Ecosystem Good and Service Co-Effects of Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration: Implications for the U.S. Geological Survey’s LandCarbon Methodology

This paper describes specific ways in which the analysis of ecosystem goods and services can be included in terrestrial carbon sequestration assessments and planning. It specifically reviews the U.S. Geological Survey’s LandCarbon assessment methodology for ecosystem services. The report assumes that the biophysical analysis of co-effects should be designed to facilitate social evaluation. Accordingly, emphasis is placed on natural science strategies and outputs that complement subsequent economic and distributional analysis.ecosystem services, carbon sequestration, land use planning

EVOLVING ENTITLEMENTS: INTERVENING TO PREVENT A COLLECTIVE HARM

When market transactions generate negative externalities, the injured party may initiate court action to prevent harm or to obtain compensation. The political response, in some cases, has been to broaden the set of agents who can intervene through the court, often by admitting entirely new categories of potential intervenors. We employ an experimental market setting to investigate the effect of an increase in the number of potential intervenors (introduced as admitting an additional class of persons having the necessary standing in law). The results suggest that there will be a substantial increase in the number of actual interventions. The increase means that social resources expended on interventions will increase and there may be a consequent reduction in trading activity in the affected markets.Public Economics,

The Economic Value of Water: Results of a Workshop in Caracas, Venezuela, November 2000

In November 2000 a small workshop of 14 people met in Caracas, Venezuela, to discuss the value\u27 of water. The meeting was sponsored by the International Water Resources Network (IWRN), the Organization of American States (OAS), The Nature Conservancy, the University of New Mexico, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The meeting was hosted by Jose Ochoa-Iturbe, Director of the School of Civil Engineering at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. The participants represented a mix of academics, water administrators, government officials and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) from around the Americas. Although many of the participants are economists, multiple disciplines and perspectives were represented. The meeting occurred as part of a process for stimulating discussion about water issues in the Americas. During and after IWRN\u27s Dialog III in Panama, the participants at a session on water valuation discussed the need for an intermediate meeting that would keep the discussion moving forward. The feeling was that the time interval between Dialogs was too long and significant time was spent at each Dialog repeating conversations that had occurred before. An intermediate conference was organized in Caracas to fill that need. This document was produced as a result of the Caracas meeting and is meant to serve as an input to IWRN\u27s Dialog IV in Brazil. The document should not be looked on as the final word but as an intermediate step meant to stimulate additional discussion

The Organic Food Premium: A Local Assessment in the UK

The present study combines stated and revealed preferences in order to estimate the hypothetical bias of a sample of organic food consumers from Canterbury in the UK. It uses contingent valuation and hedonic pricing to compare stated and revealed preferences and employs the Almost Ideal Demand System to estimate the elasticity of organic products. The results show that the average price premium is fairly large (approximately 10%). They also demonstrate, crucially, that the size of this estimate is encouragingly similar whether a willingness-to-pay or hedonic pricing method is used. The estimated elasticity of organic products is on average above one, suggesting an elastic response to pricing policy in the present sample. Desirable next steps and potential policy applications for future research are also discussed