January 2, 2006 Abstract The profitability of owning slaves has been a popular area of research in economic history. Existing analyses have focused on estimating the rate of return on slaves and presenting rates of return on other available antebellum investments. Modern stockportfolio performance measures allow us to rank the owning on slaves with other investments of the period over an extend...

BACKGROUND There is considerable international research regarding the link between human demographics and pet ownership. In several international studies, pet ownership was associated with household demographics including: the presence of children in the household, urban/rural location, level of education and age/family structure. What is lacking across all these studies, however, is an underst...

OBJECTIVES (1) Determine the frequency of gun ownership, acquisition, and transfer; (2) assess gun storage practices; and (3) compare the views of firearm owning and non-owning adults regarding the protective value of keeping a gun in the home. SETTING AND METHODS Over three different time periods (1995, 1996, and 1999) stratified, random digit telephone surveys were conducted in a five count...

OBJECTIVE To estimate and predict changes in the cat population of Australian households from 1979 to 2005. METHOD Telephone surveys were used to estimate Australia's total household cat population for each year from 1979 to 1999. A simple mathematical model based on population characteristics in 1995 was used to predict future population changes to 2005. Estimates and predictions for 1996 to...