INVESTIGATING PREFERENCE HETEROGENEITY IN A REPEATED DISCRETE-CHOICE RECREATION DEMAND MODEL OF ATLANTIC SALMON FISHING

Estimating a demand system under the assumption that preferences are homogeneous may lead to biased estimates of parameters for any specific individual and significantly different expected consumer surplus estimates. This paper investigates several different parametric methods to incorporate heterogeneity in the context of a repeated discrete-choice model. The first is the classic method of assuming utility to be a function of individual characteristics. Second, a random parameters method is proposed, where preference parameters have some known distribution. Random parameters logit causes the random components to be correlated across choice occasions and, in a sense, eliminates IIA. Simulation noise is discussed. Finally, methods are proposed to relax the assumption that the unobserved stochastic component of utility is identically distributed across individuals. For example, randomization of the logit scale, which is a new method, allows noise levels to vary across individuals without the added burden of explaining the source using covariates. The application is to Atlantic salmon fishing, and expected compensating variations and changes in trip patterns are compared across the models for three policy-relevant changes in fishing conditions at the Penobscot River, the best salmon fishing site in Maine.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Public Benefits of Undeveloped Lands on Urban Outskirts: Non-Market Valuation Studies and their Role in Land Use Plans

Over the past three decades, the economics profession has developed methods for estimating the public benefits of green spaces, providing an opportunity to incorporate such information into land-use planning. While federal regulations routinely require such estimates for major regulations, the extent to which they are used in local land use plans is not clear. This paper reviews the literature on public values for lands on urban outskirts, not just to survey their methods or empirical findings, but to evaluate the role they have played--or have the potential to play-- in actual land use plans. Based on interviews with authors and representatives of funding agencies and local land trusts, it appears that academic work has had a mixed reception in the policy world. Reasons for this include a lack of interest in making academic work accessible to policy makers, emphasizing revealed preference methods which are inconsistent with policy priorities related to nonuse values, and emphasis on benefit-cost analyses. Nevertheless, there are examples of success stories that illustrate how such information can play a vital role in the design of conservation policies. Working Paper 07-2

Children\u27s reading success and parental involvement

The influence of parents is an important factor in 2 children\u27s success in reading instruction. Many parents want to facilitate their children\u27s reading growth but do not know how to instruct them and therefore turn to the educator for guidance. Schools need to continually remind parents that the best way to prepare for their children\u27s success in school is to involve themselves in their children\u27s language experiences, relates Harms (1982, p. 3). The attention given to the beginnings of literacy has drawn attention to the role parents play in teaching children to read prior to school enrollment. Parents are the child\u27s primary teachers. Mothers and fathers who regularly read magazines, newspapers and books communicate to their children that reading is valuable, and as a result children, emulating their parents, engage in viewing reading experiences. Children are eager to have parents share the books that are a treasure to them

A dynamic model to assess the carrying capacity of a defined system

A system dynamics method to assess carrying capacity of a defined natural environment is presented. The proposed method seeks to relate per capita resource usage to ranges of population and per capita consumption beyond which the system is not viable relative to population dependent resource constraints. It provides a platform to investigate system behavior through system dynamics simulations where populations change, natural resources decay due to stressor impacts, and feedback occurs via implementation of policy. Application of the model to a case study of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of phosphorous in Bear Lake, a Lake Michigan estuary (USA), shows the major total phosphorous (P) loading contribution is anthropogenic land use development. Three scenarios are quantitatively explored by assuming changes in land use and/or loading rates. Simulation results show tradeoffs between reduction of total P and land use; economic development can be flexibly evaluated against targets of loading reduction trajectories

Valoración de los beneficios intangibles de áreas forestadas: un caso de estudio en India

[EN] Environmental compensation measures usually accompany energy projects. Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) for five intangible benefits derived from afforested areas of a compensatory afforesta-tion programme of National Thermal Power Corporation Dadri are estimated. Conventional Contingent Valuation shows the average WTP € 2.1 per respondent per month with more than 43 % of total WTP for ‘soil conservation and remediation’ and ‘improvement in underground water level’. Logit model method depicts the same order of magnitude but differs significantly at 5 % level for all the benefits. More in-formed decisions upon energy projects and afforestation programs shall help in conserving forests and their ecosystem services.[ES] Las medidas de compensación ambiental suelen acompañar a los proyectos energéticos. Se estima la disposición a pagar (DAP) por cinco beneficios intangibles derivados de áreas forestadas del programa compensatorio de la Corporación Nacional de Energía Térmica Dadri. La valoración con-tingente muestra que la DAP es de 2,1 € por encuestado al mes, con más del 43 % para “conservación y regeneración del suelo” y “mejora del nivel del agua subterránea”. El modelo Logit muestra el mismo orden de magnitud, pero difiere significativamente para todos los beneficios. Decisiones más informadas sobre los programas efectivos de forestación ayudarán a conservar los bosques.The authors thank the two unknown Reviewers and the Editor for their useful comments and suggestions in the earlier version of this article. We would like to also thank to NTPC Dadri for providing financial support to conduct this studyJain, A.; Chandra, G.; Nautiyal, R. (2017). Valuating intangible benefits from afforested areas: A case study in India. Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales - Agricultural and Resource Economics. 17(1):89-100. doi:10.7201/earn.2017.01.04.SWORD8910017

Locust Grove, GA

Prepared by the Spring 2013 Preservation Planning Class. The Locust Grove Design Guidelines were developed to help guide the community of Locust Grove in preservation efforts. These Design Guidelines are created to assist the public and the Locust Grove Historic Preservation Commission in the appropriate rehabilitation of historic properties in the district based on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_heritagepreservation/1024/thumbnail.jp

Wind Power Compensation is not for the Birds: An Opinion from an Environmental Economist

This article advocates for better implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework as applied to wind power development, with a particular focus on improving compensatory restoration scaling. If properly enforced, the environmental impacts hierarchy "avoid - minimize - compensate" provides the regulated community with incentives to prevent wildlife and habitat impacts in sensitive areas and, if necessary, compensate for residual impacts through restoration or conservation projects. Given the increase in legislation requiring resource-based environmental compensation, methods for scaling an appropriate quantity and quality of resources is of increasing relevance. I argue that Equivalency Analysis (EA) represents a transparent and quantitative approach for scaling compensation in the case of wind power development. Herein, I identify the economic underpinnings of environmental compensation legislation and identify weaknesses in current scaling approaches within wind power development. I demonstrate how the recently-completed REMEDE Toolkit, which provides guidance on EA, can inform an improved scaling approach and summarize a case study involving raptor collisions with turbines that illustrates the EA approach. Finally, I stress the need for further contributions from the field of restoration ecology. The success of ex ante compensation in internalizing the environmental costs of wind development depends on the effective implementation of the environmental impacts hierarchy, which must effectively encourage avoidance and minimization over environmental restoration and repair

Identifying Conflicts and Opportunities for Collaboration in the Management of a Wildlife Resource:A Mixed-Methods Approach

Context: The sustainable management of many common-pool ecological resources can be strengthened through collaboration among stakeholder groups. However, the benefits of collaborative management are often not realised because of conflicts of interest among stakeholders. Effective strategies for enhancing collaborative management require an understanding of the trade-offs that managers make between different management outcomes and an understanding of the socioeconomic and location-specific differences that drive these preferences. Approaches based on quantitative or qualitative methods alone often fail to reveal some of the underlying factors inhibiting collaboration. Aims: Our aim was to understand the relative importance that private-sector deer managers attach to changes in the following three outcomes of deer management: deer numbers, deer-related road-traffic accidents (RTAs) and deer impacts on conservation woodlands. Methods: We used a mixed-methods approach, combining choice-experiment methodology with qualitative analysis of focus-group discussions from 10 study regions throughout Britain. Key results: Our results showed that most of the private-sector stakeholders responsible for deer-management decisions at the local level would prefer to see a future with fewer deer-related RTAs but do not want to see a future with lower deer population levels. This is especially the case for those stakeholders managing for sporting purposes and those that rely on deer as a financial resource. Conclusions: The preferences of many private-sector stakeholders responsible for deer management are at odds with those of private landowners currently experiencing economic and conservation damage from deer, and with the aims of government and non-government bodies seeking to reduce grazing and browsing damage through lower deer densities. Similar barriers to collaborative management are likely to exist in any situations where ecological resources deliver an unequal distribution of benefits and costs among stakeholders. Implications: Overcoming barriers to collaboration requires enhanced understanding of how different collaborative mechanisms are viewed amongst the stakeholder community and how collaborative management can be promoted. More holistic approaches to deer management, which include greater public awareness, additional road-traffic speed restrictions and appropriate fencing, or perhaps include deer-population reduction as only one of a suite of mechanisms for delivering multiple benefits from the land, are likely to gain more support from private-sector stakeholders. Mixed-methods approaches can provide an important first step in terms of both quantifying preferences in relation to the management of ecological resources and enabling detailed insights into the motivations and behaviours underlying them.No Full Tex