An Examination of Additively Separable Willingness-To-Pay for Environmental Attributes: Evidence from a Pork Experiment

This paper examines what is the best method for pork producers to market pork products with environmental attributes. The objective is to examine evidence of whether it is beneficial for pork producers to incorporate multiple environmental attributes into a single product or sell multiple products with a single environmental attribute.Environmental Economics and Policy,

THE POTENTIAL FOR MARKETING PORK PRODUCTS WITH EMBEDDED ENVIRONMENTAL ATTRIBUTES: RESULTS FROM AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Environmental issues such as air and water quality related to livestock production currently receive much attention. Potential methods for environmental improvement range from regulation to market solutions. This study looks at consumer willingness to pay for pork products with embedded environmental attributes. Experimental auctions showed that over one-half of the participants (62%) paid a premium, that did not vary significantly between differing regions of the United States.Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q13, Q25,

Reducing Undesirable Environmental Impacts in the Marine Environment: A Review of Market-Based Incentive Management Measures

Using the example of commercial fishing, this paper explores the potential of incentive based management measures as a means of reducing the undesirable impacts of industries operating within the marine environment. Despite having been successfully applied for similar purposes in the management of terrestrial environments, and their potential to achieve environmental gains in an economically efficient manner, examples of incentive based management mechanisms are still relatively limited in the marine context. We assess the potential of a number of alternative market based management measures by reviewing and considering the successes and limitations of previous applications and how these would translate in the case of commercial fishing. Several fishing methods and conservation values are considered and the circumstances in which incentive measures may be most applicable are identified. Where appropriate, and by either replacing or (more likely) complimenting existing management arrangements, incentive based measures have the potential to improve upon the performance of existing measures. This has a number of implications. From the environmental perspective they should allow the expected level of undesirable impact to be reduced. They can also reduce the costs imposed upon the industry by letting them develop the solutions. Further, in the increasingly relevant case of MPAs the potential costs to Government may also be significantly reduced if increasing environmental performance makes it possible for certain industry members to continue operating, reducing the necessity of often costly structural adjustment programs.Environmental Economics and Policy,

INTERPRETING BIDS FROM A VICKREY AUCTION WHEN THERE ARE PUBLIC GOOD ATTRIBUTES

This paper provides a model that allows for interpreting bids in a Vickrey auction when the good has public good attributes. It also examines information obtained from a Vickrey auction, which collected consumer's willingness-to-pay for pork products that had embedded environmental attributes, and applies the new interpretation to the bids.Consumer/Household Economics,

A TALE OF TWO PREMIUMS- EXAMINING BIDS FROM A MULTIPLE ROUND VICKREY AUCTION WITH DIFFERING INFORMATION SETS

Two definitions of willingness-to-pay derived from a Vickrey auction with multi-product and multiple rounds with different information sets are examined. These definitions are examined in the context of valuing pork products with embedded environmental attributes and we show how information can have adverse effects on a base product of comparison.Consumer/Household Economics,

Circumstellar habitable zones for deep terrestrial biospheres

SM and JOJ are grateful to the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for Aurora Studentships. We thank Dr. Stephen Clifford (LPI), Dr. Ravi Kopparapu (Penn State), and Claire Davis (St. Andrews) for generous technical advice. We thank Norm Sleep and two anonymous reviewers for constructive reviews of the manuscriptPeer reviewedPostprin

The Complex Interstellar Na I Absorption toward h and Chi Persei

Recent high spatial and spectral resolution investigations of the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) have found significant evidence for small-scale variations in the interstellar gas on scales less than or equal to 1 pc. To better understand the nature of small-scale variations in the ISM, we have used the KPNO WIYN Hydra multi-object spectrograph, which has a mapping advantage over the single-axis, single-scale limitations of studies using high proper motion stars and binary stars, to obtain moderate resolution (~12 km/s) interstellar Na I D absorption spectra of 172 stars toward the double open cluster h and Chi Persei. All of the sightlines toward the 150 stars with spectra that reveal absorption from the Perseus spiral arm show different interstellar Na I D absorption profiles in the Perseus arm gas. Additionally, we have utilized the KPNO Coude Feed spectrograph to obtain high-resolution (~3 km/s) interstellar Na I D absorption spectra of 24 of the brighter stars toward h and Chi Per. These spectra reveal an even greater complexity in the interstellar Na I D absorption in the Perseus arm gas and show individual components changing in number, velocity, and strength from sightline to sightline. If each of these individual velocity components represents an isolated cloud, then it would appear that the ISM of the Perseus arm gas consists of many small clouds. Although the absorption profiles vary even on the smallest scales probed by these high-resolution data (~30";~0.35pc), our analysis reveals that some interstellar Na I D absorption components from sightline to sightline are related, implying that the ISM toward h and Chi Per is probably comprised of sheets of gas in which we detect variations due to differences in the local physical conditions of the gas.Comment: 27 pages text; 8 figure