AN ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE NET PRESENT VALUE CAPITAL INVESTMENT DECISION MODELS

We have found that the disagreement between Returns-to-Assets (RTA) and Returns-to-Equity (RTE) proponents is not confined to agricultural economics. Depending on the course they are taking and the accompanying text, students are likely to learn that there is a "right" way to calculate Net Present Values (NPVs), either by the RTA method or the RTE method. In most cases, only one of the two methods is discussed and illustrated with numerical examples. Less common are texts that compare the two methods, discuss their underlying assumptions, or show how the NPVs from the two methods can be reconciled. The paper is organized as follows. The first section of the main body of the paper provides a comparative overview of the RTA and RTE methods; the second section discusses our textbook survey; the final section offers our conclusions. Appendix A contains a brief history of the theoretical development of discounted cash flow (DCF) concepts. Appendix B contains additional details on defining components of NPV models. Finally, Appendix C is a listing of some additional references.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

HANDLING DURABLE AND NONDURABLE FARM INPUT DECISIONS USING A SINGLE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Students in economics are taught that the optimal usage of a nundurable input occurs when the value of its marginal product (VMP) equals its marginal cost (MC). However, this fundamental condition has rarely been extended to durable inputs. Even advanced textbooks have done little to compare and contrast the optimality conditions for durables versus nondurables. This paper outlines and compares a common VMP-MC decision for (1) nondurables in a single-period time horizon, (2) durables in a finite planning horizon, and (3) durables in an infinite planning horizon.Agricultural Finance,

LAND MARKET LIBERALIZATION AND WEALTH DIFFERENTIATED LAND ACCESS: PANEL EVIDENCE FROM HONDURAS AND PERU

We evaluate the impact of agricultural land market liberalization policies in Latin America by empirically examining the degree to which the reforms have broken down the dependence of operational area on owned area. We use panel data sets from Honduras and Peru to estimate the relationship between operational and owned land holdings for pre and post reform periods.Land Economics/Use,

Wholesalers and Retailers in U.S. Trade (Long Version)

International trade models typically assume that producers in one country trade directly with final consumers in another. In reality, of course, trade can involve long chains of potentially independent actors who move goods through wholesale and retail distribution networks. These networks likely affect the magnitude and nature of trade frictions and hence both the pattern of trade and its welfare gains. To promote further understanding of the means by which goods move across borders, this paper examines the extent to which U.S. exports and imports flow through wholesalers and retailers versus .producing and consuming firms.Wholesaler, retailer, intermediary, international trade

Firms in International Trade

Despite the fact that importing and exporting are extremely rare firm activities, economists generally devote little attention to the role of firms when discussing international trade. This paper summarizes key differences between trading and non-trading firms, demonstrates how these differences present a challenge to standard trade models and shows how recent "heterogeneous-firm" models of international trade address these challenges. We then make use of transaction-level U.S. trade data to introduce a number of new stylized facts about firms and trade. These facts reveal that the extensive margins of trade - that is, the number of products firms trade as well as the number of countries with which they trade - are central to understanding the well-known role of distance in dampening aggregate trade flows.Economic Geography, International Trade

Intra-Firm Trade and Product Contractibility (Long Version)

This paper examines the determinants of intra-firm trade in U.S. imports using detailed countryproduct data. We create a new measure of product contractibility based on the degree of intermediation in international trade for the product. We find important roles for the interaction of country and product characteristics in determining intra-firm trade shares. Intra-firm trade is high for products with low levels of contractability sourced from countries with weak governance, for skillintensive products from skill-scarce countries, and for capital-intensive products from capitalabundant countries.Related party trade, imports, contract theory, contractibility, intermedication, human capital, physical capital

Boston Hospitality Review: Winter 2014

The Current State of the New England Lodging Market: New England Falls Short of the Nation in 2013 RevPAR Growth by Rachel Roginsky and Matthew Arrants -- The Fall and Rise of the Travel Agent by Stephen Jermanok -- Roman Ways: The Endurance of Patterns in Travel and Hospitality from Antiquity by Bradford Hudson -- A Conversation with Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks by Christopher Muller -- Self-Confidence in the Hospitality Industry by Michael Oshin

COMPARING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR BEEF CATTLE BACKGROUNDING: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Livestock Production/Industries,

Wholesalers and Retailers in US Trade

International trade models typically assume that producers in one country trade directly with final consumers in another. In reality, of course, trade can involve long chains of potentially independent actors who move goods through wholesale and retail distribution networks. These networks likely affect the magnitude and nature of trade frictions and hence both the pattern of trade and its welfare gains. To promote further understanding of the means by which goods move across borders, this paper examines the extent to which US exports and imports flow through wholesalers and retailers versus producing and consuming firms.Wholesaler, Retailer, Intermediary, International Trade

The Margins of US Trade

Recent research in international trade emphasizes the importance of firms' extensive margins for understanding overall patterns of trade as well as how firms respond to specific events such as trade liberalization. In this paper, we use detailed US trade statistics to provide a broad overview of how the margins of trade contribute to variation in US imports and exports across trading partners, types of trade (i.e., arm's length versus related party) and both short and long time horizons. Among other results, we highlight the differential behavior of related-party and arm's-length trade in response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.Heterogeneous firms, product differentiation, product market entry and exit