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This paper examines whether and how survey respondents react to spatial factors in stated preference surveys, and the ways in which preferences for spatial factors may influence welfare estimation. Alternative proposals to develop rural lands for residential purposes in southern New England were studied. Results illustrate that spatial attributes can influence estimated willingness to pay for development plans, even in cases where spatial attributes are only presented as cartographic details of maps used to clarify survey scenarios. Moreover, we find that subtle, and potentially unintended, spatial features presented in choice questions may influence marginal valuation of non-spatial attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his seminal work on common property resources, H. Scott Gordon proposed that in a fishery with multiple grounds, effort would be distributed such that profit rates would he equal among them. Gordon's model relies on implicit assumptions that are inaccurate and lead to false conclusions in many cases. In this paper, we present an empirically estimated model of fishery and location choice for large trawlers in New England using a random-utility framework with a nested-logit model specification. We use the model to test the validity of a behavioral model developed from ethnographic interviews with skippers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comment on a previous article New England Power Economics, by Roy G. Poulsen that appeared in the August 1965 issue of the journal Land Economics. According to the author, this article describes prospective improvements in electricity supply and costs in New England and looks forward to the time, not too far in the future, when atomic energy for utility generating plants will be widely used in the Northeast, and New England at long last will have a power source no more costly to the region than to any other part of the nation and its competitive power cost disadvantage will come to an end. The Poulsen paper learns heavily, as of course it must, on statements by utilities and their executives about future plans for larger, more efficient conventional and nuclear regeneration. According to the author, the reason for the present high level of electric rates in New England lies not solely in fuel cost. The fixed costs of operation and maintenance, depreciation, taxes and rate of return as well as the magnitude of the unit investment per customer and per kilowatt must be examined in depth before one can be sure of the reasons for the present situation.

The presence of sticky labor has important implications for efficient fisheries management since it affects the social opportunity cost of labor employed in the fishing industry, a critical determinant of the optimal level of resources that should be devoted to the fishery. Moreover, labor stickiness is a long-term problem, and it is becoming more severe in New England's largest ports. While the finding of growing labor stickiness is important, kinship and other labor market institutions are also leading to the development of several distinct margins of adjustment to change in the industry. As a result, it can no longer be assumed that the least efficient labor is released first from the industry or that adjustment patterns will be similar in all ports. Finally, this paper underscores the importance of linking fisheries management policy with port economic development. The types of alternative onshore jobs available to fishermen can affect the stickiness of fisheries labor and thus its social opportunity cost. The more compatible the skill requirements and wages of onshore jobs with the skills and earnings of fishermen, the more readily they would move to onshore jobs in the event of a decline in catch and therefore the greater the social opportunity cost of fishing labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comment on a previous article by Edwin Fleischmann in response to author's article New England Power Economics that appeared in the August 1965 issue of the journal Land Economics. According to the author, Fleischmann expresses concern about the use of Federal Power Commission (FPC) data to substantiate the argument that New England power costs are higher than in other parts of the country. He quotes the FPC qualification that this presentation of typical electric bills does not include a critical evaluation of many factors, which operate to produce differences in the level of bills. According to the author, it was atomic electric plants as expressed in the Land Economics article that New England electric rates would most significantly bring down his belief. The six new atomic plants under construction or planned for New England by 1972 show utility acceptance of the atomic promise. Furthermore, the growth of the nuclear capacity will have important indirect effects.