OPTIMAL RISK MANAGEMENT, RISK AVERSION, AND PRODUCTION FUNCTION PROPERTIES

For production risk with identified physical causes, the nature of risk, production characteristics, risk preference, and prices determine optimal input use. Here, a two-way classification for pairs of inputs – each input as being risk increasing or decreasing and pairs as being risk substitutes or complements – provides sufficient conditions to determine how risk aversion should affect input use. Unlike the Sandmo price risk averse firm may produce more expected output and use more inputs than a risk neutral firm. Sufficient conditions to determine types for pairs of inputs are also related to properties of the production function.Production Economics, Risk and Uncertainty,

THE VALUE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION FOR MICROECONOMIC PRODUCTION DECISIONS

Procedures are needed to evaluate the benefits of the provision of information. This paper shows how to apply a money metric definition of the value of information for this purpose. The application is to microeconomic input choices for agricultural production, and the information to be valued concerns the effect of fertilization on sorghum yield. In this paper application both output price and output level are stochastic, and the probability distribution of output is affected by the chosen level of fertilizer.Crop Production/Industries,

Social Investment for Sustainability of Groundwater: A Revealed Preference Approach

Groundwater is a form of natural capital that is valued for the goods it provides, including ecosystem health, water quality, and water consumption. Degradation of groundwater could be alleviated through social investment such as for water reuse and desalination to reduce the need for withdrawals from groundwater. This paper develops a participatory planning process—based on combining revealed preference with economic optimization—to choose a desired future for sustaining groundwater. Generation of potential groundwater futures is based on an optimal control model with investment and withdrawal from groundwater as control variables. In this model, groundwater stock and aquatic health are included as inter-temporal public goods. The social discount rate expressing time preference—an important parameter that drives optimization—is revealed through the participatory planning process. To implement the chosen future, a new method of inter-temporal pricing is presented to finance investment and supply costs. Furthermore, it is shown that the desired social outcome could be achieved by a form of privatization in which the pricing method, the appropriate discount rate, and the planning period are contractually specifie

Alternative Measures of Benefit for Nonmarket Goods Which are Substitutes or Complements for Market Goods

Nonmarket goods include quality aspects of market goods and public goods which may be substitutes or complements for private goods. Traditional methods of measuring benefits of exogenous changes in nonmarket goods are based on Marshallian demand: change in spending on market goods or change in consumer surplus. More recently, willingness to pay and accept have been used as welfare measures . This paper defines the relationships among alternative measures of welfare for perfect substitutes, imperfect substitutes, and complements. Examples are given to demonstrate how to obtain exact measures from systems of market good demand equations .Agribusiness, Marketing,

Incentive compatibility and conflict resolution in international river basins: A case study of the Nile basin

10.1029/2005WR004238Water Resources Research422WRER

Understanding the Science of Climate Change \u3ci\u3eTalking Points – Impacts to Alaska Maritime and Transitional\u3c/i\u3e

Alaska is a huge state spanning 375 million acres and occupying nearly one-fifth of the land area for the contiguous 48 states. More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska. Due to the great size and geographically diverse nature of Alaska, two bioregional documents were produced: “Boreal and Arctic” and “Alaska Maritime and Transitional.” In Alaska, the vast majority of the land is public; with approximately 222 million acres (approximately 60%) designated federal lands and another 90 million acres (approximately 24%) in state ownership. There are 17 National Park Service (NPS) areas in Alaska covering over 54 million acres; this represents two-thirds of the land in the entire National Park system. Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest NPS unit at over 13 million acres in size. There are 16 National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska totaling over 76 million acres, representing approximately 80% of the entire National Wildlife Refuge system. The two national forests in Alaska encompass nearly 22 million acres; Tongass National Forest is the largest United States Forest Service unit, with nearly 17 million acres. The Bureau of Land Management manages almost 78 million acres in Alaska. Climate changes in the Alaska Maritime and Transitional bioregion include increased mean, minimum, and maximum annual temperatures, and increasing spring and wintertime temperatures that have resulted in a longer growing growing season and shifting plant distributions. Regional models project a wintertime shift in temperatures from below to above freezing by the mid to late 21st century, a decrease in the annual number of snow-free and frost-free days, and a mean increase in annual air temperatures. Observed hydrologic changes within the bioregion are profound, including significant decreases in the number, mass, and volume of glaciers; increased rates of glacial retreat and thinning; increased volume of glacial runoff; and increasing stream temperatures. Projections for the coming century include further changes in seasonal and annual precipitation patterns (both snow and rainfall), continued drying of existing wetlands, and sea level rise resulting from continued melting and retreat of glaciers. Observed and predicted bioregional changes in temperature and hydrology affect vegetation and wildlife through altered seasonality of runoff, increased wildfire and insect activity, movement of forests and shrublands into wetlands and recently deglaciated areas, phenological shifts (altered timing of reproductive events such as fish spawning and bud burst), and major directional and elevational shifts in plant distributions and community assemblages. Direct effects of bioregional climate changes on human populations and infrastructure are structure damage from thawing permafrost, altered soil conditions, and shifts in water and plant communities, which may, in turn, affect animal communities and alter fire regimes. Changes in terrestrial and marine wildlife distributions may affect visitor viewing opportunities and complicate subsistence hunting throughout the region

Al2O3-Ni Composites with High Strength and Fracture Toughness

Al2O3-Ni Composites Were Prepared by the Reactive Hot Pressing of Al and NiO. the Composites Had a Two-Phase, Interpenetrating Microstructure and Contained Approx. 35 Vol% Ni. They Exhibited an Impressively High Combination of Strength and Toughness at Room Temperature; the Four-Point Bending Strength Was in Excess of 600 MPa with a Fracture Toughness of More Than 12 MPa·m1/2 . Examination of Fracture Surfaces Showed that Ni Ligaments Underwent Ductile Deformation during Fracture. SEM Analysis Revealed Knife-Edge Ni Ligaments with a Limited Amount of Debonding Around their Periphery (I.e., at the Ni-Al2O3 Interface), Indicating a Strong Ni-Al2O3 Bond