SCARCITY AND RICARDIAN RENTS FOR CRUDE OIL*

This paper estimates scarcity rent/user cost and Ricardian rent for crude oil in Oklahoma. A model of firm behavior is proposed incorporating both development and production decisions considering crude oil as a nonrenewable natural resource. Profit maximization conditions derived from the model are applied to take into account cost differentials associated with oil found at varying depths. It is shown that oil with the highest cost is the marginal unit and it is the marginal output that determines Ricardian rent. Time series data is used to estimate equations derived from the necessary conditions. It is found that scarcity rent is a significant proportion of the price of crude oil and has increased in the past decade.     

Elites,Rent‐Cycling and Development: Adjustment to Land Scarcity in Mauritius,Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire

According to rent‐cycling theory, low rent aligns the interests of the elite and the majority in providing public goods and efficiency incentives to promote economic growth, while high rent risks deflecting the elite into self‐enriching rent deployment, which distorts the economy and triggers a collapse from which recovery is protracted because rent recipients resist reform. The theory also predicts, however, that this collapse will self‐correct by shrinking per capita rent, which strengthens incentives for wealth creation. This article tests the prediction in Mauritius, Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire where intensifying land scarcity has shrunk per capita rent; Mauritius meets the prediction, but Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire do not.     

Not by Rent Alone: Analysing the Pro‐Poor Functions of Small‐Scale Fisheries in Developing Countries

The dominant view in academic and policy arenas is increasingly one in which the major contribution of capture fisheries to development should be derived from the capacity of society to maximise the economic rent of fishery resources. Drawing upon empirical experience from the South, this article highlights the potentially disastrous consequences that a universal implementation of the rent‐maximisation model would have in developing countries, and argues that a more gradual approach would be preferable. The welfare function of small‐scale fisheries, namely, their capacities to provide labour and cash income to resource‐poor households, should be preserved until the appropriate macroeconomic conditions for rent‐maximisation and redistribution are fulfilled.     

SouthNorth Materials Flow: History and Environmental Repercussions

The current literature on the relationship between income and environmental quality is dominated by a notion of an inverted 'U'-shaped curve between both variables. However, a key variable is missing in this kind of study: the extra-territorial environmental effects of national economies. International trade of raw materials may be a good proxy to estimate these 'environmental load displacement' effects. The present work tries to elucidate some patterns in the relationship between economic growth in affluent countries and the quantity of non-renewable materials imported from less-developed countries. The results indicate that a general de-linking between economic growth and Southern resource consumption is not occurring in the industrialized world. Thus, developed countries may be increasingly displacing the environmental costs associated with material throughput to poorer regions of the world.     

Art in the Time of Frugality: Scarcity,Cooperation, and Change in American Art Museums

Funding for American art museums has undergone significant changes in the past 20 years. In particular, federal and corporate giving have substantially declined following the Great Recession. These changes impact museums’ ability to secure funding for exhibitions. This study addresses how funding scarcity affects American art museums, specifically with regard to staff’s ability to execute their own tasks and the strategies of action they use to compensate for these changes. Drawing from literature on resource scarcity, I explore how funding declines have prompted museum staff to use “strategic cooperation” as a means of diversifying limited financial resources. Moreover, using interviews with curators and development officers, I identify three cooperative strategies they may use: coordinating inter‐professional activities, pooling professional knowledge, and finding creative financial solutions. These findings add to work on resource scarcity by identifying inter‐group cooperation as a diversification strategy. More importantly, I add to this literature by specifically identifying multiple forms of strategic cooperation individuals may employ to combat resource scarcity. Finally, while literature on the arts has focused on museums’ propensity for inter‐professional conflict during times of duress, my work demonstrates that, despite this, cooperative action is a present and viable strategy in cultural organizations.     

INCOMPLETE OWNERSHIP, RENT DISSIPATION, AND THE RETURN TO RELATED INVESTMENTS

The welfare loss from free access resource use is examined in a general equilibrium model. Actions that intensify competition for the resource, either by lowering the private cost or raising the private benefit of using it, can raise this loss above the rent the resource would earn if owned. Such 'excess dissipation'is illustrated with examples applicable to unowned groundwater. Regulatory policies that fix inputs needed to acquire the resource work by transferring part of the resource's rent to controlled inputs. The resulting welfare effect depends on the elasticity of substitution between, and relative prices of, controlled and uncontrolled inputs.     

Love Poverty in Modern Culture and Sensitivity Training*

The social institutions of modern technological culture often fail to provide adequate opportunity for the exchange of emotions and personal feelings of affect and esteem. The widespread development of alternative institutions such as sensitivity training can be seen as an attempt to compensate for the scarcity of this type of interpersonal communication. Reasons for this scarcity are examined in terms of a structural model of individual and societal resource differentiation.     

Testing rent sharing using individualized measures of rent: evidence from domestic helpers

The market for resident domestic helpers offers a rare opportunity where the surplus from employment relationship can be quantitatively measured for each individual employee. Using the difference between employer's cost of time and employee's wage as a measure of rent, it is found that wages for domestic helpers are positively related to rent. However the apparent sharing of rent is better explained by matching than by efficiency wage models. Rent sharing is observed even in households where monitoring or turnover costs are low. Rent sharing is not observed among newly arrived foreign domestic helpers, whose ability remains to be revealed.     

基于新制度经济学的同城化研究

同城化作为一项制度安排,是相邻城市之间围绕＂同城化租金＂与共同利益这一核心,基于更低交易费用诉求的利益博弈与利益共享的制度变迁过程,是基于区域制度租金与潜在收益的＂协调博弈—合作博弈—分配博弈＂的结果。     

Subsidized Housing and Household Hardship Among Low‐Income Single‐Mother Households

We investigate associations of housing assistance with housing and food‐related hardship among low‐income single‐mother households using data from the National Survey of America’s Families (N = 5,396). Results from instrumental variables models suggest that receipt of unit‐based assistance, such as traditional public housing, is associated with a large decrease in rent burden and modest decreases in difficulty paying rent or utilities and residential crowding. Receipt of tenant‐based assistance, such as housing vouchers or certificates, is associated with a modest increase in housing stability but also with modest increases in rent burden and difficulty paying rent or utilities. We find no associations between either type of housing assistance and food related hardship.     

The Social Costs of Gambling: An Economic Perspective

Much of the opposition to legalized gambling is based on analyses of the social costs that occur as a result of pathological gambling. It is our contention that many, if not most, authors who have contributed to this literature are either unclear or misguided in what they define as social costs. Instead of starting with a clear definition of what constitutes a social cost, these authors have adopted an ad hoc approach-using "common sense" to determine what constitutes losses to society and then attempting to quantify the impact of those activities. We believe this is not, as some suggest, simply a matter of semantics. Rather, it is a serious problem in the gambling literature. How do we differentiate between a consequence of pathological gambling that is a "social cost" and one that is not? Which of the consequences of addictive behaviors that are associated with gambling arise when gambling is legal, and which will be manifest in some form whether or not gambling is legal? In this article we explain the economic perspective on social costs. An understanding of this paradigm removes the subjectivity in the classification of pathological gambling's social costs. The paper has three major components. First, we introduce the economic notion of social costs. Using this paradigm, we differentiate between the "true" social costs related to pathological gambling, and other negative consequences that cannot legitimately be classified as social costs. Second, we evaluate a recent social cost study using the economics social cost paradigm. Third, we discuss two types of social costs that have been largely overlooked in the gambling literature. One is caused by gambling prohibition. The other occurs as a result of "rent seeking" that is related to the political process surrounding the legalization of gambling.     

Rentierism and Political Violence

Nations with an abundance of natural resources suffer disproportionately from internal violence, especially civil wars. State reliance on external sources of rent revenue, or rentierism, can lead to violence for several reasons. This article examines three of the primary explanations for the association. A common explanation is that rebel groups are motivated to fight in pursuit of natural resource wealth. An alternative explanation is that grievances, at times resulting in violence, can manifest if rent revenue is used by the state to repress or ignore the citizenry. A third explanation notes that rentier states are structurally weak and therefore vulnerable to violent challenges because elites frequently use rent revenue for personal or political reasons, not national interest. This article also considers where this line of study might be headed, given recent developments. I suggest that future research on rentierism and violence should examine an array of rent revenue streams, not just natural resources. In addition, scholars should take note that resource industries are increasingly privatizing, which has important implications for the classification of rents and, more generally, the study of rentierism.     

新加坡·新生·水——新加坡水资源管理模式概览

本文总结了新加坡水资源管理模式的发展经验和成果。在新加坡，水资源管理是国家战略考虑中的关键因素。在这独特的“水战略”指导下，新加坡依靠系统管理和先进技术，成功实现了从水资源匮乏到基本自足；其水资源管理具有官-商-产-学-媒整合运作的特点，以系统的战略设计带动全面落实，成功经验值得借鉴。     

Environment,Development, and Water in Academia: A Critical Network Perspective

The world is currently confronting two water crises, a developmental crisis concerning populations who lack access to water and an environmental crisis regarding water scarcity and freshwater resource depletion. Are we as academics addressing the complexity of these issues? Using network analysis of over 5,000 articles that address water development and water scarcity, I generate a co-citation network to identify the overlap between development and environmental water literatures in academic journals. The results suggest that the development literature only has a 6.28 percent overlap with the environmental literature and the environmental literature has a mere 1.92 percent overlap. Overall, this research suggests that there is an extreme lack of academic articles that address water scarcity and water development concurrently. Until we as an academic community become more nuanced in our studies of water, we will lack a full understanding of how to solve these seemingly contradictory problems. I conclude by drawing on critical Marxist and “Frankfurt School” perspectives to explain this apparent disconnect.     

Accommodation issues in the work place for people with disabilities: a needs assessment in an educational setting

The passage in the USA of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has mandated the private sector to provide a sweeping variety of accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Objections to ADA focused on costs in an era of scarcity. These assumptions have been presented with insufficient information about the actual needs of individuals with disabilities. This study is a needs assessment of employees with disabilities at a major university setting. In-depth interviews were conducted with a small number of individuals who described their work situations and accommodations. Findings challenge prevailing assumptions. Costs are often not large, many accommodations are simple, and much depends on the match between a person's disability and job duties. Additionally, informational needs, psychological concerns and the existing social climate provide a more balanced picture of the lives of these employees.     

Structural constraints in times of resource nationalism: oil policy and state capacity in post-neoliberal Ecuador

ABSTRACT

This article explores the re-emergence of resource nationalism in Ecuador during Rafael Correa’s government. In 2010, Ecuador pursued a shift in oil contracts from production sharing agreements to service contracts. I argue that resource nationalist policies were intended to maximize rent appropriation and increase state control. Nevertheless, in order to spell out the complexities of natural resource governance in post-neoliberal Ecuador, it is important to integrate the structural constraints of the Ecuadorian state to enact resource nationalist policies. Despite the nationalist sentiments that originated these reforms, the renegotiation of contracts continued to benefit foreign corporations due to the centralized attitude of the Correa government and the perennial limitations of state capacity in the regulation of the industry.     

Health Care innovation and children in poverty: lived experiences of caregivers of children with disabilities in a medicaid-serving ACO

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study of caregivers of children with disabilities enrolled in a Medicaid-serving accountable care organization (ACO). The state of Ohio mandated ACO enrollment for Medicaid-eligible children with disabilities in 34 of 88 counties effective July 2013. Research participants were queried in focus groups and individual interviews about their children’s care experiences and care coordination after enrollment. Most told researchers that they themselves are their children’s care coordinators, and many indicated that resource scarcity is a more pressing problem than fragmented care. Data analysis identified a theme of scarcity and four categories of insufficiency that made caregiver efforts on behalf of their children more difficult: a lack of health services under managed care, resource constraints on other agencies and programs for which families were eligible, a lack of financial support, and a lack of family support. A conceptual framework places ACO care coordination among more upstream factors and identifies ways in which ACOs serving Medicaid populations may wish to address the social determinants of the well-being of children with disabilities. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The Geopolitics of Formosa

The authors outline an innovative activity that helps teachers make the abstract concepts of scarcity and allocation concrete in the K-12 classroom. Students evaluate the scarcity of chocolate and often determine, incorrectly, that the candy is not scarce because there is enough for each student to have one piece. After students reveal their preferences for the candy, they compare the total number of candies desired with the number of candies available. Because it is almost always the case that preferences cannot be met, students can easily see that candy is scarce. As with any scare resource, an allocation method is required. Students explore different alternatives for allocating the scarce good among competing consumers. The authors share results from three implementations of this activity.     

Child care outcomes: economic perspectives and issues

Economics starts with the observation of widespread scarcity and the consequent need for choices about resource allocation. Common criteria for such choices are economy, effectiveness, efficiency and equity. This paper defines these criteria and locates them within a conceptual framework (the ‘production of welfare’). It also examines some of the reasons for the growth in interest in them. The main modes of evaluation—cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-consequences analyses—are described and illustrated. Few such evaluations have been conducted in child care, and the paper ends with speculation as to why this is so.     

The social costs of child abuse in Japan

The present study calculates the social costs of child abuse in Japan. The items calculated included the direct costs of dealing with abuse and the indirect costs related to long-term damage from abuse during the fiscal year 2012 (April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013). Based on previous studies on the social costs of child abuse and peripheral matters conducted in other countries, the present study created items for the estimable direct costs and indirect costs of child abuse, and calculated the cost of each item. Among indirect costs, future losses owing to child abuse were calculated using extra costs with a discount rate of 3%. The social cost of child abuse in Japan in the fiscal year 2012 was at least ¥1.6 trillion ($16 billion). The direct costs totaled ¥99 billion ($1 billion), and the indirect costs totaled ¥1.5 trillion ($15 billion). This sum of ¥1.6 trillion for only the year 2012 is almost equal to the total amount of damages of ¥1.9 trillion caused by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture. Moreover, abuse is a serious problem that occurs every year and has recurring costs, unlike a natural calamity. However, Japan has no system for calculating the long-term effects of abuse. Therefore, owing to the scarcity of data, the calculations in the present study may underestimate the true costs.