Abstract. Exposure of livestock grazing to forage productivity variation and to market fluctuations affects the risk of investment and returns from cow-calf operations, but little work has been done to empirically compare these returns to the returns that would be demanded by financial markets from assets with similar risk and return characteristics. This study uses historical forage production data from three rangeland locations in California, and cattle and hay prices, to simulate financial statements for three hypothetical cow-calf producers in the period 1988–2007.

Abstract. Economic voting studies remain contentious in Spain. The notion is widely-held that there is no economic vote in that country, due to the pervasive and effacing influences of left-right ideology. Still, a growing number of investigations show a significant impact of economic evaluation on the vote choice in Spanish national elections. At least one possible exception here is the 2008 election, where the question has received no systematic treatment. In this study, we explore the impact of economic voting in that contest.

Abstract. This paper analyzes empirically whether expansion of a university system affects local industry innovation. We examine how the opening of new university schools in Italy during 1985–2000 affected regional innovation. We find that creation of new schools increased regional innovation activity already within five years. On average, an opening of a new school has led to a seven percent change in the number of patents filed by regional firms.