Lorain, the younger generation of children born in this country or brought over very young is beginning to come to maturity. However, the second generation is still too young to compare with the first generation because they have not yet achieved the occupational and educational level they will have at the peak of their careers. There are some families who have made considerable progress already in achieving upward mobility. The question behind my study became to discover the characteristics of these high potential families in comparison with families who have remained at the same low level since migration. In order to answer this question I obtained a purposive sample of middle class and lower class families from a Puerto Rican social worker at a settlement house within the Latin community. My sample is not necessarily representative of the Latin community as a whole because it is nonrandom and does not reflect the actual distribution of middle and lower class families. Probably the average Puerto Rican family in Lorain is closer to the lower class type than to the middle class type. The definition of lower and middle class was left elastic to fit relative standards within the community. The social worker who furnished the names seemed to regard the terms as roughly equivalent to old-fashioned and modern