Doctor Jones and the Lawless Lords of Logomycin

Unable to draw his real foes into the open, Doctor Jones crosses swords directly with a Sinister Logological Entity which threatens the financial health of his entire Medical Empire

The Vocabularyclept Poem, No. 1

Mr. Lindon has solved the VC poem presented in the previous issue - and he has done this under further handicaps, the cause of which was my carelessness in presenting the problem to him. How he finally arrived at a technically exact solution under these conditions is a story in itself. The following passages from his letter make fascinating reading

IN SEARCH OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN ECONOMICS

The economic well-being of economic agents is assumed to be interpersonally dependent and varies according to the strength of relationships, values, and social bonds. The extent of this interpersonal dependency is measured using social capital coefficients in a neoclassical model in which agents with stable preferences maximize utility. The model's predictions are tested empirically by asking agents how their distribution of a scarce resource is altered by relationships.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

A WHITE PAPER ON THE RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES (CANR)

Social capital is about relationships that are often based on earned or inherited kernels of commonality. Social capital raises the ethical question of when relationships should be allowed to influence outcomes. The essential theory underlying the social capital paradigm is that relationships of sympathy or social capital influence almost every interpersonal transaction. Since interpersonal transactions occur in many settings, the study of social capital is multi-disciplinary and interested in such diverse topics as charitable giving, leadership development, educational achievements, migration patterns, formation of cooperatives, how people care for the environment, diffusion of technology, advertising, economic development, family integrity, flow of legal, recreational, and health services, management of organizations, community development, animal health, passage of legislation, and the creation of civil society. Social capital is relevant to the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) because it represents an important resource that must be studied and managed to achieve CANR's mission.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Polyomino Word-Puzzle Results

In our last issue we presented a near-solution to one of the pentomino word-problems. Now J.A. Lindon has arrived at the first complete solution to one of these problems, which we present at the end of this article. At the same time, Donald A. Drury, who provides (below) suggestions for solving some lower order trimino problems, has written to point out, concerning all these polyomino word-problems: To make the reflection a new problem, you must rule out using the same words in any diagram as were used in its reflected opposite. Otherwise, by simply using the same words in reverse order, top to bottom, you can solve both Rotation X and Reflection X

REFLECTIONS ON RELEVANCE OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS

It appears the major private benefit from peer reviewed journals such as the Review of Agricultural Economics (RAE) is certification. To maintain public support for our journals, increased efforts are needed to demonstrate the social benefits from peer reviewed publications. Research cost considerations have led agricultural economists to emphasize applied disciplinary work using secondary data and to ignore the important work of careful data collection and reporting. Moreover, pressures to publish have led to more isolated research efforts ignoring other disciplines. Recommendations to improve the relevance of journal publications include more active efforts by journal editors to make applied journals such as RAE more accessible to the public.Certification, Confirmation studies, Private goods, Public goods, Relevance, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND RISK RESPONSES

The economic well-being of economic agents is assumed to be interpersonally dependent. The extent of this interpersonal dependency varies according to the strength of relationships, values, and social bonds and is measured using social capital coefficients in a neoclassical model in which agents with stable preferences maximize utility. The model's predictions are tested empirically by asking agents how their willingness to bear a risk is altered when their refusal to accept the risk increases the risk faced by others.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL THEORY

Experiments and studies were conducted to investigate the role of social capital. Social capital (relationship to others) is a productive asset which is a substitute for and complement to other productive assets. The productivity of social capital leads to the expectation that firms and individuals invest in relationships. Data were collected to answer the following questions: Does the identity (relationship) of trading partners affect selling and buying prices; the acceptance of catastrophic risk; the choice of share or cash leases in agriculture; loan approval; and the banks investment to retain customers? The evidence is in the affirmative.Behavioral economics, Institutional economics, Social capital, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

IMPACTS OF SOCIAL CAPITAL ON INVESTMENT BEHAVIOR UNDER RISK

Implicit in most applications of the expected utility (EU) model is the assumption that only the decision maker's own income matters. Moreover, studies that estimate risk preferences typically measure how individuals respond to changes in the level and likelihood of having their own income altered (Young). The focus on own income in the EU model is consistent with the assumption most often applied in the neoclassical economic paradigm; namely, that the identity of participants in an economic exchange does not affect the outcome (Telser and Higinbotham).Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

INFLATION, CASH FLOWS, AND GROWTH: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FARM FIRM

Agribusiness,