This paper examines how certain new structural factors have contributed to the latest great financial crisis and world recession of 2008-09. We focus on three of these structural factors: (i) the incorporation of highly populated countries into the growth process; (ii) The increasing scarcity of...

As part of an economic survey of Maryland registered boat owners, an open ended contingent valuation question was posed regarding willingness to pay for an improvement in water quality in Chesapeake Bay. The boaters ranked their perception of water quality on a scale of one to five, and the...

We estimate that crabmeat industry revenues from processing sponge crabs can increase by at least 56% over the current estimated value of production, from $1.6 million to $2.5 million. This gain can be realized by moving from the current fixed opening of the season during which the Maryland...

Exploration of an exhaustible resource with cost recovery under asymmetric information about cost is modeled and analyzed employing Principal-Agent theory. Allocation of lower than full information level of effort for the high-cost firms is found socially optimal. However, distortion is less in...

When manure nutrients exceed a county's cropland assimilative capacity, the potential for water quality problems exists. Concerns about water quality have led to the passage of the Water Quality Improvement Act in Maryland which will impact the disposal of poultry litter on cropland. Forest...

This paper characterizes the optimal use of sanitary and phytosanitary standards to prevent the introduction of harmful pests and diseases through international trade. Because established pest and disease infestations grow and spread over time their introduction has intertemporal consequences....