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 Travelers’ 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 Organization’s FluNet data. We estimate that concern over ‘‘swine flu,’’ 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 population—an 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