THE POT RUSH: IS LEGALIZED MARIJUANA A POSITIVE LOCAL AMENITY?

This paper examines the amenity value of legalized marijuana by analyzing the impact of marijuana legalization on migration to Colorado. Colorado is the pioneering state in this area having legalized medical marijuana in 2000 and recreational marijuana in 2012. We test whether potential migrants to Colorado view legalized marijuana as a positive or negative local amenity. We use the synthetic control methodology to examine in- and out-migration to/from Colorado versus migration to/from counterfactual versions of Colorado that have not legalized marijuana. We find strong evidence that potential migrants view legalized marijuana as a positive amenity with in-migration significantly higher in Colorado compared with synthetic-Colorado after the writing of the Ogden memo in 2009 that effectively allowed state laws already in place to be activated, and additionally after marijuana was legalized in 2013 for recreational use. When we employ permutation methods to assess the statistical likelihood of our results given our sample, we find that Colorado is a clear and significant outlier. We find no evidence for changes in out-migration from Colorado suggesting that marijuana legalization did not change the equilibrium for individuals already living in the state. (JEL I18, R23, K42, C22)     

Avian biotic homogenization driven by airport-affected environments

Urban Ecosystems - Building and operating airports are human activities associated with adverse changes in the natural environment, resulting in threats to the biodiversity in airport surroundings....     

Effort Observability,Incentive Systems,and Organizational Forms

This paper analyses the choice between a centralized and a decentralized organizational structure focusing on the relationship existing between the allocation of decision rights, the degree of observability of effort and the use of different compensation systems. Profitable production is realized thanks to good information being available during the project selection stage and hard work being performed in the implementation stage. Selection of projects may be made by the principal (hierarchy) or by the agent (delegation). Under the hierarchical system, the principal's participation in the design of projects allows her to gather useful information for the design of a more accurate compensation system. Therefore, we analyse the trade‐off between optimal use of available information and accuracy of incentive systems, which emerges in the choice of organizational form.     

A Flexible Evaluative Framework for Order Picking Systems

This paper develops a novel framework to evaluate the integral performance of order picking systems with different combinations of storage and order picking policies. The warehousing literature on order picking mostly considers minimizing either elapsed time or distance as the sole objective, whereas warehouse managers in a supply chain have to look beyond single‐dimensional performance and consider trade‐offs among different criteria. Thus managers still need a unified and efficient framework to select a portfolio of appropriate order picking policies from a multi‐criteria and contextual perspective. Our framework—combining data envelopment analysis, ranking and selection, and multiple comparisons—provides an efficient methodology to simultaneously analyze several interrelated problems in order picking systems with multiple performance attributes, such as service levels and operational costs. We demonstrate our approach through comprehensive evaluations of order picking policies in three low‐level, picker‐to‐parts rectangular warehouses facing demand variations.     

Optimizing the Collections Process in Consumer Credit

This paper builds a dynamic programming model to optimize the collections process in consumer credit. It determines which collections actions should be undertaken and how long they should be performed, including theoretical results about the form of the optimal policy under certain conditions. Finally, a case study is described based on data from the collections department of a European bank.     

Morality and Nuclear Energy: Perceptions of Risks and Benefits,Personal Norms,and Willingness to Take Action Related to Nuclear Energy

We examined factors underlying people's willingness to take action in favor of or against nuclear energy from a moral perspective. We conducted a questionnaire study among a sample of the Dutch population (N = 123). As expected, perceptions of risks and benefits were related to personal norms (PN), that is, feelings of moral obligation toward taking action in favor of or against nuclear energy. In turn, PN predicted willingness to take action. Furthermore, PN mediated the relationships between perceptions of risk and benefits and willingness to take action. In line with our hypothesis, beliefs about the risks and benefits of nuclear energy were less powerful in explaining PN for supporters compared to PN of opponents. Also, beliefs on risks and benefits and PN explained significantly more variance in willingness to take action of opponents than of supporters. Our results suggest that a moral framework is useful to explain willingness to take action in favor of and against nuclear energy, and that people are more likely to protest in favor of or against nuclear energy when PN are strong.     

Informed Public Preferences for Electricity Portfolios with CCS and Other Low‐Carbon Technologies

Public perceptions of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other low‐carbon electricity‐generating technologies may affect the feasibility of their widespread deployment. We asked a diverse sample of 60 participants recruited from community groups in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to rank 10 technologies (e.g., coal with CCS, natural gas, nuclear, various renewables, and energy efficiency), and seven realistic low‐carbon portfolios composed of these technologies, after receiving comprehensive and carefully balanced materials that explained the costs and benefits of each technology. Rankings were obtained in small group settings as well as individually before and after the group discussions. The ranking exercise asked participants to assume that the U.S. Congress had mandated a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to be built in the future. Overall, rankings suggest that participants favored energy efficiency, followed by nuclear power, integrated gasification combined‐cycle coal with CCS and wind. The most preferred portfolio also included these technologies. We find that these informed members of the general public preferred diverse portfolios that contained CCS and nuclear over alternatives once they fully understood the benefits, cost, and limitations of each. The materials and approach developed for this study may also have value in educating members of the general public about the challenges of achieving a low‐carbon energy future.     

Innovation in Family Firms: A Systematic Literature Review and Guidance for Future Research

Through a systematic review of 118 peer‐reviewed journal articles published between 1961 and 2017, this article provides an integrative picture of the state of the art of the family firm innovation literature. Our aim is to widen existing understanding of innovation in family firms by building a theoretical bridge with studies in the mainstream innovation literature. Specifically, in identifying the main gaps in the literature and providing future research directions, our critical and dynamic picture of family‐specific determinants of innovation is intended to advance the debate on innovation in general, and family firms in particular.     

Understanding Cumulative Risk Perception from Judgments and Choices: An Application to Flood Risks

Catastrophic events, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, are rare, yet the cumulative risk of each event occurring at least once over an extended time period can be substantial. In this work, we assess the perception of cumulative flood risks, how those perceptions affect the choice of insurance, and whether perceptions and choices are influenced by cumulative risk information. We find that participants' cumulative risk judgments are well represented by a bimodal distribution, with a group that severely underestimates the risk and a group that moderately overestimates it. Individuals who underestimate cumulative risks make more risk‐seeking choices compared to those who overestimate cumulative risks. Providing explicit cumulative risk information for relevant time periods, as opposed to annual probabilities, is an inexpensive and effective way to improve both the perception of cumulative risk and the choices people make to protect against that risk.     

Using Epidemiological Studies to Check the Consistency of the Cancer Risks Predicted by High-Dose Animal Experiments: A Methodological Review

Epidemiological studies have been cited in the literature as evidence both for and against the human cancer risks predicted by high-exposure rodent studies. However, there has been little overall consistency in the ways that these animal-to-human comparisons have been made. This review examines some examples of these types of comparisons and describes the methods and techniques used by different investigators. Eleven "key decision areas" that need to be addressed are identified and recommendations for consistent, logical, and statistically appropriate approaches that might be taken to standardize the process are provided. In general, it is suggested that investigators provide the most useful information when they use logical, transparent, and statistically valid comparisons to pursue limited and focused objectives, such as directly testing the validity of an existing regulatory guidance value. Other recommendations include selecting biologically plausible extrapolative models that fit the data and drawing conclusions that are consistent with the study results and objectives.