Much attention has been given in recent years to the conversion of substantial amounts of rural land to urban uses. A variety of policies designed to encourage the retention of rural open space have been either proposed or implemented by many state and local governments. Because the decision to convert land to urban uses is generally a private decision in response to market forces, an understanding of these market forces should facilitate better policy development and implementation. This paper reports on a research project designed to explore the forces affecting rural land prices in areas where the rural land market is significantly influenced by the demand for land for urban or suburban uses. Publicly available data on transfers of rural land were analyzed, using a multiple regression model, to both identify and quantify the importance of factors affecting rural land prices.

Present land use control mechanisms are seen as inadequate for the preservation of open space, agricultural land, and other “uneconomic” uses of land. Many proposals have been cited as possible solutions to the problems created by present land use control mechanisms. The transfer of development rights (hereafter known as TDR's) is one such proposal. This mechanism for land use control can be of several forms. There are severe theoretical and practical problems, to be discussed, which a transfer of development rights program must overcome if it is to function in practical application.

Inherent in the nature of the scientific method is that today's sophisticated and obscure technology becomes commonplace tomorrow. This maxim also holds true in the agricultural economics literature. Sophisticated techniques are developed and experimented with by econometricians. There is then, however, a large group of applied economists, who use a particular method after it becomes entrenched in the literature. The applied economist must interpret the technique for practical applications and this sometimes results in problems.

Agricultural economists, whether writing for their journals or at their professional meetings, have shown little interest in pedagogy. The American Agricultural Economics Association has held three workshops on the improvement of education in agricultural economics (1963, 1967, and 1973) and published a separate proceedings for each. However, most of the papers at these workshops were devoted to educational philosophy and curriculum development; in other words, to what should be taught and why, rather than to how. An occasional paper in our journal does address technique or method, but most of the verbiage is devoted to such tools as computer assisted instruction (CAI), the use of gaming models, simulation, and other self-instruction methods.

We economists value writing skills, holding expectations that our students from introductory through graduate level courses be able “to represent one's analysis and evaluation of an issue in a way which will communicate effectively to others” (Weidenaar, p. 99). We have assumed, over the years, that a certain amount of such communication will be in writing. We often have held, furthermore, expectations that the analytical writing will be of high quality.

It would seem, for the sake of convenience and in the interest of imparting exact information, that the terms used in a discipline should have one and only one meaning. Unfortunately economics terminology is not in such a completely refined state that all terms have unambiguous meanings. In some instances different meanings are attached to the same terms which is a source of confusion. This is especially the case for the term “intensive” use of a resource which frequently has been used to describe the relative abundance of a resource in production. The term has been used inconsistently in two opposing senses when applied to land and labor on the one hand and capital and labor on the other hand. While this may not pose a serious problem for a seasoned scholar who can construe the proper meaning in each context, beginning teachers and students need to be made aware of the inconsistency to avoid confusion and unnecessary debate.

Research which is designed to evaluate the strength and mix of factors which tend to initiate and sustain economic growth must provide methods of measuring these factors. If one of these factors is taken to be the availability of labor as the Committee on Economic Development in the Northeast (1977) suggests, then methods of measuring the availability of labor need to be developed. Articles by Bonnen (1972) and Gardner (1975) have provided researchers with an incentive to do a better job of operationalizing and measuring the concept of labor availability.

Two topics dominate discussions of public elementary and secondary education. The first is declining enrollments and the second is fiscal problems, especially those problems associated with such catch words as equity, taxpayer revolt, and tax reform. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between these two topics by examining enrollment change and fiscal characteristics in 504 Pennsylvania school districts. Our purpose is to provide a descriptive base for further research on the fiscal problems raised by changing school enrollments.

An important and viable agricultural crop which should receive more attention is turfgrass. This is particularly true in the Northeast where high population concentrations create a large demand for home and business beautification. The Northeast's average population density of three-hundred persons per square mile makes a crop with few offensive characterisitcs, maximum open-space amenities and high value per acre worthy of consideration by farmers, politicians and economists (U.S. Bureau of the Census).

The central role that local auction facilities play in the marketing of feeder, and in some areas slaughter, livestock has resulted in a large volume of literature relating auction costs to auction volume or size. Most auction cost studies have been based on statistical analyses of market accounting costs, although several have been based on synthetic construction of technically efficient market facility models. Studies of the former type include those by Lindberg and Judge (Oklahoma) and Wilson and Kuehn (West Virginia). Examples of the latter type are studies by Gibb and Riley (Michigan) and Kuehn (West Virginia).

Most economists characterize spot markets as performing two basic functions: price discovery and locational services (which may be subdivided into assembly and sorting). The livestock auction industry in total does not differ from this general characterization since its basic function is to bring buyers and sellers to the place where the animals are being marketed. Thus whether the principal species and class handled in a particular market is feeder pigs or cull beef cows the functions performed at this level of generality are the same. The marketing procedures used are also highly uniform, consisting principally of unloading, sorting, presentation to buyers and reloading, along with the necessary record keeping. As a result there is a tendendy to view this industry as homogenous with some unit cost differences due principally to variation in size.

Since the 1973 oil embargo, substantial interest has focused upon the question of the cost competitiveness of solar space heating and domestic hot water systems for single family residences. As early as 1974, national surveys indicated that homeowners were seriously considering the use of solar systems (National Science Foundation). At the present time, several New England electric companies (Massachusetts Electric, Granite State and Narragansett) are testing commercially available solar domestic hot water heaters in 100 New England homes. Yet, the question of the cost competitiveness of solar systems remains unresolved. For example, a recent study by the Massachusetts Energy Policy Office suggests that solar systems are currently cost competitive with electric resistance heating in the Boston area. The interim findings reported by consultants to the New England Electric Companies conclude that “Solar energy is a victim of unreasonably high expectations … and that several problems must be resolved if solar domestic hot water heaters are to become economically viable.” (Little, p. 3). A number of other studies have also arrived at conflicting results (Bezdek, et al; G. Lof and R. Tybout; W.D. Schulze, et al).

One of the factors contributing to the substantial increases in crop yields experienced during the last fifty years was the development and use of synthetic chemical pesticides. In the past decade, however, increasing evidence has shown that use of these materials poses significant negative external effects on human health, wildlife, and the environment. Hall has stated the economic trade-off problem as follows:

In the northeast, communities have been faced with a variety of waste management problems brought about by population concentrations and higher consumption levels. One waste that has been receiving increased attention is sewage sludge generated by municipal waste treatment plants. Although alternative sludge treatment technologies are available, a number of municipalities have been ocean dumping. For example, in New Jersey it has been estimated that of the 230,000 dry tons of sludge produced annually, nearly two-thirds is being ocean dumped (Bolan et al.). Although ocean dumping is a relatively inexpensive method from the viewpoint of the municipality, it has become costly in terms of ocean and coastal resources (Colacicco et al., U.S. Department of Commerce). As a result of contaminated beaches, algae blooms, and fish kills (1976 and 1977) legislation was passed in 1977 to stop the ocean dumping of sludge by December 31, 1981 (U.S. Congress, 1977).

Economic development in rural areas of the Northeast has received much recent attention. This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of possible development policies for one such rural area, Sussex County, Delaware. The evaluation is based on measures derived from a regional, primary data, input-output model. The paper is divided into three parts: (I) a description of the input-output model with special emphasis on the design of this model, a design which enables the in-depth study of several industries which are important to the Sussex County economy; (II) estimated measures for evaluating the relative significance of each sector to the region's economy; and (III) illustrations as to how the findings might be used to facilitate policy decisions currently facing or likely to face regional planners and representatives.

Agricultural policy makers are aided in the decision making process by analytical models. This implies that national agricultural policy is dependent on the correctness of the model's structure and specification. Traditionally, econometric models of the crop sector have been estimated in a price equilibrium framework. Heien (1977) summarizes this as a system where supply and demand interacts to determine price. This conceptualization places a heavy burden on the stock equation; ending commercial stock equations often perform very poorly, and therefore, reduced form estimates, particularly for price, tend to reflect this corresponding error.

U.S. agricultural policy has been implemented by various means including price supports, production or acreage controls, trade agreements, commodity reserves, food aid, and other programs (Brandow, 1976). These have been advanced to respond to various public policy objectives. Most of these policies have been directed toward food and feed grains, resulting in varying impacts on producers and consumers of these grains.

Empirical research on single equation, competitive demand models has employed either price dependent or quantity dependent forms. The price dependent models assume that total output is predetermined in the short-run due to the role of past prices and to production cycles as the case of the livestock industry (Heien). On the other hand, quantity dependency can be described as a supply response system.