61 research outputs found
Hedonic Valuation of Sportfishing Harvest
A hedonic valuation strategy is introduced to estimate the marginal value of sportfishing harvest. The strategy uses market prices, thereby avoiding some of the measurement problems associated with the constructed or proxy prices used in common valuation methods. A charter fee hedonic equation is estimated using data from the market for offshore charter fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. The marginal value of sportfishing harvest is identified using spatial variation in harvest rates and fish sizes. A two-stage minimum distance estimator is used to address potential omitted variables and cluster-sampling issues. Our results demonstrate that valid estimates of the marginal value of sportfishing harvest can be derived directly using market prices. The estimated marginal value per fish is consistent with published estimates using alternative methods. Thus, the hedonic approach suggested in this article offers promise as an independent validation of the typical methods used to value sportfishing harvest.Sportfishing, charter boats, hedonic, revealed preference, valuation, Public Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q22, Q26, Q51,
OPEN ACCESS AND MISSING MARKETS IN ARTISANAL FISHING
This paper combines a model of open access fisheries exploitation with a distance-based approach to missing labor and product markets. The model generates predictions about the circumstances under which exploitation increases or decreases with distance. An econometric model is estimated with survey data from artisanal fishing households in Minahasa, Indonesia. The results can be used to assess the impacts of improved transportation infrastructure on fishery exploitation.Marketing,
The Annual Economic Survey of Federal Gulf Shrimp Permit Holders: Report on the Design, Implementation, and Descriptive Results for 2006
This technical memorandum documents the design, implementation, data preparation, and descriptive results for the 2006 Annual Economic Survey of Federal Gulf Shrimp
Permit Holders. The data collection was designed by the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center Social Science Research Group to track the financial and
economic status and performance by vessels holding a federal moratorium permit for harvesting shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. A two page, self-administered mail survey
collected total annual costs broken out into seven categories and auxiliary economic data.
In May 2007, 580 vessels were randomly selected, stratified by state, from a preliminary population of 1,709 vessels with federal permits to shrimp in offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The survey was implemented during the rest of 2007. After many reminder and verification phone calls, 509 surveys were deemed complete, for an ineligibility-adjusted response rate of 90.7%. The linking of each individual vessel’s cost data to its revenue data from a different data collection was imperfect, and hence the final number of observations used in the analyses is 484. Based on various measures and tests of validity throughout the technical memorandum, the quality of the data is high.
The results are presented in a standardized table format, linking vessel characteristics and operations to simple balance sheet, cash flow, and income statements. In the text, results are discussed for the total fleet, the Gulf shrimp fleet, the active Gulf shrimp fleet, and the inactive Gulf shrimp fleet. Additional results for shrimp vessels grouped by state, by vessel characteristics, by landings volume, and by ownership structure are available in the appendices.
The general conclusion of this report is that the financial and economic situation is bleak for the average vessels in most of the categories that were evaluated. With few
exceptions, cash flow for the average vessel is positive while the net revenue from operations and the “profit” are negative. With negative net revenue from operations, the
economic return for average shrimp vessels is less than zero. Only with the help of government payments does the average owner just about break even. In the short-term,
this will discourage any new investments in the industry. The financial situation in 2006, especially if it endures over multiple years, also is economically unsustainable for the average established business.
Vessels in the active and inactive Gulf shrimp fleet are, on average, 69 feet long, weigh 105 gross tons, are powered by 505 hp motor(s), and are 23 years old. Three-quarters of
the vessels have steel hulls and 59% use a freezer for refrigeration. The average market value of these vessels was 91,955, leading to an average owner equity of 2.47 per pound of shrimp. Non-shrimp landings added less than 1% to cash flow, indicating that the federal Gulf shrimp fishery is very specialized. The average total cash outflow was 108,775 was due to fuel expenses alone. The expenses for hired crew and captains were on average 16,225 but has a large standard deviation. For the population of active Gulf shrimp vessels we can state with 95% certainty that the average net cash flow was between 23,000 in 2006. The median net cash flow was 19,800. The average net revenue from operations is negative 13,662, leads to an average loss before taxes of 11,926, and only 6% of these vessels have hull insurance. With an average net cash flow of negative 11,396, which amounts to a negative 15% economic return, and owners lose 32,224 net revenue from operations. Due to their high (loan) leverage ratio the negative 11% economic return is amplified into a
negative 21% return on equity. In contrast, for Texas vessels, which actually have the highest leverage ratio among the states, a 1% economic return is amplified into a 13% return on equity. From a financial perspective, the average Florida and Louisiana vessels conform roughly to the overall average of the active Gulf shrimp fleet.
It should be noted that these results are averages and hence hide the variation that clearly exists within all fleets and all categories. Although the financial situation for the average vessel is bleak, some vessels are profitable. (PDF contains 101 pages
Recommended from our members
Evaluating the Economic Benefits of Catch Share Management in the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery: Preliminary Results
It has long been argued that the Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery would benefit economically by being managed by “a system of tradable harvest permits” (Weninger and Waters 2003; Waters 2001). Between 2007 and 2010, all the major species in this fishery were transitioned into catch share management, effectively creating tradable permits. We now have enough economic data to explicitly calculate the economic benefits created by moving to catch share management. This study uses cleaned trip- and vessel-level revenue and cost data---from before and after the introduction of catch share management for the various species---to estimate the increased profitability due to catch share management. Conceptually, the increased profitability should correspond to “resource rent.
Markarian 421's Unusual Satellite Galaxy
We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imagery and photometry of the active
galaxy Markarian 421 and its companion galaxy 14 arcsec to the ENE. The HST
images indicate that the companion is a morphological spiral rather than
elliptical as previous ground--based imaging has concluded. The companion has a
bright, compact nucleus, appearing unresolved in the HST images. This is
suggestive of Seyfert activity, or possibly a highly luminous compact star
cluster. We also report the results of high dynamic range long-slit
spectroscopy with the slit placed to extend across both galaxies and nuclei. We
detect no emission lines in the companion nucleus, though there is evidence for
recent star formation. Velocities derived from a number of absorption lines
visible in both galaxies indicate that the two systems are probably tidally
bound and thus in close physical proximity. Using the measured relative
velocities, we derive a lower limit on the MKN 421 mass within the companion
orbit (R \sim 10 kpc) of 5.9 \times 10^{11} solar masses, and a mass-to-light
ratio of >= 17. Our spectroscopy also shows for the first time the presence of
H\alpha and [NII] emission lines from the nucleus of MKN 421, providing another
example of the appearance of new emission features in the previously
featureless spectrum of a classical BL Lac object. We see both broad and narrow
line emission, with a velocity dispersion of several thousand km s^{-1} evident
in the broad lines.Comment: LaTeX (aaspp4 style), 28 pages, 8 figures, to appear in AJ. Revised
text from ref. comments; new & modified figures; new photometry included;
minor corrections of typos. Color version of Fig. 1 to appear in Feb. 2000
Sky & Telescop
Methodological problem with comparing increases in different measures of body weight
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of studies have compared proportional increases over time in waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI). However this method is flawed. Here, we explain why comparisons of WC and BMI must take into account the relationship between them. We used data from two cross-sectional US surveys (NHANES 1988-94 and 2005-06), and calculated the percentage change in the average BMI and the average WC between the two surveys, comparing the results with a regression analysis of changes in WC relative to BMI.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The crude percentage change in BMI (5.8%) was marginally greater than for WC (5.1%). But these percentages cannot be directly compared, as the relationship between the measures is described by a regression equation with an intercept term that does not equal zero. The coefficient of time from the regression equation will determine whether or not WC is on average larger for a given BMI at the second compared with the first time point.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Differences in the percentage change in WC and the percentage change in BMI cannot be usefully directly compared. Comparisons of increases in the two measures must account for the relationship between them as described by the regression equation.</p
The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey: II. Results of Precursor Observations
In preparation for the full Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA extragalactic HI survey,
precursor observations were carried out in Aug--Sep 2004 with the 7-beam
Arecibo L-band feed array (ALFA) receiver system and the WAPP spectral
processors. While these observations were geared mainly at testing and
debugging survey strategy, hardware and software, approximately 36 hours of
telescope time yielded science--quality data. From those observations, an
initial list of 730 tentative detections of varying degree of reliability was
extracted. Ninety--eight high signal-to-noise candidates were deemed to be bona
fide HI line detections. To test our ability to discriminate cosmic signals
from RFI and noise, 165 candidates ranging in reliability likelihood were
re--observed with the single beam L--band wide system at Arecibo in Jan--Feb
2005. Of those, 41% were confirmed as real. We present the results of both the
ALFA and single beam observations for the sample of 166 confirmed HI sources,
as well as our assessment of their optical counterparts. Of the 166 sources, 62
coincide with previously known HI sources, while optical redshifts were
available for an additional 18 galaxies; thus, 52% of the redshifts reported
here were previously unknown. Of the 166 HI detections, 115 are identified with
previously cataloged galaxies, of either known or unknown redshift, leaving 51
objects identified for the first time. Because of the higher sensitivity of the
Arecibo system, fewer than 10% of the 166 HI sources would have been detected
by a HIPASS--like survey of the same region. Three of the objects have HI
masses less than 10^7 solar masses. The full ALFALFA survey which commenced in
February 2005 should detect more than 100 times as many objects of similarly
low HI mass over the next 5 years.Comment: 40 pages, including 4 tables and 8 figures; to appear in Astron. J.;
see http://egg.astro.cornell.edu/alfalfa/pubs.ph
Higher Doses of Subcutaneous IgG Reduce Resource Utilization in Patients with Primary Immunodeficiency
The recommended dose of IgG in primary immunodeficiency (PID) has been increasing since its first use. This study aimed to determine if higher subcutaneous IgG doses resulted in improved patient outcomes by comparing results from two parallel clinical studies with similar design. One patient cohort received subcutaneous IgG doses that were 1.5 times higher than their previous intravenous doses (mean 213 mg/kg/week), whereas the other cohort received doses identical to previous subcutaneous or intravenous doses (mean 120 mg/kg/week). While neither cohort had any serious infections, the cohort maintained on higher mean IgG dose had significantly lower rates of non-serious infections (2.76 vs. 5.18 episodes/year, P < 0.0001), hospitalization (0.20 vs. 3.48 days/year, P < 0.0001), antibiotic use (48.50 vs. 72.75 days/year, P < 0.001), and missed work/school activity (2.10 vs. 8.00 days/year, P < 0.001). The higher-dose cohort had lower health care utilization and improved indices of well being compared to the cohort treated with traditional IgG doses
- …