57 research outputs found
Heterogeneity among agent types and second-best management for non-market ecological services
Second-best management affects different agent types differently, and heterogeneity among agents may create instances when only second best management is feasible. Capital-theoretic bioeconomic modeling often has imposed representative agent assumptions that may not capture this heterogeneity. Interactions between agent heterogeneity and second-best management have received little attention. Such heterogeneity is particularly important when management actions do not directly affect extensive margin decisions. We employ a microparameter model in a dynamic bioeconomic model to incorporate agent heterogeneity and intensive and extensive margin decisions for a nonmarket good, recreational fishing. The model yields qualitatively different management recommendations when a representative agent is assumed than when heterogeneity is included using the microparameter approach.entry-exit, microparameter, bioeconomics, recreational fishing, landing limits, optimal control, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q20, Q22, Q26,
SPLIT-SAMPLE TESTS OF "DON'T KNOW" AND "INDIFFERENT" RESPONSES IN AN ATTRIBUTE BASED CHOICE MODEL
stated preference, contingent valuation, no opinion, internet survey, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,
Skip the Trip: Air Travelersâ Behavioral Responses to Pandemic Influenza
Theory suggests that human behavior has implications for disease spread. We examine the hypothesis that individuals engage in voluntary defensive behavior during an epidemic. We estimate the number of passengers missing previously purchased flights as a function of concern for swine flu or A/H1N1 influenza using 1.7 million detailed flight records, Google Trends, and the World Health Organizationâs FluNet data. We estimate that concern over ââswine flu,ââ as measured by Google Trends, accounted for 0.34% of missed flights during the epidemic. The Google Trends data correlates strongly with media attention, but poorly (at times negatively) with reported cases in FluNet. Passengers show no response to reported cases. Passengers skipping their purchased trips forwent at least $50 M in travel related benefits. Responding to actual cases would have cut this estimate in half. Thus, people appear to respond to an epidemic by voluntarily engaging in selfprotection behavior, but this behavior may not be responsive to objective measures of risk. Clearer risk communication could substantially reduce epidemic costs. People undertaking costly risk reduction behavior, for example, forgoing nonrefundable flights, suggests they may also make less costly behavior adjustments to avoid infection. Accounting for defensive behaviors may be important for forecasting epidemics, but linking behavior with epidemics likely requires consideration of risk communication
CONTROLLING WILDLIFE AND LIVESTOCK DISEASE WITH ENDOGENOUS ON-FARM BIOSECURITY
The spread of infectious disease among and between wild and domesticated animals has become a major problem worldwide. We analyze the socially optimal management of wildlife and livestock, including choices involving environmental habitat variables and on-farm biosecurity controls, when wildlife and livestock can spread an infectious disease to each other. The model is applied to the problem of bovine tuberculosis among Michigan white-tailed deer. The optimum is a cycle in which the disease remains endemic in the wildlife, but in which the cattle herd is depleted when the prevalence rate in deer grows too large.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,
Heterogeneity among agent types and second-best management for non-market ecological services
Second-best management affects different agent types differently, and heterogeneity among agents may create instances when only second best management is feasible. Capital-theoretic bioeconomic modeling often has imposed representative agent assumptions that may not capture this heterogeneity. Interactions between agent heterogeneity and second-best management have received little attention. Such heterogeneity is particularly important when management actions do not directly affect extensive margin decisions. We employ a microparameter model in a dynamic bioeconomic model to incorporate agent heterogeneity and intensive and extensive margin decisions for a nonmarket good, recreational fishing. The model yields qualitatively different management recommendations when a representative agent is assumed than when heterogeneity is included using the microparameter approach
Spatial Management of Wildlife Disease
The spread of wildlife diseases is a major threat to livestock, human health, resource-based recreation, and biodiversity conservation (Cleaveland, Laurenson, and Taylor). The development of economically sound wildlife disease-management strategies requires an understanding of the links between ecological functions (e.g., disease transmission and wildlife dispersal) and economic choices, and the associated tradeoffs. Spatial linkages are particularly relevant. Yet while ecologists have long-argued that space is important (Hudson et al.), prior economic work has largely ignored spatial issues. For instance, Horan and Wolf analyzed a case study of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in Michigan deer, a problem where the disease appears to be confined to a single, spatially confined, wildlife populationâan island. But wildlife disease matters generally are not spatially confined. Barlow, in analyzing bTB in possums in New Zealand, accounted for immigration of susceptible possums into a disease reservoir. However, he modeled immigration as fixed and unaffected by management. Bicknell, Wilen, and Howitt, also focusing on possums in New Zealand, developed a model that incorporates simple density-dependent net migration. This allowed the authors to account for endogenous immigration when deriving optimal culling strategies
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Comprehensive Fishery Wealth: A Bioeconomic, Ecosystem-Based Approach to Measuring Fisheries Sustainability
Fisheries sustainability is a much sought-after goal. Yet, âsustainabilityâ is often too ambiguously defined to be of much practical guidance to policymakers. Furthermore, fisheries managers are increasingly expected to assess and manage fisheries in an âecosystem-basedâ manner â accounting for the ecological interdependencies of species and their coupling with the physical environment. We build upon the green accounting and sustainable development literatures to downscale indices often used to measure sustainability at the nation-state scale to measure the current and projected future sustainability of exploited fishery ecosystems. We argue that the sustainability of a fishery ecosystem can be assessed by whether the properly measured value of the natural, physical and human capital stocks embodied within the fishery (i.e., the comprehensive fishery wealth) is non-decreasing over time. We extend our published work (Fenichel and Abbott 2014) to show how ecosystem models of fisheries can be integrated with bioeconomic models of human âpredatorsââ responses to changes in multispecies fish stocks and policy to provide rigorous âshadow pricesâ for all species within the system and fishing capital. These prices can then be multiplied by their associated capital stocks to provide an index of inclusive fishery wealth. Changes in this index (i.e., comprehensive investment) allow managers to assess the ability of past and current fishery management regimes to maintain wealth within the fishery for future generations. Finally, we show how our wealth accounting approach â when coupled with ecosystem-based bioeconomic models â can be leveraged to prospectively evaluate the sustainability and efficiency of alternative management approaches.KEYWORDS: Ecosystem Based Management, Fisheries economic
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