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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Kahil, Mohamed Taher; Albiac, Jose; Dinar, Ariel |
| Abstract: | Water scarcity is a critical environmental issue worldwide, especially in arid and semiarid regions. In those regions, climate change projections suggest further reductions in freshwater supplies and increases of the recurrence, longevity and intensity of drought events. At present, one important question for policy debate is the identification of water management policies that could address the mounting water scarcity problems. Suitable policies should improve economic efficiency, achieve environmental sustainability, and meet equity needs. This paper applies an integrated hydro-economic model that links a reduced form hydrological component, with economic and environmental components to such issues. The model is used to make a direct comparison of three water management alternatives, water markets, water pricing and institutional policies, based on their economic, environmental and equity outcomes. The analysis is performed in the Jucar Basin of Spain, which is a good natural experiment for studying the policies to confront water scarcity and climate change. Results indicate that both institutional and water market policies are good instruments to smooth the economic damage costs of droughts, achieving almost the same social benefits. However, the environmental effects of water markets are worrying. Another important finding is that water pricing is the worst policy option not only in terms of private and environmental benefits but also in terms of equity. |
| Keywords: | Water scarcity, Climate change, Water policies, Hydro-economic modeling, Economic and environmental benefits, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:spcita:206460&r=env |
| By: | Biggs, E. M.; Boruff, B.; Bruce, E.; Duncan, J. M. A.; Haworth, B. J.; Duce, S.; Horsley, J.; Curnow, Jayne; Neef, A.; McNeill, K.; Pauli, N.; Van Ogtrop, F.; Imanari, Y. |
| Keywords: | Environmental sustainability Environmental management Ecological factors Biodiversity Living standards Water security Energy conservation Food security Climate change Temperature Precipitation Cyclones Agriculture Farmland Demography Urbanization Sociocultural environment Gender Community management Institutions Political aspects Remote sensing Natural disasters Monitoring Sustainable development, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iwmirp:201005&r=env |
| By: | Baldos, Uris Lantz C.; Hertel, Thomas W.; Fuglie, Keith O. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Mitigation, Climate Change Adaptation, Total Factor Productivity Growth, Agricultural R&D Investments, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205747&r=env |
| By: | Cai, Yongxia; Beach, Robert H. |
| Abstract: | Maintaining and improving future food and energy security poses key challenges globally, especially in the face of climate change and climate mitigation. a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model -- the Applied Dynamic Analysis of the Global Economy model focusing on agriculture and land use (ADAGE-ALU), is used to examine how the global economy, especially energy, agriculture and land use, responds when facing these challenges. Despite continued increases in land productivity and energy efficiency in future decades, the effects of population and economic growth would dominate, leading to global increases in agricultural production, but also rising food and energy prices as well as continually growing GHG emissions in the BAU scenario. Comparing the climate change scenario with the BAU scenario, there are substantial reductions in global crop production and significant further increases in food prices, but little change in fossil fuel and biofuel production and energy prices, and only mild increases in CO2 emissions due to land-use changes. Relative to the BAU case, the implementation of a carbon tax on emissions other than those from land use change leads to the expansion of global biofuel production and a shift in the mix of crops produced towards those used as biofuels feedstocks, raises food prices, and reduces oil consumption and price slightly. Meanwhile, GHG emissions are slightly reduced as a result of lower oil consumption. In the REDD scenario, some cropland is afforested to store carbon, leading to a moderate rise in food and energy prices and significant GHG emission reductions. When climate change, REDD scenarios are implemented together, we see even higher reductions in global crop production and larger food price increases, along with greater reduction in GHG emissions compared with the CC scenario. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205717&r=env |
| By: | Klotz, Richard; Gurung, Ram; Ogle, Stephen; Paustian, Keith; Sheehan, John; Bento, Antonio M. |
| Abstract: | If emissions from a sector are unobservable, direct emissions policies are unlikely to be extended to this sector. However, alternative policies based on observable quantities may be able to reduce emissions from the unregulated source at costs similar to a first-best policy. This paper evaluates the costs of policy instruments for reducing GHG emissions from cropland agriculture, a large source of emissions that are unobservable, using an integrated biophysical and economic model. Results suggest that policies regulating readily observable quantities can reduce agricultural N2O emissions at costs approaching those of the unavailable emissions tax. However, alternative policies with costs similar to the emissions tax may have considerably different impacts on agricultural sector profit |
| Keywords: | climate policy, mitigation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q54, Q58, Q15, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205808&r=env |
| By: | Huang, Jin; Divita, Frank; Belova, Anna; Dorn, Jonathan |
| Keywords: | Climate change, health effect, ozone, valuation, unit value, willingness-to-pay, cost-of-illness, mortality, morbidity, NAAQS, attainment cost, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205627&r=env |
| By: | Claassen, Roger; Langpap, Christian; Wu, JunJie |
| Abstract: | This paper integrates economic and physical models to assess how federal crop revenue insurance programs might affect land use, cropping systems, and environmental quality in the U.S. Corn Belt region. The empirical framework includes econometric models that predict land conversion, crop choices, and crop rotations at the parcel-level based on expectation and variance of crop revenues, land quality, climate conditions, and physical characteristics at each site. The predictions are then combined with site-specific environmental production functions to determine the effect of revenue insurance on nitrate runoff and leaching, soil water and wind erosion, and carbon sequestration. Results suggest that crop insurance will have small impacts on conversions of non-cropland to cropland, and somewhat more significant impacts on crop choice. These changes in crop mix have small impacts on agricultural pollution. |
| Keywords: | Crop Insurance, Revenue Insurance, Crop Choice, Environmental Quality, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty, Q18, Q28, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205340&r=env |
| By: | Winchester, Niven; Reilly, John M. |
| Abstract: | What will large-scale global bioenergy production look like? We investigate this question by developing a detailed representation of bioenergy in a global economy-wide model. We develop a scenario with a global carbon dioxide price, applied to all anthropogenic emissions except those from land-use change, that rises from $15 per metric ton in 2015 to $59 in 2050. This creates market conditions favorable to biomass energy, resulting in global non-traditional bioenergy production of ~150 exajoules (EJ) in 2050. By comparison, in 2010 global energy production was primarily from coal (139 EJ), oil (175 EJ) and gas (108 EJ). With this policy, 2050 emissions are 16% less in our Base Policy case than our Reference case, although extending the scope of the carbon price to include emissions from land-use change would reduce 2050 emissions by 57% relative to the same baseline. Our results from various policy scenarios show that lignocellulosic (LC) ethanol may become the major form of bioenergy, if its production costs fall by amounts predicted in a recent survey and ethanol blending constraints disappear by 2030; however, if its costs remain higher than expected or the ethanol blend wall continues to bind, bioelectricity and bioheat may prevail. Higher LC ethanol costs may also result in expanded production of first-generation biofuels (ethanol from sugarcane and corn) so that they remain in the fuel mix through 2050. Deforestation occurs if emissions from landuse change are not priced, although the availability of biomass residues and improvements in crop yields and conversion efficiencies mitigate pressure on land markets. As regions are linked via international agricultural markets, irrespective of the location of bioenergy production, natural forest decreases are largest in regions with the lowest political constraints to deforestation. The combination of carbon price and bioenergy production increases food prices by 2.6%–4.7%, with bioenergy accounting for 1.3%–2.6%. |
| Keywords: | Bioenergy, climate policy, land-use change, greenhouse gas emissions, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q24, Q42, Q54, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205106&r=env |
| By: | Zhou, You |
| Keywords: | freight emission, passenger emission, highway investment, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, R4, Q5, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205676&r=env |
| By: | P. Fabbri; A. Ninni |
| Keywords: | BRICS, environmental problems, energy |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:par:dipeco:2015-ep02&r=env |
| By: | Zuluaga, Victor; Labarta, Ricardo; Läderach, Peter |
| Abstract: | This article studies Nicaraguan coffee growers’ perceptions on long term changes in climate, the adaptation strategies implemented and its determinants. Using a household level sample, this study estimates probabilistic models where climate change adaptation is explained by household and farm characteristics, perceptions about changes in climate, measurement of exposure to climate change and geographical fixed effects. Results suggest that household age and years of education, number of household members, level of wealth, having received technical assistance, participation in farmer groups, off farm work, perceptions about changes in climate and exposure to climate change, affect the coffee growers’ decision to adapt to climate change. However, the magnitude and significance of the effect of these explanatory variables varies across adaptation strategies. |
| Keywords: | Adaptation, Climate Change, Nicaragua, Coffee, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Production Economics, Q12, Q18, Q54, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205875&r=env |
| By: | Osei, Edward; Li, Huijun |
| Abstract: | Appropriate manure nutrient utilization is a key conservation practice for minimizing nutrient loss to downstream waters. However, the environmental impact and the farm-level economic implications of manure management can vary significantly depending upon various field attributes such as soil type and chemical properties, topography, and weather. This study highlights the variability in environmental impacts of dairy manure management and the costs entailed in managing manure at phosphorus removal rates when compared with higher application rates |
| Keywords: | precision conservation, manure management, phosphorus, GIS, FEM, Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205899&r=env |
| By: | Hu, Lijiao |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how payments for carbon offsets and bioenergy impact the optimal management of hardwood forests under conditions of risk and price uncertainty that represents by the use of an E-V model. The results show that higher carbon price increases LEV and rotation age; fire risk decreases LEV and rotation age. |
| Keywords: | carbon sequestration, catastrophic risk, price uncertainty, Hartman model, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162566&r=env |
| By: | Mullen, Jeffrey D.; Bose, Aaron; Colson, Gregory; Magnan, Nicholas |
| Keywords: | Irrigation, DSSAT, Alabama, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205331&r=env |
| By: | Uetake, Tetsuya |
| Abstract: | Agriculture is a provider of food, feed, fibre and, to a certain extent, public goods. In order to secure the provision of agri-environmental public goods, some form of public intervention may be needed. Indeed, various agri-environmental policies are implemented in many countries. However, it is not clear which policy measures target which agri-environmental public goods, and identifying the appropriate policy mix for providing specific agri-environmental public goods is still open to debate. The study examines how policy measures target agri-environmental public goods in Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, and how they mix policies. Targeted agri-environmental public goods vary depending on the country. Regulations, agri-environmental payments and technical assistance in these countries target multiple agri-environmental public goods; while environmental taxes and tradable rights are used only for a limited number of agri-environmental public goods (e.g. water quantity). A complex set of policy measures in these countries also address the additionality of a policy measure, i.e. the extent to which the policy is a necessary condition for achieving the environmental target. Good policy mixes are key to providing agri-environmental public goods. This study can contribute to appropriate policy design for the delivery of agri-environmental public goods. |
| Keywords: | Public goods, Agri-environmental policies, Policy mixes, Additionality, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q15, Q18, Q58, |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc14:173041&r=env |
| By: | Holderieath, Jason; Slootmaker, Chris; Anderson, Aaron; Shwiff, Stephanie |
| Keywords: | feral swine, invasive species, spatio-temporal management, wild pig, levee, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:206198&r=env |
| By: | Galinato, Gregmar I.; Graciano, Tim A.; Zhao, Xin |
| Abstract: | This article shows how policies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in a polluting sector affect home-country welfare relative to the autarky case. We consider a welfare maximizing country who attracts FDI into a polluting sector, while accounting for environmental quality changes. The government sets the level of environmental regulation and public infrastructure. Foreign investors prefer good infrastructure quality and less environmental regulation. We show that under autarky, environmental regulations are increasing over infrastructure. However, with FDI, optimal environmental regulations may be a subsidy if the benefits from a wage increase outweigh the damages from pollution. Also, we find that if a country has very poor levels of infrastructure it is better off not allowing FDI to enter but as infrastructure quality increases, the result is reversed where welfare with FDI is higher than under autarky. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Regulations, Infrastructure, Welfare, Pollution Haven, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, F64, Q58, O44, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205092&r=env |
| By: | Fleming, Patrick; Lichtenberg, Erik; Newburn, David A. |
| Abstract: | Most evaluations of the impact of cost sharing policies designed to reduce non-point source pollution on water quality fail to incorporate behavioral responses, which are important because of the voluntary nature of these programs. In this article, a two-stage simultaneous equation approach is applied to data from a farmer survey to correct for voluntary self-selection into cost sharing programs, and account for substitution effects among conservation practices. The estimates obtained from the econometric model are linked with the Chesapeake Bay Program watershed model to estimate the change in abatement levels and marginal abatement costs for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment after considering non-additional adoption due to nonrandom enrollment, as well as potential indirect effects on other conservation practices. We find that policy scenarios which do not account for non-additional adoption significantly overestimate the abatement achieved by environmental incentive payments. Accounting for nonrandom enrollment increases the average marginal cost of abatement by between 37 and 85 percent across the state of Maryland. However, estimated indirect effects of cost sharing suggest the presence of “crowding in” of other practices, leading to greater abatement and lower costs, particularly for phosphorus and sediment. |
| Keywords: | multiple simultaneous equation models, water quality, abatement, environmental regulation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C31, C34, C54, Q53, Q58, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205762&r=env |
| By: | Crago, Christine L.; Stranlund, John K. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the optimal taxation of CO2 and its co-pollutants. While CO2 is a uniformly mixed stock pollutant, important CO2 co-pollutants like SO2, PM2.5 and PM10 are flow pollutants with spatially differentiated damages. Recent proposals have called for CO2 control that accounts for its effects on emissions of its co-pollutants, which implies that optimal CO2 taxes would have a spatial component. However we demonstrate that setting a CO2 tax that varies from its marginal damage is justified only if co-pollutants are regulated inefficiently. We demonstrate that the optimal CO2 tax deviates from the CO2 marginal damage across sources depending on the source-specific co-pollutant marginal damage, the level of inefficiency in the co-pollutant regulation, and the abatement cost interaction of the two pollutants. An alternative to adjusting CO2 policy to account for the inefficient regulation of a co-pollutant is to address the inefficiency directly by modifying the regulation of the co-pollutant. Since this approach is more efficient in general, we quantify the expected reduction in social costs from this regulation relative to adjusting CO2 taxes. With a simulation of CO2 and SO2 control from the U.S. power sector, we find that setting efficient taxes for both CO2 and SO2 provides a welfare gain that is likely to be many orders of magnitude greater than the gain from adjusting CO2 taxes to account for the inefficient regulation of SO2. |
| Keywords: | multiple pollutants, co-pollutants, carbon tax, SO2 tax, Environmental Economics and Policy, H23, Q53, Q58, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205594&r=env |
| By: | Kan, Iddo; Kimhi, Ayal; Kaminski, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a structural micro-econometric model of farmland allocation that is linked to a market-level equilibrium model. The farmland-allocation model accounts for the presence of corner solutions in land allocation decisions, which enables using micro-level data for the estimation, and thereby allows treating prices as exogenous. Under partial equilibrium in the markets of vegetative products, the integrated model is then used to simulate the impacts of climate change on production, prices, agricultural profits and consumer surplus, while making explicit the production responses of the micro units used for estimating the land allocation model. We apply the model to Israeli data, and evaluate the combined effects of climate-change and implementation of a less trade-distorting agricultural support policy; specifically, the removal of import tariffs. We obtain negative impacts of climate change on farm profits and consumer’s surplus. Also, trade liberalization increases the overall welfare loss. We show that this conclusion is reversed if the link between the micro- and market-level models fails to capture heterogeneous production responses, thereby yielding an erroneous policy recommendation with respect to trade liberalization. |
| Keywords: | climate change, adaptation, agricultural land use, structural analysis, agricultural support policies, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q15, Q18, Q11, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205128&r=env |
| By: | Li, Xiaoshu; Boyle, Kevin J.; Holmes, Thomas; LaRouche, Genevieve |
| Abstract: | Forest owners and environmental activists are two groups who actively influence the design of forest management policies. These interest groups have more knowledge and experience with the forest. However, these interest groups may not represent the preferences of the general public for forest management. In the research here we conduct a stated-preference survey to investigate if the preferences for forest management policies differ between two forest interest groups and the general public. And we provide an on-site treatment during the survey to check how the information about forest ecosystem got from an on-site experience would affect their preferences. The results show that the preferences are significantly different between each group in both the pretest survey and post-test survey. All their preferences have not significantly changed after the forest walk. |
| Keywords: | stated preferences, on-site experience, forest management, interest groups, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162619&r=env |
| By: | Black, Michael; Popp, Jennie; Sharpley, Andrew; Daniels, Mike |
| Abstract: | Efforts to control nonpoint source pollution (NPS) that impacts water quality have focused on conservation practices, also known as best management practices (BMPs). BMPs are voluntary, and therefore adoption rates vary due to availability of financial/technical assistance, environmental perceptions, and perception and knowledge of BMPs, among other things. This study looks at agricultural producers in the nutrient-rich Illinois River Watershed in Arkansas, and analyzes perception and adoption of BMPs. While differences between producer types existed, focusing educational/outreach efforts on demonstrating the existence of water quality issues may prove to be the most effective tool in increasing the adoption rates of BMPs in the watershed and improving water quality for downstream stakeholders. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205076&r=env |
| By: | Tantihkarnchana, Pitchayaporn; Galinato, Gregmar I. |
| Abstract: | This article estimates the amenity value from climate change by analyzing the effect of climatic variables on house prices near ski resorts in different regions in the United States using a hedonic model. We find that higher average winter temperatures tend to increase house price near ski resorts at a decreasing rate. Using the implicit value of average winter temperature, we estimate its demand and find that the crossing point temperature, where the homeowner’s consumer surplus from average winter temperature moves from positive to negative, varies in each region. The highest crossing point temperature is in the Western region at 46°F and lowest is in the Midwest at 8°F. Based on projections in the next 30 years, we find that the consumer surplus from average winter temperature for the median home owner is negative in the Midwest and Northeastern regions where the crossing point temperatures are lowest and it is positive for the West and Mountain regions where the crossing point temperatures are highest. The long run effect of climate change on homeowner’s consumer surplus is negative for all regions. |
| Keywords: | climate change, house price, ski resort, amenity value, hedonic price, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q51, Q54, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:202498&r=env |
| By: | Wang, Yanbing; Delgado, Michael; Khanna, Neha; Bogan, Vicki |
| Abstract: | We investigate the extent to which information regarding positive environmental activities undertaken by firms has the potential to influence environmental quality, and serve as a tool for regulation. In contrast to news of negative environmental performance, different types of positive environmental activities bear different signals to investors, which in turn implies that the ability of such information to augment regulation is not straightforward. We consider a range of positive environmental activities, and deploy a wide array of statistical tools to assess the impact of news regarding these activities to create financial incentives that may induce a firm to improve actual environmental quality. We find that the largest financial incentives regard self-made announcements of future activities, and bear the least credibility in terms of real environmental improvement. We consider the importance of related, potentially confounding events; differences between environmental disclosure and environmental performance; distributional impacts of public news; and endogeneity in news release. Our findings indicate positive environmental information is unlikely to augment environmental regulation. |
| Keywords: | environmental disclosure, environmental responsibility, financial incentives, information as regulation, positive environmental activities, media release, stock market value, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q50, Q58, G32, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205675&r=env |
| By: | Vlaeminck, Pieter; Jiang, Ting; Vranken, Liesbet |
| Abstract: | Using an incentive compatible field experiment, we investigate whether consumer attitudes translate into more corresponding environmentally friendly behaviour when one of the substantial barriers towards environmental food sustainability, i.e. low effectiveness of information provision, is removed. We develop multi-criteria environmental information cards and test their effectiveness in delivering and communicating information through an on-line choice experiment. The environmental information card that was found to be most effective in communicating information is then used in an experimental market and appears to have the potential to effectively steer consumers towards more environmentally friendly food purchases. When consumers shop in the experimental market with the most effective environmental information card installed, switching behaviour towards more environmentally friendly food products is observed. In addition, effective environmental information cards have the ability to increase the overall environmental friendliness of consumers’ food baskets. These findings highlight the potential for policy makers to enlarge the environmentally friendly consumer segment through the provision of easy-to-interpret and standardized environmental information. |
| Keywords: | Food Experimental Economics, Field Experiment, Environmental Information Provision, Consumer Behaviour, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, C93, D12, Q18, Q56, Q57, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:162425&r=env |
| By: | Zhong, Hua; Hu, Wuyang |
| Abstract: | Copyright 2014 by Hua Zhong and Wuyang Hu. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non‐commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. |
| Keywords: | best management practices, conservation programs, contingent valuation method, water quality trading, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q25, Q51, Q52, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162462&r=env |
| By: | Ricci, Elena Claire; Banterle, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | The interest for environmental sustainability is spreading at all levels: international and national government, firms, and consumers. At the same time, the role of consumers for tackling present global challenges is becoming more and more apparent. This work studies the role of individual characteristics – socio-demographic and personal concerns/beliefs – in determining environmentally-sustainable food choices in the context of Italy. Results are based on stated preferences collected via vis-a-vis interviews with 540 consumers in front of super and hypermarkets in Milan, Italy. Data are analysed by means of multilevel mixed-effects ordinal logistic regressions. Results indicate that the percentage of respondents that declare to buy products with a low environmental impact is about 44%, in line with Eurobarometer 2013 data for Italy. The analysis on the profile of these consumers suggests that socio-demographic conditions are less important than personal norms and values. In particular, income, household size and gender do not appear to be significant. Instead, more personal concerns/beliefs such as the concern for climate change and resource wastefulness, and the perceived effectiveness of own food consumption choices on the environment play an important role in influencing food choices. |
| Keywords: | Consumer Choices, Environmental Sustainability, Food labelling, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D12, Q13, Q56, |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa143:206317&r=env |
| By: | Boutwell, J. Luke; Westra, John |
| Abstract: | Coastal communities are highly sensitive to economic damage from tropical storms. Wetland restoration is often proposed as a measure of protection from storm damage. This paper investigates the relationship between coastal storms, wetlands and communities by analyzing storm events and resulting damages from storms making landfall in Louisiana. A factor analysis is used to describe the extent to which wetlands mitigate economic damages, and an assessment of factor scores suggest that there is a storm intensity threshold for mitigation provided by wetland ecosystems. |
| Keywords: | coastal, damage, factor analysis, hurricane, risk, storm surge, wetlands, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, Q24, Q54, Q56, Q57, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162509&r=env |
| By: | Jennifer Helgeson; Jane Ellis |
| Abstract: | Adaptation responses are needed to address the existing levels of climate variability and to prepare for future climate impacts. There is wide agreement that adaptation is an important issue and would benefit from being enhanced through more effective action and better planning. The prominence of adaptation in the UNFCCC negotiations has increased, in part as the scientific evidence has become clearer that climate change is occurring and its impacts are projected to grow in future. Efforts to enhance adaptation actions and increase resilience are thus expected to play a key role in the post-2020 climate agreement to be agreed at COP21 in December 2015. This paper explores how the 2015 agreement can help to foster enhanced policies and co-ordinate planning for greater resilience and adaptation capabilities at the national level. The paper considers the technical advantages and disadvantages of selected adaptation-related concepts that have been put forward in the negotiations. These include proposals for global or national goals; developing or improving adaptation institutions or planning; enhancing information availability; and facilitating or enhancing adaptation finance. Many of these proposals have the potential to improve sub-national, national and international planning about and responses to climate adaptation. However, the actual impact of these proposals is likely to vary significantly depending on how they are implemented on the ground.<P>Le rôle de l'accord de 2015 dans l'amélioration de l'adaptation au changement climatique<BR>Des mesures d’adaptation sont nécessaires pour répondre à la variabilité climatique actuelle et se préparer aux conséquences des évolutions à venir. De l’avis général, l’adaptation revêt une grande importance et gagnerait à être intensifiée en améliorant l’efficacité des mesures et la planification. L’adaptation occupe une place plus importante dans les négociations de la CCNUCC, en partie parce que les données scientifiques attestent aujourd’hui plus clairement l’existence du changement climatique et que les projections indiquent que ses impacts iront croissant. Les initiatives visant à intensifier les efforts d’adaptation et renforcer la résilience devraient par conséquent jouer un rôle clé dans l’accord climatique pour l’après-2020 qui sera conclu à la COP21 en décembre 2015. Ce document montre comment l’accord de 2015 peut contribuer à améliorer les politiques et à coordonner les activités de planification pour renforcer la résilience et les capacités d’adaptation au niveau national. Il passe en revue les avantages et inconvénients techniques de différents concepts proposés durant les négociations autour de l’adaptation : établissement d’objectifs mondiaux ou nationaux ; développement ou amélioration des institutions ou de la planification de l’adaptation ; meilleure disponibilité de l’information ; et facilitation ou amélioration du financement de l’adaptation. Bon nombre de ces propositions pourraient permettre d’améliorer la planification infranationale, nationale et internationale des réponses en matière d’adaptation climatique. L’impact réel de ces propositions pourrait cependant être très différent selon la façon dont elles seront mises en oeuvre sur le terrain. |
| Keywords: | climate change, UNFCCC, 2015 agreement, adaptation, adaptation, CCNUCC, accord de 2015, changement climatique |
| JEL: | F53 O33 Q54 Q56 Q58 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:envaab:2015/1-en&r=env |
| By: | Alvarez, Sergio; Asci, Serhat |
| Abstract: | 2015 AAEA Annual Meeting Selected Poster Presentation |
| Keywords: | Benefit Transfer Approach, WTP for Water Quality Improvements in Florida, Random-effect GLS regression., Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205615&r=env |
| By: | Chen, Xuqi; Gao, Zhifeng; Swisher, Marilyn; House, Lisa A. |
| Abstract: | Concerns about environmental degeneration due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have grown as farmers have increased reliance on these chemicals to maintain or increase crop yields. Although there are a variety of governmental programs that encourage farmers to adopt practices using less fertilizers and pesticides, many growers continue using conventional production methods in part because the economic benefits of using more environmentally sensitive techniques remains unproven or elusive for farmers. Exploring consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for fresh produce carrying labels describing various environmental benefits is one important aspect in assessing the potential that growers will adopt environmentally sound production techniques. Given that sustainable production practices may have different environmental benefits, differentiating consumer WTP for specific benefits may provide critical information for developing more effective labels and help growers more appropriately label products produced with environmental friendly techniques. |
| Keywords: | Willingness to pay, Eco-label, Fresh produce, Environmentally friendly, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205655&r=env |
| By: | Reeling, Carson J.; Horan, Richard D. |
| Abstract: | The spread of infectious livestock diseases can be considered a form of “biological pollution.” Prior literature asserts trade-related biological pollution externalities arise from trade in contaminated goods. However, this literature ignores (i) importers’ ability to reduce disease spillovers via private risk management choices and (ii) the potential for strategic interactions to arise when an importer’s risk management measures simultaneously protect himself and others. This paper explores the design of efficient disease prevention policies when importers can mitigate disease risks to others. We demonstrate that the biological pollution externality extends beyond trade-related activities—in contrast to prior work—and derive efficient policy incentives to internalize the externality. We also find spillovers between importers may be characterized by strategic complementarities, leading to multiple Nash-equilibrium levels of risk-mitigating activities. Additional command-and-control policies may also be needed alongside priced-based incentives to achieve efficiency in this case. |
| Keywords: | biological pollution, disease, externality, policy design, strategic interactions, trade, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, H21, Q56, Q58, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205082&r=env |
| By: | Xie, Yang; Zilberman, David |
| Abstract: | We investigate the economic relation between two common approaches to tackling water scarcity and adapting to climate change, namely expanding water-storage capac- ities and improving water-use efficiency. We build, analyze, and extend a simple model for capacity choices of dams, incorporating stochastic, dynamic control of water inventories and efficiency in water use. We show that expanding water-storage capacities could encourage water users to improve water-use efficiency and improving water-use efficiency could increase optimal dam sizes even if water-use efficiency improvement decreases the water demand. This possibility of complementarity is numerically illus- trated by an empirical example of the California State Water Project. Our analysis suggests that, if complementarity holds, resources should be distributed in a balanced way between water-storage expansions and water-use efficiency improvement instead of being invested on one activity while the other being ignored. Implications of this paper are applicable to the storage demand and consumption efficiency of other resources, for example, energy and food. |
| Keywords: | Dam, reservoir, technology adoption, drip irrigation, drought, cost-benefit analysis, stochastic control, climate change, California State Water Project, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Public Economics, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, Q25, Q15, Q28, Q27, C61, H43, O33, O38, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205439&r=env |
| By: | Golub, Alla; Cai, Yongyang; Hertel, Thomas; Steinbuks, Jevgenijs |
| Keywords: | global land use, energy prices, uncertainty, dynamic stochastic models, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, C61, Q15, Q23, Q41, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205406&r=env |
| By: | Osman, Rehab; Ferrari, Emanuele; McDonald, Scott |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc15:204291&r=env |
| By: | Useche, Pilar; Anglade, Boaz |
| Abstract: | Rice farmers in Peru are one of the world’s social groups that are more highly and heterogeneously exposed to climate change. While aggregate climate predictions provide important guidance for impact mitigation policy, actual climate perceptions and coping behavior observations provide a unique view into the heterogeneity of households’ exposure to climate risks and related livelihood stresses. In this study we show how farmer perceptions provide a nuanced picture of climate change in Northern Peru and analyze the different coping actions of agricultural households as they respond to diverse climatic stress factors. We examine the complexity of adaptation strategies by evaluating the complementarity/substitutability between different coping actions. For example, we find that households adopting new rice varieties as a coping strategy use this option as a substitute to getting credit, reducing the rice area or diversifying the crop. We also find that non-agricultural strategies such as migrating, mortgaging the land and pawning assets are high complements of asking for credit, reducing area or diversifying the crop, and relying on the help of family and friends. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Coping Strategies, Perceptions, Peru, Andes, Multivariate Probit, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205444&r=env |
| By: | O'Shea, Robert; Bougard, Maxime; Breen, James; O'Donoghue, Cathal; Ryan, Mary |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc15:204293&r=env |
| By: | Ding, Jinxiu; Yu, Chin-Hsien; McCarl, Bruce A. |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use an econometric method to estimate the DCV effects on yields of five crops in the Marias river basin in Montana. We find strong DCV effects on barley, spring/winter wheat. And the DCV phase combination PDO-TAG+WPWP+ has the strongest effect. Adaptive decision making is allowed in terms of acreage changes in crops under different DCV phases. |
| Keywords: | DCV, Crop Yields, PDO, TAG, WPWP, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205524&r=env |
| By: | Grogan, Kelly A. |
| Keywords: | forest management, forest fires, dynamic optimization, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205079&r=env |
| By: | Tonkobayeva, Aliya |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ugidic:189909&r=env |
| By: | Norton, D.; Hynes, S. |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the choice experiment methodology to estimate the value of the nonmarket benefits associated with the achievement of good (marine) environmental status (GES) as specified in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The MSFD requires that the “costs of degradation” (the benefits foregone if GES is not achieved) be considered within a broader ‘Economic and Social Assessment’ of the marine environment by EU member states. Assessing the costs of degradation as defined by the MSFD implies that changes in marine ecosystem services provided in each State should be analysed. The results show that there are high values attached with changes to the state of the marine environment by the Irish general public. The results of a random parameters logit model also demonstrate that preferences are heterogeneous, with changes in certain marine attributes generating both positive and negative utility. |
| Keywords: | Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Marine Environment, Non-market Valuation, Choice Experiment, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:semrui:186382&r=env |
| By: | Huber, Matthew C.; Wilis, David B. |
| Abstract: | This study presents a model to investigate the costs of augmenting streamflows in drought years to support shortnose sturgeon spawning and migration. We demonstrate how the model can estimate the acre foot water payment necessary under alternative drought scenarios to induce water users to participate in a contingent water banking program to meet sturgeon seasonal flow requirements. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162506&r=env |
| By: | Mullen, Jeffrey D.; Calhoun, Kayla; Colson, Gregory; Kriesel, Warren |
| Keywords: | Wastewater Treatment, Uncertainty, Georgia, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205419&r=env |
| By: | Livy, Mitchell R.; Gopalakrishnan, Sathya; Klaiber, H. Allen; Roe, Brian |
| Abstract: | We utilize a newly developed stated preference survey to determine preferences for shale drilling and its associated externalities. Examining both willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) measures, this research presents evidence of the implications of recent shale gas drilling expansion in northeastern Ohio, and provides guidance for future work on the impacts of shale gas drilling activities on nearby residents. |
| Keywords: | Survey, Shale Drilling, Willingness to Pay, Willingness to Accept, Conjoint Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205390&r=env |
| By: | Yang, Ziyan |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the environmental value of nitrogen fertilizer in a rapeseed-rice double-crop system in China to address the issue of nitrogen-induced soil acidification in China’s farmland. Previous literature always regarded the acid rain as the most important contributor to soil acidification. Thus, previous literature seldom linked soil quality with nitrogen leaching but studied acidification as a side product of air pollution. However, the latest scientific evidences show that China’s soil acidification is mainly caused by over-applied nitrogen fertilize because nitrogen leaching creates extra soil acidity in the entire production process. Hence, the first contribution of this study is that it analyzes soil acidification itself as an environmental externality induced by human behavior rather than an indirect consequence of air pollution. The second contribution is that this study solves for the optimal nitrogen management as an alternative way to solve for the problem of acidification while previous literature only focused on lime application. Theoretically, this study uses a dynamic optimization model to solve for the optimal nitrogen application and the steady state soil pH by maximizing the long-term profit of a two-season agriculture production subject to an acidity growth function. In China, the market price of nitrogen fertilizer only reflects its value in agricultural yields but ignores its environmental value. The steady state analysis compares the optimal nitrogen management that considers the environmental value of nitrogen and the myopic management that ignores its environmental value. There are two theoretical results. First, at the steady state, nitrogen application under the optimal management is greater than the myopic management if the total value of the marginal product of the soil pH at the steady state for an entire rotation is negative. If there is no externality generated by the nitrogen at the steady state, there is no difference between the optimal and myopic management. Second, for an increment of the optimal soil pH value, the marginal decrease of the optimal nitrogen application in season 2 is no greater than the marginal increase of the nitrogen application in season 1 adjusted by the absorption rate. Thus, for any increment in the optimal soil pH value, the total nitrogen application of a rotation increases. Hence, the myopic nitrogen management leads to an inefficient soil pH at the steady state for a long-term agricultural production. Empirically, it firstly uses a Seemly Unrelated Regression robusted by Bootstrap and Monte Carlo to estimate the production functions and acidity growth function using soil monitoring and agricultural production data from the World Bank Soil Monitoring Project in Anhui China (2001-2010). Then, following the first order conditions, it finds the numerical solutions for the optimal nitrogen management. The theoretical model shows that ignoring the environmental externality (myopic behavior) increases nitrogen applications and results in a lower steady state soil pH. The empirical results are consistent with theoretical finds. First, the myopic total nitrogen application of a rapeseed-rice system is only 15.74 kg/ha more than that of the optimal management. However, the myopic steady state soil pH is 0.77 units lower than that of the optimal management, which leads to a huge difference in agricultural production. Hence, nitrogen allocation between seasons is as vital as the total nitrogen application in preventing acidification. Second, the social value of nitrogen fertilizer that contains both production and environmental value is 4.92 RMB/kg, which is about two times of its average market price in 2013. Hence, the market price that ignores the environmental value gives the wrong incentives in fertilizer investment. Third, this study measures the market value of soil pH, which is 40.80 RMB/ha. Hence, agricultural inefficiency is created when myopic fertilizer investment decreases future soil pH productivity. This inter-disciplinary study highlights the importance of considering the environmental value of nitrogen fertilizer in a long-term agricultural production. It provides two policy implications to prevent soil acidification in China. First, the government could set the price of nitrogen based on both its production and environmental value. Second, the government could set up a soil monitoring and punishment system based on the value of soil pH to motivate farmers to apply the optimal nitrogen management. These two approaches are more feasible in China than lime application because Chinese farmers do not have the habits of using lime due to institutional reasons. The future direction of this study is to investigate the impacts of these institutional reasons on shaping nitrogen fertilizer and lime application habits in China. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Valuation, Nitrogen Leaching, Soil Acidification, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, N55, Q18, Q24, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205112&r=env |
| By: | Lynes, Melissa; Featherstone, Allen |
| Abstract: | Over the last two decades a large number of energy policy changes have occurred specifically with regards to renewable energy. This paper considers how these changes in renewable energy policy affect the production efficiencies of power plants that use renewable and/or nonrenewable energy inputs for electricity production. Using nationwide plant level data from 2003 – 2012 pure technical efficiency is estimated. This study considers the efficiencies of both renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. In addition, this study considers how state level renewable energy policies affect the efficiencies of power plants. In general, this study finds that renewable energy policies do not reduce the efficiencies of electricity generation from a technical aspect. |
| Keywords: | DEA, Electricity Generation, Renewable Energy Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, D20, L94, Q40, Q48, |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205674&r=env |
| By: | Palm-Forster, Leah Harris; Lupi, Frank |
| Keywords: | benefit transfer, travel cost, Lake Erie, harmful algal blooms, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205654&r=env |
| By: | Trindade, Federico J. |
| Abstract: | It is estimated that world population will increase by 30 percent to reach more than 9 billion people by 2050. Given expected higher income, per capita consumption of protein will induce an increase in cereal production of at least 70% over current levels; quantity attainable without incorporating new land if the yield growth rates increase at least 1.3% per year (Fulginiti and Perrin, 2010). The dramatic increase in world crop production observed in the second half of the nineteenth century was the result from increasing yields through the use of chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides and water from irrigation systems (Tilman et al., 2002). During the last years it was observed by several authors a decrease in global yields growth rates for the major crops (corn, wheat, rice and soybeans) when comparing the period 1990-2010 with 1960-1990 (Alston et al. 2010, Fuglie 2010, World Bank Development Report 2007). If this observed decline in agricultural productivity growth continues, average global yields growth rate for the main crops could fall below 1.3% increase per year, lower than the needed amount to reach the production goal of 2050. Thus, the food production increases needed to satisfy future demand will put greater stress on existing cropland and natural resources, if the prices rise there will be also greater pressure to convert natural ecosystems to cropland. Climate change, a final source of concern, is likely to aggravate the situation. Considering different scenarios of future trends in climate, several authors have found that the impact that climate change will have over agriculture production will most likely be negative (Schlenker and Roberts, 2009). Schlenker and Roberts consider the effect of weather on aggregate farm yields. They regressed corn, wheat and cotton yields in counties east of the 100º meridian on weather variables during the years 1950-2005 and found that there is an increasing positive relation between temperatures and crop yield up to 29-32ºC (depending on the crop.) Temperatures above these thresholds are found to reduce yields significantly. Their regressions included precipitation, time trend, soils, and county effects for location-specific unobserved factors. There are two important omissions in this study. First, they only consider rain-fed counties, those east of the 100º meridian, while production increases have been directly related to irrigation developments mostly west of the 100º. Second, their study controls for natural characteristics like precipitation but does not allow for purchased inputs. These inputs have had a pivotal role on increased yields and are under the control of the farmer. It is important then to understand the degree of substitution and the contribution of these versus other inputs to the time trends they estimated. An important step towards understanding the evolution of agricultural production under different climate scenarios is to carefully estimate the effect that different temperatures and precipitation have on agricultural productivity considering also inputs under farmers’ control and the farmers’ profit maximizing behavior. Another issue of importance, given the developments of the last 60 years, is the study of rain-fed as well as irrigated agriculture. These are the objectives of our analysis; we do not know of any other study with these objectives that considers this set of variables and assumptions. This research develops a county level biomass production function for an 800-mile climatic gradient from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River (41o N latitude). A panel data set that includes 101 counties for the 1960-2008 period is developed. The quantity of biomass produced per hectare (from all crops) is hypothesized to result from the use of traditional inputs under farmers’ control such as land, fertilizer, chemicals, and percent of irrigated land and from environmental variables such as soil organic matter, precipitation and temperatures. Indexes are constructed for all variables at the county level. Given interest on climate effects, particular emphasis is placed in the development of county precipitation and different intervals of degree-days indexes. A semi transcendental logarithmic production specification is jointly estimated with share equations for purchased inputs using a seemingly unrelated estimation approach. Additionally, to avoid simultaneity issues, price indexes are used as instruments for fertilizer and chemicals used. Out results are able to quantify the critical effects that high temperatures have on agricultural productivity in the region, after controlling for irrigation, other managed inputs, soil characteristics, precipitation, and technological change. Confirming Schlenker and Roberts (2009) results, we find a negative and increasing (nonlinear) effect of temperatures over 30ºC on crop yields; a full day of temperatures between 30ºC and 35ºC decreases expected yield by 1.0%, a day of temperatures over 35ºC decreases yields by 27.1%. Our results provide additional information than the findings of Schlenker and Roberts. The inclusion of irrigated land seems to diminish greatly the negative effect of higher temperatures; converting rain fed crops to irrigated crop will produce a sharp decrease in the negative impact of the higher temperature interval. Results also show that the semi-arid areas like western Nebraska and eastern Colorado and Wyoming, for example, compensate the lack of precipitation with high values of irrigation. Finally, the contribution of fertilizer and chemicals to yield changes is significant. Technological change has been fertilizer and chemicals using. |
| Keywords: | Climate impact, agricultural productivity, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205271&r=env |
| By: | Maldonado, Jorge Higinio; Moreno-Sánchez, Rocío del Pilar |
| Keywords: | Valoración de servicios ecosistémicos, valoración participativa, disponibilidad a pagar, disponibilidad a aceptar, áreas marinas protegidas, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q20, Q22, Q25, Q26, Q51, Q57, |
| Date: | 2013–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ulaedd:161368&r=env |
| By: | Kutz, Alicia M.; Clark, Christopher D.; Boyer, Christopher N.; Lambert, Dayton M. |
| Abstract: | Voluntary programs to reduce nonpoint source pollution are an important component of efforts to reduce water quality degradation in the U.S. Understanding the factors influencing the willingness of nonpoint sources such as farms to participate in these programs is critical to effectively designing and implementing these programs. This study examines factors influencing willingness to adopt four different best management practices—rotational grazing, pasture improvement, stream water crossing, and water tank systems—by beef cattle operations in an East Tennessee watershed. Factors examined include farm and farmer characteristics, farmer attitudes, and a hypothetical incentive program to encourage adoption of these practices. Younger, more educated producers with higher income levels and larger households were more willing to adopt the BMPs. Producers were more willing to adopt pasture improvement and least willing to adopt stream crossings. Producers also seemed willing to adopt a bundle comprised of pasture improvement, rotational grazing and water tanks. |
| Keywords: | Best Management Practices, Willingness to Adopt, Water Quality, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162475&r=env |
| By: | Manning, Dale T.; Goemans, Chris; Maas, Alex |
| Abstract: | Climate change is predicted to bring increased temperatures and changes in water availability across the United States. Understanding the responsiveness of irrigated agriculture to changes in available water, both supplemental, and natural, is critical to evaluating the potential impacts of climage change as well as measuring the benefit of new water supply development. Despite representing only half the value of total agricultural sales in the US, previous literature has mostly focused on dryland agriculture, in large part because of the endogeneity of water applied. We develop a two-stage theoretical model of producer irrigation decisions and test the predictions from the model with a unique dataset that includes an exogenous shock to agricultural water supplies. We separately identify the impact of expected water supply on planting decisions and how realizations affect harvesting decisions and crop yields. As water supplies decrease, farmers respond by planting fewer acres and concentrating the application of water. Climate change simulations suggest that behavioral responses and the use of irrigation water can partially offset the impacts of higher temperatures in Colorado. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Irrigated Agriculture, Crop water optimization, Crop Production/Industries, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205784&r=env |
| By: | Drysdale, Krystal M.; Hendricks, Nathan P. |
| Abstract: | Depleting groundwater in regions of Kansas over the High Plains Aquifer have become areas of critical concern. Irrigators in Sheridan County, Kansas voted to impose restrictions on themselves by forming a Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA) in an effort to self-regulate their water use. We estimate the short term production decision changes due to the collective action water use restriction whereby a difference-in-differences model and fixed effects regression. We compare differences between restricted irrigators to those located within five miles of the LEMA water restriction boundary. Our estimates indicate that the management plan was successful at reducing groundwater use and we find the greatest response to the water restriction policy at the intensive margin. This implies irrigators primarily responded by reducing the number of applied inches of water per acre; however, we also find that irrigators subject to the water use restriction responded by shrinking the total number of irrigated acres. In general, we find irrigators adjusted water use primarily by reducing irrigation intensity on corn or soybean, the main crops for this region, rather than switching to different crops. |
| Keywords: | irrigators, collective action, groundwater management, aquifer management, water policy, difference-in-differences, fixed effects, sustainable water policy, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2015–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205521&r=env |
| By: | Steenwerth, Kerri |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:usao14:205031&r=env |
| By: | Osorio Urtecho, Katherinne del Rosario; Prado Olivares, Mariela del Socorro |
| Abstract: | Tesis de pregrado. Laboratorio de Fisiología Animal. |
| Keywords: | Metabolismo, Metabolito, Proteína, Aminoácido, Glucosa, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:nauntg:167228&r=env |
| By: | Lim, Kar Ho; Grebitus, Carola; Hu, Wuyang; Nayga, Rodolfo M. Jr. |
| Abstract: | The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate provides great promise as a market-based tool for sustainable fisheries but to succeed in the market a critical share of producers needs to participate in the program. Since consumers’ willingness to pay is a driver of producer participation, we conduct a consumer choice experiment to determine U.S. American consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for MSC certification for canned tuna. We find that most U.S. American consumers are willing to pay for MSC-certified seafood. Also, results show that MSC certification might be especially advantageous for exporting producers from developing countries. Finally, our modeling allows us to determine complementary effects that MSC might have with other attributes. The results provide insights to stakeholders in the seafood industry on the effectiveness of MSC certification in championing sustainable fisheries. Recommendations based on willingness to pay for sustainable seafood labeled with MSC are provided. |
| Keywords: | Marine Stewardship Council, Sustainability, Willingness to Pay, Seafood, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy, Marketing, Q11, Q13, Q18, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205634&r=env |
| By: | Nelson, Gerald |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:usao14:205019&r=env |
| By: | Manzano, George N.; Prado, Shanti Aubren |
| Abstract: | The paper evaluates the feasibility of sectoral liberalization of environmental goods for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Using the model originally developed by Wonnacott, it argues for the liberalization of goods predominantly supplied by APEC members, thereby minimizing the free rider problem that usually afflicts most favored nation liberalization. The paper then ranks the different items in the APEC list of environmental goods according to economic advisability, given the predominant supplier framework. It thus demonstrates the economic rationale why APEC, as a whole, should consider liberalizing a number of environmental goods. The paper also examines the distributional impact of the proposed scheme on the individual members, particularly on the trade interest of the Philippines. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), environmental goods, services, tariff, trade liberalization |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:rpseri:dp_2015-34_(revised)&r=env |
| By: | Crost, Benjamin; Duquennois, Claire; Felter, Joseph H.; Rees, Daniel I. |
| Abstract: | Climate change is predicted to affect global rainfall patterns, but there is mixed evidence with regard to the effect of rainfall on civil conflict. Even among researchers who argue that rainfall reduces civil conflict, there is disagreement as to the underlying mechanism. Using data from the Philippines for the period 2001-2009, we exploit seasonal variation in the relationship between rainfall and agricultural production to explore the connection between rainfall and civil conflict. In the Philippines, above-average rainfall during the wet season is harmful to agricultural production, while above-average rainfall during the dry season is beneficial. We show that the relationship between rainfall and civil conflict also exhibits seasonality, but in the opposite direction and with a one-year lag. Consistent with the hypothesis that rebel groups gain strength after a bad harvest, there is evidence that lagged rainfall affects the number of violent incidents initiated by insurgents but not the number of incidents initiated by government forces. Our results suggest that policies aimed at mitigating the effect of climate change on agricultural production could weaken the link between climate change and civil conflict. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change, Civil Conflict, Rainfall, International Development, O13, H56, D74, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205311&r=env |
| By: | Medwid, Laura J.; Signore, Alicia M.; Lambert, Dayton M.; Clark, Christopher D.; Vossler, Christian A.; Walker, Forbes R.; Hawkins, Shawn A. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205051&r=env |
| By: | Bayham, Jude; Yoder, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | Rising suppression cost and severity of wildfires in the US has prompted debate over federal wildfire management policy. The empirical economic literature on wildfire has sought to identify the factors that contribute to wildfire growth and cost without directly modeling the role of resource allocation over the course of the fire. Without a model of suppression resource allocation, it is difficult to understand how policy will impact wildfire outcomes. We fill this gap in the literature by estimating an econometric model of suppression resource allocation, wildfire expenditures, growth, and home damage using a dynamic panel dataset on over 500 wildfires in the Western U.S. Our econometric model is grounded in a theory of resource allocation that shows how individual fire managers communicate their need for resources to a regional command unit through the resource's shadow price. This model allows us to parse the complex incentives of wildfire managers, and disentangle direct from indirect impacts of threatened assets, environmental conditions, and resource scarcity on wildfire expenditure, growth, and damage. Among other results, we find that the use of aircraft increases daily wildfire expenditures by 35% while highly trained ground crews mitigate the daily damage to threatened homes. |
| Keywords: | Wildfire Suppression, Dynamic panel data, IV methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q23, Q58, C23, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:204143&r=env |
| By: | Sarina Steinmann und Ralph Winkler |
| Abstract: | We consider the problem of efficient emission abatement in a multi polluter setting, where agents are located along a river in which net emissions accumulate and induce negative externalities to downstream riparians. Assuming a cooperative transferable utility game, we seek welfare distributions that satisfy all agents' participation constraints and, in addition, a fairness constraint implying that no coalition of agents should be better off than it were if all non-members of the coalition would not pollute the river at all. We show that the downstream incremental distribution, as introduced by Ambec and Sprumont (2002), is the only welfare distribution satisfying both constraints. In addition, we show that this result holds true for numerous extensions of our model. |
| Keywords: | Downstream externalities; downstream incremental distribution; optimal emission abatement; river pollution |
| JEL: | C71 D62 Q53 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp1508&r=env |
| By: | Swarna Nantha, Hemanath |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the opportunity costs of conserving the forest habitats of the endangered orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus spp.) of Indonesia and Malaysia in the face of a highly profitable alternative land use, the conversion of these habitats for the production of palm oil. It shows that one component of the financial opportunity cost of conserving orangutan habitat, the business opportunity cost (profits foregone), was high in both Malaysia and Indonesia in the case of oil-palm development. It is argued that this would be difficult to offset under the payments-for-ecosystem-services (PES) approach. However, the government opportunity cost of conservation in Indonesia, such as the land-tax revenue foregone by local governments by conserving rather than leasing out orangutan habitats for agricultural use, are sometimes lower than the business opportunity cost of conservation. It is suggested that targeting government opportunity costs to conserve unleased forests could potentially offer lower-cost opportunities for conserving orangutan habitats. If, however, political and institutional realities are taken into account, there might exist another type of opportunity cost of conservation— a political one— that could impede the success of the PES approach. Some oil-palm companies in Borneo offer financial inducements in the form of kickbacks and other types of political donations to government officials to obtain land for growing oil palm. This ‘government decisionmaker’s opportunity cost’ has not been addressed in the PES literature, which typically compares potential ecosystem payments with the commercial profits that would have to be sacrificed as a result of conserving forests. The impact of this political opportunity cost on oil-palm expansion is discussed. It is suggested that solutions to this conservation problem cannot be restricted to the monetary valuation method but must also involve alternative political economic interventions. |
| Keywords: | Biodiversity conservation, firm behaviour, opportunity cost, orangutan, payments for ecosystem services, political ecology., Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, B50, Q51, Q57, Q58, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uqseee:168377&r=env |
| By: | Tisdell, Clem; Wilson, Clevo |
| Abstract: | Appendix II of this paper contains the three questionnaires which were used experimentally as a part of three surveys to assess the economics of conserving Australia’s tropical wildlife species. The body of this paper outlines the procedures used for the surveys, discusses response rates and the representativeness of the samples, and outlines the general coverage of the surveys/questionnaires. The surveys provided data about participants’ knowledge of each of the focal species, their support for the survival of each, their willingness to pay for the conservation of each and their attitudes to the commercial harvesting of each. The survey procedures enabled particular attention to be given to the influence on these variables of variations in the knowledge of survey participants about the species being evaluated. In addition, information was gathered about the attitudes of survey participants towards the use of wildlife species by Indigenous Australians (Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders). |
| Keywords: | Australian Aborigines, economic valuation, experimental economics, knowledge and wildlife valuation, nature conservation in Australia, sustainable use of wildlife, wildlife conservation, wildlife harvesting., Environmental Economics and Policy, Q2, Q5, |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uqseee:163697&r=env |
| By: | Taylor, Rebecca; Villas-Boas, Sofia B. |
| Abstract: | Using observational data on consumer carryout bag usage, we measure the effects of Disposable Bag Policies on bag demand. Our results show that plastic bag bans with paper bag fees eliminate use of disposable plastic bags and increase use of reusable bags. However, we find significant and undesired increases in paper bag demand. We compare our results to a study on bag fees and conclude the types of bags stores choose to sell in lieu of disposable plastic bags, as well as the price of alternatives, impact whether bans are more successful than fees in discouraging disposable bag demand. |
| Keywords: | environmental regulation, disposable bags, command and control, environmental tax, demand analysis, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, H23, Q58, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:204783&r=env |
| By: | Dumortier, Jerome; Kauffman, Nathan; Hayes, Dermot J. |
| Abstract: | Over the last years, the cellulosic biofuel mandate has not been enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The uncertainty surrounding the enforcement of the mandate in addition to high production and harvest cost contributes to farmers' hesitation to plant bioenergy crops such as switchgrass and miscanthus. Previous literature has shown that under uncertainty and sunk cost, the investment threshold is further increased because of the value associated from holding the investment option. This warrants the use of a real option model. In this paper, we extend previous literature by applying a real option model to bioenergy crop production in the United States. We show the spatial allocation of switchgrass under biomass price and agricultural return uncertainty. The empirical model identifies the counties in the contiguous United States that are most likely to change to switchgrass production. Our preliminary results indicate a very small share of land in switchgrass production even at high biomass prices. |
| Keywords: | Real options, switchgrass, bioenergy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205574&r=env |
| By: | Rouhi-Rad, Mani; Brozovic, Nicholas; Mieno, Taro |
| Abstract: | This study develops a framework of search with frictions in the context of tradeable permit markets to explain the trading behavior and search effort of the participants. The study area is the groundwater market of the Twin Platte Natural Resources District, in Nebraska. The results show that overall the market is moving towards Pareto efficiency as irrigation rights are moving from lower value users to higher value users. The results also suggest that quantity of the rights traded affects the search effort of the participants positively. |
| Keywords: | Tradeable permit markets, transaction costs, search costs, groundwater markets, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205798&r=env |
| By: | Oliver, Kristen; Jensen, Kimberly; Lambert, Dayton; Clark, Christopher |
| Keywords: | grazing, MIMIC model, beef cattle, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries, Q12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:201857&r=env |
| By: | Mirzabaev, Alisher; Guta, Dawit; Goedecke, Jann; Gaur, Varun; Börner, Jan; Virchow, Detlef; Denich, Manfred; von Braun, Joachim |
| Abstract: | Modern bioenergy is a core ingredient of sustainable economic development as it plays an important role in poverty reduction and green growth. This makes bioenergy innovations critical, especially in developing countries where many households and rural communities rely on traditional bioenergy. Managing the multiple tradeoffs among bioenergy use, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem functions is a major development challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the identification of the drivers, tradeoffs and impacts of bioenergy production, trade and use in the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. The key objective of this paper is to provide an analytical framework and assess the track record of policy actions to stimulate modern bioenergy innovation in order to achieve multiple-win outcomes in terms of poverty alleviation, improved health and gender empowerment and environmental sustainability. We begin by describing the global trends and drivers in bioenergy production, trade and use. Secondly, we review the state of the art on impacts and links of bioenergy with the other Nexus components. Thirdly, we suggest a conceptual framework for evaluating the synergies and tradeoffs of bioenergy with other bioeconomic and economic activities along the Nexus. Follow-up empirical research at household and community levels in several developing countries will be based on this framework. Finally, a discussion on the conceptual framework is enriched by insights on the relevant actors, the tools and mechanisms specific to these actors for catalyzing innovations in the bioenergy for development. |
| Keywords: | bioenergy, poverty reduction, food security, decentralized energy, WEF Nexus tradeoffs and synergies, households and communities, innovations, Food Security and Poverty, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, O13, O33, Q01, Q42, B41, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubonwp:180421&r=env |
| By: | Li, Xiaogu; Jensen, Kimberly L.; Clark, Christopher D.; Lambert, Dayton M. |
| Abstract: | Consumers in the United States spend a large portion of their household food expenditure on beef, as some of them are willing to pay premium for beef products presented with high quality attributes, both taste and non-taste related. This study examines U.S. beef consumer preferences and willingness to pay for non-taste, "extrinsic" attributes that exhibit public benefits, and how they are affected by individual taste and scale heterogeneity. Effects of consumers' beliefs in the consequential effects of their beef choices are also investigated. Results may further understanding of U.S. consumers' perception and acceptance of extrinsic attributes in beef products and public issues such as food safety, climate change and animal welfare. |
| Keywords: | beef, extrinsic attributes, public goods, scale heterogeneity, consequentiality, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q13, Q18, Q56, |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:204908&r=env |
| By: | Sampson, Gabriel S.; Sanchirico, James N.; Wilen, James E. |
| Abstract: | In spite of wide spread use of territorial use rights fisheries (TURFs) as a management tool, efficient design of spatial property rights, particularly in context of communal ownership, remains poorly understood. We develop a spatially explicit game-theoretic model of a two-patch communally exploited TURF network to investigate spatial scale, species dispersal, and fisher interactions. We characterize biological networks and patch sizes conducive to fostering internally cooperative harvesting behaviors. We also characterize the magnitude and spatial distribution of cost of any defection from cooperative harvesting behaviors. We find when neighboring patches are each independently cooperative, profitability in presence of high larval-stage dispersal is higher than when species are immobile. Mutually non-cooperative behavior across TURFs produce outcomes under connectivity that are worse than when species are immobile. Our results demonstrate that joint accounting of species dispersal habits and behavioral organization of communities within spatial property rights are critical when demarcating property rights boundaries. |
| Keywords: | bioeconomics, communal management, externalities, game theory, property rights, small scale fisheries, territorial use rights fisheries (TURFs), Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q22, C72, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205641&r=env |
| By: | Faig, Amanda |
| Abstract: | Ecologists warn that the rapid evolution occurring as a result of high-intensity commercial fishing could have significant economic and ecological effects. So far, fishery managers do not take this rapid evolution (called fisheries-induced evolution or FIE) into consideration when determining fishery policy. I model the interactions between the genetics, population structure, and economics of the fishery in order to determine how beneficial altering the fishery managers decision framework to include fisheries induced evolution would be to fishery profit and yield. My model is based on North-East Arctic Cod, which are long lived and for which an abundance of information exists, including proof of FIE. I compare the steady state reached by a `myopic' fishery manager who sets effort and mesh size policy while ignoring evolution, to the steady state reached by a fishery manager who dynamically optimizes his strategy with the knowledge of how evolution will respond. This paper shows that accounting for evolution can increase steady state profits by 29-34%, however this benefit decreases and is eventually eliminated as the discount rate increases from zero. An important auxiliary benefit to accounting for evolution is the effect optimal management has on fishery biomass, maturation rates, and yield. |
| Keywords: | fisheries induced evolution, FIE, ecosystem based fisheries management, EBFM, evolution, ecosystem, bioeconomic, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205623&r=env |
| By: | Kreitmair, Ursula W.; Banerjee, Simanti; Walker, James M. |
| Abstract: | In this study, we employ laboratory economic experiments to explore the role information networks play in the collective provision of threshold or provision point public goods. Threshold public goods are those for which a target or threshold level of funds must be raised to make provision possible or economically viable. Many public goods exhibit this characteristic as they may only be provided in discrete quantities. Thresholds or provision points are particularly relevant to environmental public goods, given non-linear ecological processes. In a broader context, the study of contribution behavior for threshold public goods also provides valuable insights into fundraising activities of both national and local profit and not-for-profit agencies, which typically involve provision points. On the basis of a 2x2 full factorial treatment design we test the following hypotheses: 1) Given LOW endowments, localized information will be less effective than full contribution information in meeting the provision point. 2) Given HIGH endowments local information will be as effective as full information to meet the threshold contribution level. 3) In cases where the threshold is met, group members are more likely to make identical contributions in the COMPLETE treatments than in the LOCAL treatments. |
| Keywords: | Experimental Economics, Behavioral Economics, Networks, Information, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:206562&r=env |
| By: | Painter, Kathleen; Kahl, Kendall; Pittmann, Dennis; Tauges, Nicole; Burke, Ian |
| Abstract: | In this study we explore the potential for increasing economic and environmental sustainability in this region by incorporating organic reduced tillage (ORT) cropping systems into conventional farming operations using results from six years of organic cropping system trials conducted near Washington State University’s Pullman campus. |
| Keywords: | organic, wheat, economics, reduced tillage, sustainable, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205891&r=env |
| By: | Binder, Kyle E.; Mjelde, James W.; Woodward, Richard T. |
| Abstract: | Using a Vector Error Correction Model approach, relationships between REC, SREC, electricity, and natural gas prices in Massachusetts and Connecticut are estimated. Confirming previous studies, the results show that REC prices respond negatively to a shock in electricity prices. Additionally, SREC prices are determined mostly by forces outside of the estimated system. Preliminary evidence is found that REC markets across states are related, but that the markets are fragmented, possibly with high transaction costs. Further analysis is required to clarify some of the results which are currently difficult to understand. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205644&r=env |
| By: | Buck, Steven; Soldati, Hilary; Sunding, David L. |
| Abstract: | Urban water managers rely heavily on forecasts of water consumption to determine management decisions and investment choices. Typical forecasts rely on simple models whose criteria for selection has little to do with their performance in predicting out-of-sample consumption levels. We demonstrate this issue by comparing forecast models selected on the basis of their ability to perform well in-sample versus out-of-sample. Our results highlight the benefits of developing out-of-sample evaluation criteria to ascertain model performance. Using annual data on single-family residential water consumption in Southern California we illustrate how prediction ability varies according to model evaluation method. Using a training dataset, this analysis finds that models ranking highly on in-sample performance significantly over-estimated consumption (10% − 25%) five years out from the end of the training dataset relative to observed demands five years out from the end of the training dataset. Whereas, the top models selected using our out-of-sample criteria, came within 1% of the actual total consumption. Notably, projections of future demand for the in-sample models indicate increasing aggregate water consumption over a 25-year period, which contrasts against the downward trend predicted by the out-of-sample models. |
| Keywords: | Water, Forecasting, California, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C19, L95, Q25, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205737&r=env |
| By: | Baylis, Kathy; Ye, Guyu; Holt, Jai; Pasciack, Jessica; vanEngelsdorp, Dennis |
| Abstract: | Since 2006, beekeepers around the world have reported unusually high rates of honeybee colony loss. In the last two years, attention has turned to neonicotinoids as a potential factor in honeybee disease and mortality. While fatal at high doses, neonicotinoids are primarily used as seed treatments, and researchers debate whether honeybees are regularly exposed to these pesticides at sufficient doses to do harm. We combine unique geocoded data on apiary pollen samples and pest loads across 40 US states over the past 4 years with crop data to ask where and when we observe evidence of neonicotinoid exposure in the hive, and what effect that exposure has on honey bee health. We find that neonicotinoids are largely found in hives near neonicotinoid-treated crops during planting, and that colonies with neonicotinoid contamination have higher levels of Nosema, a virus associated with colony loss. We find no evidence of an effect of neonicotinoids on Varroa mites. |
| Keywords: | Honey bee health, neonicotinoids, spatial analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205573&r=env |
| By: | Woodard, Joshua D.; Chiu Verteramo, Leslie; Miller, Alyssa P. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Food Security and Poverty, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205903&r=env |
| By: | Chaudhry, Anita M.; Fairbanks, Dean H.K.; Caldwell, Alyssa |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of drought and opportunity to sell water to state-managed Drought Water Banks, on land fallowing patterns of rice farmers in three private surface water irrigation districts in Northern California. The analysis is based on 30 years (1984-2013) of spatial data derived from satellite data on fallowing decisions matched to highly detailed ownership data at the farm parcel level. We find that drought episodes, and the presence of a Drought Water Bank increase fallowed area and the likelihood to fallow. We examine the effect of each Drought Water Bank separately, finding significant differences among them. We also find that some water sale restrictions imposed by local or state authorities have significantly affected land fallowing. These findings have ramifications for water management in future California droughts. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural land use, water markets, droughts, California, spatial data, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q1, Q2, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205446&r=env |
| By: | Sung, Jae-hoon; Miranowski, John A. |
| Abstract: | We analyze the eects of climate conditions and crop insurance on farm-level land allocation decisions among corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and hay in 10 Midwest states. Based on ARMS data, we estimate farmers' land allocation equations that control for market conditions, climate and soil variables, and insurance. A multivariate sample selection model is used for estimation. We nd that: 1) benecial heat has positive eects on corn and soybean acreage but negative eects on winter wheat acreage, 2) excessive heat has negative eects on corn and winter wheat acreage but have positive eects on soybean acreage, 3) an increase in precipitation by 1% increases corn acreage by 0.6% but decrease soybean and winter wheat acreage by 1.0% and 1.6%, 4) soybean acreage is more sensitive to summer drought, and 5) crop insurance alters farmers land allocation. |
| Keywords: | Cropping pattern, climate change, crop insurance, ARMS., Land Economics/Use, Q54, Q18, Q15, Q12., |
| Date: | 2015–07–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205787&r=env |
| By: | Baggio, Michele; Towe, Charles |
| Abstract: | This research is the first analysis of a large and long term study of stream restoration activity for Switzerland. This manuscript focuses on the largest Swiss canton of Graubünden (about twice the size of Rhode Island) which is primarily mountainous and rural in character and is a destination for recreational fishing. It contains 11,000 km of streams and over 600 lakes and ponds. Despite stocking efforts, trout catches in Switzerland have declined by as much as 50% since the 1980s potentially due to deteriorated ecological conditions although no single causative factor was identified. In canton Graubünden we observe a reduction in the number of anglers since 2002 though fishing intensity and catch per trip remain stable over time. We utilize the stream data to first establish the relationship between restoration events and trip-level catch totals by species and size. Our preliminary results suggest that the impact of the restoration on the downstream reaches include an increase in the size of the catch by 0.25 cm, an impact on the probability of a catch of 5% both statistically significant |
| Keywords: | Stream Restoration, Catch Rate, Propensity Score, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q26, Q57, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205561&r=env |
| By: | Lambrecht, Isabel; Vanlauwe, Bernard; Maertens, Miet |
| Abstract: | Many paradigms on sustainable agricultural intensification adhere to a combination of different and complementary agricultural technologies. Whether such a paradigm survives in practice depends on how, and if, farmers combine these technologies on their fields. The main biophysical rationale for farmers to combine different technologies is the existence of reinforcing yield effects. But farmers may face constraints that lead to a socio-economic rationale for interrelationships in the application of different technologies that contradict the biophysical rationale. There is little evidence on how and under which conditions farmers combine different agricultural technologies. In this paper, we focus on integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) and investigate how the concept is put into practice in South-Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). ISFM necessarily includes the use of improved germplasm, organic inputs and mineral fertilizer, and strongly emphasizes the complementarities and synergies that can arise when these technologies are jointly applied. We investigate whether these different ISFM technology components are applied jointly, sequentially or independently, and whether that matters for the long term use of the technology. We use original survey data from 500 farms in two territories in South-Kivu. We combine a descriptive statistical analysis and a factor analysis to understand interrelationships in the application of ISFM technologies, and relate it to technology characteristics and the local context. We find that few farmers in the area have reached “full ISFM”, and that application of ISFM technologies occurs sequentially, rather than simultaneously. At plot level two subsets of technologies can be distinguished. The first subset is characterized by more resource-intensive technologies (row planting and mineral fertilizer). The second consists of less resource-intensive technologies (improved legume and maize varieties). These subsets behave as supplements rather than as complements, and adoption within and among each subset is more sequential than simultaneous. Generally, farmers adopt less resource-intensive technologies first, and then adopt more resource-intensive technologies. Our results imply that there is a disconnect between the theoretical arguments in the agronomic ISFM literature, and the actual patterns of ISFM application on farmers’ fields. |
| Keywords: | sustainable intensification, complementary agricultural technologies, application patterns, integrated soil fertility management, sub-Saharan Africa, eastern DR Congo, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:180062&r=env |
| By: | Wachenheim, Cheryl J.; Lesch, William C.; Dhingra, Neeraj |
| Abstract: | The Conservation Reserve Program, one of more than twenty voluntary conservation programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, was initiated under the Agricultural Act of 1985 and has evolved under subsequent farm bills. Today, enrollment acres are selected among qualifying land based on an environmental benefits index. Total land enrolled will drop to a maximum of 24 million acres under the Agricultural Act of 2014. This report covers a broad scope of existing literature related to the Conservation Reserve Program. Although much of the literature is dated and not reflective of today’s markets, the currency of the message is that landowners respond to financial incentives. Further, uncertainty about the costs and financial benefits has endured as a hindrance to enrollment that may otherwise be attractive to landowners. Research supports the influence of a host of additional factors, including those non‐financial. A focus on consideration of local conditions and specific conservation practices will aid future research, although specificity must be balanced against incorporating landowner consideration of other land‐use alternatives. The literature emphasizes the need to educate decision‐makers on all aspects of conservation program options likely to influence their enrollment decision using a venue that is accessible to them. This information should stress economic factors and focus on specifics such as the impact of a specific conservation practice locally and the likely economic impact of various options for the individual producer. We should look for innovative, efficient methods to increase farmer access to this information to include social networks and peer education. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:nddaae:164829&r=env |
| By: | Han, Peter; Foltz, Jeremy |
| Abstract: | Although infant mortality has decreased in the world in recent years, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are still struggling with high prevalence of infant deaths. Using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and high resolution rainfall and temperature estimates, we investigate how weather conditions could affect an infant’s survival in Mali. Applying survival analysis, we find that high rainfall amount during the growing season and heat stress during the dry season negatively affect an infant’s survival in rural areas, but not in urban areas. Furthermore, there are significant prenatal weather effects on infants, suggesting that pregnant mothers’ exposure to heat, disease or malnutrition could negatively affect child health. The findings suggest that healthcare in rural communities should take a priority in public health policy debates in mitigating infant deaths in the future. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Health Economics and Policy, International Development, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205730&r=env |
| By: | Tisdell, Clem |
| Abstract: | The genetic diversity of traditional food crops is rapidly declining in the Pacific Islands, as is also true globally. This loss in the Pacific is of particular concern worldwide because some of these islands (such as New Guinea) are primary centres of origin of several globally important food crops (e.g. bananas and sugar cane). This article provides background information on the evolution of the diversity of these crops, investigates (within the Pacific context) the socioeconomic reasons for this loss, analyses its possible economic consequences, and considers the economic benefits and costs of conserving crop varieties. The potential economic benefits foregone by failing to conserve a crop variety that possesses genetic attributes which would counter a productivity reducing new disease or environmental development is shown to depend on the nature of the demand function for the crop’s production. Other things being held constant, this potential loss is greater the larger is the absolute demand for a crop’s production and the more inelastic is this demand. Staple crop’s production seem to satisfy these conditions, especially the first one. In fact, gene banks in the Pacific Islands have concentrated on conserving varieties of staple crops. However, ignoring the conservation of minor traditional crops may not always be optimal, given that circumstances change. The economics and costs associated with the conservation of crop diversity in situ and ex situ are discussed. The effective analysis of this is shown to be challenging but it is an important consideration in making conservation decisions. Unfortunately, this subject appears to have received little attention in the Pacific as well as globally. |
| Keywords: | biodiversity loss, crop varieties, gene banks, genetic capital, food crops, food security, Pacific Islands, sustainable development., Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Q1, Q2, Q3, O1, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uqseee:183260&r=env |
| By: | Banerjee, Simanti; Shortle, James S. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the role of informal low-cost interventions such as providing information about behavior of one’s peer group, as a mechanism to improve the performance of farmland conservation programs. We focus on a specific policy that has high ecological significance because of its emphasis on spatially coordinated land uses – the Agglomeration Bonus. Prior research has indicated that strategic uncertainty within the economic environment of the Agglomeration Bonus (resembling a coordination game with multiple payoff ranked Nash Equilibria) can lead to coordination failure and limited spatial coordination on the payoff efficient strategy (that corresponds to the land use with higher ecosystem benefits). High levels of strategic uncertainty can be a result of large community sizes where landowners’ actions are interdependent, limited information about others’ behavior and conservative payoffs that may make coordination riskier and less attractive. In this context, we consider a laboratory experiment in which we reduce participants’ strategic uncertainty by varying the amount of information available to them. In control sessions, groups of 12 individuals (arranged on a circular local network on which every individual has 2 strategic neighbors) participate in an Agglomeration Bonus game and receive payoffs and information about both their neighbors’ actions. In the treatment sessions, in addition to this information, subjects are also informed about the choices of all members of the group (including their own and their strategic neighbors’ actions). Additionally, we reduce the group size from 12 to 8 subjects to further decrease game strategic uncertainty. Our results indicate that more information in smaller groups significantly improves the likelihood of making the efficient choice. However, repeated interaction leads to a reduction in the likelihood of choosing the efficient action unless both neighbors make the same choice. Analysis of group level spatial patterns indicate no significant treatment effect with increase in instances of coordination failure over time. Thus our treatment implementation while successful in increasing the likelihood of efficient choices, does not ensure that these choices are by adjacent individuals which is necessary for environmental successes. Thus, informal mechanisms that involve providing information about one’s social peers is not expected to improve policy performance even if individuals interact with each other in smaller groups. Additional mechanisms are needed to maintain the positive effect of information and incentivize spatially contiguous efficient land use choices in the long run. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration Bonus, Ecosystem Services, Information, Local Networks, Spatial Coordination, Strategic Uncertainty, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Land Economics/Use, Q57, Q24, D83, D85, C72, C91, C92, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205126&r=env |
| By: | Collie, Samuel |
| Abstract: | Water conflicts unfolding around the world present the need for accurate economic models of groundwater use which couple traditional producer theory with hydrological science. We present a static optimization problem of individual producer rents, given groundwater as a variable input to production. In a break with previous literature, the model allows for the possibility of binding constraints on well capacity which occur due to the finite lateral speed at which water can move underground. The theoretical model predicts that when well yield constraints bind, producers maximize profit by extracting as much water as possible. Therefore, if producers are constrained, regions with more available water should consume more of it. We test this hypothesis empirically by modelling the effect of well yields on crop cover and water usage data. Our empirical results reveal that areas with higher average well capacities tend to plant a more water intensive mix of crops, and use more groundwater. This straightforward result comes in contrast to previous economic models of groundwater use, which have assumed an interior solution to the irrigators’ profit maximization problem. This research provides important inroads to understanding what really drives irrigators’ behavior on the High Plains; a crucial step towards conserving this precious resource. |
| Keywords: | groundwater, well capacity, hydrology, microeconomics, spatial economics, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205783&r=env |
| By: | Saito, Yoko; Aizaki, Hideo; Saito, Hisamitsu; Kondo, Takumi; Yamamoto, Yasutaka |
| Abstract: | Most GM crop varieties are designed to reduce farm costs, and it has direct appeal only to producers. Especially in developed areas such as Japan and the United States, consumers generally see no particular advantage in consuming these products other than their arguably lower prices. Yet GM food technology can provide direct consumer as well as producer value. GM medical rice has been developed as a new recombinant-gene rice variety useful in the treatment of cedar-pollen allergies. We examine whether the addition of such new functionalities and associated environmental risk reductions by employing plant factory, might contribute to wider diffusion of such a GM variety. Result indicates that consumers who are allergic to cedar pollen respond positively to the medical benefits of GM rice. Especially, if they have a higher opportunity cost of the hospital visit or if they are more familiar with GM products, they are more likely to consume medical rice. Patients concerning about environmental risks of GM plants tend to buy medical rice produced in a factory. As a result, in addition to enhance consumer knowledge of GM crops, targeting busy patients is effective when promoting medical rice. |
| Keywords: | GM Medical Rice, Choice Experiment, Immunotherapy Treatment, Consumers/Patients Survey, Environmental Risk, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205455&r=env |
| By: | Vega, Amaya; Corless, Rebecca; Hynes, Stephen |
| Abstract: | Results from the report show that in 2010, the direct economic value of the Irish ocean economy was €1.2 billion or approximately 0.8% of GDP. The sector had a turnover of €3.5 billion, and provided employment for approximately 16,300 people (Full Time Equivalent). The report allows for the comparative analysis of the contribution of the marine sector to the national economy in the 2007-2010 period. |
| Keywords: | Ireland's Ocean Economy, Marine Economy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics, |
| Date: | 2013–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:semrui:161676&r=env |
| By: | Bauman, Allison; Goemans, Christopher; Pritchett, James; Thilmany McFadden, Dawn |
| Abstract: | Water is an essential ingredient to growing communities, healthy ecosystems and vibrant industries. Due to increases in population in the western U.S., the gap between forecasted water demands and available water supplies is growing. One of the primary means by which increased demand for water will be met is through voluntary water transfers. Market based, voluntary transfers of water have long been promoted by economists based on the idea that, under perfectly competitive market conditions, they lead to an efficient allocation of water. In this paper, we explore the function of water markets when perfectly competitive conditions do not exist, answering the question, how does the presence of transaction costs in water markets impact welfare outcomes, in terms of overall efficiency and distributional impacts? As a secondary research question, this paper explores how different buyers and sellers are differentially affected by transaction costs, and thus, any policy measures to reduce such costs. Results from this paper show that heterogeneous agents and the existence of transaction costs do play a role in welfare outcomes from the water market, showing the importance of modeling imperfectly competitive water market to provide more nuanced policy and market analysis. |
| Keywords: | transaction costs, water market, imperfect competition, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:201448&r=env |
| By: | Canales, Elizabeth; Bergtold, Jason S.; Williams, Jeffery; Peterson, Jeffrey |
| Abstract: | The diffusion of technologies is a gradual process; it takes time for the information about these new practices to be diffused (Jaffe et al., 2002). While the first assay examines adoption at a point in time, it is also possible to examine adoption in a dynamic setting using a duration model. Using duration models allows for the temporal aspect of adoption and the heterogeneity in the timing of adoption to be accounted for (Abdulai & Huffman, 2005). The second essay examines the timing of adoption of three conservation practices: continuous no-till, cover crops, and VRA of inputs. The timing of adoption was measured as the time it took for farmers to adopt a practice since they first started managing the farm or since the introduction of the practice if the practice was available after the farmer started farming. Findings in this study suggest that the adoption of certain practices delay the adoption of other conservation practices. In addition, the findings in this study suggest that risk aversion is not a significant factor in delaying the speed of adoption of continuous NT. Similar to the first paper, it is possible that farmers do not see NT as a risky practice, thus risk aversion may not affect its adoption or speed of adoption. However, risk aversion was found to delay the adoption of cover crops and VRA of inputs. In addition, the results in this study suggest that farmers who considered themselves innovators adopt the three conservation practices at a faster rate than their counterparts. |
| Keywords: | Adoption, Carbon Market, Conservation, Contract, Risk, Stated Choice, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205640&r=env |
| By: | McFadden, Brandon R.; Lusk, Jayson |
| Abstract: | The ability of scientific knowledge to contribute to public debate about societal risks depends on how the public assimilates information resulting from the scientific community. Bayesian decision theory assumes that people update a belief by allocating weights to a prior belief and new information to form a posterior belief. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of prior beliefs on assimilation of scientific information and test several hypotheses about the manner in which people process scientific information on genetically modified food and global warming. Results indicated that assimilation of information is dependent on prior beliefs and that the failure to update beliefs in a Bayesian fashion is a result of several factors including: misinterpreting information, illusionary correlations, selectively scrutinizing information, information-processing problems, knowledge, political affiliation, and cognitive function. |
| Keywords: | Bayesian updating, beliefs, climate change, biotechnology, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, D83, Q16, Q54, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162532&r=env |
| By: | Obembe, Oladipo S.; Almas, Lal K.; Guerrero, Bridget L; Lust, David G. |
| Abstract: | The objective is to evaluate the economic feasibility and potential water savings to a dairy of replacing corn silage with BMR sorghum silage; and to estimate the potential economic benefits and water savings (current & future) to the region from adoption of this practice. Economic analysis was conducted for different scenarios to estimate irrigated sorghum silage potential in the Texas High Plains to meet the feed requirements of ever growing dairy industry. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to know the effects of yield on the amount of water that will be saved, feed requirement, acreage to cultivate and cost of production. The cost of production for corn silage is higher than the cost for sorghum silage. More acreage, irrigation water and feed requirement will be needed if sorghum silage is used to replace 100% of the corn silage needed to feed the dairy cow inventory unless there is an increment in yield per acre of sorghum silage between 24 -26 tons per acre. More water can also be saved if the yield per acre of dryland sorghum silage can be increased substantially so that the effect of cost of production can be reduced in relation to the high number of dryland sorghum acreage needed to meet the feed requirement through irrigated sorghum-dryland combination. |
| Keywords: | Sorghum Silage, Dairy Industry, Irrigated Agriculture, Texas High Plains, Ogallala Aquifer, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q13, Q15, Q25, |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162423&r=env |
| By: | Amponsah, Kwabena; Paliwal, Neha |
| Keywords: | Production, Productivity, Technology Adoption, Technical efficiency, Improved groundnut varieties, propensity score matching, Malawi, Uganda, Sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:206197&r=env |
| By: | Loomis, John; Sanchez, Jose; Gonzalez-Caban, Armando; Holmes, Thomas |
| Abstract: | With increasingly large expenditures of public funds being spent to reduce the severity of wildfires around homes, officials and legislators are often interested in knowing the economic benefits these funds provide. However, agencies often do not have funding or expertise to conduct individual state specific benefit estimates, and often rely upon benefit transfer (BT) estimates. We calculate the BT error for transferring California homeowner benefit estimates to Florida and vice-versa for public and private fire risk reduction programs. We use the same choice experiment survey and the same specification of the mixed logit model in both states. In terms of accuracy of benefit transfer, among homeowners that perceive low to moderate fire risk, transferring willingness to pay (WTP) from CA to FL or FL to CA for the Public Program to reduce wildfire risk yields a large BT error (-33.1% to 51.8%). However, these large BT errors for the Public Program become smaller (-23.3% to +30.4%) when the benefit transfer focuses on those homeowners with high risk perceptions of wildfire in their neighborhood. In contrast, the opposite pattern is found for the Private Program. There are low BT errors when transferring WTP for the Private Program to reduce risk (-4.4% to 4.8%) between CA and FL homeowners that perceive low to moderate fire risk. But for high risk perceiving homeowners WTP for the Private Program to reduce wildfire risk immediately around their home has a much larger BT error (-16.4% to 31.8%). While our range of BT errors are generally less than found in the BT convergent validity literature, our BT errors are still higher than expected given the same methodology is used in both states, and the homeowners in the two states report similar effects of wildfires and perceived risk. It is hypothesized that the considerable differences between homeowner demographics in the two states may be contributing to the BT errors. |
| Keywords: | benefit transfer, California, Choice Experiment, convergent validity, forest fires, Florida, mixed logit models, risk perception, wildfires, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q23, Q51, |
| Date: | 2015–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:202661&r=env |
| By: | Schwarz, Jana; Mathijs, Erik; Maertens, Miet |
| Abstract: | International agri-food trade has expanded rapidly during the past decades and changed considerably in structure with important implications especially for developing economies. One of the main environmental concerns regarding international trade is about the exploitation and redistribution of water resources. In this paper we use the virtual water approach for analyzing the relation between global agri-food trade, its structure and virtual water flows in the period of 1986 to 2011. Specifically, for five world regions we calculate growth rates of interregional trade values and virtual water volumes, the contribution of different product groups to trade and the economic water efficiency of imports and exports. Our findings show that over time trade values have generally increased more rapidly than virtual water volumes. In Africa and South America virtual water exports have roughly quadrupled since 1986. In all regions staples and industrial products account for the largest share in virtual water trade. The recent shift towards high-value exports is beneficial for developing countries from a regional water efficiency perspective due to high trade values and low associated virtual water volumes. Water efficiency of trade has increased in all regions since 2000 and export water efficiency is especially high in Europe. |
| Keywords: | virtual water trade, food trade, international trade, environmental impact, economic development, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, F18, F64, Q17, Q27, Q56, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:kucawp:200308&r=env |
| By: | Louhichi, Kamel; Ciaian, Pavel; Espinosa, Maria; Colen, Liesbeth; Perni, Angel; Gomez y Paloma, Sergio |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the first EU-wide individual farm-level model (IFM-CAP) intending to assess the impacts of CAP towards 2020 on farm economic and environmental performances across Europe. IFM-CAP is a static positive programming model applied to each EU-FADN individual farm -around 60500 farms- to guarantee the highest representativeness of the EU agricultural sector and to capture the full heterogeneity across EU farms in terms of policy representation and impacts. The model is used to assess the effects of the crop diversification measure, given that it is one of the most challenging aspects of the EU greening policy in terms of modelling and because of the farm-specificity of its implementation and impact. Results show that most non-compliant farms (80 %) chose to reduce their level of non-compliance following the introduction of the diversification measure owing to the sizable subsidy reduction imposed in case of non-compliance. However, the overall impact on farm income is rather limited: farm income decreases by less than 1 % at EU level, and only 5 % of the farm population will be negatively affected. Nevertheless, for a small number of farms, the income effect could be more substantial (more than –10 %). |
| Keywords: | Common Agricultural Policy, Greening, Crop Diversification, Farm-level Model, Positive Programming Model, EU, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C55, Q12, Q18, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205309&r=env |
| By: | Yoo, Do-il |
| Abstract: | Big data is one of the most discussed topics in recent economic and business sectors with explosive applications of information and communication technologies (ICT). The object of this study is to develop a forecasting model based on a big data processing. This study focuses on the forecasting of vegetable price considering climate factors as one of major big data associated with the agricultural field. Onion and napa cabbage in Korea are selected as target products. Price forecasting models are constructed by a Bayesian structural time series (BSTS) and a vector autoregression (VAR) models. Both models introduce climate factors of temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration, and the lowest temperature in chief producing district for onion and napa cabbage. Results show that, for onion price, BSTS is more appropriate for the short-term price forecast, and VAR for the long-term. For napa cabbage prices, both BSTS and VAR show similar patterns in price forecasting. However, BSTS predicts price relatively lower than VAR does. We conclude that it is necessary to consider big data concerning climate factor in forecasting vegetable price and to develop various models across agricultural products with their growing environment. |
| Keywords: | BSTS, VAR, big data, climate factor, vegetable price, Demand and Price Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:206052&r=env |
| By: | Chalmers, Neil George; Revoredo-Giha, Cesar; Shackley, Simon |
| Keywords: | Financial Economics, Health Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc15:204287&r=env |
| By: | Francis, Mwaura; Geoffrey, Okoboi; Gemma, Ahaibwe |
| Abstract: | High dependency on biomass has been associated with energy poverty in Uganda with successful intervention to modern energy expected to results to economic transformation. This paper examines utilization of various forms of cooking energy sources among households using data from the 2005/6 Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS). Results indicate that utilization of modern energy sources was only by 4 percent of households. A multinomial probit model (MNP) was used to estimate coefficient of determinants of energy choices. Determinants of household energy choices were observed as consumption expenditure welfare, residing in urban or rural areas, household size, achievement of education levels beyond primary level and regional location of a household. The study recommended deliberate efforts by government to intervene in addressing low adoption of modern energy especially now that the country has oil and gas reserves. The government should implement policies to encourage private sector involvement in provision of modern energy alternatives, provision of micro-credit for buying equipments and availing modern energy in smaller quantities. |
| Keywords: | economic transformation, energy sources, EPRC, Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eprcrs:184170&r=env |
| By: | Brown, Zachary S.; Dickinson, Katherine L.; Paskewitz, Susan |
| Abstract: | Serial nonparticipation in nonmarket valuation using choice data is a pattern of behavior in which an individual always appears to choose the status quo or ‘no program’ alternative. From a choice modelling perspective serial nonparticipation may be viewed as belonging to a class of ‘discontinuous preferences,’ which also includes other behavioral patterns, such as serial participation (never choosing the status quo), as well as lexicographic preferences (e.g. always choosing the alternative with the greatest health benefit). Discontinuous preferences are likely to be especially relevant in the context of environmental goods, due to the lack of familiarity that individuals have with valuing these goods in markets. In the case of discrete choice data, logit-based choice models are ill-equipped for identifying such preferences, because conditional logit choice probabilities cannot take a value of zero or one for any finite parameter estimates. Here we extend latent class choice models to account for discontinuous preferences. Our methodological innovation is to specify for each latent class a subset of alternatives that are avoided with certainty. This results in class membership being partially observable, since we then know with certainty that an individual does not belong to a class if she selects any alternatives avoided by that class. We apply our model to data from a discrete choice experiment on mosquito control programs to reduce West Nile virus risk and nuisance disamenities in Madison, Wisconsin. We find that our ‘generalized latent class model’ (GLCM) outperforms standard latent class models in terms of information criteria metrics, and provides significantly different estimates for willingness-to-pay. We also argue that GLCMs are useful for identifying some alternatives for which valuation estimates may not be identified in a given dataset, thus reducing the risk of invalid inference from discrete choice data. |
| Keywords: | discrete choice econometrics, latent class models, partial observability, serial nonparticipation, serial participation, discontinuous preferences, E-M algorithm, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q51, C35, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205613&r=env |
| By: | Page, Ian B.; Lichtenberg, Erik; Saavoss, Monica |
| Abstract: | Recall data of consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, fresh fruits and vegetables; visits to recreational sites, doctors’ offices, and local businesses; household expenditures; and individuals’ perceived probabilities of future events often contain reported numbers that appear to be rounded to nearby focal points (e.g., the closest 5 or 10). Failure to address this rounding has been show to produce biased estimates of marginal effects and willingness to pay. We investigate the relative performance of three count data models used with data of the kind typically found in recreation demand studies. We create a dataset based on observed recreational trip counts and associated trip costs that exhibits substantial rounding. We then conduct a Monte Carlo simulation exercise to compare estimated parameters, the average partial effect on an increase in trip cost, and average consumer surplus per trip for three alternative estimators: a standard Poisson model with no adjustment for rounding, a censored Poisson model, and the grouped Poisson model. The standard Poisson model with no adjustment for rounding exhibits significant, persistent bias, especially in estimates of average consumer surplus per trip. The grouped Poisson, in contrast, shows only slight biases and none at all in estimates of average consumer surplus per trip. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205653&r=env |
| By: | Jang, Heesun; Du, Xiaodong |
| Abstract: | The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which provides financial incentives for landowners to idle erodible and marginal farmland, has contributed to a number of environmental benefits that otherwise would have not been achieved. However in the last few years CRP faced a number of new challenges as record-high crop prices significantly affected landowners’ interests to participate in the program. Despite an extensive literature on CRP, we lack evidence on how landowners react to changes in agricultural market conditions and CRP payment rates and hence how it affects the program enrollment and cost. In this paper, we attempt to investigate landowners’ incentives for CRP participation focusing on the linkage between farmers’ CRP payment bids and unobserved agricultural productivity. We develop and estimate an empirical structural model to examine the manner in which agricultural productivity, market conditions, and CRP payment affect landowners’ land use decisions. A novel identification strategy is employed to control for endogeneity and self-selection. The parameter estimates are used to simulate how changes in agricultural prices and CRP payment influence the program enrollment and cost. |
| Keywords: | Control function, Land allocation, payment premium, self-selection, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, Land Economics/Use, Productivity Analysis, O13, Q15, Q24, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205727&r=env |
| By: | Thiel, Andreas |
| Abstract: | Water governance has significantly transformed in Europe because of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) . This paper first presents a framework for explaining this phenomenon and second it ilustrates the framework by applying it to three cases . The framework relies on a combination of theories of institutional change in order to do justice to the different perspectives actors involved hold. Such a conceptual framework allows to address two kinds of explanation of the way water governance is organised: a) it may be the outcome of actors’ pursuance of individual gains (interest driven explanation), b) it may be the outcome of actors’ striving for the most cost effective way of organising resource governance (functionalist explanation). Implicit in these conceptions the role of changes in actors’ perceptions and mental models are considered with regard to water governance on the one hand, and changes in water use patterns and perceptions in regard to their regulation on the other. Subsequent application of the analytical framework to the cases of Spain, Portugal and Germany based on extensive qualitative field work allows to develop first elements of a theory of processes of scalar organisation. It is concluded that changes in the interrelated value of the resources and technologies of production and exclusion shaped preferred outcomes of specific actors and their mental models. These have been complemented by changes in interrelated institutions and changes in ideologies. Altogether, these factors change the perceived (transaction) costs and benefits of specific governance arrangements. However, these are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for scalar reorganisation of water governance. What actor groups perceive as beneficial to their ends from a cost-benefit point of view changes but also differs for their specific institutional environment. In order to make changes in what actor groups hold as preferable means and ends effective in changes in competencies, it is necessary for the corresponding actors to be able to bring their positions to bear on negotiations in the corresponding action situations of constitutional or legislative choice. |
| Keywords: | Water Governance, European Union, Water Framework Directive, institutional change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Political Economy, |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi13:156967&r=env |
| By: | Adekunle Van Wie, Omotoyosi; Saghaian, Sayed; Stowe, Christina; Markus,Lang |
| Abstract: | This paper is an analysis of the management and cost minimizing strategies of the BLM's wild horse and burro adoption program. |
| Keywords: | BLM, Public Adoption Rate, Sterilization, Hedonic Pricing, Demand Elasticity, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2013–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea14:162469&r=env |
| By: | Ropicki, Andrew; Larkin, Sherry |
| Abstract: | Catch shares fishery management schemes, including individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs, have become a popular tool for fishery managers trying to stop overfishing. IFQ, in theory, provides quota owners with the “right” to a share of both the current catch and all future harvests. By making quota a perpetual asset it is in the fishermen’s best interest to protect future harvests by not overharvesting in the current period. Overharvesting now will decrease future landings and the value of quota going forward. In most IFQ programs quota is tradable; and many IFQ programs allow for not only the sale of quota (the perpetual asset) but also the leasing of quota during a given year (the lessee attains the right to harvest the quota this year but the lessor retains the right for all subsequent years). In a number of IFQ fisheries leasing is the predominate form of quota trading. During the first five years of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper IFQ program (2007-2011) there were 16 times more quota lease than sale trades and the amount of quota pounds traded through leasing was 12 times the amount of pounds traded through sales. Newell, Sanchirico, and Kerr (2005) found that quota lease transactions increased 10-fold in New Zealand IFQ fisheries from approximately 1,500 in 1986 to about 15,000 in 2000 representing approximately 45% of the total allowable catch (TAC), while sales of quota only accounted for about 5% of the TAC. Quota leasing in the British Columbia halibut IFQ program rose steadily from program implementation in 1993 to reach 79% of the TAC in 2006 (Pinkerton and Edwards 2009). The Tasmanian rock lobster IFQ program saw similar large amounts of quota leasing with 44% of the TAC leased in 2007 the ninth full year of the program, during the same year only 3% of the TAC was sold (van Putten et al. 2010). The predominance of leasing as the major form of quota exchange in these IFQ programs has been accompanied by the growth of two distinct types of quota fishery participants: investors and lease-dependent fishers. Investors are quota owners that do not fish and simply hold quota as an investment that pays dividends through lease payments. Lease dependent fishers are those fishers that do not own quota and lease in their entire quota. During the first five years of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper IFQ program the percentage of red snapper landings caught by lease dependent fishers increased from 9% to 26% while the share of quota owned by investors increased from 13% to 27%. The preponderance of quota leasing in these markets leads to the question: do potential buyers and sellers of quota have inherently different valuations of quota that preclude trading in the quota sale market? The implementation of a catch shares management program that allows for both the sale and lease of quota provides an opportunity to analyze discount rates in the fishery. In an IFQ fishery each fishing firm has an incentive to buy, sell, or lease quota until it attains just enough quota to cover a level of catch that maximizes its profits. The value of quota is the discounted value of all future cash flows provided by the quota or the resource rent earned from harvesting the quota. The quota lease price should equal the profit from harvesting that fish. If we assume fishing firm i has the generic profit function shown in equation 1 where p is the exogenously determined dockside price of fish, qi is the amount of fish landed, and c(qi) is a function representing firm i’s cost of catching qi fish; then maximizing profits with respect to landings, subject to the constraint that firm i holds enough quota to cover qi level of catch, the firm will be willing to pay λi to lease quota as shown in equation 2. πi=pqi- c(qi) (1) λi=p- c'(qi) (2) The expected present value of quota for firm i then is the expected future values of leasing that quota discounted back at an appropriate discount rate, r, as shown in equation 3. E(V_(i,0))= ∑_(t=0)^∞▒λ_(i,t)/〖(1+r_i)〗^t (3) This research inspects the link between IFQ lease and sale prices using survey data and examines the variation in implied discount rates between different groups of quota market participants, namely potential quota buyers and potential quota sellers. Respondents were classified as either potential quota buyers or potential quota sellers based on past trading activity (those that historically leased in quota were classified as potential buyers while those who usually leased out quota were classified as potential sellers). Using survey data from the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper and Grouper-Tilefish IFQ program participants we were able to examine participants implied discount rates using a dividend discount valuation model. IFQ participants were surveyed to determine at what prices they would buy and sell quota and lease in and out quota, their expectations about future growth of the quota, and their expectations regarding the longevity of IFQ management in the fishery. By accounting for participant expectations regarding the growth of the quota and the future of IFQ management in the fishery we are able to not only measure fundamental differences in respondents’ expectations regarding the future of the fishery, but also control for differences in quota valuation due to factors other than the implied discount rate. |
| Keywords: | catch share, red snapper, IFQ, implied discount rate, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205711&r=env |
| By: | Brown, Jason P.; Fitzgerald, Timothy; Weber, Jeremy G. |
| Abstract: | Innovation-spurred growth in oil and gas production from shale formations led the U.S. to become the global leader in producing oil and natural gas. Because most shale is on private lands, drilling companies must access the resource through private lease contracts that provide a share of the value of production – a royalty – to mineral owners. We investigate the competitiveness of leasing markets by estimating how much mineral owners capture geologically-driven advantages in well productivity through a higher royalty rate. We estimate that the six major shale plays generated $39 billion in private royalties in 2014, however, extraction firms capture most of the benefit from resource abundance, with a doubling of the ultimate recovery of the average well in a county leading to a 2 percentage point increase in the average royalty rate (an 11 percent increase). The low pass-through is consistent with firms exercising market power in private leasing markets. |
| Keywords: | royalty payments, oil, natural gas, mineral rights, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, L71, R11, Q32, Q35, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205657&r=env |
| By: | Colin-Castillo, Sergio; Woodward, Richard T. |
| Abstract: | A common pool resource (CPR) can be subject to overuse. It results in degradation and poor economic performance: the CPR problem. However, this problem may reside not only in the unlimited access, but also in an ineffective management (complicated and expensive regulations, very limited budget), to preserve the resource stocks and fail to sustain the economic activity. A successful community-based management (CBM) is built in a self-governance (SG), a regime where CPR users can achieve common targets at the minimum cost, and deal with the tragedy of the commons. Yet, is not clear how CBM, thus SG, is related with the economic performance of CPR users. SG allows the CPR users to increase certainty of their decisions. But, if such users are not predisposed toward SG, the efforts to develop a CBM are likely to be lengthy, difficult, and costly and, in the end, unsuccessful. Thus, decision makers would like to know the likelihood for a successful process before promote a CBM. This analysis explores the link between technical efficiency (TE) and the potential to adopt self-governance in a CPR. How is the relationship between the support that CPR users give to adopt the SG and their economic performance? We take two inputs that use a 2010 survey in a Mexican fishery: The Lázaro Cárdenas Reservoir, a small-scale (111 fishers), weak regulated and limited enforced inland fishery. It is an overexploited fishery where commercial activity is not profitable, a CPR problem. The 1st input assesses the potential for self-governance using the 6 conditions (OCi) proposed by Ostrom, they show the likelihood to adopt SG if CPR users conclude: (1 ) …be harmed if they don’t adopt alternative rules. (2) …be affected similarly by the alternative rules. (3) …highly value continuing the activity. (4) …share norms of reciprocity and trust. (5) …face low cost of information, transformation and enforcement. (6) Users group is small and stable. The 2nd input is a measure of TE on the fishery by using a stochastic frontier analysis model. We hypothesize a positive relationship between fishers’ economic performance and their predisposition for self-governance. That is, a high user’s TE tends to favor the adoption of SG. The model uses a six equation system where the dependent variables are the estimated OCi (1st input), predicted by the estimated TE (2nd input), in a reduced equation and extended equation form, with a Linear and Semi-Log specification form. Our results do not show a significant relationship between OCs and fisher’s economic performance. But fisher experience, family size and income dependence from fishing have a significant correlation with OCi. Thus, fishers with more entrepreneurial skills may favor the adoption of self-governance. As well, if the age of a fisher increases, his agreement with cooperation and trust also tends to increase, nonetheless the coefficient is close to zero. This is a step in the understanding if self-governance would be implementable. Knowing the variables that explain, ex-ante, the potential for SG, can be a useful input to define management strategies and deal with the CPR problem. Our results do not support the hypothesis of a positive relationship between a high efficiency and the potential for self-governance. If this holds in general, it may happen that individuals with a greater efficiency (income) will oppose to the adoption of a CBM. These findings goes in line with Ostrom beliefs when she describes that independent variables do not help to predict the outcomes derived from a complex interaction between ecological, social, and economic systems. But also, those may be useful for policy makers if they want to encourage the adoption of a CBM. Thus, by promoting self-governance it would be a good idea to start the process with the more experienced and older CPR users, as it was shown in our study case. Finally, while the link between potential for SG and fisher’s TE was no significant, and the potential for SG and fisher experience shows a weak relationship. Thus, replications would be desirable. Although considering that the main constraint is the lack of a true validity. At least for this study case, we did not observe ex post whether self-governance was successfully adopted. |
| Keywords: | Common Pool Resources, Self-governance, community-based management, technical efficiency, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205749&r=env |
| By: | Nehring, Richard F.; Hallahan, Charlie; Fernandez-Cornejo, Jorge; Wang, Sun-Ling; Wechsler, Seth; Hart, Jarrett; Mosheim, Roberto |
| Abstract: | This study extends previous research, which calculated quality-adjusted price and quantity indices for the pesticides applied to corn, soybeans, cotton, and sorghum using hedonic methods (Fernandez-Cornejo and Jans, 1995). We extend the analysis through 2008 and make several econometric improvements. The analysis proceeds as follows: First, Zivot-Andrews tests are used to determine whether there are structural breaks in the data generating process. Next, we use hedonic regressions to control for pesticide quality characteristics including potency, toxicity, and persistence across active ingredients. Finally, the regression results are used to obtain preliminary estimates of the quality-adjusted price and quantity indices. |
| Keywords: | Key Words: hedonic estimation, pesticide quality, corn, soybeans, cotton, sorghum, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Productivity Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2015–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205317&r=env |
| By: | Fan, Xiaoli; Gómez, Miguel I.; Conrad, Jon M.; Atallah, Shady S. |
| Keywords: | Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205685&r=env |
| By: | Cooper, Bethany; Burton, Michael; Crase, Lin |
| Abstract: | In many Australian cities the response to drought has included the imposition of mandatory constraints over how water is used by households, often termed ‘water restrictions’. A similar rationing approach has been witnessed in California’s recent drought. The aim of water restrictions is to slow the depletion of water storage but restrictions have also been criticised for the costs they impose on specific water users. In order to gain insight into the potential magnitude of the cost of water restrictions, this study uses a choice experiment to investigate the non-market values for specific attributes associated with the outcomes of drought restrictions. This information was sought to understand the community’s willingness to pay for attributes relating to the extent, frequency and duration of water restrictions. The paper reports a latent class choice model for a major city in eastern Australia and investigates heterogeneity in preferences towards increasing water availability during drought. This study departs from the existing literature by conducting the choice experiment in a context where water supply is relatively abundant. This unique framing of the choice experiment allows for a useful comparison with existing studies and also raises challenges about the interpretation of the data for planning purposes. |
| Keywords: | urban water, choice experiments, consumer behaviour, latent class model, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q25, Q51, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea15:205130&r=env |
| By: | Terlau, Wiltrud; Hirsch, Darya |
| Abstract: | Sustainable development needs sustainable production and sustainable consumption. During the last decades the encouragement of sustainable production has been the focus of research and policy makers under the implicit assumption that the observable increasing ‘green’ values of consumers would also entail a growing sustainable consumption. However, it has been found that the actual purchasing behaviour often deviates from ‘green’ attitudes. This phenomenon is called the attitude-behaviour gap. It is influenced by individual, social and situational factors. The main purchasing barriers for sustainable (organic) food are price, lack of immediate availability, sensory criteria, lack or overload of information as well as the low-involvement feature of food products in conjunction with well-established consumption routines, lack of transparency and trust towards labels and certifications. The last three barriers are mainly of a psychological nature. Especially the low-involvement feature of food products due to daily purchase routines and relatively low prices tends to result in fast, automatic and subconscious decisions based on a so-called human mental system 1, derived from Daniel Kahneman’s2 model in behavioural psychology. In contrast, the human mental system 2 is especially important for the transformations of individual behaviour towards a more sustainable consumption. Decisions based on the human mental system 2 are slow, logical, rational, conscious and arduous. This so-called dual action model also influences the reliability of responses in consumer surveys. It seems that the consumer behaviour is the most unstable and unpredictable part of the entire supply chain and requires special attention. Concrete measures to influence consumer behaviour towards sustainable consumption are highly complex. This paper presents a review of interdisciplinary research literature on the complexity of sustainable food consumption and an empirical analysis of selected countries worldwide. In a ‘best practice’ case study, it analyses the organic food sector in Denmark, especially in the 80ies and 90ies, where the market share rose to a leading position worldwide. The Danish example demonstrates that common efforts and a shared responsibility of consumers, business, interdisciplinary researchers, mass media and policy are needed. It takes pioneers of change who succeed in assembling a ‘critical mass’ willing to increase its ‘sustainable’ behaviour. Considering the strong psychological barriers of consumers and the continuing low market share of organic food, proactive policy measures would be conducive to foster the personal responsibility of the consumers and offer incentives towards a sustainable production. Also, further self-obligations of companies (Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR) as well as more transparency and simplification of reliable labels and certifications are needed to encourage the process towards a sustainable development. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable development, responsible consumer, homo oeconomicus, behavioural economics, interdisciplinarity, consumer decision models, attitude-behaviour-gap, organic food, asymmetric information, low-involvement products, consumer behaviour, ethical values, dual action model: mental system 1 and 2 (Kahneman), cognitive bias, cognitive dissonances, Danish Association of Organic Farming, nudges, change agents, proactive state, corporate social responsibility (CSR), Agribusiness, |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iefi15:206233&r=env |
| By: | Zuniga Gonzalez, Carlos Alberto; Trejos, Rafael |
| Abstract: | La presente investigación se focaliza en medir la bioeconomía de Nicaragua utilizando el enfoque canadiense de la economía bio-basada, siguiendo las sub-categorías de Sistema de Clasificación Industrial Norteamericano (NACIS). Los datos y registros disponibles en el Banco Central de Nicaragua registrados en el Sistema de Cuentas Nacionales fueron utilizados para homologar las subcategorías del NACIS y el Clasificador Industrial Internacional Uniforme (CIIU) revisión 3 de las Naciones Unidas que permitió homologar los principales componentes de la economía bio-basada. El año base de referencia fue 1994 para el periodo 1994-2000 y 2006 como año de referencia para el 2006-2007. Los resultados evidencian que la Bioeconomía contribuyó al PIB en un 28 % durante el periodo 1994-2000, en cambio durante el nuevo año de referencia 2006 se estimó un 7 % en promedio consistente con las estimaciones de Pellerin [24]. De los componentes principales se destacó la industria de química orgánica con un 74% y 75 % respectivamente, durante el periodo 2006-2007. En segundo orden el componente de las actividades de agricultura y cultivos con una contribución del 22%, para el periodo 2006-2007, pero represento el primer orden para el periodo 1994-2000 y el componente de salud, industrias médicas y farmacéuticas representó una contribución de un 24 % durante el periodo 1994-2000, pero no así para el siguiente periodo, que al igual que los alimentos y bio-procesos de bebidas tienen una baja contribución. |
| Keywords: | Economía Bio-basada, Bio-economía, Sistemas de Cuentas Nacionales., Agricultural and Food Policy, Productivity Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q:16, Q:42, Q:57, |
| Date: | 2014–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:naunwp:183630&r=env |