A HETEROSKEDASTIC NESTED RUM OF FRESHWATER FISHING

Choice set definition can be viewed as a nesting issue. Although the behavioral basis for grouping sites into nests is not well understood, one reason for grouping alternatives into nests may be the likelihood that they are "in" or "out" of an individual's choice set. However, a problem with using nests to evaluate choice set issues is that the researcher typically needs to impose the same nesting structure on all individuals and trips. Such an approach assumes that the degree of correlation among the alternatives does not vary across the sample. This paper develops and tests a more flexible nesting structure that allows the parameters on the inclusive values to vary systematically based on the sample demographics.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

PEACH PRICES IN CALIFORNIA IN THE PRESENCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE INDUSTRY

The potentially adverse effects of pesticides in wide use are causing concern to grow in the agricultural community. Minimizing the risks to human health and the environment created by agricultural pesticides has become a very important issue. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a high priority on registering safer pesticides. According to the EPA, more than 1 billion pounds of active pesticide ingredients are used in the United States each year. Americans are exposed to pesticides every day through food consumption, cleaning products, and home and work environments. The agricultural pesticide industry has experienced an influx of changes during the past decade. Two of the primary changes affecting the pesticide industry are the introduction of new technology and EPA regulatory changes. On the regulatory front, the EPA requires manufacturers to register and test pesticides before they appear on the market. By 2006, the EPA will review old pesticides to ensure that they meet new safety requirements. These regulatory initiatives have contributed to the industry drive to develop safer and more "environmentally friendly" products for use in agricultural pest control. Technological changes consist of the introduction of new pesticides that are considered to be safer for both humans and the environment. As new technologies and regulatory initiatives are undertaken to ensure an improvement in both the safety of human health and the environment, one must consider how these changes may affect consumers. Specifically, an analysis should be conducted to determine whether or not the technological and regulatory changes have an effect on consumer prices. The recent developments in the agricultural pesticide industry provide several reasons to believe structural change has been occurring in economic relationships that determine peach prices in California. Therefore, we use a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to forecast peach prices by allowing parameters to vary with time. VAR models differ from standard econometric analyses of structural relationships in that they do not apply the usual exclusion restrictions to specify a priori which variables appear in which equations. Instead, a set of distributed lag equations is used to model each variable as a function of other variables in the structural system (Bessler, 1984). The objective of this paper is to forecast peach prices and evaluate dynamic relationships in the peach industry in the presence of technological and regulatory change. A VAR model that explicitly recognizes structural change will be used to forecast peach prices in California. Changes in dynamic relationships between peach prices and relevant economic variables will be considered.Demand and Price Analysis,

MAD ABOUT BLUE: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF MINIMUM ABSOLUTE DEVIATIONS AND ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATES OF CONSUMER SURPLUS

This research evaluates methods for estimating consumer surplus from recreation demand models. MAD regression and MIMIC structural modeling are the primary tools employed. The results from simulated and actual data indicate that MAD regression outperforms OLS. Additionally, the analysis shows that well-defined, stable benefit-transfer functions can be developed.Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

The Economics of Fish Consumption Advisories: Insights from Revealed and Stated Preference Data

Measuring how fish consumption advisories affect angler’s utility has proven difficult. Relying on stated preference (SP) data is problematic because of hypothetical bias. Revealed preference (RP) data benefits from using actual behavior; however, co-linearity often makes it difficult to model the array of advisory severity levels across different species and catch rates. The array of advisories also makes traditional joint estimation impractical. This paper describes an alternative joint estimation technique, based on an index of SP parameter, that we used for estimating the effect of fish consumption advisories on the Fox River/Green Bay.

MAD ABOUT BLUE: AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON OF MINIMUM ABSOLUTE DEVIATIONS AND ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATES OF CONSUMER SURPLUS

This research evaluates methods for estimating consumer surplus from recreation demand models. MAD regression and MIMIC structural modeling are the primary tools employed. The results from simulated and actual data indicate that MAD regression outperforms OLS. Additionally, the analysis shows that well-defined, stable benefit-transfer functions can be developed

PEACH PRICES IN CALIFORNIA IN THE PRESENCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE INDUSTRY

The potentially adverse effects of pesticides in wide use are causing concern to grow in the agricultural community. Minimizing the risks to human health and the environment created by agricultural pesticides has become a very important issue. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a high priority on registering safer pesticides. According to the EPA, more than 1 billion pounds of active pesticide ingredients are used in the United States each year. Americans are exposed to pesticides every day through food consumption, cleaning products, and home and work environments. The agricultural pesticide industry has experienced an influx of changes during the past decade. Two of the primary changes affecting the pesticide industry are the introduction of new technology and EPA regulatory changes. On the regulatory front, the EPA requires manufacturers to register and test pesticides before they appear on the market. By 2006, the EPA will review old pesticides to ensure that they meet new safety requirements. These regulatory initiatives have contributed to the industry drive to develop safer and more "environmentally friendly" products for use in agricultural pest control. Technological changes consist of the introduction of new pesticides that are considered to be safer for both humans and the environment. As new technologies and regulatory initiatives are undertaken to ensure an improvement in both the safety of human health and the environment, one must consider how these changes may affect consumers. Specifically, an analysis should be conducted to determine whether or not the technological and regulatory changes have an effect on consumer prices. The recent developments in the agricultural pesticide industry provide several reasons to believe structural change has been occurring in economic relationships that determine peach prices in California. Therefore, we use a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to forecast peach prices by allowing parameters to vary with time. VAR models differ from standard econometric analyses of structural relationships in that they do not apply the usual exclusion restrictions to specify a priori which variables appear in which equations. Instead, a set of distributed lag equations is used to model each variable as a function of other variables in the structural system (Bessler, 1984). The objective of this paper is to forecast peach prices and evaluate dynamic relationships in the peach industry in the presence of technological and regulatory change. A VAR model that explicitly recognizes structural change will be used to forecast peach prices in California. Changes in dynamic relationships between peach prices and relevant economic variables will be considered

Numeric Nutrient Criteria in Florida – How it Happened and What it Means for Georgia

Proceedings of the 2011 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 11, 12, and 13, 2011, Athens, Georgia.The US Environmental Protection Agency has promulgated numeric nutrient criteria for Florida. This unusual action was the result of a settlement in a lawsuit by environmental interests alleging that EPA was not enforcing the Clean Water Act with respect to Florida waters. Prior to EPA finalizing the criteria, Florida had spent a decade and some $20 million to gather and analyze information to set its own criteria. The nitrogen and phosphorus limits EPA has imposed on Florida are low enough that virtually all public and private sector entities with water management responsibilities have expressed serious concern over the cost and the technical ability to comply. Particularly vocal interests include local governments with MS4 stormwater permits, wastewater utilities, the agricultural community, phosphate mining interests, the pulp and paper industry, and even the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Over 3,300 comments were submitted to EPA expressing concern over scientific processes used to derive the criteria, lack of demonstrated doseresponse relationships between nutrients and biology, massive costs to build or upgrade treatment systems, inability of conventional technologies to achieve the criteria, how the criteria will be enforced at the state level, and the legal precedent established by EPA stepping in to promulgate water quality criteria for a state which was working cooperatively with the federal agency for years to establish criteria on its own. This presentation provides insight into scientific issues surrounding the new criteria, implementation and compliance issues, and the associated cost projections. These issues are relevant to Georgia because EPA has made it clear that other states will have numeric nutrient criteria. Also, Georgia has several watersheds exiting through Florida on their way to the Gulf of Mexico, some of which have already seen controversy and legal wrangling over water issues. Nutrient criteria may be the sequel to that story.Sponsored by: Georgia Environmental Protection Division U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Water Science Center U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Water Resources Institute The University of Georgia, Water Resources FacultyThis book was published by Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2152. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Research Institutes Authorization Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-307) or the other conference sponsors