Optiaml Resource Regime in Natural Resource Management: A revised economic theory of commons

The economic theory of natural resource management has its roots in the conventional economic theory of commons that overlooked the role of the institutional structures and the associated transaction costs. Hence, it has not been able to explain the outcomes of the cases of successful management of natural resources, such as forests, as common property. The possible economic optimality of community regimes has been recognised in the empirical literature, but it has not yet been incorporated in production models that would help to elucidate the reasons for its relatively superior performance in selected contexts. In this paper, we incorporate institutional structure into a static analysis of optimal resource management regimes which aims to correct this neglect. Resource regime is included as one variable input in natural resource production models that leads to determine global optimum resource regime. The other specific features of this paper are: i) a continuous array of possibilities varying from open access at one extreme to private regime at the other rather than just the two extreme options of state and private regimes; (ii) the socio-economic characteristics of the resource's "user group" as the main determinant of the relative efficiency of different regimes; and (iii) a specific mathematical form for the transaction function, in order to facilitate empirical studies in this area. Static models for general separable and non-separable transformation and transaction functions are discussed. The possibility of different resource regimes being optimal in different socio-economic conditions is highlighted.

Agrarian Reform, Land Distribution, and Small-Farm Policy as Preventive of Humanitarian Emergencies

No Abstract

When do Agricultural Exports Help the Rural Poor? A Political-Economy Approach

Agricultural exports have been touted by a number of economists as having important potential to alleviate rural poverty, and poverty more generally since much of it is rural, in developing countries. The logic of this view lies in the ideas that (a) many agricultural export products are relatively labour intensive in production and that in many countries the until-recently-prevailing import substitution strategies have penalized agriculture. Moving to a freer trade regime removes the implicit tax on the sector and should loose its growth potential with resulting benefits for workers and small holders. This view, plausible enough from one perspective, flies in the face of much historical evidence that as new agricultural exports become an option, peasant groups are pushed off the lands they previously operated so that large-scale farmers can dedicate it to export use. This process has yielded much conflict and violence, and rather than helping the rural poor has often made them worse off. Predicting whether agricultural exports will help the rural poor thus involves judging whether the reality in a given situation is closer to the first cited model or to the second one. At present fruit and vegetable exports offer hope of strong employment creation in a number of developing countries, though total trade figures suggest that these products cannot by themselves pull up the rural poor in larger developing countries.

The Mecoptera of Michigan

(excerpt) To date, no one has published on the Mecoptera of Michigan. A comprehensive taxonomic paper on the Mecoptera of Illinois, by Donald W. Webb, Illinois Natural History Survey, and Norman D. Penny, University of Kansas, is in preparation and will include keys to and descriptions of the midwestern species of Mecoptera. It is hoped that the present paper will supplement the publication by Webb and Penny and enable interested persons in Michigan to easily identify adult Mecoptera

Do Chatbots Dream of Androids? Prospects for the Technological Development of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

The article discusses the main trends in the development of artificial intelligence systems and robotics (AI&R). The main question that is considered in this context is whether artificial systems are going to become more and more anthropomorphic, both intellectually and physically. In the current article, the author analyzes the current state and prospects of technological development of artificial intelligence and robotics, and also determines the main aspects of the impact of these technologies on society and economy, indicating the geopolitical strategic nature of this influence. The author considers various approaches to the definition of artificial intelligence and robotics, focusing on the subject-oriented and functional ones. It also compares AI&R abilities and human abilities in areas such as categorization, pattern recognition, planning and decision making, etc. Based on this comparison, we investigate in which areas AI&R’s performance is inferior to a human, and in which cases it is superior to one. The modern achievements in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence create the necessary basis for further discussion of the applicability of goal setting in engineering, in the form of a Turing test. It is shown that development of AI&R is associated with certain contradictions that impede the application of Turing’s methodology in its usual format. The basic contradictions in the development of AI&R technologies imply that there is to be a transition to a post-Turing methodology for assessing engineering implementations of artificial intelligence and robotics. In such implementations, on the one hand, the ‘Turing wall’ is removed, and on the other hand, artificial intelligence gets its physical implementation

The Morphology and Histology of New Sex Pheremone Glands in Male Scorpionflies, Panorpa and Brachypanorpa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae and Panorpodidae)

The n~orphology and histology of a previously undescribed sex pheromone gland in male scorpionflies of the genus Panorpa (Mecoptera: Panorpidae) and a morphologically similar gland in Brachypanorpa (Mecoptera: Panorpodidae) are described and discussed. The gland and the associated pheromone dispersing structure consist of an eversible pouch that lies in the ventral part of the male genital bulb at the point where the basistyles diverge. The glandular layer of epithelium is composed of three types of cells that vary in size between species of Panorpa and between Panorpa and Brachyponorpa. It is suggested that the gland may have evolved from a structure that is everted by the male during copulation and used to push the female\u27s terminal abdominal segments out of the way and/or open the female genital aperture

Percolation Critical Exponents in Scale-Free Networks

We study the behavior of scale-free networks, having connectivity distribution P(k) k^-a, close to the percolation threshold. We show that for networks with 3<a<4, known to undergo a transition at a finite threshold of dilution, the critical exponents are different than the expected mean-field values of regular percolation in infinite dimensions. Networks with 2<a<3 possess only a percolative phase. Nevertheless, we show that in this case percolation critical exponents are well defined, near the limit of extreme dilution (where all sites are removed), and that also then the exponents bear a strong a-dependence. The regular mean-field values are recovered only for a>4.Comment: Latex, 4 page

Modeling Cascading Failures in the North American Power Grid

The North American power grid is one of the most complex technological networks, and its interconnectivity allows both for long-distance power transmission and for the propagation of disturbances. We model the power grid using its actual topology and plausible assumptions about the load and overload of transmission substations. Our results indicate that the loss of a single substation can lead to a 25% loss of transmission efficiency by triggering an overload cascade in the network. We systematically study the damage inflicted by the loss of single nodes, and find three universal behaviors, suggesting that 40% of the transmission substations lead to cascading failures when disrupted. While the loss of a single node can inflict substantial damage, subsequent removals have only incremental effects, in agreement with the topological resilience to less than 1% node loss.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

The FOMC in 1976: progress against inflation

Federal Open Market Committee ; Inflation (Finance)