Widespread municipal defaults in the late 19th century prompted U.S. states to pass laws restricting the amount of debt cities could incur. These restrictions generally did not bind until the 1920s, when suburban growth spurred local governments to invest in infrastructure, most of which was financed by bonds. We study the relationship between several major debt restrictions – debt limits, supermajority voting referenda, and debt exceptions – and municipal indebtedness in the Roaring Twenties. We find that cities that faced more restrictive debt rules were less indebted by 1929. We also find that debt limits reduced the amount of capital spending in cities during the 1920s and 1930s, while stricter voting rules reduced the likelihood of municipal default in the 1930s. These rules thus determined not only the degree of debt accumulation in early 20th century cities, but also their infrastructure investment and financial health.

This study explores the effects of consumers’ beliefs about labels on chicken. We elicit beliefs associated with seven different labels. By varying the presence/absence of labels in a choice experiment, we are able to determine the effects of labels on consumer choices and decompose the value of labels into beliefs and base utility. Health perceptions have the largest positive effect, and impacts of animal welfare vary by information treatment. We explore the convergent validity of our approach by comparing individual’s beliefs to responses to a best-worst scaling question, which were weakly correlated, suggesting the two approaches are measuring different constructs.

Determinants of prices of 1,302 weanling Thoroughbreds sold at the 2010 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale are investigated. A hedonic pricing model is adopted to identify price determinants, and the corresponding marginal values of those determinants are estimated. Prices were responsive to pedigree quality variables, including the sire's stud fee, the stage of the sire's breeding career, and whether the dam or the dam's progeny had earned “black type.” In addition, individual weanling characteristics such as gender, age, state of birth, and sale placement influenced price. Results can be used as a decision tool by both buyers and sellers.

This article reflects upon a comparative analysis of the 28 ‘City Deals’ agreed between UK government, Scottish government and city-regional groupings in England and Scotland since 2011. The City Deals have sought to incentivise local actors to identify and prioritise ‘asks’ of UK and devolved governments, fund, finance and deliver infrastructure and other economic development interventions, and to reform city/city-region governance structures to ‘unlock’ urban growth. Our analysis is based upon 32 in-depth interviews with lead actors in the City Deals, including elected officials from local government, central government officials and policy specialists from think tanks, as well as a secondary literature review. We find that City Deals are reworking the role of the UK state internally and through changed central-local and intra-local (city-regional) relations. Regional and urban public policy is being recast as a process of deal-making founded upon territorial competition and negotiation between central national and local actors unequally endowed with information and resources, leading to highly imbalanced and inequitable outcomes across the UK. As a template for public policymaking in an emergent and decentralising context, deal-making raises substantive and unresolved issues for governance in the UK that are especially pertinent as the new Conservative government at Westminster pledges to widen and broaden this approach as a central component of its future devolution strategy and policy.

This paper derives price-cost margins for the old newspaper (ONP) input market for newsprint manufacture and then examines the effects of two government policies and two variables measuring the market performances of ONP input and newsprint output on the oligopsonist's ONP price-cost margins. In the wastepaper recycling market in particular, the ONP input market has not been successful in using the ONP generated. The outcomes of the study are that various degrees of price distortions existed in the ONP input markets in four regions of the United States during 1972–1995. Demand-side policy had a positive effect and supply-side policy had a negative effect on ONP price–cost margins in all regions.

As national and local economies become more globalized, many rural areas are going to find it more difficult to compete for private capital investments. A traditional tool, modifications to tax policy, of state and local governments will not be as effective (for many communities it has never been effective) in the future. These communities will need to seek other avenues of growth. However, for many rural communities even alternative avenues will not lead to enhanced economic opportunity.

The feasibility of integrating ethanol production into an existing sugar mill was analyzed by a stochastic spreadsheet model. As the price of corn continues to rise, ethanol producers will eventually need to look at other feedstock alternatives. Sugarcane has been proven to work well in the production of ethanol in Brazil. The results indicated existing U.S. sugar mills could economically switch to ethanol production. As imports into the United States threaten to undermine the U.S. sugar program, sugarcane producers have a viable alternative. At the very least, the alternative exists to diversify their income streams with ethanol production.

Coastal communities cannot depend on funding from the state or federal government to maintain high-quality beaches that benefit the public and attract tourist revenues. This article investigates the feasibility and efficiency of beach improvement projects at two Georgia barrier islands through the alternative funding mechanisms of general-revenue financing and user fees. Benefits are calculated from an intensive, on-site survey of beach visitors, and the costs are calculated from observable sources. The analyses presented support beach improvement as an effective policy on both islands under all scenarios considered.

Key demographic trends in the rural South over the next decade—the aging of the population as baby boomers enter retirement, continued migration to the South, and rapid increases in shares of Hispanic residents—may have profound consequences for the financing of rural community public services. In this paper, we provide an overview of demographic and economic trends that are expected to influence the ability of rural communities to provide essential public services. In addition, we provide econometric evidence on the impacts that these trends are likely to have on the financing of K-12 education in South Carolina.

The crop farming sector has been relatively profitable in the past severalyears, whereas the general economy has gone through a great deal of turmoil.In this research, we constructed an Aglndex, which tracked the stock pricesof publicly traded companies dealing with agriculture performed since 2000.As a group, the market values of publicly traded firms within the Aglndexexceeded those of Standard & Poors 500 (S&P 500) since 2000. Returnswere higher for agricultural firms compared with S&P 500 firms.Performance varied across agricultural sectors with fertilizer and seedcompanies performing the best.

In this article, possible use of climate forecasts in rainfall index insurance of hay and forage production is considered in a geographical area (southeast United States) relatively heavily impacted by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Analysis of the stochastic properties of rainfall, yields, and the ENSO forecasts using the copula technique shows that the forecast impact depends on the proximity to the Gulf Coast where the impact of the ENSO is more pronounced and earlier in the year. Stochastic modeling shows that the use of skillful long-term climate forecasts by the insured producers creates intertemporal adverse selection that can be precluded by offering forecast conditional premiums. The impacts on the efficiency of the rainfall index insurance and results of sensitivity analysis with respect to model parameters are discussed.

U.S. rice industry producers face pressure from consumers, suppliers, and the government to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with rice (Oryza sativa L.) production. Arkansas rice cultivar-specific net GHG emissions information allows models of paddy rice emissions. Baseline levels of profit, yield variance, and GHG emissions are established using extension data. Varietal selection is then optimized to maximize profits and minimize GHG emissions, both constrained and unconstrained by baseline yield variance. Carbon abatement functions are estimated to examine the effects of hypothetical carbon prices on varietal selection.

Socioeconomic factors influencing consumer demand for nursery products and landscape projects were investigated using consumer survey data collected from North Carolina in 2008. Tobit models were estimated for censored dependent variables, budget expenditure shares on nursery products, and landscape spending. The most significant factors influencing the share of income spent on nursery products were age and household income. The elderly and baby boomers tend to spend less on bedding plants, perennials, and outdoor hardscapes than Generations X and Y. The income elasticities suggest that the amount spent on outdoor living projects is sensitive to changes in household income, whereas spending in vegetable plants and chemicals is less responsive to income.