Local Inflation Research Articles

Local attitudes towards conservation and tourism around Komodo National Park, Indonesia

Ensuring local support for protected areas is increasingly viewed as an important element of biodiversity conservation. This is often predicated on the provision of benefits from protected areas, and a common means of providing such benefits is tourism development. However, the relationship between receipt of tourism benefits and support for conservation has not been explored. This study examined local attitudes towards protected area tourism and the effects of tourism benefits on local support for Komodo National Park, Indonesia. Komodo National Park is a flagship for tourism in a region where protected areas are becoming increasingly visited and where local support for conservation has not been investigated. Results of a questionnaire survey revealed positive attitudes towards tourism and high support for conservation (93.7%), as well as a recognition that tourism is dependent upon the existence of the park. Positive attitudes towards tourism were positively related to the receipt of economic benefits, and to support for conservation. However, a positive relationship between receipt of tourism benefits and support for conservation was not identified, suggesting that benefits from protected area conservation make no difference to local support for conservation. Local people recognized distributional inequalities in tourism benefits, and the most common complaints were of local inflation and tourist dress code. To fully identify the impacts of protected area tourism, long-term studies of local attitudes alongside traditional economic and ecological assessments are recommended.

The economic viability of commercial wind plants in Greece A complete sensitivity analysis

The influence of the governing techno-economic parameters on the economic behaviour of commercial wind parks is investigated. For this purpose, a complete cost–benefit analysis model, properly adapted for the Greek market, is developed in order to calculate the pay-back period and the economic efficiency of similar investments in the energy production sector. Moreover, the impact of various parameters — such as capital cost, return on investment index, local inflation rate index, electricity price escalation rate, installation capacity factor, M&O cost, turn-on key cost of the power plant, size of wind turbines used — on the economic viability and attractiveness is extensively investigated, using a well-elaborated simple “expert system” type numerical code. Finally, the prediction results are summarised in a representative sensitivity analysis map, including the most reasonable economic scenarios. Taking into account the analytical results of the proposed study along with the existence of high wind potential regions in Greece, a remarkable growth of the wind energy sector is expected in the near future, leading to considerable investment profits and offering a strong position (share) of the liberalised local power market.

Changes in the organization of the smooth muscle cells in rat vein grafts.

Mechanical tensile stress in vein grafts increases suddenly under the influence of arterial blood pressure. In this study, we examined the influence of increased tensile stress on the organization of the smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in the neointima and media of the rat vein grafts. An autogenous jugular vein was grafted into the abdominal aorta of the rat, and changes in the organization of the vein graft SMCs were studied by observing the distribution of SMC actin filaments and nuclei at 3 min and 1, 5, 10, and 30 days after surgery. In a normal jugular vein, the average wall circumferential tensile stress was approximately 3 kPa at an internal pressure of 3 mm Hg. The SMCs, that contained long, slender actin filamentous bundles, were oriented mainly in the circumferential direction of the vessel, and constituted a 2- to 3-cell-thick medial layer underneath the endothelium. In a vein graft, the wall circumferential tensile stress suddenly increased by approximately 140 times compared with the control level. In response to this suddenly increased stress, the SMC layer was stretched into a structure with scattered pores and disrupted SMC actin filamentous bundles within 3 min. This initial change was followed by a rapid reduction in the density of the SMC nuclei and actin filaments within 1 day and progressive SMC proliferation, that was associated with medial thickening and a change in the SMC orientation from 5 to 30 days. Further studies showed that a local inflation of normal jugular veins to 120 mm Hg for 3 min induced a similar change as found in the vein grafts, whereas the organization of the SMCs was not significantly changed in vein-vein grafts, that did not experience a change in tensile stress. These results suggested that increased tensile stress contributed to the initial damage of the SMCs and played a role in the regulation of medial SMC remodeling in vein grafts.

What Makes A Household Landlord? Ownership of Real Estate U.S. Households

This paper seems to be the first positive analysis of the holding of real estate assets by households. Most providers of rental housing in the United States are unincorporated private entities, either households or partnerships. Understanding these landlords is important for understanding the rental housing market. This study examines the decision to own income property in a non-corporate form, and how much (if any) of one's wealth to invest in such real estate, defined as claims to land and/or improvements that are not used for the owner's own residence and are not held through shares of common stock. Certain characteristics of real estate as an asset should influence a household's decision about how much real estate to hold, and indeed whether to hold any. Disadvantages include illiquidity, lumpiness, high transactions costs, and idiosyncratic risk. Advantages include the opportunity to profit by personal oversight of the asset, low-cost local information, inflation hedging, and leverage. Starting in part from the literature on ownership of stocks and bonds, I offer some preliminary hypotheses about the effects of wealth, inflation fears, earnings, schooling, region, tax rates, health, race and nationality, marital status, and mobility on real estate ownership and portfolio decisions. The data used to test these hypotheses come from the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Among 3475 households with more than $100,000 net worth, 40 percent owned some real estate. Use of a two-stage selection model appears to be appropriate, in which a household chooses first whether to own real estate and then what share of wealth to hold in real estate. I use a logit analysis of the decision to hold real estate, combined with a regression of the share of real estate in the portfolio among real estate owners. Wealth is found to have a powerful effect on whether a household owns real estate, but an unclear effect on the amount held as a share of net worth. Sensitivity to inflation, earnings, schooling, region, marginal tax rates, and race all play significant roles in either the decision to hold real estate or what proportion of wealth should be in real estate, or both. By comparison, Ordinary Least Squares results have striking biases. When viewed in context with broad trends in the U.S. economy, especially the rapid rise in household wealth in the stock market and the early retirement trend, the implications of these results for the supply of rental housing appear generally positive. Opportunities for further research are extensive.

What Makes a Landlord? Ownership of Real Estate U.S. Households

This paper seems to be the first positive analysis of the holding of real estate assets by households. Most providers of rental housing in the United States are unincorporated private entities, either households or partnerships. Understanding these landlords is important for understanding the rental housing market. This study examines the decision to own income property in a non-corporate form, and how much (if any) of one's wealth to invest in such real estate, defined as claims to land and/or improvements that are not used for the owner's own residence and are not held through shares of common stock. Certain characteristics of real estate as an asset should influence a household's decision about how much real estate to hold, and indeed whether to hold any. Disadvantages include illiquidity, lumpiness, high transactions costs, and idiosyncratic risk. Advantages include the opportunity to profit by personal oversight of the asset, low-cost local information, inflation hedging, and leverage. Starting in part from the literature on ownership of stocks and bonds, I offer some preliminary hypotheses about the effects of wealth, inflation fears, earnings, schooling, region, tax rates, health, race and nationality, marital status, and mobility on real estate ownership and portfolio decisions. The data used to test these hypotheses come from the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Among 3475 households with more than $100,000 net worth, 40 percent owned some real estate. Use of a two-stage selection model appears to be appropriate, in which a household chooses first whether to own real estate and then what share of wealth to hold in real estate. I use a logit analysis of the decision to hold real estate, combined with a regression of the share of real estate in the portfolio among real estate owners. Wealth is found to have a powerful effect on whether a household owns real estate, but an unclear effect on the amount held as a share of net worth. Sensitivity to inflation, earnings, schooling, region, marginal tax rates, and race all play significant roles in either the decision to hold real estate or what proportion of wealth should be in real estate, or both. By comparison, Ordinary Least Squares results have striking biases. When viewed in context with broad trends in the U.S. economy, especially the rapid rise in household wealth in the stock market and the early retirement trend, the implications of these results for the supply of rental housing appear generally positive. Opportunities for further research are extensive.

Transient deformation during triggered seismicity from the 28 June 1992 Mw = 7.3 Landers earthquake at Long Valley volcanic caldera, California

Continuous records from a borehole strainmeter and a long baseline tiltmeter in the Long Valley caldera provide critical insights into the origin of at least one episode of minor seismicity in volcanic regions triggered by the 28 June 1992, M L 7.3 Landers, California, earthquake. A strain transient reaching a peak of 0.25 microstrain occurred in the few days following the Landers event and decayed over the next 20 days. A tilt perturbation during the same time reached a peak amplitude of 0.2 microradians. These signals correspond approximately in time to the primary seismic moment release across a 50 km 2 region of the south part of the caldera at depths between 2 and 10 km. Corresponding strain transients in 5-km geodetic lines across the south caldera are not apparent above the 95% confidence limits of about 0.4 microstrain in daily sampled data during this same period. These data rule out models involving single localized inflation sources within the upper crust beneath the caldera, including that responsible for the current rapid inflation of the resurgent dome. They also preclude models involving aseismic slip on single strike-slip or normal faults in the caldera. A single source in the form of a relaxing magma body at a depth of 50 km beneath the caldera can account for the deformation data, but whether the small stress changes are sufficient to drive the triggered seismicity is not clear. An alternate possibility involves distributed deformational sources triggered by the passage of the 10 microstrain peak amplitude surface waves from the earth- quake. This distributed deformational source could result either from rupturing of overpressured fluid or gas chambers commonly encountered in volcanic regions or from advective gas overpressure during release of gas bubbles in hydrothermal or magmatic fluids.

The effects of growth upon local inflation rates

This paper investigates the impact of regional growth upon the local rate of consumer inflation. To capture both the temporal and spatial aspects in the study, a pooled time-series/cross-section approach was used. The analysis is based upon 1965–82 data for the 22 metropolitan areas for which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics compiled CPI series. With a model specifying local inflation to be primarily determined by national trends but also influenced by local conditions, both area population and income growth were identified as positively related to local inflation rates. Using disaggregated price series, the effects of population growth were found to work solely through impacts upon the housing sector. The econometric procedures were performed upon the ASU IBM 3000 computer system using the SAS PROC TSCS.

Regional Dynamics: Studies in Adjustment Theory

Preface Part 1: A Theory of Regional Adjustment 1. The Adjustment Problem 2. Contemporary Regional Economic Structure 3. An Adjustment Model of Regional Production Part 2: Local Employment Profiles and Labour Demand 4. Fluctuations and Rigidities in Local Labour Markets 5. Regional Demand for Labour 6. The Risks of Local Adjustment Part 3: Regional Wages and Prices 7. Does Inflations Vary Between Cities? 8. Components of Local Inflation 9. Regional Wage Indexation Part 4: Interregional Labour Migration 10. Dynamics of Inter-State Labour Migration 11. Migration and Capital 12. Labour Migration and Uncertainty Part 5: Regional Capital Dynamics 13. Regional Capital Theory 14. Dynamics of Regional Investment 15. Capital, Labour, and Regional Dynamics

Dynamics of false-vacuum bubbles.

The possibility of localized inflation is investigated by calculating the dynamics of a spherically symmetric region of false vacuum which is separated by a domain wall from an infinite region of true vacuum. For a range of initial conditions, the false-vacuum region will undergo inflation. An observer in the exterior true-vacuum region will describe the system as a black hole, while an observer in the interior will describe a closed universe which completely disconnects from the original spacetime. We suggest that this mechanism is likely to lead to an instability of Minkowski space: a region of space might undergo a quantum fluctuation into the false-vacuum state, evolving into an isolated closed universe; the black hole which remains in the original space would disappear by quantum evaporation. The formation of these isolated closed universes may also be relevant to the question of information loss in black-hole formation.

Do-It-Yourself Universes

Do-It-Yourself Universes

Economic Hard Times and Public Library Use:

This research examines the librarians' rule of thumb which suggests that public library use increases during economic hard times. A report of British research by Warr and Payne is men- tioned to show that American response to economic stringency does not mirror British behavior regarding similar stimuli. Research find- ings from the American study indicate that a stringent test of the librarians' axiom reveals no significant relationship between library use and the economy. A more relaxed interpretation of the data sug- gests a positive relationship between library cards in force and local unemployment rates but a negative relationship behveen circulation figures and local inflation rates. Overall, the study uncovers no com- pelling data to support the librarians' axiom.

The Relationship between Local Economic Conditions and the Use of Public Libraries

For more than one hundred years librarians have used a rule of thumb that suggests that public library use increases during economic hard times. This study examines literature supporting that claim and investigates the accuracy of the assertion. Findings suggest that a stringent test of this axiom shows no significant relationship between library use and the economy. A less rigorous interpretation of the data indicates a positive relationship between library cards in force and local unemployment rates but a negative relationship between circulation figures and local inflation rates. Overall, the research uncovers no compelling data to support the librarians' axiom, and the report suggests the need for further research using variables other than those considered in this study.

Price Shocks and the Components of Urban Inflation

In a previous study of US city inflation, I emphasized the temporal regularities of urban price inflation. But, despite these identified regularities, it is apparent that the process of inflation is rarely so regular and so systematic. Unanticipated shocks in three components, energy food, and housing, dominate the post-1950 record of US inflation. Analysis of specific events and the patterns of local inflation in these three components reveals that food shocks and, to a lesser extent, energy price shocks have had relatively even spatial repercussions. However, it is also apparent that housing price inflation has varied considerably over space and time. Even so, it is still plausible that national price inflation is a fair approximation for local inflation.

Does Inflation Vary between Cities?

Apart from occasional anecdotal observation, there has been little systematic study of the patterns of local inflation. The strongest theoretical argument is that local price inflation should be no different from national inflation. Alternatively, it has been suggested that spatial price equilibrium is implausible and that spatial price interdependence is more likely. Quarterly data for some sixteen large US urban areas over the period 1950–1980, are analyzed via stochastic time-series models. It is concluded in this paper that, although inflation does vary, if only slightly, between cities and with respect to the nation, in some instances national inflation may fairly represent local inflation.

Porphyry Copper Deposits of Southwest Pacific-Discovery and Development: ABSTRACT

In the Southwest Pacific, extending from the Philippines south, economic porphyry copper deposits are known in the Philippines, Sabah, Irian Jaya, Papua, and Bougainville. Other deposits, either uneconomic under present conditions or not yet proved to be economic, are known in Sulawesi, New Guinea highlands, New Britain, New Ireland, Manus, Guadalcanal, Fiji, eastern Queensland and New South Wales, and New Zealand. The economic deposits are associated with Tertiary to late Quaternary intrusives of the western rim of the Circum-Pacific mobile belts, including the major west-northwest offset trending through the Solomons and New Guinea to Sulawesi. The first significant mining opportunity was recognized in the Philippines in the mid 1950s. Since the early 1960s the rate of discovery and development of these deposits has increased rapidly as a result of a deliberate search in favorable geologic environments. Favorable conditions of terrain and rainfall, and the size of the deposits have made geochemical stream-sediment sampling an ideal technique for exploration and delineation of porphyry coppers. To varying extents in different parts of the region, remoteness, rugged terrain, high rainfall, shortage of skilled workers, shortage of local capital, and rapidly evolving political institutions have influenced the evaluation and development of these deposits. Because of the large scale of the projects, their location, and the generally low-grade ore, economic evaluation has been expensive and has been carried out with great care. Porphyry copper projects are capital intensive and therefore investors require confidence in the political future. Such projects can produce quick economic benefits to a developing country, such as capital inflow, export income, government revenue, and improved opportunities for employment and training. They can lead also to economic distortions such as local inflation and drawing away of the few skilled workers from other parts of the country. The social and political impact of establishing a porphyry copper project in an underdeveloped community can be immense because of the requirement for access roads, the highly technical nature of the operations, introduction of expatriate workers, requirement for significant land areas, and extraction of natural resources. The long-term success of any project will depend on the understanding with which such problems are handled by both the operating company and the host government. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1433------------