Whether deserved on not, US Presidents often receive the blame or the credit for the nature of the economy and direction of the country. Therefore, the status of the economy and the country in an election year can be a very important factor in election success for an incumbent President (or his party if an incumbent is not running). This is especially true in 'battleground states' due to the presence of the Electoral College system where Presidential candidates need only win different combinations of states in order to become President. However, the 2020 Presidential election was vastly different from past election cycles in that an additional variable, COVID-19, was added to the decision calculus of voters. Eventually, the 2020 election came down to the extremely slim margins in three states (Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin) and thin margins in two others (Pennsylvania and Michigan). This paper shows that deaths from COVID-19 at the county level played a small role in demotivating voters to turnout in 2020 to cast their vote for Joe Biden as President. In other words, without Covid-19, President Trump's losses within these five states would have been even larger.

The Supreme Court instructs that the most important consideration in analyzing fair use is the effect on the market for the original. Employing music sales data, this article presents evidence of digital sampling's effect on the sales of sampled songs. Our results indicate that a reassessment of fair use in the area of music sampling is needed since sales of sampled songs increased after being repurposed within new songs. These results are robust and highly statistically significant. Findings of this nature favor a judicial determination that sampling constitutes a fair use, even when considering the influence that a new work has on extant licensing markets for sample clearance. This article argues that the current sample–licensing market is a product of aberrant antisampling case law arising from a lack of relevant empirical data and nonutilitarian judicial opinions. As set forth herein, the goal of encouraging creative activity without hindering copyright owners’ capacity to financially gain from their work is served by implementing a limited presumption of fair use for sampling. The findings are further applicable outside of the fair use analysis, as the study is important in the private law when viewed through a law and strategy lens. Forward thinking music firms should reframe their approach by encouraging sampling of their works to secure cost‐free advertising and achieve a competitive advantage.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the economic impact from dark-sky tourism in national parks in the USA on the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is a region encompassing parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah that is known for its dark, star-filled night skies. Tourists in national parks are increasingly interested in observing this natural recreational amenity – especially considering that it is an ecological amenity that is quickly disappearing from the planet. Using a 10-year forecast of visitors to the national parks and using standard input-output modeling, it is observed that, for the first time anywhere, the value of dark skies to tourism in this area. The authors find that non-local tourists who value dark skies will spend $5.8bn over the next 10 years in the Colorado Plateau. These tourist expenditures will generate $2.4bn in higher wages and create over 10,000 additional jobs each year for the region. Furthermore, as dark skies are even more intense natural amenity in the non-summer months, they have the ability to increase visitor counts to national parks year-round and lead to a more efficient use of local community and tourism-related resources throughout the year. Design/methodology/approach Using a 10-year forecast of visitors to the national parks and using standard input-output modeling, we find that non-local tourists who value dark skies will spend $5.8bn over the next 10 years in the Colorado Plateau. Findings These tourist expenditures will generate $2.4bn in higher wages and create over 10,000 additional jobs each year for the region. Furthermore, as dark skies are even more intense natural amenity in the non-summer months, they have the ability to increase visitor counts to national parks year-round and lead to a more efficient use of local community and tourism-related resources throughout the year. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has attempted to value the environmental amenity of dark skies.

Between 2004 and 2009 it is estimated that over 30 billion songs were downloaded illegally on different peer-to-peer sharing networks according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In an attempt to stop this during the late 1990’s and early 2000s the RIAA and other music labels engaged in a very public and vigorous campaign of prosecution of firms, such as Napster and Limewire, for copyright violations in order to reduce piracy. Due to the public backlash, in late 2008 the RIAA announced that they would begin to stop litigation on a grand scale. This paper examines the impact that this model of piracy prosecution had on music sales. We find evidence that the RIAA’s model of litigation actually backfired and led to decreased legitimate album sales. Additionally, we find that variation in per capita seasonally adjusted album sales cannot be explained by the existence of both Limewire and Napster file sharing services.

This Article presents an empirical study of digital sampling’s effect on the sales of sampled songs and — based on the collected data — argues that a reassessment of fair use in this area is needed. To conduct the research, a group of previously sampled songs was identified and sales information for these works collected. The analysis found, to a 99.99% degree of statistical significance, sales of sampled songs increased after being repurposed in a new work. The Supreme Court instructs that the most important consideration in analyzing fair use is the effect on the market for the original. Evaluating a set of songs sampled by works appearing in the Billboard Music Year End Charts for 2006-2015 found increases in sales for the earlier works post-sampling. These gains were enhanced where the sample included lyrics from the original or was pervasively used throughout the new song. Findings of this nature favor judicial determination that sampling constitutes a fair use (and thus no license is needed), but they are not conclusive. In evaluating fair use, courts must also review the influence that a new work has on extant licensing markets to create derivatives of the original. Thus, to the extent a market for licensing copyrighted songs properly exists, influence on this market should be considered in addressing sampling and fair use. This paper argues that the current sample-licensing market is a product of aberrant anti-sampling caselaw and a want of relevant information (such as the data in this study) which incented risk-averse actors to purchase unnecessary licenses. Evaluating digital sampling and copyright law through this lens warrants a whole-cloth review of whether the practice is a fair use. Based on evidence provided herein, this article asserts that sampling should be a presumptive fair use in certain instances that maximize the new work’s capacity to increase sales of the original. Such a presumption furthers the goal of encouraging creative activity without hindering the copyright owner’s capacity to financially gain from their work. Lastly, while the genesis of this investigation was application of the fair use doctrine to sampling, the findings are applicable outside this limited purpose. The article applies its results in the realm of private law through a law and strategy lens. Forward thinking music firms should reframe their approach to sample licensing to achieve a competitive advantage. This goal can be achieved by deviating from the norm of zealous sample policing, and instead offering costless sample licenses to maximize the free advertising and increased sales associated with therewith.

This work investigates the monetary value that people assign towards reducing light pollution in their hometown and in US national parks.Light pollution commonly refers to excessive or obtrusive artificial light caused by bad lighting design.Light pollution generates significant costs including negative impacts on wildlife, human health, astronomy, and wasted energy.The current work uses a contingent valuation method to determine the amount of damages that the public experiences from light pollution.The data is from surveys administered in four US national parks.We find that the more exposure and familiarity people have with light pollution, the more they are willing to pay to moderate it.Furthermore, approximately 50 percent of people surveyed were willing to pay some positive amount to reduce light pollution.

This paper uses a unique US dataset to study the economic causes of light pollution at the local (county) level. Light pollution has been shown to have negative consequences for both wildlife and humans. Light pollution is a form of pollution commonly ignored by environmental professionals. Traditionally, light-pollution models focus on population-based explanations. This paper confirms the importance of population in understanding light pollution. However, the results highlight the importance of economic variables, especially local economic development, in explaining the existence and extent of light pollution. Estimated models show, for example, that local employment patterns, personal income, roads and energy use are all important explanatory variables. By highlighting the connections between light pollution and specific types of local economic activity, this paper provides policy makers with additional information that they can use to improve public policies intended to safeguard the environment and local wildlife.

This paper examines the construction and implementation of a regional transferable discharge permit system for phosphorus runoff from agricultural-related sources. The impact on behavior at the firm level is also examined. Results indicate that firms may respond to binding environmental constraints by both engaging in the trade of discharge permits and decreasing the output that can cause phosphorus runoff. The criticisms within the literature of building transferable discharge permit systems that ignore transactions costs are also addressed.

The development of low income housing projects can provide both social and economic benefits to a state. As an economic engine, low income housing projects provide construction jobs and positively impacts long term employment. This paper examines the specific impact investments in low income housing projects and associated tax credits.

This paper is the first analysis of the economic factors of global light pollution. Light pollution commonly refers to excessive or obtrusive artificial light caused by bad lighting design. Light pollution generates significant costs including negative impacts on wildlife, health, astronomy, and wasted energy—which in the U.S. amounts to nearly 7billion dollars annually. Current scientific models of light pollution are purely population based. The current paper utilizes unique remote sensing data and economic data from the World Bank to quantify the economic causes of light pollution globally. Fractional logit models show that, similar to other types of pollution, both population and GDP are significant explanatory variables.

This article charts the changing use of particular textiles for bed and wall hangings by the 'middling sort' in London between 1660 and 1725, using some 1470 inventories of City freemen, filed in the Court of Orphans. It also tracks the, sometimes surprisingly dramatic, changes in colour preference. Both the materials and colour are then compared with data on bourgeois interiors in Paris. Having established what choices were made, the questions of how and why they were made are explored, including a discussion of certain economic, technological, social and cultural factors that may have influenced such decisions.

This is a draft document for discussion and debate within the research team working on the MoE-funded project on Innovative Assessment in H.E. in New Zealand in 2007. The plan outlines roles, discussion of themes and categories as well as workload for each team member.

The LATD gene of the model legume, Medicago truncatula, is required for the normal function of three meristems, i.e. the primary root, lateral roots and nitrogen-fixing nodules. In latd mutants, primary root growth eventually arrests, resulting in a disorganized root tip lacking a presumptive meristem and root cap columella cells. Lateral root organs are more severely affected; latd lateral roots and nodules arrest immediately after emerging from the primary root, and reveal a lack of organization. Here we show that the plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), can rescue the latd root, but not nodule, meristem defects. Growth on ABA is sufficient to restore formation of small, cytoplasm-rich cells in the presumptive meristem region, rescue meristem organization and root growth and formation of root cap columella cells. In contrast, inhibition of ethylene synthesis or signaling fails to restore latd primary root growth. We find that latd mutants have normal levels of ABA, but exhibit reduced sensitivity to the hormone in two other ABA-dependent processes: seed germination and stomatal closure. Together, these observations demonstrate that the latd mutant is defective in the ABA response and indicate a role for LATD-dependent ABA signaling in M. truncatula root meristem function.

Plant hormones interact at many different levels to form a network of signaling pathways connected by antagonistic and synergistic interactions. Ethylene and jasmonic acid both act to regulate the plant's responsiveness to a common set of biotic stimuli. In addition ethylene has been shown to negatively regulate the plant's response to the rhizobial bacterial signal, Nod factor. This regulation occurs at an early step in the Nod factor signal transduction pathway, at or above Nod factor-induced calcium spiking. Here we show that jasmonic acid also inhibits the plant's responses to rhizobial bacteria, with direct effects on Nod factor-induced calcium spiking. However, unlike ethylene, jasmonic acid not only inhibits spiking but also suppresses the frequency of calcium oscillations when applied at lower concentrations. This effect of jasmonic acid is amplified in the ethylene-insensitive mutant skl, indicating an antagonistic interaction between these two hormones for regulation of Nod factor signaling. The rapidity of the effects of ethylene and jasmonic acid on Nod factor signaling suggests direct crosstalk between these three signal transduction pathways. This work provides a model by which crosstalk between signaling pathways can rapidly integrate environmental, developmental and biotic stimuli to coordinate diverse plant responses.

The Illinois River Basin in eastern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas is an example of a region where significant growth in poultry production has been accompanied by water quality problems. The primary concern in the basin is the problem of phosphorus in runoff that is associated with application of litter to crops. Existing data suggest that there has been a continuing decline in the quality of water in the Illinois River, and discussions have focused on developing and implementing a phosphorus standard. The specific objectives of this study are to estimate the reduction in poultry production necessary to achieve the reduction in phosphorus runoff under a set of phosphorus constraints, including soil test phosphorus, and to estimate the opportunity costs of reducing poultry production in the basin under each phosphorus constraint on the economic activity in the watershed. A mathematical programming model that incorporates poultry production and cropping decisions is developed. The parameters for the model are identified and then it is solved to provide a base solution. Model solutions are then developed for the different policy target levels of phosphorus. The model structure is modified to account for the presence of soil test phosphorus levels and the corresponding limits on soil test phosphorus throughout the basin. This formulation includes current soil test phosphorus throughout the basin. All of the applications assume that the only disposal option for poultry litter is land application within the basin. An economic impact assessment of the effects of phosphorus limitations in the basin is also conducted for Arkansas counties only, Oklahoma counties only, and all five affected counties combined.

This paper uses a logit model to test whether voters will alter their support for incumbents in state level elections, specifically gubernatorial and state house and senate elections, when local (i.e., county) economic conditions are observed. The results signify that voters do hold the incumbent party responsible for economic conditions. Furthermore, voters tend to place more emphasis on unemployment levels than on real personal income indicating that incumbent politicians might want to engage in policies that put people to work rather than on policies that raise income. The results also suggest that voters did not hold their state house and senate representative as responsible for local economic conditions as they did the governor.