POSTPRODUCTIVISM AND RURAL LAND VALUES

There are a multitude of interdisciplinary values that people derive from rural land. Productivism focuses on the commodity values of rural land, such as the use of land as a commercial input into agricultural production, timber harvesting and mineral extraction. Productivistic uses and values of rural land have been the traditional focus of rural land policy and management in the United States. Many rural areas in the United States are moving into a postproductivism era. Postproductivism focuses on both commodity and amenity values of rural land. Amenity values of rural land include recreational, aesthetic and ecological service values. When a rural area moves from productivism to postproductivism, value conflicts may arise between individuals and groups who have different preferences with respect to commodity and amenity values. Traditional rural institutions may not be set up to effectively handle such conflicts. There is a need to explore what types of institutions may be most effective in resolving rural land use problems related to the different and often competing values people place on rural land and landscapes.postproductivism, rural land values and preferences, commodity values, amenity values, Land Economics/Use,

THE ROLE AND VALUE OF NATURAL CAPITAL IN REGIONAL LANDSCAPES

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

CURRENT STATUS OF BENEFITS TRANSFER IN THE U.S.: A REVIEW

Benefits transfer refers to the use of existing benefit estimates in a different, but similar context as compared to the original study which generated the benefit estimates. Benefits transfer techniques include fixed value transfer, expert opinion, and value estimator models. Although benefits transfer techniques are subject to a number of conceptual and empirical limitations, these techniques are widely applied in the United States in economic assessments of public policies and projects. The application of benefits transfer in natural resource damage assessment cases is relatively untested in the United States court system.benefits transfer, conceptual background, United States applications, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Defining, Valuing, and Providing Ecosystem Goods and Services

Ecosystem services are the specific results of ecosystem processes that either directly sustain or enhance human life (as does natural protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays) or maintain the quality of ecosystem goods (as water purification maintains the quality of streamflow). "Ecosystem service" has come to represent several related topics ranging from the measurement to the marketing of ecosystem service flows. In this article we examine several of these topics by first clarifying the meaning of "ecosystem service" and then (1) placing ecosystem goods and services within an economic framework, emphasizing the role and limitations of substitutes; (2) summarizing the methods for valuation of ecosystem goods and services; and (3) reviewing the various approaches for their provision and financing.Many ecosystem services and some ecosystem goods are received without monetary payment. The "marketing" of ecosystem goods and services is basically an effort to turn such recipients - those who benefit without ownership- into buyers, thereby providing market signals that serve to help protect valuable goods and services. We review various formal arrangements for making this happen

MEASURING VALUES FOR WETLANDS PROTECTION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY FROM DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL CITIZEN GROUPS

Because of pressures to convert natural areas to commercial economic development uses, protecting natural areas in developing countries is a major challenge. A developing country may desire to protect natural areas, but relatively high out-of-pocket and opportunity costs of protection may pose considerable hurdles. To help protect natural areas in a developing country, the international community often gets involved; for example, providing funds to purchase and preserve natural areas such as rain forests, river corridors and wetlands. Thus, to determine the economic feasibility of protecting a particular natural area in their country, decision-makers in a developing country may be interested in measuring the economic value (e.g., willingness-to-pay) of protection on the part of both residents and nonresidents of the country. The overall purpose of this study was to test a common methodology for measuring both domestic and international citizen groups' values (willingness-to-pay) for protecting a natural area in a developing country. The natural area studied was a wetland area called the Nariva Swamp located in the developing country of Trinidad. A common contingent valuation survey was conducted both in Trinidad and the State of Georgia, USA. The survey instrument worked well in both countries demonstrating the feasibility of administering a common valuation methodology to very different citizen groups living in developing and developed countries. The Nariva Swamp in Trinidad is one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the Caribbean, supporting a diverse population of flora and fauna, including waterfowl, anacondas, and manatees. The swamp also supports recreation in the form of hunting, fishing, and ecotourism. Furthermore, subsistence rice and vegetable farming and subsistence fishing of cascadura fish and conchs occur in the swamp. However, some commercial rice production by local residents, who do not have legal ownership of land, is causing serious environmental damage to the swamp. Overuse of water due to commercial rice production with itinerant irrigation canals has increased the influx of sea water into the swamp, thereby increasing salinity of water in the swamp. If this continues, it could be devastating for flora and fauna in the swamp, local subsistence farming and fishing, and future ecotourism benefits. In order to avoid a worst-case scenario, human activities in the swamp should be balanced to provide economic benefits while protecting the ecosystem functions and services that support these benefits. Attaining such a balance requires knowledge of Nariva Swamp values and benefit-cost analyses of swamp use and management. The contingent valuation method can be applied to measure use and nonuse values of protecting natural areas. The contingent valuation survey instrument for measuring values of protecting the Nariva Swamp to Trinidad and Georgia, USA citizens was developed jointly by researchers at the University of the West Indies and the University of Georgia. The survey instrument collected data on qualitative attitudes and preferences for Nariva Swamp protection, and quantitative data to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) for protecting the swamp. The survey instrument was administered to a sample of general public citizens in both countries. From these data, a common valuation model was estimated and used to calculate mean WTP for Nariva Swamp protection on the part of Trinidad and Georgia citizens. The valuation model generated theoretically consistent and expected results. Trinidad respondents show a higher WTP than Georgia respondents due to greater familiarity and proximity with the Nariva swamp. In this case study, the valuation results suggest that monetary support from USA citizens for protecting the Nariva Swamp may be relatively low. Thus, the economic feasibility of protecting the swamp would likely depend mostly on a domestic analysis that compares benefits (e.g., aggregate willingness-to-pay) and costs to Trinidad citizens of protecting the swamp. Whether or not benefits to the international community should even be considered in a developing country's benefit-cost analysis of protecting a domestic natural area is open to debate and discussion. If benefits of protecting a natural area to the international community are considered by decision-makers in a developing country to be relevant and important, a question for discussion remains as to whether a different natural area in a different developing country would generate more interest and WTP for protection on the part of the international community. To obtain more insight on the causes of differences in preferences and values between developing and developed country citizens for protecting a natural area in a developing country, survey responses to a series of environmental values and attitudes questions were also analyzed. Responses to environmental value questions indicate the relative weight Trinidad and Georgia citizens place on use and nonuse values of Nariva Swamp protection. We were interested to learn if nonuse values of Nariva Swamp protection are important to Trinidad citizens, and if use values are important to Georgia citizens since part of the purpose of the overall study was to gauge the potential of the Nariva Swamp as an international ecotourism destination. Results suggest that relatively few Georgia citizens would be interested in visiting the Nariva Swamp, but very many Trinidad citizens would like to visit the swamp. Nonuse values appeared to represent a small portion of Trinidad citizens support for Nariva Swamp protection. We also compared responses from Trinidad and Georgia citizens to questions designed to assess their general environmental ethics and attitudes towards natural area protection. Research literature suggests that, generally, respondents from more economically developed countries should show a greater interest in environmental issues and natural area protection. This is due to a shift from focus on physical sustenance and safety to a broader understanding and appreciation for quality of life, based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. However, more recent research suggests this approach could be inaccurate. The survey results provide evidence of consistent environmental ethics and natural area protection attitudes on the part of Trinidad and Georgia citizens, with some notable differences that would provide for interesting debate and discussion.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Using Meta Analysis for Benefits Transfer: Theory and Practice

Meta-analysis, or the "study of studies", attempts to statistically measure systematic relationships between reported valuation estimates for an environmental good or service and attributes of the study that generated the estimates including valuation methods, human population and sample characteristics, and characteristics of the good or service itself. In this paper, we discuss the general theory behind and practice of the emerging use of meta-analysis for benefits transfer. If carefully conducted following systematic protocols for model development, data collection, and data analysis and interpretation, we believe that meta-analysis may prove to be a useful tool for benefits transfer in particular applications. However, before widespread application of this method, more convergent validity tests are needed. One of the greatest strengths of using meta-analysis for benefits transfer is the ability to combine and summarize large amounts of information from previous studies. This strength can also lead to one of the greatest weaknesses of this method which is the loss of important valuation details across time and space in the aggregation process. Thus, application of this method to policy questions and issues should always proceed with caution.

A Spatiotemporal Fixed Effects Estimation of U.S. State-Level Carbon Dioxide Emissions

One of the major shortcommings of past environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) studies is that the spatiotemporal aspects within the data have largely been ignored. By ignoring the spatial aspect of pollution emissions past estimates of the EKC implicitly assume that a region’s emissions are unaffected by events in neighboring regions (i.e., assume there are no transboundary pollution emissions between neighbors). By ignoring the spatial aspects within the data several past estimates of the EKC could have generated biased or inconsistent regression results. By ignoring the temporal aspect within the data several past estimates of the EKC could have generated spurious regression results or misspecified t and F statistics. To address this potential misspecification we estimate the relationship between state-level carbon dioxide emissions and income (GDP) accounting for both the spatiotemporal components within the data. Specifically, we estimate a dynamic spatiotemporal panel model using a newly proposed robust, spatial fixed effects model. This new estimation scheme is appropriate for panels with large N and T. Consistent with the EKC hypothesis we find the inverted-U shaped relationship between CO2 emissions and income. Further, we find adequate evidence that the underlying economic processes driving carbon dioxide emissions and state-level GDP are temporally and spatially dependent. These findings offer policy implications for both interstate energy trade and pollution emission regulations. These implications are particularly important for the formulation of national policies related to the 2009 Copenhagen Treaty in which the U.S. has committed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next twenty years.Pollution Economics, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Spatial Econometrics, Dynamic Panel Data, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Global Climate Change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C33, C51, Q43, Q50, Q53, Q58,

Demographics and the Political Sustainability of Pay-as-you-go Social Security

The net present value of costs and benefits from a pay-as-you-go social security system are negative for young people and positive for the elderly. If people all vote their financial self-interest, there will be a pivotal age such that those who are younger favor smaller social security benefits and those who are older will favor larger benefits. For persons of each age and sex, we estimate the expected present value gained or lost from a small permanent increase in the amount of benefits, where the cost of these benefits is divided equally among the population of working age. Assuming that everyone votes his or her long run financial self-interest, and calculating the number of voters in the population of each age and sex, we can determine whether there is majority support for an increase or a decrease in social security benefits. We use statistics on the age distribution and mortality rates for the United States to explore the sensitivity of political support for social security to alternative assumptions about the discount rate, excess burden in taxation, voter participation rates, and birth, death, and migration rates. We find that a once-and-for-all decrease in benefits would be defeated by a majority of selfish voters under a wide range of parameters. We also study the predicted majority outcomes of votes on changing the retirement age.