Theory and estimation of the household production function for wildlife recreation

The household production function is an intuitively appealing way to model man's interaction with nature. This paper models the interaction between the household's behavior and publicly provided inputs into wildlife recreation. The paper shows how to compute benefits, assuming that the household production function is known. The household production function approach collapses to the simple travel cost approach when households are unable to substitute their own inputs for publicly provided inputs. In addition, the paper demonstrates the conditions under which the parameters of cost and preference functions can be identified. The conditions for identification are quite restrictive when several choices are endogenous.     

Emission control policies under uncertainty

The paper deals with the problem of optimal environmental policy under uncertainty. Usually, when an environmental policy is considered, only the expected values of the parameters of the marginal benefit and marginal cost functions associated with the policy are known. Thus a relevant question is: In the presence of uncertainty, what is the optimal policy mean for achieving the environmental objective? The study addresses itself to the specific objective of improving air quality although the analysis is generally applicable. The policy means are emission taxes and emission quotas. It is shown that under uncertainty neither of these means is generally optimal, and that specific parameter values of the costs and benefits relations and their distributions determine the optimal policy for each situation.     

A Derivation of the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve

The relationship between a firm's technology and its marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve is explored. Even under the simplest specifications, the MAC curve will be kinked at some point except under a special assumption which, in reality, could easily be violated. The nondifferentiability implies that the choice of instrument under uncertainty may depend on the targeted level of emissions reduction. Also, stability conditions for dynamic tax mechanisms may be violated in the neighborhood of the kink point. A policy implication is that in some cases output restrictions are as efficient as emissions restrictions, in contrast to previous results.     

Control targets for the management of biological systems

Attention is focused on biological systems which are describable in terms of ordinary differential equations subject to human control inputs. The concept of an isochronal system is introduced in order to include systems for which the differential equations are valid only over regularly reoccurring time intervals.It is assumed that the control inputs are to be chosen so that an integral cost function of the state of the system, the control used, current time, and the time interval of the control program is minimized. Problems associated with minimizing this cost function over an infinitely long time interval is then considered. Difficulties inherent with minimizing a cost integral on an infinite time interval are shown to be avoided by minimizing an average of the cost function over an unknown but periodic time interval. Under proper circumstance, the optimal control program for the average cost function is either identical to or a good approximation to the optimal control program for the original cost function over an infinitely long time interval.Necessary conditions are obtained for minimizing an average cost function over an unspecified time interval subject to the system equations. For a given problem the necessary conditions will yield but a single system trajectory in the state space. For management purposes this trajectory may be thought of as a target to which the system should be driven and maintained.A number of examples illustrate the use of the necessary conditions to obtain control targets. Certain problems associated with the stability of the target solutions are illustrated with the examples.     

Biological interactions and environmental effects in the economics of pest control

The problem of pest control is tackled in a context of an ecosystem that consists of prey-predator populations with human interaction through pesticide application. The control, aimed at reducing pest damage, results in two undesirable external effects: reduction of beneficial predator population and environmental contamination. The untapped natural equilibrium is compared with equilibrium resulting from decentralized and centralized economic decision making. It is shown that, under certain conditions, myopic decision rules increase rather than decrease the pest damage. The “user cost” (or benefit) is shown to be crucial in determining the optimal centralized policy, and its relations to the various components of the system are analyzed. The components of the user cost are analyzed to determine the level of taxes or subsidies that will yield the optimal policy.     

The economics of enforcing pollution taxation

The efficient structure of pollution tax policy is examined when it is recognized that enforcing compliance will be costly. There are two components of this cost: (1) the direct cost of enforcement and (2) the cost polluters incur avoiding enforcement. Considering only the first cost, the efficient pollution policy calls for a tax in excess of that conventionally recommended as efficient, T¹ but with little enforcement. Once avoidance cost is recognized the efficient policy can be substantially altered; requiring a tax lower than T¹, but with greater enforcement. Even when direct enforcement cost is zero, it is shown that there is no unique advantage to T¹ in the absence of avoidance cost.     

基于CVM方法分析牧民对禁牧政策的受偿意愿——以锡林郭勒草原为例

确定居民对生态措施实施的受偿意愿,对目前迫切需要的生态补偿政策制定以及生态恢复和保护的有效性具有重要的现实意义。选用锡林郭勒草原为案例区域,通过入户调查及在那达慕大会集中调查相结合的方式,调查锡林郭勒草原地区牧民对禁牧措施的态度和受偿意愿。分析结果显示:53%的牧民愿意参加禁牧,而不愿意参加禁牧主要是由于补偿标准不合理引起的。计量经济学模型分析表明,牧民对禁牧的支持态度与牧民的收入和草地面积呈正相关,与养羊数量呈负相关。牧民的受偿意愿由牧民养羊数量、受教育年限、草地现状以及对禁牧政策的支持程度决定。根据意愿调查法初步估算锡林郭勒草原地区禁牧措施实施后牧民的补偿意愿,牧民家庭对禁牧政策的平均受偿意愿为每年每户2.7717万元,人均受偿意愿为8399元,平均每1hm2草地受偿意愿为85.95元。     

Substitution and the control of pollution : A comparison of effluent charges and quantity standards under uncertainty

Single-valued price and quantity controls of a polluting activity are compared under uncertainty. The ability to substitute other inputs for the pollutant in the production of a positively valued final good, and the usual discrepancy between the amount of pollution actually consumed and the amount emitted are carefully incorporated. The first is found to influence the degree to which cost fluctuation is reflected in the output of the final good. The second concern alters the region of the benefit function into which output is inserted. Both change the welfare losses associated with random fluctuation in the costs of reducing pollution.     

应用CGE模型量化分析中国实施能源环境税政策的可行性

应用一个可计算一般均衡(CGE)模型对中国若干工业行业按照差别税率对所投入的煤炭和油气产品征收从价能源环境税的情况进行了量化模拟,预测了该项政策在中国实施的可行性;并在量化模拟和分析之后得出如下结论:即征收能源环境税有助于促进工业部门,尤其是能源密集型行业,节能、降耗、改善能源消费结构和削减SO2 和CO2 污染排放,但该项政策的实施并不能够从根本上促进能源利用效率的提高,反而易对宏观经济造成负面影响,因此在中国目前现阶段不宜作为主要能源环境政策备选方案     

The least‐cost biodiversity impact mitigation hierarchy with a focus on marine fisheries and bycatch issues

Least‐cost implementation of the mitigation hierarchy of impacts on biodiversity minimizes the cost of a given level of biodiversity conservation, at project or ecosystem levels, and requires minimizing costs across and within hierarchy steps. Incentive‐based policy instruments that price biodiversity to alter producer and consumer behavior and decision making are generally the most effective way to achieve least‐cost implementation across and within the different hierarchy steps and across all producers and conservation channels. Nonetheless, there are circumstances that favor direct regulation or intrinsic motivation. Conservatory offsets, introduced within the conservatory first three steps of the mitigation hierarchy, rather than the fourth step to compensate the residual, provide an additional incentive‐based policy instrument. The least‐cost mitigation hierarchy framework, induced through incentive‐based policy instruments, including conservatory offsets, mitigates fisheries bycatch consistent with given targets, the Law of the Sea, and the Convention on Biological Diversity.     

Cost‐effectiveness of conservation payment schemes for species with different range sizes

Payments to compensate landowners for carrying out costly land‐use measures that benefit endangered biodiversity have become an important policy instrument. When designing such payments, it is important to take into account that spatially connected habitats are more valuable for many species than isolated ones. One way to incentivize provision of connected habitats is to offer landowners an agglomeration bonus, that is, a bonus on top of payments they are receiving to conserve land if the land is spatially connected. Researchers have compared the cost‐effectiveness of the agglomeration bonus with 2 alternatives: an all‐or‐nothing, agglomeration payment, where landowners receive a payment only if the conserved land parcels have a certain level of spatial connectivity, and a spatially homogeneous payment, where landowners receive a payment for conserved land parcels irrespective of their location. Their results show the agglomeration bonus is rarely the most cost‐effective option, and when it is, it is only slightly better than one of the alternatives. This suggests that the agglomeration bonus should not be given priority as a policy design option. However, this finding is based on consideration of only 1 species. We examined whether the same applied to 2 species, one for which the homogeneous payment is best and the other for which the agglomeration payment is most cost‐effective. We modified a published conceptual model so that we were able to assess the cost‐effectiveness of payment schemes for 2 species and applied it to a grassland bird and a grassland butterfly in Germany that require the same habitat but have different spatial‐connectivity needs. When conserving both species, the agglomeration bonus was more cost‐effective than the agglomeration and the homogeneous payment; thus, we showed that as a policy the agglomeration bonus is a useful conservation‐payment option.     

Disentangling the effects of policy and payment consequentiality and risk attitudes on stated preferences

Incentivizing respondents to truthfully reveal their preferences in stated preference surveys requires that they believe their survey responses can influence decisions related to the outcome in question (policy consequentiality) and that they will have to bear their share of the coercive cost if the outcome is implemented (payment consequentiality). We investigate the effects of these two aspects of perceived consequentiality on stated preferences in a field survey concerning renewable energy development in Poland. We find that beliefs in policy and payment consequentiality strengthen the respondents’ interest in having the project implemented. However, policy consequentiality decreases and payment consequentiality increases their sensitivity to the project cost, which, respectively, increases and decreases their willingness-to-pay for the project. We conclude that the two aspects of consequentiality should be addressed separately. Additionally, we inquire the theoretically speculated links between the respondents’ perceptions of policy and payment consequentiality and their risk attitudes, and we find no significant relationship.     

有机肥与化肥的生产能耗、投入成本和环境效益比较分析——以污泥堆肥生产有机肥为例

针对目前国内肥料生产和施用现状,分别从能耗、成本和污染物排放等三个方面对有机肥和化肥进行比较分析。化肥生产呈现高能耗和高污染排放,而有机肥则表现为低能耗、无污染的特点,同时还可消纳废弃物,减轻污染负荷。从投入成本上分析,化肥相对于有机肥具有一定优势,其单位面积和折纯养分投入分别是有机肥的53%和26%。有机肥相对于化肥,其污染物排放负荷很低。从节能减排和降低投入的角度,提出支持基于废弃物资源化的有机肥产业化发展。     

The production of aggregates by underground mining methods-development of a simulation technique for prefeasibility analysis

In recent years there has been growing interest in Britain in the possibility of opting for underground, rather than surface, extraction methods for low value aggregates. Such a policy would lead to reduced environmental impact and could, under particular circumstances, offer cost advantages to the producer. An assured supply of aggregates at acceptable cost is essential to any modern industrialised country. There is therefore a need to devise a technique capable of assessing the financial implications of a switch from surface to underground production of aggregates in any region. This paper reports the development of a computerised simulation programme, able to calculate the costs of underground working with sufficient accuracy to facilitate strategic decisions on the merits of more detailed analysis in any area of interest. An example is reported of the use of the programme to evaluate underground stone mining potential in the South East of England.     

Cost-effective environmental policy: implications of induced technological change

Cost-effective environmental policy generally requires that all emission sources are faced with the same tax. In this paper I discuss how the existence of induced technological change may alter this result, if at least some of the effect is external to the firm. Focusing on Learning by doing (LBD) effects in abatement activities, it is shown that emission sources with external learning effects should be faced with a higher tax than emission sources with only autonomous technological change. By using simple numerical simulations, it is further investigated to what degree a cost-effective climate policy differs from a free quota market, under various assumptions about learning effects, diffusion of technology and environmental targets. The results indicate that optimal taxes may be significantly higher in the industrial world than in the developing world. Moreover, the industrial world's share of global abatement may be much higher in a cost-effective solution than in a free quota market. The global cost savings of a fully flexible implementation of the Kyoto Protocol are further questioned, as potential spillover effects of technological growth in the industrial world are not internalised in the market.     

Assessing stream restoration effectiveness at reducing nitrogen export to downstream waters

The degradation of headwater streams is common in urbanized coastal areas, and the role these streams play in contributing to downstream pollution is a concern among natural resource managers and policy makers. Thus, many urban stream restoration efforts are increasingly focused on reducing the downstream flux of pollutants. In regions that suffer from coastal eutrophication, it is unclear whether stream restoration does in fact reduce nitrogen (N) flux to downstream waters and, if so, by how much and at what cost. In this paper, we evaluate whether stream restoration implemented to improve water quality of urban and suburban streams in the Chesapeake Bay region, USA, is effective at reducing the export of N in stream flow to downstream waters. We assessed the effectiveness of restored streams positioned in the upland vs. lowland regions of Coastal Plain watershed during both average and stormflow conditions. We found that, during periods of low discharge, lowland streams that receive minor N inputs from groundwater or bank seepage reduced in-stream N fluxes. Furthermore, lowland streams with the highest N concentrations and lowest discharge were the most effective. During periods of high flow, only those restoration projects that converted lowland streams to stream-wetland complexes seemed to be effective at reducing N fluxes, presumably because the design promoted the spillover of stream flow onto adjacent floodplains and wetlands. The observed N-removal rates were relatively high for stream ecosystems, and on the order of 5% of the inputs to the watershed. The dominant forms of N entering restored reaches varied during low and high flows, indicating that N uptake and retention were controlled by distinctive processes during different hydrological conditions. Therefore, in order for stream restoration to effectively reduce N fluxes exported to downstream waters, restoration design should include features that enhance the processing and retention of different forms of N, and for a wide range of flow conditions. The use of strategic designs that match the dominant attributes of a stream such as position in the watershed, influence of groundwater, dominant flow conditions, and N concentrations is crucial to assure the success of restoration.     

Sport and commercial fishing conflicts: A theoretical analysis

A recreational sector is added to a standard commercial fishing optimal control model to identify public decision variables which should be considered when determining optimal population levels and allocating harvestable fish between sport and commercial users. Both linear and nonlinear models are presented. A predator-prey relationship is also considered. Results derived from the models indicate that shortcomings exist with current economic inputs to policy making because of failure to consider relevant bioeconomic relationships. Future research topics to remedy this are discussed.     

Dissecting the tragedy: A spatial model of behavior in the commons

Much of the discussion of the tragedy of the commons focuses on aggregate impacts, often in data-poor developing country settings. Few non-experimental empirical studies shed light on contextual circumstances driving the extent of rent dissipation and overexploitation. We utilize a high-resolution data set to estimate a behavioral model of fishermen's spatial choices. A unique policy setting allows us to measure the degree to which individual fishermen's choices appear aimed at mitigating the tragedy of the commons in a small numbers setting. We find evidence of partial mitigation in excess of what we would expect under pure self-interest but short of what would occur under group-maximizing behavior. We also examine how contextual factors in the fishery shape the degree of cooperation within the fishing season and find evidence that competition for the common pool resource distorts fishermen's implicit cost of distance—creating a form of “common property inertia”.     

Dissecting the tragedy: A spatial model of behavior in the commons

Much of the discussion of the tragedy of the commons focuses on aggregate impacts, often in data-poor developing country settings. Few non-experimental empirical studies shed light on contextual circumstances driving the extent of rent dissipation and overexploitation. We utilize a high-resolution data set to estimate a behavioral model of fishermen's spatial choices. A unique policy setting allows us to measure the degree to which individual fishermen's choices appear aimed at mitigating the tragedy of the commons in a small numbers setting. We find evidence of partial mitigation in excess of what we would expect under pure self-interest but short of what would occur under group-maximizing behavior. We also examine how contextual factors in the fishery shape the degree of cooperation within the fishing season and find evidence that competition for the common pool resource distorts fishermen's implicit cost of distance—creating a form of “common property inertia”.     

The environment as a factor of production

This paper uses firm-level data about electric utilities to develop an empirical model of how electric utilities use and bank SO₂ pollution permits under the Acid Rain Program. The empirical model considers emissions, fuels, and labor as variable inputs with quasi-fixed stocks of permits and capital. Consequently, substitution possibilities between the environment and other production factors can be measured and tested. The results reveal substantial substitution between emissions, permit stocks, capital, fuel, and labor. The empirical findings also indicate that firms bank permits primarily as a hedge against uncertainty and for other firm-specific reasons. Overall, the results suggest that cap-and-trade approaches can reduce the cost of meeting environmental goals by providing a mechanism for addressing regulatory and market risks and by signaling an appropriate price for factor use, especially irreversible capital investments.