Assessing Alternative Policies for Reducing Household Waste in Taiwan

In the last few years, the three major cities in Taiwan have been experimenting with two different demand-side management approaches to reduce the waste generated by households and to promote the recycling of recyclables. Thus, there are three different kinds of approaches of waste management that are concurrently used in Taiwan: fee-per-bag, mandatory recycling with free waste collection services, and the zero price of trash collection. We performed a comparative analysis of these policy instruments to take advantage of this important social experiment. We first developed an economic model for the three different waste charging programs concurrently in use and then performed an empirical study based on the implications from the theoretical analysis. It is clearly seen that the traditional approach of zero pricing of trash collection is very ineffective in terms of waste reduction and recycling. Households have all changed their behavior significantly in those cities with two new approaches. However, of the two, the fee-per-bag program is clearly the most effective approach. The results have important policy implications.

Managing Conflict In Facility Siting: an international comparison

The siting or development of risky facilities, such as nuclear power plants or waste repositories, remains an intractable policy problem for all democratic nations. In this valuable new book, the authors present a comparative study of various siting controversies in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia. They argue that devising effective policies for dealing with siting conflicts will require social learning and changes in both institutional design and policy process. This volume studies the issue of siting in the context of a transactions cost framework. It analyses the extent to which the institutional and policy environment can assist in managing siting conflicts, as well as considering the effect of other important factors such as equity, incentive structures, social pressures, alliances, the nature of decision processes and information strategies. By adopting a broad comparative perspective and using international case studies, the authors are able to identify the similarities and differences in siting problems between nations, and the approaches and policies adopted. As well as extending the theoretical and comparative knowledge of siting conflicts, they also help to develop more robust and effective policies for managing and resolving future disputes. This book addresses a growing policy problem confronting all democratic nations. By exploring the lessons to be learned from international siting experiences, it will prove invaluable reading for academics, policymakers, government agencies, NGOs, and other societal interests involved in environmental and siting issues

Measuring the Impact of Global Warming in Agriculture

This paper develops a “Ricardian” approach for measuring the economic impact of environmental factors such as climate by examining the direct impact of the environmental factor on land prices. Estimating the model using cross-sectional data on climate, farm-land prices, and other economic and geophysical data for almost 3,000 countries in the United States, we find that higher temperatures in all seasons except autumn reduce average farm values in the United States and more precipitation in all seasons except autumn increases farm values. Applying the model to a global-warming scenario finds a range of impacts depending upon whether the model emphasize the grains through crop-land weights or a broader set of crops through crop-revenue weights. The results of the Ricardian approach show a significantly lower estimated impact of global warming than the traditional production-function approach

The Impact Climate on Agriculture: A Ricardian Approach

Because of the potential for global warming, there are widespread concerns about the impact of changing climate upon the productivity of land in farming and other sectors. This paper develops a new approach for measuring the economic impact of environmental factors such as climate on production by examining the direct impact of the environmental factor on land productivity as measured by land prices. This new method is applied to examine the effect of climate on agriculture using cross-sectional farm data for almost 3000 counties in the United States. It finds substantial impacts of climatic variation on both land values and farm revenues. Among the central findings are that higher temperatures in all seasons except autumn reduce all seasons except autumn increases farm values. The relationships are, however, nonlinear and complex

Measuring the Impact of Global Warming in Agriculture

This paper develops a "Ricardian" approach for measuring the economic impact of environmental factors such as climate by examining the direct impact of the environmental factor on land prices. Estimating the model using cross-sectional data on climate, farm-land prices, and other economic and geophysical data for almost 3,000 countries in the United States, we find that higher temperatures in all seasons except autumn reduce average farm values in the United States and more precipitation in all seasons except autumn increases farm values. Applying the model to a global-warming scenario finds a range of impacts depending upon whether the model emphasize the grains through crop-land weights or a broader set of crops through crop-revenue weights. The results of the Ricardian approach show a significantly lower estimated impact of global warming than the traditional production-function approach.

A Probabilistic Risk Analysis for Taipei Seismic Hazards: An Application of HAZ-Taiwan with its Pre-processor and Post-processor

This paper employs probabilistic risk analysis to estimate exceedance probability curves, average annual loss (AAL) and probable maximum loss (PML) for seismic hazards. It utilizes and event-driven loss estimation model, HAZ-Taiwan, and develops its pre-processing and post-processing software modules. First, the pre-processingmodule establishes a set of hazard-consistent scenarios. Then, the HAZ-Taiwan modelextimates hazards, vulnerabilities and economic losses for each scenario. Finally, the aggregate and occurrence exceedance probability curves for losses and theirconfidence intervals are simulated using the Monte Carlo simulation in thepost-processing module. The methodology is then applied to analyze seismic risks in Taipei. It is found that the exceedance probability of an aggregate loss of NT$40.398 billion is 0.001. This amount of loss is approximately 2.78$37.41-43.12 billion. The average annual loss of buildings in Taipei is NT$1.06 billion r approximately 0.07% of the total stock.probabilistic risk analysis, Hazard analysis, vulnerability analysis, exceedance probability curve, HAZ-Taiwan

At the Mercy of the Sea or Rational Profit-Speculators: Offshore Fishermen in Taiwan

We investigated the own- and cross-price elasticity of supply (PES) of 20 fish and shellfish species, caught in mixed fisheries off southwestern Taiwan and serving the local fresh seafood market. Because the licensed fishermen face little regulation constraining their behavior, we hypothesize that they adjust their catch profiles so as to maximize the expected value of their catch, instead of fishing indiscriminately at the mercy of the elements. However, because catches are auctioned after the landing, fishermen face uncertain price. Using daily data from 2001--2015, we found that price-taking fishermen are capable to respond to price changes of 17 of the 20 species by shifting the catch profile. The species with the highest PES are those corresponding to the highest revenues, and the fishermen are the most price elastic during the season when the catches are highest. Input substitution effect and by-catch effect offset each other, leading to weak and mostly insignificant cross-PES for most of the species. Weather conditions such as wave height, wind speed and wind direction do not appear to affect fishermen's targeting decisions for most of the 20 species, but they do affect fishermen's exit decision, i.e., going fishing or not

Three Essays in the Economics of Recreation Demand (Travel Cost Method, National Resource).

Three essays have been developed to improve the theory and the estimation of the travel cost method which is the most commonly used method to describe the demand for outdoor recreation. Theoretical issues are discussed in the first two essays, and econometric estimation is discussed in the final essay. In the first essay, I demonstrate that historically the travel cost method (TCM) has been used to measure the demand for household commodities (recreation experiences). This approach, unfortunately, is full of empirical hazards mainly due to the endogeneity of household commodity prices. An alternative strategy is to use the TCM as a derived input demand function. In this case, the price endogeneity problem disappears. The appropriate unit for the dependent variable is the consumer's number of trips to the site. Only prices of inputs and full income are appropriate arguments in the demand function. The widespread use of total cost that includes travel cost, on-site time, and money outlays is a misspecification. On-site time and on-site expenditures should be excluded from the model. In the second essay, the Slutsky equation for the derived input demand function is developed. Using the Slutsky equation, useful prior restrictions and hypotheses of the impacts of input price changes on the demand for inputs are deduced. Further, it is shown that welfare measures, based on the input demand equation, are appropriate measures of the net value of individual recreation sites. The third essay corrects an estimation problem in previous estimates of the TCM using on-site samples. There are two sources of the problem in on-site samples: truncation and endogenous stratification. Four theoretically correct methods are developed to solve the two problems. A numerical experiment is done to compare the four methods using generated data sets of a known model. Two methods are shown to be superior: (a) the maximum likelihood method solving the two problems together, and (b) normalizing for endogenous stratification and then using a maximum likelihood method to solve the problem of truncation. Using recreation data from sites in Montana, ordinary least squares (OLS) is compared with the maximum likelihood method. OLS significantly overestimates the individual net social benefits by factors of 1.3 (TURN) 2.3. Thus, we should not use OLS and instead should use the maximum likelihood methods developed here to estimate recreational site demand functions using on-site samples.Ph.D.Agricultural economicsUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160874/1/8600549.pd