Don't Tell Me What to Do, Tell Me Who to Follow! Field Experiment Evidence on Voluntary Donations

We conducted a field experiment in a protected area to explore the effects of conformity to a social reference versus a comparable, but imposed, suggested donation. As observed before, we see visitors conforming to the changing social reference. On the other hand, the treatment in which we suggested a donation resulted in lower shares of visitors donating, compared to the social reference treatment, and lower conditional donations even compared to the control. We concluded that visitors look at their peers as a reference to conform to, but partially reject being confronted with an imposed suggestion on how to behave.conformity, donation, field experiment

Fuel Tax Incidence in Developing Countries: The Case of Costa Rica

Although fuel taxes are a practical means of curbing vehicular air pollution, congestion, and accidents in developing countries--all of which are typically major problems--they are often opposed on distributional grounds. Yet few studies have investigated fuel tax incidence in a developing country context. We use household survey data and income-outcome coefficients to analyze fuel tax incidence in Costa Rica. We find that the effect of a 10 percent fuel price hike through direct spending on gasoline would be progressive, its effect through spending on diesel--both directly and via bus transportation--would be regressive (mainly because poorer households rely heavily on buses), and its effect through spending on goods other than fuel and bus transportation would be relatively small, albeit regressive. Finally, we find that although the overall effect of a 10 percent fuel price hike through all types of direct and indirect spending would be slightly regressive, the magnitude of this combined effect would be modest. We conclude that distributional concerns need not rule out using fuel taxes to address pressing public health and safety problems, particularly if gasoline and diesel taxes can be differentiated.fuel tax incidence, transportation, Costa Rica

The Effect of Risk, Ambiguity and Coordination on Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change: A Framed Field Experiment

The risk of losses of income and productive means due to adverse weather associated to climate change can significantly differ between farmers sharing a productive landscape. It is important to learn more about how farmers react to different levels of risk, under measurable and unmeasurable uncertainty. Moreover, the costs associated to investments in reduced vulnerability to climatic events are likely to exhibit economies of scope. We explore these issues using a framed field experiment that captures realistically the main characteristics of production, and the likely weather related losses of premium coffee farmers in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. Given that the region recently was severely hit by an extreme, albeit very infrequent, climatic event, we expected to observe, and found high levels of risk aversion, but we do observe farmers making trade-offs under different risk levels. Although hard to disentangle at first sight given the high level of risk aversion, we find that farmers opt more frequently for safe options in a setting characterized by unknown risk. Finally, we find that farmers to a large extent are able to coordinate their decisions in order to achieve a lower cost of adaptation, and that communication among farmers strongly facilitates coordination.Risk Aversion, Ambiguity Aversion, Technology Adoption, Climate change, Field Experiment

Gobernanza para la Adaptación basada en Ecosistemas (AbE) para pequeños caficultores de América Central

Introducción. Las prácticas agrícolas basadas en el buen manejo de los ecosistemas son promovidas como una buena estrategia de adaptación para las actividades productivas de pequeños caficultores en la región Centroamericana. La diseminación de la información sobre innovaciones, técnicas, instrumentos, etc. entre las organizaciones y productores es clave para expandir y consolidar el uso de estas prácticas. Objetivo. El objetivo de este estudio fue identificar la estructura de la gobernanza para ampliar y consolidar el uso de prácticas de Adaptación basada en Ecosistemas (AbE) en agricultura. Materiales y métodos. Se analizaron tres paisajes productivos distribuidos en tres países (Honduras, Guatemala y Costa Rica), caracterizados por la dedicación a la caficultura de pequeña escala. Para cada uno de estos paisajes se identificaron los actores que intercambian información entre la escala nacional y el nivel de los productores. Se aplicaron entrevistas para caracterizar los flujos de información y su posible relevancia para promover la AbE en los sistemas productivos de los productores cafetaleros. Resultados. Se identificaron tanto actores claves como vacíos en la red de organizaciones que inhiben la transmisión de información entre escalas y sectores. En Costa Rica, la capacidad de intermediación de información a través de sectores y escalas es repartida entre entidades estatales y organizaciones de productores competitivas. En Honduras, las capacidades de intermediación están repartidas entre algunas organizaciones de la sociedad civil que trabajan a niveles locales cerca a los productores y organizaciones gubernamentales que trabajan a nivel nacional. En Guatemala, las capacidades de intermediación están principalmente repartidas entre organizaciones gubernamentales, de la sociedad civil y privadas principalmente a nivel nacional. Conclusión. El análisis de redes en estos paisajes cafetaleros sugiere que los tres países cuentan con una institucionalidad similar en el sector cafetalero; en dos de ellos, la diseminación de información para promover la AbE beneficiaría a escalas intermedias y locales para promover aprendizaje entre los productores

Encapsulación por gelación iónica de aceite de sésamo con mezclas de alginato de sodio-mucílago de nopal: Eficiencia de encapsulación y estabilidad oxidativa

This study provides a new way for preventing the oxidation of sesame oil by ionic gelation method, where SO can be encapsulated in sodium alginate-nopal mucilage hydrogel beads as wall material. The SA-NM hydrogel beads had heterogeneous surface morphologies, where el NM acted as structural support and controlling fractures in the beads after drying process, making the gel matrix more flexible. SA-NM hydrogel beads after the drying process leads to an irregular spherical shape that the SA beads. SA-NM hydrogel beads is characterized by high yield (>83.34%) and encapsulation efficiency (> 75.44%), and limited surface oil ( 75.44%) than SA beads (63.48%), and provided better protection to SO against oxidation during storage than the SA beads and free SO oil. Oxidation kinetics were of zero-order in all cases. The release kinetics of SO was diffusion controlled and was significantly slower for SA-NM than for SA beads. Our results indicate that SA-NM mixtures may be considered as potential additives for food industry applications.The authors wish to acknowledge the partial financial support of this research to the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México through grant 4738/2019/CI

Determinants of food insecurity among smallholder farmer households in Central America: recurrent versus extreme weather-driven events

To ensure food security among rural communities under a changing climate, policymakers need information on the prevalence and determinants of food insecurity, the role of extreme weather events in exacerbating food insecurity,and the strategies that farmers use to cope with food insecurity. Using household surveys in Guatemala and Honduras, we explore the prevalence of food insecurity among smallholder farmers on both a recurrent (seasonal)and episodic (resulting from extreme weather events) basis, analyze the factors associated with both types of food insecurity, and document farmer coping strategies. Of the 439 households surveyed, 56% experienced recurrent foodinsecurity, 36% experienced episodic food insecurity due to extreme weather events, and 24% experienced both types. Food insecurity among smallholder farmers was correlated with sociodemographic factors (e.g., age, education,migration) and asset ownership. The factors affecting food insecurity differed between type and prevalence of food insecurity. Our results highlight the urgent need for policies and programs to help smallholder farmers improve theiroverall food security and resilience to extreme weather shocks. Such policies should focus on enhancing farmer education levels, securing land tenure, empowering women, promoting generational knowledge exchange, and providing emergency food support in the lean season or following extreme weather events