DO ALL THE RESOURCE PROBLEMS IN THE WEST BEGIN IN THE EAST?

Economics can make good policy better and bad policy go away- a message often constrained by the political realities surrounding federal resource policy toward the West. This essay responds to these challenges to economic reasoning based on the lessons learned after a stay at the Council of Economic Advisers. My goal is to help make apolitical economists more effective advocates of efficiency.Agricultural and Food Policy,

EXPERIMENTAL MARKETS AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Experimental markets can be a useful tool to guide and evaluate environmental policy. This paper reviews four experiments to illustrate. Two institutional experiments are considered-Coasian bargaining with positive transaction costs, and a gaming experiment of dynamic choice in a conflict. Two valuation experiments are also discussed-the impact of sequential reduction mechanisms on the value of risk, and experimental auction markets to elicit the value of safer food.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Incomplete Preferences in Choice Experiments: A note on avoidable noise and bias in welfare estimates

How does a choice experiment (CE) model derived under standard preference axioms perform for respondents with incomplete preferences? Using simulated data, we show how such miss-specification results in unnecessary noise and bias in welfare estimates, and can be avoided.Choice experiment, Ordered Logit, Bias, Preference Axioms

Loss Aversion in Water Markets

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Genetic Variability and Collective Social Norms: The Case of Binge Drinking

This paper explores how collective social norms can have individual-level genetic foundation. Our study is the first we know to report a plausible link between genetically founded individual preferences in a fraction of a population and social norms governing behavior of all individuals. As our motivating example, we focus on patterns of Excessive Drinking in Social Situations (EDSS) across Europe that are possibly triggered by genetically caused variations in personality. The genetic trait is shyness, which correlates with eye color. We present empirical results indicating that alcohol consumption in social situations correlate with eye color and a model which suggests that conditions exist in which EDSS can emerge as a strategy in a larger fraction of the population than is genetically predisposed to EDSS. In addition, our model shows that alcohol taxes may be counter-productive in controlling the emergence of EDSS as a social norm.Excessive Drinking in Social Situations (EDSS); drinking behavior; genetically founded individual preferences; sosial norms

Valuing Lives Saved from Safer Food: A Cautionary Tale Revisited

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

The Impact of Self-Protection and Self-Insurance on Individual Response to Risk

We develop four experimental markets to examine how individuals respond to risk: self-protection and self-insurance in both private and collective auctions. First, we find evidence that the mechanism used to reduce risk is important. Results indicate that the upper and lower bounds on value were elicited by the private self-protection and the collective self-insurance markets. Second, the robustness of these results declined with low probability lotteries. We find further evidence that individuals overestimate the impact of low probability events. Overestimation decreased, however, with repeated market exposure. Third, the four markets induced rapid value formation. Usually only one or two additional market trials were necessary before an individual\u27s perception and valuation of reduced risk stabilized

Valuing Conflicting Public Information About a New Technology: The Case of Irradiated Foods

Scientists and advocates can disagree on the value of new products or technologies, such as growth hormones, genetically modified organisms, and food irradiation. Both sides of the debate disseminate information to the public hoping to influence public opinion. This study assesses the economic value of both pro and anti public information using food irradiation as a case study. The value of information sources is estimated in isolation and in combination. In isolation, the results indicate each set of information has value. In combination, only the anti-irradiation information is found to have net positive value (persuading some consumers to purchase non-irradiated products). Pro-irradiation information worked to decrease the value of anti-irradiation information by 68% per person.experimental auctions, irradiation, value of information, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,