ECONOMICS OF MANAGING INVASIVE PEST SPECIES: EXCLUSION AND CONTROL

An important policy decision in managing invasive species is how to allocate resources between activities aimed at preventing the arrival of new pests - including additional arrivals of existing pests - and activities aimed at reducing the damages done by species that are already here. We develop a dynamic model for managing a generic invasive pest with an uncertain arrival date. The optimal conditions reveal that it is generally more efficient to spend a larger share of outlays for exclusion activities before a species arrives than after it is known to be here. They also show that outlays should be allocated such that the marginal costs of control measures equal the benefits from the marginal reduction of the species' population growth rate, and the marginal costs of exclusion measures equal the benefits from the marginal reduction of the rate of subsequent arrivals.Environmental Economics and Policy,

World Agriculture and Climate Change: Economic Adaptations

Recent studies suggest that possible global increases in temperature and changes in precipitation patterns during the next century will affect world agriculture. Because of the ability of farmers to adapt , however, these changes are not likely to imperil world food production. Nevertheless, world production of all goods and services may decline, if climate change is severe enough or if cropland expansion is hindered. Impacts are not equally distributed around the world.climate change, world agriculture, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Permanence of Carbon Sequestered in Forests under Uncertainty

In this paper we examine the issue of permanence in the context of sequestering carbon through afforestation. We develop a dynamic nested optimal control model of carbon sequestration associated with the decision to afforest a tract of land given there are uncertainties associated with fire and insect/disease hazards. Conceptually, these potential hazards are similar in that their occurrence at any time t is uncertain and landowners can take specific actions – although generally different actions - in any time period t to reduce the probability of sustaining losses related to them. The hazards differ, however, in that fire represents a large loss in carbon at a moment in time, while insect/disease infestations are more likely to be reflected in a period of significant slowing of the rate of carbon accumulation than was anticipated followed by a sustained period of slowly decreasing carbon losses. The nature of these losses will influence the design of incentives under GHG mitigation frameworks that require carbon losses to be replaced as well as the strategies farmers adopt to deal with the uncertainties associated with these events occurring.carbon sequestration, uncertainty, optimal control, hazard function, forestry, permanence, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Induced-Innovation and Invasive Species Management

Public policy for managing invasive species has largely focused on preventive measures prior to detection (stage 1) and on the use of chemical/mechanical or biological control measures after the establishment and dispersion of the invasive species (stage 2). Optimal management policy depends both on the initial stock of the invasive species and on the costs associated with conventional control measures. However, little attention has focused on how an induced technology such as Bt corn and Bt cotton is developed and adopted by farmers (stage 3), or how it affects the manageability of economic and ecological damages from an invasive species. This analysis evaluates the optimal allocation of management resources between preventive and control measures for invasive species by incorporating induced technology under uncertainty into a conventional dynamic model of invasive species management.Invasive species, preventive measures, control measures, induced technology, hazard function, optimal control, comparative dynamic analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

Prevention or Control: Optimal Government Policies for Invasive Species Management

We present a conceptual, but empirically applicable, model for determining the optimal allocation of resources between exclusion and control activities for managing an invasive species with an uncertain discovery time. This model is used to investigate how to allocate limited resources between activities before and after the first discovery of an invasive species and the effects of the characteristics of an invasive species on limited resource allocation. The optimality conditions show that it is economically efficient to spend a larger share of outlays for exclusion activities before, rather than after, a species is first discovered, up to a threshold point. We also find that, after discovery, more exclusionary measures and fewer control measures are optimal, when the pest population is less than a threshold. As the pest population increases beyond this threshold, the exclusionary measures are no longer optimal. Finally, a comparative dynamic analysis indicates that the efficient level of total expenditures on preventive and control measures decreases with the level of the invasive species stock and increases with the intrinsic population growth rate, the rate of additional discoveries avoided, and the maximum possible pest population.invasive species, exclusion, control, eradication, public expenditures, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

ECONOMICS OF SEQUESTERING CARBON IN THE U.S. AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases can be reduced by withdrawing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it in soils and biomass. This report analyzes the performance of alternative incentive designs and payment levels if farmers were paid to adopt land uses and management practices that raise soil carbon levels. At payment levels below $10 per metric ton for permanently sequestered carbon, analysis suggests landowners would find it more cost effective to adopt changes in rotations and tillage practices. At higher payment levels, afforestation dominates sequestration activities, mostly through conversion of pastureland. Across payment levels, the economic potential to sequester carbon is much lower than the technical potential reported in soil science studies. The most cost-effective payment design adjusts payment levels to account both for the length of time farmers are willing to commit to sequestration activities and for net sequestration. A 50-percent cost-share for cropland conversion to forestry or grasslands would increase sequestration at low carbon payment levels but not at high payment levels.Carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas mitigation, afforestation, conservation tillage, no-till, incentive design, leakage, carbon stock, permanence, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Toward a new methodology for estimating the marginal social rate of return to public investments in higher education

The United States invests tens of billions of dollars in higher education each year. This had led many researchers to estimate the marginal and average rates of return to these expenditures. Past works, however, have been partial in scope. That is, they have counted only the benefits of higher education which result from the increased earnings of college graduates over people with only a high school diploma. Additional benefits, such as lower consumer prices which result from a more productive work force, have not been considered previously and empirically estimated. The purpose of the present study was to use the techniques of applied welfare analysis to develop a new approach to estimating the marginal social rate of return to investments in higher education. The annual economic benefits to society from increased levels of public support for higher education are estimated by changes in areas of consumer and producer surplus associated with the general equilibrium supply and demand curves for college educated labor. These benefits are then equated with the increased expenditures using a standard discount formula, and a marginal social rate of return is calculated. Data for this study come from the Bureau of the Census and the National Center for Educational Statistics. The supply and demand curves for the labor of college graduates are estimated by ordinary least squares regression treating each state as a separate labor market. Our analysis suggests that further increases in the level of public expenditures for higher education may not be justified using cost benefit analysis techniques. The weakness of the statistical properties associated with our empirical results, however, indicates considerable additional research is necessary prior to making a policy recommendation on the issue

Regional economic aspects of carbon markets and anaerobic digesters in the USA: the case of swine production

The USA has significant potential to produce energy from anaerobic digesters (AD) due to the size of its agricultural sector. The use of ADs reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from manure management. The financial benefits to farmers come from the on-farm use, or off-farm sales, of biogas and its end products, namely renewable natural gas (RNG) or electricity. Current energy prices and policies in the USA are insufficient to trigger large-scale construction of ADs; however, payments to avoid GHG emissions and sequester carbon could become sufficiently high to prompt investment. This analysis quantifies the economic incentives necessary for the construction of ADs for swine producers and can easily be expanded to include other feedstocks. Various end-use pathways to produce RNG and electricity are considered to account for location, herd size, and other parameters to deliver a comprehensive analysis for the USA. The analysis and results are composed of a generic part to illustrate the effects of carbon payment on profitability in general as well as a specific analysis for states representing 83.6% of the US hog inventory. Our results indicate that carbon payments would be a stronger determinant than energy prices in farm-level decisions to install ADs, but that energy prices would be influential in determining the optimal biogas end use. The potential need for long-term contracts – both for energy and carbon payments – to reduce investment uncertainty and increase investment in ADs is also discussed.This article is published as Dumortier, Jerome, John Crespi, Dermot J. Hayes, Molly Burress, Adriana Valcu‐Lisman, and Jan Lewandrowski. "Regional economic aspects of carbon markets and anaerobic digesters in the USA: the case of swine production." Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining (2024). doi:10.1002/bbb.2615. Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted

Proteome changes in platelets activated by arachidonic acid, collagen, and thrombin

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Platelets are small anucleated blood particles that play a key role in the control of bleeding. Platelets need to be activated to perform their functions and participate in hemostasis. The process of activation is accompanied by vast protein reorganization and posttranslational modifications. The goal of this study was to identify changes in proteins in platelets activated by different agonists. Platelets were activated by three different agonists - arachidonic acid, collagen, and thrombin. 2D SDS-PAGE (pI 4-7) was used to separate platelet proteins. Proteomes of activated and resting platelets were compared with each other by Progenesis SameSpots statistical software; and proteins were identified by nanoLC-MS/MS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>190 spots were found to be significantly different. Of these, 180 spots were successfully identified and correspond to 144 different proteins. Five proteins were found that had not previously been identified in platelets: protein CDV3 homolog, protein ETHE1, protein LZIC, FGFR1 oncogene partner 2, and guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit beta-5. Using spot expression profile analysis, we found two proteins (WD repeat-containing protein 1 and mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) that may be part of thrombin specific activation or signal transduction pathway(s).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results, characterizing the differences within proteins in both activated (by various agonists) and resting platelets, can thus contribute to the basic knowledge of platelets and to the understanding of the function and development of new antiplatelet drugs.</p