Environmentally Adjusted Agricultural Productivity in the Great Plains

This study adjusts 1960-1996 agricultural productivity gains in a panel of Great Plains states to account for the discharge of pesticide and nitrogen effluents into the environment. The agricultural-environmental technology is approximated with translog distance functions that allow us to contrast traditional versus environmentally adjusted productivity gains. Findings indicate technical change has been increasingly biased toward environmentally friendly production. While the environmental adjustment reduced overall productivity gains during the sample period, in recent years adjusted productivity outpaced the traditional measure, reflecting the pro-environment bias in technical change.agricultural productivity, distance function, environmental externalities, nitrogen, pesticides, technical change bias, Environmental Economics and Policy, Productivity Analysis,

Academic Success and the Transfer of Community College Credits in the Principles of Economics

A growing number of today’s college students attend local 2-year community colleges. Many of these students will ultimately transfer to major universities in pursuit of the traditional Bachelors degree. The question of whether such transfer credits adequately prepare students for future academic endeavors is important for educators interested in preparing successful students and maintaining the quality of their institution. In this paper, we examine whether students who transfer credits earned for the traditional Principles of Economics course sequence achieve the same levels of academic success, measured in terms of GPA, as students taking the sequence at a major state university. The model indicates that community college transfer students perform poorly relative to native students in terms of cumulative GPA. This result is driven by a self-selection process whereby the more academically challenged students are those who choose to transfer credit from 2-year schools. The results of our model are used to develop a grade equivalency measure between the university and 2-year schools. Using this measure we are able to reject the hypothesis that grades are equivalent between 2- and 4-year institutions. Finally, we find that grades in the Principles of Economics sequence are strong predictors of overall academic success

Academic Success and the Transfer of Community College Credits in the Principles of Economics

A growing number of today’s college students attend local 2-year community colleges. Many of these students will ultimately transfer to major universities in pursuit of the traditional Bachelors degree. The question of whether such transfer credits adequately prepare students for future academic endeavors is important for educators interested in preparing successful students and maintaining the quality of their institution. In this paper, we examine whether students who transfer credits earned for the traditional Principles of Economics course sequence achieve the same levels of academic success, measured in terms of GPA, as students taking the sequence at a major state university. The model indicates that community college transfer students perform poorly relative to native students in terms of cumulative GPA. This result is driven by a self-selection process whereby the more academically challenged students are those who choose to transfer credit from 2-year schools. The results of our model are used to develop a grade equivalency measure between the university and 2-year schools. Using this measure we are able to reject the hypothesis that grades are equivalent between 2- and 4-year institutions. Finally, we find that grades in the Principles of Economics sequence are strong predictors of overall academic success

SHADOW PRICES OF SULFUR DIOXIDE ALLOWANCE IN PHASE I ELECTRIC UTILITIES

The divergence of SO2 allowance price from initial estimates has spawned substantial interest since emission trading began. This paper uses non-parametric DEA to calculate technical, output revenue and allocative efficiency measures of Phase I electric plants. The allocative efficiency measure is then used to determine if allowance prices actually reflect opportunity costs

Environmentally Adjusted Agricultural Productivity in the Great Plains

This study adjusts 1960-1996 agricultural productivity gains in a panel of Great Plains states to account for the discharge of pesticide and nitrogen effluents into the environment. The agricultural-environmental technology is approximated with translog distance functions that allow us to contrast traditional versus environmentally adjusted productivity gains. Findings indicate technical change has been increasingly biased toward environmentally friendly production. While the environmental adjustment reduced overall productivity gains during the sample period, in recent years adjusted productivity outpaced the traditional measure, reflecting the pro-environment bias in technical change

ADJUSTMENTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY FOR NITROGEN EFFLUENT IN THE GREAT PLAINS

Traditional measures of agricultural productivity only incorporate those inputs and outputs that are recorded in market transactions. However, such measures do not account for externalities such as environmental damage. This study uses an output distance function framework to estimate a Malmqvist productivity index for a panel of Great Plains states then adjusts this index by incorporating nitrogen effluent into the analysis. We estimate that long-run environmentally-adjusted productivity growth was approximately 13 percent below the unadjusted rate during the sample period. However the environmentally sensitive productivity rate actually exceeded the unadjusted rate in recent years, reflecting reductions in the discharge of agricultural nitrogen into the environment

Decomposing the CO2-income tradeoff: an output distance function approach

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis holds that economic growth leads to increases in pollution in early stages of development, but is a significant driver of environmental improvements as income levels increase. Most empirical applications have focused on estimating a reduced form equation in which the measure of environmental degradation is posited as a non-linear function of income. In this paper we develop a structural production model based on an output distance function to investigate the EKC hypothesis for CO 2 in a panel of industrialized countries from 1971 to 2000. This structural approach allows for the decomposition of the observed emission changes into the scale, composition, and productivity effects, thus providing additional insight into the interlinked processes of economic growth and environmental change. The findings from our preferred model indicate that for most countries, the CO 2-saving productivity effect is not large enough to offset the CO 2-producing scale effect.

The Determinants of Cheating by High School Economics Students: A Comparative Study of Academic Dishonesty in the Transitional Economies

Secondary school students in six transitional economies, Belarus, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine, along with students in the USA, were surveyed about academic cheating. Regardless of geographic location, a substantial majority of all students reported that they had cheated on an exam or course assignment. In general, however, the percentages of students who reported that they had cheated and that they would assist others to cheat were higher in the transitional economies than in the USA. A bivariate probit regression model was estimated to determine the factors that contribute to the probability of cheating. The results indicated that the most consistently significant determinants were personal beliefs about the ethics and social acceptability of cheating and various attributes of the classroom environment. With the exceptions of Lithuania and Ukraine, students in each transitional economy had a higher probability of cheating relative to students in the USA, ceteris paribus. The relative differences ranged from 8.9% for Belarus up to 17.1% for Croatia. For Russia, the difference was a relatively high 15.4%. These and other results suggest that researchers must be extremely careful in making cross-national comparisons of student outcomes in the transitional zone if cheating trends are ignored.