Efficient Nonanthropocentric Nature Protection

This paper analyzes nature protection by a social planner under different ‘utilitarian’ social welfare functions. For that purpose we construct an integrated model of the economy and the ecosystem with explicit consideration of nonhuman species and with competition between human and nonhuman species for land and prey biomass. We characterize and compare the efficient allocations when social welfare is anthropocentric (only consumers have positive welfare weights), and when social welfare is nonanthropocentric (all species have positive welfare weights). Not surprisingly, biocentric social welfare calls for suspending all economic activities. It is more important, however, that both anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism make the case for nature protection through different channels. Our analysis suggests that one may dispense with the concept of nonanthropocentric social welfare provided that in the anthropocentric framework the consumers’ intrinsic valuation of nature is properly accounted for.anthropocentrism, biocentrism, welfare, nature protection

Sustainable agriculture : pragmatism, distinctions on artifacts and the role of the land ethic

This thesis will explore the ethical dimensions of global agriculture from the productionist paradigm to the land ethic in the context of the sustainable agriculture promoted in the fair trade, shade grown, and organic coffee movements. Much of the sustainable development debate in the environmental ethics literature has centered on justifications (from anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric worldviews) for preserving nature. Since agriculture is an artifact of human sedentary civilization, traditional nonanthropocentric arguments do not suffice because of the tendency to focus exclusively on natural systems. Building on the work of Katz\u27s Pragmatic ReConsideration and Light\u27s methodological pragmatism, the role of anthropocentric and nonanthropo centric worldviews in the ethical justifications for policy is considered. After developing a pragmatic reconsideration of worldviews, it will be argued that a sustainable agriculture with regard to ecosystem preservation can be achieved by expanding the biotic community referenced in Leopold\u27s Land Ethic to include agriculture or by accepting multiple overlapping arguments as does methodological pragmatism. Ecologists agree that biological corridors are essential to proper functioning and the carrying capacity of migratory species. From a policy perspective, sustainable agriculture means not only the preservation of natural systems, but also the integration of surrounding artifactual systems to support those natural systems

Immediate Demand Reduction in Simultaneous Ascending Bid Auctions (new title: Immediate demand reduction in simultaneous ascending-bid auctions: a uniqueness result)

The present note analyzes the Simultaneous Ascending Bid Auction with arbitrarily many bidders with decreasing marginal valuations under complete information. We show that the game is solvable by iterated elimination of weakly dominated strategies if the efficient allocation assigns at least one unit to every player and if bid increments are sufficiently small. In that unique equilibrium, bidders immediately reduce their demand to the efficient allocation, and the auction ends in the first round of bidding.Simultaneous Ascending Auction, weak dominance, multi-unit auctions, game theory

To who or what do we owe sustainable development? a search for an ethical framework for sustainable development

This thesis focuses on the ethical dimension of sustainable development as described in the Bruntland report. According to this report, we do have certain moral obligations to future generations. This thesis asks whether traditional moral philosophy, such as utilitarian and contractarian theories, can justify moral obligations to future generations, and if they can serve as ethical frameworks for sustainable development. The basic idea with sustainable development is to create a balance between society, the environment and the economy. If the environment is ascribed instrumental value, which is the case with traditional moral philosophy then there is no balance, because its value are based on whatever value the society and the economy is willing to give the environment. I will argue that the proper ethical framework for sustainable development is an ethical framework, based on Aldo Leopold\u27s land ethic. This framework gives the environment a value on its own regardless to its usefulness to humans, which makes it possible to justify sustainable development as a balance between the economy, society and, the environment

Incentives and Anonymity Principle: Crowding Out Toward Users

In our model, an agent produces an outcome by a costly effort and then distributes it among heterogeneous users. The agent’s payoff is the weighted sum of the users’ shares and the coefficient reflecting their heterogeneity. When the agent neglects users’ heterogeneity the game leads to an anonymous allocation. Otherwise, the equilibrium distribution is non- egalitarian but more efficient. Low performing agents reduce inequality among users by delivering an egalitarian service, while intermediate or high performing agents tend to prefer (but not always) delivering an unequal service, thereby breaking the anonymity principle. Incentives do matter regarding the crowding effect toward users.incentives, anonymity principle, egalitarian tasks allocation, principal agent user relationship, crowding-out effect

Welfare Migration: Is the Net Fiscal Burden a Good Measure of its Economics Impact on the Welfare of the Native-Born Population?

Migration of young workers (as distinct from retirees), even when driven in by the generosity of the welfare state, slows down the trend of increasing dependency ratio. But, even though low-skill migration improves the dependency ratio, it nevertheless burdens the welfare state. Recent studies by Smith and Edmonston (1977), and Sinn et al (2003) comprehensively estimate the fiscal burden that low-skill migration imposes on the fiscal system. However, an important message of this paper is that in an infinite-horizon set-up, one cannot fully grasp the implications of migration for the welfare state just by looking at the net fiscal burden that migrants impose on the fiscal system. In an infinite-horizon, overlapping generations economy, this net burden could change to net gain to the native-born population.migration, welfare state, fiscal burden

Who Makes the Rules of Globalization?

In this paper I argue that profit-maximizing firms, even though they contribute to social welfare when they compete in the market, may not do so when they influence the political process. In particular, I suggest, through several examples from both the real world and from economic theory, that corporations have played a significant role in the formulation of the rules of the international trading system. They did this in the formation of the WTO, where they were responsible for the expansion to cover both intellectual property and services. And they do this in preferential trading arrangements such as the NAFTA, where they inserted the notorious Chapter 11 and specified rules of origin for automotive products. All of this is quite consistent with economic theory, including the literature on the political economy of trade policy. I also use a simple duopoly model to illustrate a domestic firm’s interest in setting rules of origin. The corporate influence on rules need not be bad, but there is no reason why it should be good either, as these examples illustrate.political economy of trade, trade institutions, globalisation, globalization

Fending off one Means Fending off all: Evolutionary Stability in Submodular Games (new title: Fending off one means fending off all: evolutionary stability in quasi-submodular aggregative games)

The implications of evolutionarily stable behavior in finite populations have recently been explored for a variety of aggregative games. This note proves an intimate relationship between submodularity and global evolutionary stability of strategies for these games, which -apart from being of independent interest - accounts for a number of results obtained in the recent literature: we show that any evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) of a submodular aggregative game must also be globally stable. I.e. if one mutant cannot successfully invade a population, any number of mutants can even less do so.

Market Concentration and Product Variety under Spatial Competition: Evidence from Retail Gasoline

We show that for a spatially differentiated economy reduced product variety is the likely outcome of mergers except in cases where exit costs in relation to (outlet-specific) fixed costs are high. Our empirical analysis of the Austrian retail gasoline market confirms that increases in concentration reduce product variety. Ignoring this product variety effect is likely to lead to an underestimate of market power in structural merger analysis.spatial product differentiation, retail gasoline, mergers, concentration