ETHICAL PREFERENCES AND THE ASSESSMENT OF EXISTENCE VALUES: DOES THE NEOCLASSICAL MODEL FIT?

Some of the implications of ethical preferences for traditional welfare analyses of existence values are discussed in this paper and illustrated with a lexicographic model for preference structures. Although willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-sell are well-defined, their connection with Hicksian surpluses is lost when a person is motivated by an ethical commitment to others welfare. Researchers need to expand contingent valuation methods to collect information on underlying motives and types of preferences in order to identify respondents who fit the neoclassical model of egoistic man.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

ON ESTIMATING HOUSEHOLD DEMAND FOR OUTDOOR RECREATION FROM PROPERTY VALUES: AN EXPLORATION

This paper explores how hedonic price analysis might be used to estimate the surplus benefits of local outdoor recreation when distance to the recreational site is captured in property values. The model is characterized by the endogenous choice of distance to a local recreational area by households in coastal property markets and by the capitalization of proximity in property values. Equilibrium occurs when the reduction in the cost of a property due to a marginal increase in distance to the recreational area equals the associated loss in recreational surplus resulting from increased travel costs. The theoretical model is applied in an exploratory analysis of the "demand" for distance to the nearest public beach from which total surplus benefits are estimated.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Ownership of Renewable Ocean Resources

Much of the recent fisheries economics literature promotes usufructuary rights policies to lessen the dissipation of resource rents. However, this literature does not count institutional inefficiencies which result from rent-seeking and the principal-agent problem when a centralized government controls access to renewable ocean resources. As a result, the efficiency of usufructuary rights programs, including ITQs, throughout the economy could be exaggerated. From a dynamic standpoint, though, usufructuary rights policies remain an important avenue for residual claimants to contract for less attenuated institutions of common or private property rights. These conclusions are drawn from a survey of the property rights and public choice literatures.U.S. fisheries, fisheries management, open access, common pool resources, property rights, economic efficiency, rent-seeking, principal-agent problem, common property, self-governance, private property, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

RENT-SEEKING AND PROPERTY RIGHTS FORMATION IN THE U.S. ATLANTIC SEA SCALLOP FISHERY

This paper chronicles rent-seeking in the U.S. Atlantic sea scallop fishery, including its influence on property rights formation. Decades of lobbying by the U.S. fishing industry against foreign fishing and seafood imports caused Congress to extend federal jurisdiction to 200 miles in 1977. Scallop fishermen initially earned high profits for their efforts, but by about 1990 the overcapitalized fishery was surviving on new year classes. Limited access and a stock rebuilding program were introduced in 1994, but an asymmetric distribution of potential gains in favor of relatively few, multi-permit companies has preoccupied public debate on the transferability and consolidation of fishing rights. Rent-seeking by the limited-access permit holders is now also focused on claims by the growing open-access sector of the scallop fishery, groundfish bycatch limitations, and gear-induced habitat damage, which has drawn lawsuits from environmental organizations.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

On Estimating Compensation for Injury to Publicly Owned Marine Resources

It is well established that the public has the right to use certain marine resources, including fish stocks, beaches, and marine waters, for certain purposes, including recreational fishing. Rights in public resources are held "in trust" by federal and state governments for the public, both now and in the future. Given public rights, we not only argue that minimum willingness-to-accept-compensation (WTA) is the theoretically correct measure of economic damages when a publicly owned marine resource is injured, but that it is, in fact, feasible to measure WTA, and therefore, WTA should be used to estimate compensation. Two utility-theoretic approaches for welfare analysis, which use Hausman's (1981) method and the contingent valuation method, are outlined.willingness-to-accept-compensation, natural resource damages, marine pollution, recreational fishing, contingent valuation method, public trust doctrine, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

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Scale Determination Using the Static Potential with Two Dynamical Quark Flavors

We study the static potential using gauge configurations that include the effects of two flavors of dynamical Kogut-Susskind quarks. The configurations, generated by the MILC collaboration, and used to study the spectrum and heavy-light decay constants, cover a range $5.3 \le 6/g^2 \le 5.6$. There are at least four quark masses for each coupling studied. Determination of $r_0$ from the potential can be used to set a scale. This alternative scale is useful to study systematic errors on the spectrum and decay constants.Comment: LATTICE99(spectrum) - 3 pages, 4 figure

Modeling Internet-Scale Policies for Cleaning up Malware

An emerging consensus among policy makers is that interventions undertaken by Internet Service Providers are the best way to counter the rising incidence of malware. However, assessing the suitability of countermeasures at this scale is hard. In this paper, we use an agent-based model, called ASIM, to investigate the impact of policy interventions at the Autonomous System level of the Internet. For instance, we find that coordinated intervention by the 0.2%-biggest ASes is more effective than uncoordinated efforts adopted by 30% of all ASes. Furthermore, countermeasures that block malicious transit traffic appear more effective than ones that block outgoing traffic. The model allows us to quantify and compare positive externalities created by different countermeasures. Our results give an initial indication of the types and levels of intervention that are most cost-effective at large scale.Comment: 22 pages, 9 Figures, Presented at the Tenth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, Jun 201

An Economics Guide to Allocation of Fish Stocks between Commercial and Recreational Fisheries

The increasingly intense competition between commercial and recreational fishermen for access to fish stocks has focused attention on the economic implications of fishery allocations. Indeed, one can scarcely find a management plan or amendment that does not at least refer to the relative food and sport values of fish and to how expenditures by commercial and recreational fishermen on equipment and supplies stimulate the economy. However, many of the arguments raised by constituents to influence such allocations, while having an seemingly "economics" ring to them, are usually incomplete, distorted, and even incorrect. This report offers fishery managers and other interested parties a guide to correct notions of economic value and to the appropriate ways to characterize, estimate, and compare value. In particular, introductory material from benefitcost analysis and input-output analysis is described and illustrated. In the process, several familiar specious arguments are exposed.(PDF file contains 34 pages.