Estimating the Price Elasticity of Demand for Water with Quasi Experimental Methods

There is a growing recognition in both the professional and popular literatures that water scarcity is a key policy issue that is especially important in arid, urban settings with the prospects for shortfalls in water availability due to the effects of climate change. Those evaluating these types of water problems usually conclude prices must be reformed so that incentives facing water users change to reflect this scarcity. Demand functions provide the basic economic relationships required to understand how water use will respond to such changes. This paper proposes a new method for estimating the price elasticity of demand that meets policy needs and can accommodate the presence of increasing block pricing structures.Water Demand Elasticity, Quasi Experiment, Climate Change, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Reconsidering the Economics of Demand Analysis with Kinked Budget Constraints

This paper has two objectives. First, we identify a problem with the ability of the discrete-continuous choice (DCC) framework and conditional demand functions to fully describe consumer preferences in the presence of kinked budget constraints. Second, we propose and illustrate an alternative, preference based, method for estimating consumer responses to price changes under these conditions. Our preference based approach yields price elasticities on the order of 0.4 and a "utilities expenditure" elasticity of near unity. This research highlights the possibility that households may be more sensitive to price schedules than previously thought. It is recognizes commitments to commodities such as pools or outdoor landscaping influence how water consumption responds to price changes as part of the long run adjustments.

The Future of the Public Trust: The Muddied Waters of Rockweed Management in Maine

Seaweeds, or more properly, intertidal macroalgae have never been easy to classify—by law or by science: they are not part of the animal kingdom, nor part of the plant kingdom (and scientific controversies about their phylogenetic placement abound), they are not completely on terra firma, nor completely submerged in ocean water. One such organism that exists at the space in between land and sea—the brown alga commonly known as Rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) presents an intriguing legal question with implications that extend far beyond the shoreline. Recently, in Ross v. Acadian Seaplants Ltd. , the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (Court) ruled that Rockweed located within the intertidal zone is the property of the adjacent upland property owner, and therefore the public cannot enter intertidal lands to harvest Rockweed as a matter of right—a right that has been preserved for the harvest of shellfish species, fish species, and bird species. The legal status of Rockweed is important to the scientists that study its ecological benefits, the harvesters that collect it for commercial purposes, the state agency concerned with its sustainable management as a marine resource, and the coastal landowners that assert that seaweed is their private property. This article explores the legal justification for—and practical resource management issues associated with—the Court’s decision to treat a marine organism such as Rockweed that derives its nutrients from ocean water and not through a root system as private property

Using Integrated Student Teams to Advance Education in Sustainable Design and Construction

This article describes a case study involving a Midwestern public university that incorporated an integrated, cross-disciplinary project delivery activity to create an effective framework for sustainable design and construction education. The article first provides an overview of sustainable construction and its advantages, describes how sustainable design and construction requires a modernized project delivery system to work effectively, and discusses the primary impacts of sustainable design and construction on the construction industry. The article then describes how one large Midwestern university has attempted to use integrated, multidisciplinary student teams to advance the concept of sustainable design and construction in the classroom environment. Curricula that include interdisciplinary courses on integrated delivery and leadership in construction, engineering and architecture could better prepare students for their future careers in the building industry and develop better managers and colleagues

Carbon Neutrality Should Not Be the End Goal: Lessons for Institutional Climate Action From U.S. Higher Education

Aggressive climate action pledges from governments, businesses and institutions have increasingly taken the form of commitments to net carbon neutrality. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are uniquely positioned to innovate in this area, and over 800 U.S. colleges and universities have pledged to achieve net carbon neutrality. Eleven leading U.S. HEIs have already attained this status. Here, we examine their approaches to achieving net carbon neutrality, highlighting risks associated with treating emissions reduction approaches such as carbon offsets, renewable energy certificates, and bioenergy as best practice in isolation from broader policy frameworks. While pursuing net carbon neutrality has led to important institutional shifts toward sustainability, the mix of approaches used by HEIs is out of alignment with a broader U.S. decarbonization roadmap; in aggregate, these carbon neutral schools underutilize electrification and new zero-carbon electricity. We conclude by envisioning how HEIs can refocus climate mitigation efforts towards decarbonization (with net carbon neutrality as a possible milestone), with an emphasis on actions that will help shift policy and markets at larger scales

Economic Evaluation of Coastal Land Loss in Louisiana

Louisiana has lost approximately 1,880 square miles of land over the past eighty years. Projections suggest that in a future without action, the next fifty years could result in the loss of 1,750 additional square miles of land area. As land loss continues, a large portion of the natural and man-made capital stocks of coastal Louisiana will be at greater risk of damage, either from land loss or from the associated increase in storm damage. We estimate the replacement cost of capital stock directly at risk from land loss ranges from approximately $2.1 billion to$3.5 billion with economic activity at risk ranging from $2.4 billion to$3.1 billion in output. Increases in storm damage to capital stock range from $8.7 billion to as much as$133 billion with associated disruptions to economic activity ranging from an additional $1.9 billion to$23 billion in total lost output

Changes in the gut microbiome and fermentation products concurrent with enhanced longevity in acarbose-treated mice.

BACKGROUND: Treatment with the α-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose increases median lifespan by approximately 20% in male mice and 5% in females. This longevity extension differs from dietary restriction based on a number of features, including the relatively small effects on weight and the sex-specificity of the lifespan effect. By inhibiting host digestion, acarbose increases the flux of starch to the lower digestive system, resulting in changes to the gut microbiota and their fermentation products. Given the documented health benefits of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), the dominant products of starch fermentation by gut bacteria, this secondary effect of acarbose could contribute to increased longevity in mice. To explore this hypothesis, we compared the fecal microbiome of mice treated with acarbose to control mice at three independent study sites. RESULTS: Microbial communities and the concentrations of SCFAs in the feces of mice treated with acarbose were notably different from those of control mice. At all three study sites, the bloom of a single bacterial taxon was the most obvious response to acarbose treatment. The blooming populations were classified to the largely uncultured Bacteroidales family Muribaculaceae and were the same taxonomic unit at two of the three sites. Propionate concentrations in feces were consistently elevated in treated mice, while the concentrations of acetate and butyrate reflected a dependence on study site. Across all samples, Muribaculaceae abundance was strongly correlated with propionate and community composition was an important predictor of SCFA concentrations. Cox proportional hazards regression showed that the fecal concentrations of acetate, butyrate, and propionate were, together, predictive of mouse longevity even while controlling for sex, site, and acarbose. CONCLUSION: We observed a correlation between fecal SCFAs and lifespan in mice, suggesting a role of the gut microbiota in the longevity-enhancing properties of acarbose. Treatment modulated the taxonomic composition and fermentation products of the gut microbiome, while the site-dependence of the responses illustrate the challenges facing reproducibility and interpretation in microbiome studies. These results motivate future studies exploring manipulation of the gut microbial community and its fermentation products for increased longevity, testing causal roles of SCFAs in the observed effects of acarbose

Use Of Culture-Independent Methods To Compare Bacterial Assemblages On Feathers Of Crested And Least Auklets (Aethia Cristatella And Aethia Pusilla) With Those Of Passerines

Despite recent interest in the interactions between birds and feather microbes, little is known about the identity of these microbes, and all studies of feather microbes thus far have focused on passerines living in temperate regions. Comparisons of the microbial groups living on different groups of birds may provide valuable insight into the ecological roles microbes play on feathers. We used culture-independent molecular techniques to identify the assemblages of bacteria found on the feathers of two closely related seabirds (Crested and Least Auklets (Aethia cristatella and A. pusilla)) and, for comparison, domestic Chickens (Gallus gallus). Some isolates were found on all three species (as well as on other species, as reported in the literature), while others were only found on Auklets. In particular, bacteria of the cold- and salt-tolerant genus Psychrobacter were only recovered from Crested Auklets. These results suggest that some genera of bacteria may be commonly found on birds, while others may be restricted in their distributions

Reaching consensus for conserving the global commons: The case of the Ross Sea, Antarctica

In October 2016, the international community made history by adopting the world's largest marine protected area in the Ross Sea, Antarctica&mdash;by consensus. Achieving this feat required trade‐offs and compromise among the 24‐Member States (plus the European Union) comprising the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The process took 5 years of intense international negotiations and more than 10 years of scientific planning. Based on interviews with national delegations and other stakeholders, 5 years of participatory observation of Commission meetings (2012&ndash;2016), and analysis of hundreds of documents, we present unique insights that explain the conditions that stalled or facilitated the adoption of the Ross Sea MPA. These included economic interests, geopolitics, an erosion of trust, high‐level diplomacy, and the compromises that were ultimately necessary. We reflect on lessons learned as the world considers how to achieve future large‐scale conservation successes in the global commons.</p