Urban rent generation: The esenkent case in Istanbul

An increasing proportion of the rapidly growing world population is attempting to satisfy its economic and social needs in an urban context. The migration of people into cities results in urban growth. As a result of this process of urban growth, there is an increasing demand for urban land. Within urban areas land use is subject to fewer changes. Because instant increase in the supply of land in central areas is impossible, there is an increase in the spatial extent of the central area through an invasion of the surrounding zone. Therefore, there is a need to transform non-urban areas to urban areas. This transformation generates urban rents in those newly created urban areas and also re-forms all urban rents in the city. Considering the pace of urbanization in Turkey, it is seen that most of the largest cities are continuing to grow very rapidly. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey and a population growth continues in Istanbul because of the immigration. Therefore Istanbul is growing in terms of population and also in terms of urban sprawl. In this research, as a good example of the urban sprawl in Istanbul a residential area, which is called Esenkent, will be examined in the context of the generation of rent. As an example, Esenkent is important because the land on which Esenkent is established was expropriated by the local municipality. Therefore, there is a public intervention on urban rents. It means that the structure of property on land was changed. Briefly, urban rent generation in the residential area called Esenkent will be examined on the basis of private property rights and the price changes of properties. Our analysis will depend on the data from official land registers, real estate advertisements on newspapers and the interviews with the real estate agents.

Consensus, institutions, and supply response : the political economy of agricultural reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa

During the late 1980s and the 1990s, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa implemented agricultural policy reforms, along with national political and economic reforms. The agricultural reforms focused on opening up processing and marketing activities to increased competition and eliminating export taxes and restrictions to improve producer incentives. In eight of nine country/commodity case studies analyzed in this paper, output responded positively in the short run to the reforms. In many cases, however, the initial supply response was not sustained in the face of subsequent shocks. The studies suggest that stakeholder consensus on the distribution of sector-specific rents is a key variable affecting the sustainability of supply responses. Agricultural sector reforms lead to large changes in income distribution. The greater the acceptance of the distribution of rents following the reforms, the better sectors are able to accommodate subsequent shocks. In cases where the initial consensus on the distribution of rents is weak, shocks lead to reform reversals in some cases or an inability to design necessary support institutions in others. The diversity in outcomes across similar products and countries suggests it is possible to achieve sector and local level results that differ from national ones.Markets and Market Access,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Emerging Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies

AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE EMISSION REDUCTION MARKET SYSTEM IN CHICAGO

A mixed-integer programming model is used to investigate economic impacts of the permit trading market in Chicago and determine the equilibrium price. Unlike previous studies, the model determines unit pollution abatement cost endogenously depending on firms' technology adoption decisions. A sequential trading process is used to simulate firms' behavior under incomplete information. The results show that average shadow prices, a counterpart of conventional shadow prices in discrete problems, slightly underestimate the equilibrium prices. Moreover, the model predicts an over-supply of permits for the first two trading seasons.mixed-integer programming, ERMS, average shadow price, pollution permit, Environmental Economics and Policy,

EFFICIENCY LOSS AND TRADABLE PERMITS

This research presents a price endogenous mathematical programming model that incorporates the independent, optimizing behavior of individual participants to estimate the possible efficiency loss of a newly developed permit trading market for nitrogen oxides (NOx) control in southern Taiwan. The result shows that when control equipment decisions are indivisible, an efficiency loss may arise due to over-investment. The efficiency loss found here is not because of a bilateral trading process and/or insufficient information for finding trading partners, but it is due to not having full control ability of the installed equipment.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Economic Impacts of Soybean Rust on the US Soybean Sector

The spread of Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) represents a real threat to the U.S. soybean sector. We assess the potential impacts of ASR on domestic soybean production and commodity markets as well as the competitive position of the US in the soybean export market. We develop a mathematical stochastic dynamic sector model with endogenous prices to assess the economic impacts of ASR on US agriculture. The model takes into account the disease spread during the cropping season, the inherent uncertainty regarding the risk of infection, and the dichotomous decisions that farmers make (no treatment, preventive treatment, and curative treatment) facing the risk of infection. Our results suggest substantial impacts from potential ASR spread on agricultural output, prices and exports. Our simulation results suggest that substantial losses to the US soybean producers may be avoided by establishing effective soybean rust controls. ASR control policies can be particularly efficient if applied in the gateway regions on the path of the ASR spread. On the other hand, our results indicate a possible gradual shift in soybean production from lower-latitude states toward higher-latitude statesAsian Soybean Rust, Stochastic Models, Dynamic Models, Crop Production/Industries, C61, Q13,

Mathematical Programming Modeling of Agricultural Supply Response

Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Voicing the Less Heard: A Review of Focus Group Methodology: Principles and Practice

Focus Group Methodology: Principles and Practice is a powerful text in not only equipping novice researchers with all the stages of designing a focus group, but also facilitating their understanding of the philosophies and in-depth principles of focus group methodology. Although the text seems to have specifically aimed at researchers in health and social sciences, beginning qualitative researchers in other fields, such as educational sciences, can also gain valuable insights. The text also provides detailed accounts of previous research where focus groups have been used as well as an intensive discussion of more specific topics such as focus groups with vulnerable groups, focus groups in cross-cultural research, and virtual focus groups

INCORPORATING THE 1990 FARM BILL INTO FARM-LEVEL DECISION MODELS: AN APPLICATION TO COTTON FARMS: COMMENT

Crop Production/Industries,