Water Management in a River Basin with Downstream Externalities

Most water for agricultural and municipal uses comes from river basins. Traditionally the analysis of trade-offs has been confined to evaluating the marginal value of water in urban and municipal uses. However, return flows from these uses often end up in coastal waters that support downstream shrimp and other fish habitats. We examine this problem by developing a conceptual model of a river basin with multiple uses. We develop equilibrium conditions for water allocation to these alternative uses. A unique feature of this model is that the demand for water may vary due to exogenous conditions, such as drought. We apply this framework to secondary data from a coastal river basin in Georgia to show that only under very unique conditions may this trade-off become meaningful, i.e., upstream water withdrawals may need to be limited to protect downstream benefits. Working Paper Number 2005-001

ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION AND GLOBALIZATION IN THE COASTAL FISHERY

Most coastal fisheries in the U.S. and other developed economies are going through a major transition. On the one hand, new technologies such as electronic enhancement to assist trawling have led to a decline in the unit cost of fishing, making it more economically efficient. On the other hand, this improved efficiency has possibly led to increased environmental damage. This has led to conflicts between fishermen and conservation groups. In the past, the main policy issue confronting fishery managers was the task of ensuring that stocks were managed at levels that sustained employment and profits in the fishing industry. However, in recent years, the dynamics of the coastal fishery has changed dramatically. More and more affluent people have settled into coastal areas. Recreational demand has increased faster than demand for commercial fish. Environmental concerns have often become more important than the matter of providing fish at reasonable prices to the urban consumer. This trend has been exacerbated by the globalization of the world fish industry, so that cheaper imports from overseas can now compete with higher cost domestic fish. The paper addresses this problem by developing a simple spatial model of the coastal fishery with two fleets, a traditional higher cost fleet which is environmentally less damaging (e.g., castnetting), and a modern lower cost fleet (trawling) which may have negative environmental effects. As fish move away from inshore breeding grounds to areas offshore, they grow bigger in size, attracting a price premium. The model tries to answer the question: which fleet should fish in what location? This depends on various cost and demand parameters. The optimal spatial allocation of fishing effort is derived when fleets have harvest and capacity constraints. The effect of regulation, for example to preserve inshore fishing grounds for the traditional fleet or imposing environmental taxes on the modern fleet are examined. The effect of imports on effort allocation is discussed. The paper concludes with a case study discussion of the southeastern U.S. shrimp fishery.Environmental Economics and Policy,

THE CHANGING PUBLIC SECTOR IN THE SOUTHERN STATES

Public Economics,

Problem solving ability in elementary school age children with hearing impairment

The present study was conducted to evaluate the problem solving ability of children with hearing impairment. This was done using mathematical problems that are a part of the typical school curriculum. The performance of a group of children with hearing impairment (HI Group) was compared to the performance of a group of children with normal hearing (NH Group). The participants were two groups of school-aged children with 13 in each group. The two groups were equated on performance intelligence, language ability, grade level and sex. The participants were asked to solve two types of mathematical problems: those that required computation alone and word problems that required the use of both language and mathematical computation