Steven H Bullard

Input substitution, economies of scale and productivity growth in the US upholstered furniture industry

Cost, factor demand and productivity growth are considered in the upholstered furniture industry over 1958–87. Factors are divided into labour, capital and materials. It is found that all inputs are substitutes in production although substitution elasticities are small. Factor demand is price-inelastic for all inputs. The industry operates around minimum average cost. Productivity growth is small but significant. The results indicate that labour will continue to be important in the industry. However, regional comparative advantage is not related to labour alone; the results suggest that policies to attract or retain the industry must consider the low degree of factor substitution.

Modeling Landowner Participation in a Proposed Reforestation Loan Program

The absence of available credit to finance reforestation investments among NIPF landowners has been one of the contributing reasons why landowners do not reforest after harvest. Financial assistance programs are therefore a solution to initiating reforestation investments. However, previous studies indicate many landowners are not actively participating in existing government assistance programs. This paper examines reforestation loans as an alternative financial assistance program. Landowner participation in a proposed reforestation loan program is modeled using logistic regression. Results indicate that landowner participation in the program is influenced by ownership size, socio-demographic characteristics, and availability of other forestry incentive and assistance programs.

Perceived values of benefits from Mississippi's forestry Best Management Practices

Numerous studies in the United States have shown that, in addition to accomplishing their primary objective of preventing or reducing non-point source (NPS) pollution, silvicultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) provide additional direct and indirect benefits. These benefits are valuable to a host of forestry-related groups because they improve forest habitat, improve the publics perception of the timber industry, and increase the overall value of the timber asset. In an effort to gauge the perceived value that forestry-related groups place on BMPs, Mississippi non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners (n=63), forestry consultants (n=30), and timber industry professionals (n=8) were surveyed using a combination of in-person, telephone interviews, and mail surveys in spring 2001. Each group was asked to rank 35 potential benefits from 1 to 5 (1 being least beneficial; 5 being most beneficial) according to their perceived value of the benefit. Results showed little variation in the overall mean response for all benefits among groups. In general, all groups assigned a ranking of average, more beneficial, or most beneficial to 31 of 35 (88%) potential benefits. Results indicated that, although these groups may have differing perceptions of the value of some benefits, all have a largely positive perception of the potential benefits from BMPs.

Impacts of Southern oak seedling survival on investment returns in Mississippi

Abstract Increasingly, landowners are establishing hardwood plantations to satisfy their land management goals. Unfortunately, little is known about how competition control affects initial seedling survival and subsequent investment returns for hardwood plantations. This study examines five alternative competition control regimes for southern oak establishment. The regimes include no site preparation, disking only, sub-soiling with rotary mowing, herbicides only, and herbicides with rotary mowing and sub-soiling. The analysis includes both before— and after-tax estimates of land expectation value (LEV) for comparing alternatives. Our results suggest that greater returns can be achieved for southern oak plantations in Mississippi during both good and bad rainfall years using herbicides only or herbicides with rotary mowing and sub-soiling for competition control. Applying intensive competition control during the first year yields after-tax LEVs of

Endocidal Regulation of Secondary Metabolites in the Producing Organisms.

577.64 to

A note on equivalence in ranking investments

691.66 per hectare despite precipitation levels. Not applying competition control yields after-tax LEVs from

Potential reasons for publicly funded forestry research as reflected in the U.S.A. experience

84.43 to

A spatial analysis of the forestry industries in East Texas

502.06 per hectare.

Present net worth and internal rate of return: A note on equivalence in use

Secondary metabolites are defined as organic compounds that are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, and reproduction of an organism. They are widely believed to be responsible for interactions between the producing organism and its environment, with the producer avoiding their toxicities. In our experiments, however, none of the randomly selected 44 species representing different groups of plants and insects can avoid autotoxicity by its endogenous metabolites once made available. We coined the term endocides (endogenous biocides) to describe such metabolites that can poison or inhibit the parent via induced biosynthesis or external applications. Dosage-dependent endocides can selectively induce morphological mutations in the parent organism (e.g., shrubbiness/dwarfism, pleiocotyly, abnormal leaf morphogenesis, disturbed phyllotaxis, fasciated stems, and variegation in plants), inhibit its growth, development, and reproduction and cause death than non-closely related species. The propagule, as well as the organism itself contains or produces adequate endocides to kill itself.

Timber harvesting technology: Environmental and site preparation costs

Present net worth, benefit/cost, and internal rate of return are considered for ranking investments. In some cases, rankings can be contradictory, and the investment criterion can influence inter‐project allocations. There are situations, however, when ranking equivalence is assured. In this article, conditions for equivalence in ranking investments are presented using simple graphics and algebra. The conditions are restrictive, and can be effective in demonstrating the need for discretion in selecting an economic criterion for evaluating investments.