The economics of household waste management: a review

In recent years reducing the amount of waste generated by households has become an important policy issue in industrialised economies. It is no longer acceptable to discard waste without concern for environmental and natural resource issues. In an effort to reduce household waste various policy instruments such as kerbside charges, deposit‐refund schemes, integrated sales tax exemptions and virgin material taxes, have been proposed and/or implemented. This article reviews the economics literature that has addressed household waste management. It is argued that a comprehensive modelling framework is necessary if the complex policy environment is to be accurately described.Consumer/Household Economics,

Functional Ingredients and Food Choice: Results from a Choice Experiment

In this paper we present the results of a Choice Experiment (CE) conducted to examine how the inclusion of an attribute for a functional ingredient affects consumer food choice. Specifically, we examine consumer attitudes towards bread and the inclusion of a functional ingredient (eg, inulin), which can be added to bread to increase the quantity and the effectiveness of fibre in the final product A novel feature of the design of this CE was the use of Means-End-Chain analysis via semi-structured interviews to reveal key attributes to be included in the CE. In addition, the CE included the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) so as to collect information on all participants underlying eating behaviours. Preliminary analysis of the data reveals that bread type determines choice, and that the inclusion of a functional ingredient yielded relatively small measures of value. Also, the use of a Latent Class Model reveals that there are differences in willingness-to-pay (WTP) between groups of respondents and that group membership can be partly explained by the DEBQ information. The public health implications of these findings are discussed.Functional Food, Bread, Choice Experiment, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, I10, Q10, R22,

Adverse Selection in the Environmental Stewardship Scheme: Evidence in the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme?

The Environmental Stewardship Scheme provides payments to farmers for the provision of environmental services based on foregone agricultural income. This creates a potential incentive compatibility problem which, combined with an information asymmetry on farm land heterogeneity, could lead to adverse selection of farmers into the Scheme and therefore reduced cost-effectiveness of the Scheme. This reduced cost-effectiveness would be represented by a systematic overpayment of farmers for the land enrolled into the Scheme, compared to the opportunity cost of production. This paper examines the potential adverse selection problem affecting the higher tier of the Environmental Stewardship, the Higher Level Stewardship, using a principal agent framework combined with farm-level data on participation in the HLS. Empirically, it is found that, at the farm level, HLS participation is negatively related to cereal yields, suggesting the existence of adverse selection in the HLS and farmer overcompensation from entering the scheme.Adverse selection, agri-environment, Environmental Stewardship, principal-agent, contract, Environmental Economics and Policy, D78, D82, H44, Q18, Q58,

Extending the Duty of Care: Resource Management and Liability

In this paper we examine the Duty of Care concept as it may be applied to land management in Australia. We show that the efficiency case for extending the Duty of Care owed by farmers to correct off-farm environmental costs is weak. The economic issues of what conservation should be carried out and who should carry out the conservation need not be linked to the subjective question of who should pay. Where transaction costs are high, significant costs may be created by following notions of Polluter Pays rather than following the principle of equating marginal costs of conservation across all sources with the marginal benefits of conservation. Where transaction costs are low, the socially optimal level of conservation can be achieved when one party is made liable regardless of whether they are the cause of the damage or not.

Technical Efficiency of Australian Wool Production: Point and Confidence Interval Estimates

A balanced panel of data is used to estimate technical efficiency, employing a fixed-effects stochastic frontier specification for wool producers in Australia. Both point estimates and confidence intervals for technical efficiency are reported. The confidence intervals are constructed using the Multiple Comparisons with the Best (MCB) procedure of Horrace and Schmidt (2000). The confidence intervals make explicit the precision of the technical efficiency estimates and underscore the dangers of drawing inferences based solely on point estimates. Additionally, they allow identification of wool producers that are statistically efficient and those that are statistically inefficient. The data reveal at the 95% confidence level that twenty-one of the twenty-six wool farms analyzed may be efficient.Wool, Technical Efficiency, MCB, MCC

Technology Adoption And Pest Control Strategies Among UK Cereal Farmers: Evidence from Parametric and Nonparametric Count Data Models

This paper examines technology adoption and integrated pest management strategies employed by UK farmers, using both parametric and nonparametric methods. We employ a unique survey data set collected from UK cereal farmers to assess the determinants of technology adoption in relation to pest management. Our preferred model specification is nonparametric which makes use of the recently developed methods of Li and Racine (2007) and Racine and Li (2004). These methods allow us to combine categorical and continuous data and thereby avoid sample splitting and resulting efficiency losses. Our analysis reveals that total area farmed is positively related to the number of technologies adopted, whereas age is negatively related. We also find evidence of significant statistical differences for number of adoptions by region across the UK.technology, adoption, cereal farming, UK, nonparametric

Bayesian Model Averaging and Identification of Structural Breaks in Time Series

Bayesian model averaging is used for testing for multiple break points in uni- variate series using conjugate normal-gamma priors. This approach can test for the number of structural breaks and produce posterior probabilities for a break at each point in time. Results are averaged over speciÖcations including: station- ary; stationary around trend; and, unit root models, each containing di§ erent types and numbers of breaks and di§ erent lag lengths. The procedures are used to test for structural breaks on 14 annual macroeconomic series and 11 natural resource price series. The results indicate that there are structural breaks in al l of the natural resource series and most of the macroeconomic series. Many of the series had multiple breaks. Our Öndings regarding the existence of unit roots, having al lowed for structural breaks in the data, are largely consistent with previous work.Bayesian Model Averaging, Structural Breaks, Unit Root, Macro- economic Data, Natural Resource data

Non-renewable Resource Prices: Structural Breaks and Long Term Trends

In this paper we examine the time series properties of nine non-renewable resources. In particular we are concerned with understanding the relationship between the number of structural breaks in the data and the nature of the resource price path, i.e. is it stationary or a random walk. To undertake our analysis we employ a number of relevant econometric methods including Bai and Perron's (1998) multiple structural break dating method. Our results indicate that these series are in many cases stationary and subject to a number of structural breaks. These results indicate that a deterministic model of resources prices may well be appropriate.structural change, non-renewable resources, breaks, resource depletion

Funding liquidity risk and fund transfer pricing in banking

Funding liquidity risk was one of the main reasons for bank failure during the global financial crisis in 2007-2008. New legislation has been released in the form of Basel III, in particular the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR), to strengthen the liquidity requirements for banks; this makes funding liquidity a very important topic for banks. In this thesis, I will study the important factors that need to be taken into consideration when dealing with liquidity risk and how a bank can manage their funding liquidity risk. A key concept used in banks is Fund Transfer Pricing (FTP). This approach helps the banks to manage their interest rate risk. I will investigate how funding liquidity risk can be incorporated into this framework. It is important that this approach will still maximise the bank's overall profits. In order to achieve this I will initially evaluate a one time period model. This shows whether the bank's overall profits can be optimised using FTP. My results show that it is possible to allow each business unit to work independently and that, by using FTP, individual business units can be optimised consistently with the bank's overall profits. However, for this to occur, it is important to decide whether a bank is deposit rich or deposit poor as an incorrect assumption will lead to sub-optimal profits for the bank. Banks work in more than 1 time period; therefore, I will assess how the model can be extended and how FTP would work over multiple time periods. One major consideration is to account for the uncertainty regarding the timing of cash flows. This is because customers often have the option to prepay loans or withdraw their deposits. I will investigate an approach for calculating the cost of these options and how this can be included in the FTP framework. By applying a cost to the uncertainty, we can insure that the business units are incentivised in the correct way while still maximising the profits of the bank. Under my approach the treasury unit will be exposed to actual events in return for receiving a fair value for the cost of the option. The business units will be charged the cost of the option. There is potential for one party to act in their own interest by changing the value of the option. However, as both parties need to agree, this risk should be removed over time. I have shown how this can be done over 2 time periods but further research is needed to investigate over more time periods