Choice Experiments to Assess Farmers' Willingness to Participate in a Water Quality Trading Market

Interest has grown in Water Quality Trading (WQT) as a means to achieve water quality goals, with more than 70 such programs now in operation in the United States. Substantial evidence exists that nonpoint sources can reduce nutrient loading at a much lower cost than point sources, implying the existence of gains from trade. Despite the potential gains, however, the most commonly noted feature of existing WQT markets is low trading volume, with many markets resulting in zero trades. This paper evaluates one explanation for the lack of participation from agricultural nonpoint sources. We test for and quantify the intangible costs that may deter farmers from trading even if the monetary benefits from doing so outweigh the observable out-of-pocket costs. We do so by designing and implementing a series of choice experiments to elicit WQT trading behavior of Great Plains crop producers in different situations. Attributes of the choice experiment included market rules and features (e.g., application time and effort, penalties for violations, means of monitoring compliance) that may affect farmers willingness to trade. The choice experiments were conducted with a total of 135 producers at four locations in the state of Kansas between August 2006 and January 2007. A Random Parameters Logit model is appropriate to analyze the resulting data, revealing diversity in the way that the attributes affect farmers choices.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Simulation of factors impeding water quality trading market performance

Over the past several decades, market-based approaches to natural resource management have received increased attention as a means to cost-effectively achieve environmental quality goals. Following on what has been hailed a success for reducing air pollution, water quality trading (WQT) has more recently been seen as the next great opportunity for reducing water pollution, especially for nutrient loading. Numerous trading programs have been pilot tested and/or adopted in states throughout the nation, with more than 70 programs now in operation (Breetz et al., 2004). WQT would allow multiple contributors to surface water degradation to determine how best to meet an overarching collective goal related to pollution reduction. WQT takes advantage of differences in pollution abatement costs. In the case of point/nonpoint source trading, such as between wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and agricultural producers, it is often the agricultural producers who can achieve a given level of nutrient reduction at less cost through their adoption of various best management practices that reduce sedimentation and nutrient loading to surface waters. Trading would allow WWTPs to purchase “credits” generated by producers who reduced their pollution loading to achieve an equivalent level of reduction as might be required by a regulatory discharge permit at a lower overall cost. While there is substantial evidence that nonpoint sources have lower nutrient reduction costs than point sources, experience with WQT reveals a common theme: little or no trading activity. The success of WQT seems, in part, to depend on the structure of the market created to bring buyers and sellers together to transact exchanges. These outcomes suggest the presence of obstacles to trading that were not recognized in the design of existing programs. To examine the ways that various market imperfections may impact the performance of a WQT market, an agent-based model was constructed which simulated a hypothetical point-nonpoint market. In particular, the market was modeled using a variant of the sequential, bilateral trading algorithm proposed by Atkinson and Tietenberg (1991). Our proposed paper first presents an overview of the simulation modeling technique and then analyzes the effects of two prominent market impediments identified in the WQT literature: information levels and trading ratios. Information levels refer to buyers’ and sellers’ knowledge of each others’ bid prices. A frictionless WQT market would be one where all of the potential buyers (i.e., point sources) would know all of the sellers’ (i.e., nonpoint sources) offer prices and vice versa. In this full information environment, we can expect that trades would be consummated in the order of their gains. That is, first buyers and sellers to be paired together for trading would be the buyers with the highest offer prices and the sellers with the lowest bid prices. Successive trades will have successively smaller gains until the gap between bid and offer prices reaches zero. This is the textbook Walrasian market and would closely approximate a double auction institution, where all buyers and sellers submit their offers and bids, which are then sorted and matched by a centralized market manager. While the full information scenario serves as a useful benchmark, most existing WQT markets are decentralized in nature, so that limited information causes traders to be matched in a less efficient sequence. A variety of information levels are possible. One side of the market may have more information than the other (limited information) or neither side having any knowledge of the other side’s bid or offer prices (low information). Each of these scenarios leads to a different sequencing of trades. This paper analyzes the effect of different information levels on market performance. Market performance is measured in terms of cost savings, the number of credits traded, and the average reduction costs under different information scenarios. Trading ratios are a common component of many existing WQT programs. A typical trading ratio of 2:1 requires a nonpoint source to reduce two pounds of expected nutrient loading in order to receive one pound of trading credit. These ratios serve as a “safety factor” and are incorporated to account for the uncertainty in the measurement and monitoring of nonpoint source loading. Because nonpoint traders must reduce loading by 2 pounds for every 1 pound emitted by point source traders, there will be a net reduction of 1 pound of expected loading for each trade. So, while inhibiting some trades from ever occurring, trading ratios also have the potential to improve water quality beyond trading with a 1:1 trading ratio. This paper examines these tradeoffs in terms of effects on market performance and then describes procedures that can be used to characterize an optimal trading ratio if one exists. Because WQT programs, by nature, involve complex interactions between economics and the biophysical world, accurately simulating a real-world WQT market requires at minimum a basic understanding of the types of data that watershed models can provide. This paper concludes by briefly discussing data requirements, points of consideration, and integrative techniques used in the simulation of WQT in real-world watersheds.water quality trading, market based, trading ratio, information levels, point source, nonpoint source, simulation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Wind Turbines and Coastal Recreation Demand

We examine the impact of coastal wind turbines on coastal tourism and recreation for residents of the northern CAMA counties in North Carolina. A combination of telephone and web survey data are used to assess the impact of coastal wind farms on trip behavior and site choice. Most of the respondents to our telephone survey claim to support offshore wind energy development, and independent survey data suggest that the observed levels of support may be indicative of the broader population in this region. Overall, we find very little impact of coastal wind turbines on aggregate recreational visitation; loss in consumer surplus associated with wide spread wind development in the coastal zone is insignificant at $17 (or about 1.5$55 per household. On average, we find no evidence of aversion to wind farms 4 miles out in the ocean, or for wind farms located in coastal estuaries. For all wind farm scenarios, we find evidence of preference heterogeneity– some respondents find this appealing while others find it aversive. Key Words: Recreation demand, tourism, renewable energy

Genetic markers in s. Paratyphi c reveal primary adaptation to pigs

Salmonella enterica with the identical antigenic formula 6,7:c:1,5 can be differentiated biochemically and by disease syndrome. One grouping, Salmonella Paratyphi C, is currently considered a typhoidal serovar, responsible for enteric fever in humans. The human-restricted typhoidal serovars (S. Typhi and Paratyphi A, B and C) typically display high levels of genome degradation and are cited as an example of convergent evolution for host adaptation in humans. However, S. Paratyphi C presents a different clinical picture to S. Typhi/Paratyphi A, in a patient group with predisposition, raising the possibility that its natural history is different, and that infection is invasive salmonellosis rather than enteric fever. Using whole genome sequencing and metabolic pathway analysis, we compared the genomes of 17 S. Paratyphi C strains to other members of the 6,7:c:1,5 group and to two typhoidal serovars: S. Typhi and Paratyphi A. The genome degradation observed in S. Paratyphi C was much lower than S. Typhi/Paratyphi A, but similar to the other 6,7:c:1,5 strains. Genomic and metabolic comparisons revealed little to no overlap between S. Paratyphi C and the other typhoidal serovars, arguing against convergent evolution and instead providing evidence of a primary adaptation to pigs in accordance with the 6,7:c:1.5 strains

Going Home: Evacuation-Migration Decisions of Hurricane Katrina Survivors

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many evacuees from the Gulf region began the difficult process of deciding whether to rebuild or restart elsewhere. We examine pre-Katrina Gulf residents’ decision to return to the post-disaster Gulf region—which we call the “return migration” decision. We estimate two separate return migration models, first utilizing data from a mail survey of individuals in the affected region and then focusing on self-administered questionnaires of evacuees in Houston. Our results indicate that return migration can be affected by household income; age; education level; employment, marital and home ownership status; but the results depend upon the population under consideration. We find no impact of “connection to place” on the return migration decision. While the impact of income is relatively small, we find that the real wage differential between home and host region influences the likelihood of return. Larger implicit costs, in terms of foregone wages for returning, induce a lower likelihood of return. Exploiting this difference at the individual level, we are able to produce estimates of willingness to pay to return home. Average WTP to return home for a sample of relatively poor households is estimated at $1.94 per hour or$3,954 per year.

Economical production of beef.

In the investigations that have been made in the economical production of beef, the main factors receiving consideration have been the production and fattening of native steers and the fattening of those obtained from the range. The experiments connected with the making of beef from native steers included studies of the possibilities of making a combined profit from the steers and also from the cows that produced them, the use of skimmilk for economy in feeding and the employment of a wide and a narrow ration in feeding. These are reported on somewhat independently, though they have a bearing on the general question of producing beef economically under the conditions of Iowa

Case-control study of arsenic in drinking water and lung cancer in California and Nevada.

Millions of people are exposed to arsenic in drinking water, which at high concentrations is known to cause lung cancer in humans. At lower concentrations, the risks are unknown. We enrolled 196 lung cancer cases and 359 controls matched on age and gender from western Nevada and Kings County, California in 2002-2005. After adjusting for age, sex, education, smoking and occupational exposures, odds ratios for arsenic concentrations ≥85 µg/L (median = 110 µg/L, mean = 173 µg/L, maximum = 1,460 µg/L) more than 40 years before enrollment were 1.39 (95% CI = 0.55-3.53) in all subjects and 1.61 (95% CI = 0.59-4.38) in smokers. Although odds ratios were greater than 1.0, these increases may have been due to chance given the small number of subjects exposed more than 40 years before enrollment. This study, designed before research in Chile suggested arsenic-related cancer latencies of 40 years or more, illustrates the enormous sample sizes needed to identify arsenic-related health effects in low-exposure countries with mobile populations like the U.S. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that concentrations near 100 µg/L are not associated with markedly high relative risks

Bowhead Whale (Balaena Mysticetus) Length Estimations Based on Scapula Measurements

This study presents data and a method for reliably predicting bowhead (Balaena mysticetus) length using one length and one width measurement of the scapula. The bowhead scapula preserves well and is common in coastal arctic archaeological sites. The length measurement is taken as the maximum straight-line measurement along the axis, excluding the scapular cartilage. The width measurement is recorded as a maximum transverse measurement of the ossified portion only. Using a least squares linear regression analysis to evaluate the scapula and whale length relationship, a strong correlation between the width and length measurement and whale length is demonstrated. This technique is useful because estimates of live whale length from complete or near complete scapula can be made to less than one metre.Key words: bowhead whale, Thule, zooarchaeology, taphonomy, arctic archaeology, aboriginal whalingCette étude offre des données et présente une méthode de prédiction fiable de la taille de la baleine boréale (Balaena mysticetus), établie à l'aide d'une mesure de la longueur et de la largeur de l'omoplate. L'omoplate de la baleine boréale se conserve bien et on en trouve de nombreux exemplaires sur les sites archéologiques de la côte arctique. La mesure de la longueur correspond à la distance maximale en ligne droite le long de l'axe, sans tenir compte du cartilage scapulaire. La mesure de la largeur correspond à la distance transversale maximale de la partie ossifiée uniquement. L'utilisation d'une analyse de régression linéaire des moindres carrés pour évaluer le rapport entre la dimension de l'omoplate et celle de la baleine, révèle qu'il existe une forte corrélation entre les mesures de la largeur et de la longueur de l'omoplate et la longueur de la baleine. Cette technique s'avère utile vu qu'on peut déduire la longueur de l'animal vivant à partir d'une omoplate complète ou quasi complète, et ce, avec une marge d'erreur de moins d'un mètre.Mots clés: baleine boréale, Thulé, zooarchéologie, taphonomie, archéologie arctique, pêche à la baleine par les aborigène