Tendering conservation contracts: Should information on environmental benefits be disclosed or concealed?

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Enlargement of the European Union: A movement towards the optimal trade bloc size?

This paper analyses how the enlargement of a trade bloc will affect national welfare. We establish a partial equilibrium model of a trade bloc either operating as a monopoly with a competitive fringe or facing a duopolistic game in production taxes/subsidies. Given this framework, we demonstrate how member countries’ welfare effects depend on their trade flow and the market power of the trade bloc. A numerical estimation of the effects of EU enlargement on the major grain crop markets suggests that welfare effects are negligible. Economic reasons are therefore unlikely to be a motivating force for further enlargement.trade bloc, trade liberalisation, game theory, European Union, International Relations/Trade, D42, F11, Q17, Q18,

National Differences in the Uptake of EU Agri-environmental Schemes: An Explanation

The number of agri-environmental programs launched under EU Regulation 1257/99, as well as the share of agricultural land covered under these programs, varies significantly between EU member states. National differences in the uptake of agri-environmental schemes would be economically efficient if they accounted for differences in countries' natural capacity to assimilate pollution and reflected the social value attributed to environmental quality. However, political decisions are unlikely to be influenced only by efficiency consideration. This paper assesses the distributional, budgetary and welfare effects of agri-environmental programs and analyses how this may explain the pattern of agri-environmental policy in Europe. The study is based on an environmental externality model which accounts for a country's economic, environmental and political situation. The conceptual analysis is supplemented by a regression model. Theoretical results suggest that the extent of agri-environmental programs increases as 1) the importance attributed to farm income increases; 2) the costs for the implementation of agri-environmental programs are lowered; 3) environmental benefits are valued higher; 4) the national budgetary pressure decreases; 5) the share of EU co-funding for agri-environmental schemes is raised. Empirical results indicate that countries attributing a high weight to farm income are more likely to implement agri-environmental schemes than others. The uptake of agri-environmental programs is higher the more important the role of landscape features for the domestic tourist industry. On the other hand, the uptake of agri-environmental policy is negatively correlated to land productivity and depends also on countries' wealth and their relative contribution to the EU budget.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Enlargement of Trade Blocs: National Welfare Effects If Trade Is Liberalized

Small countries may benefit from the formation of a trade bloc, since their combined market power will enable them to manipulate the terms of trade. The question of interest is whether countries will benefit from the enlargement of a trading bloc, if trade liberalization induces countries to substitute domestic support measures for conventional border protection. The paper deals with this question by analyzing the conditions for positive welfare effects resulting from the enlargement of a trade bloc. Based on a partial equilibrium trade model, we consider a game in production taxes/subsidies between two trade blocs. The tax/subsidy instrument may capture the production effect which can be induced by a combination of environmental, health or safety rules. The paper demonstrates that national welfare effects from the enlargement of a trading bloc depend crucially on a member country's net trade flow and the relative market power of the trade bloc. The theoretical analysis is supplemented by a numerical analysis estimating the potential welfare gains of EU enlargement on the major grain crop markets. Based on the scenarios that the EU operates either as a monopoly or competes with the rest of the world within a duopoly, upper and lower bounds of potential welfare effects resulting from enlargement are estimated. The results suggest that welfare effects on the major European grain markets are very small in proportion to the total production value. We thereby conclude that political reasons are likely to remain the main motivation for further EU enlargement.trade bloc, trade liberalization, game theory, European Union, International Relations/Trade, D6, F11, Q17, C7,

AGRICULTURAL TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: A FORMAL ANALYSIS

This paper develops an extended general equilibrium model of international trade in order to analyze the welfare effects of agricultural trade liberalization if a large country influences its terms of trade by means of environmental policy. We derive globally optimal first-best and second-best environmental and trade policy combinations as a benchmark for assessing the trade-distorting character of strategically motivated environmental policies and demonstrate that if second-best rather than first-best policies are chosen as a benchmark the conclusions may differ not only in magnitude but also in direction. We further demonstrate that if a Pigouvian instrument is transformed into a strategic environmental policy, following trade liberalization, the global welfare effect is unambiguously positive. We thereby prove that the distorting effect of an optimal tariff is generally greater than that of a strategically motivated environmental policy.International Relations/Trade,

Agricultural Trade Liberalisation and Strategic Environmental Policy

We use an extended partial equilibrium trade model to derive optimal environmental policy responses to tariff reduction requirements and assess the impact of such policies on the welfare of trading partners. We find that countries which attribute preferential political weights to farmers' welfare have an incentive to implement environmental policies that deviate from the Pigouvian solution - even if production is not de facto linked to environmental externalities. We clarify the conditions under which trading partners do not gain from unilateral trade liberalisation if trade concessions are accompanied by strategic environmental policy changes. We postulate a role for the WTO in overseeing the process of domestic policy formulation.trade liberalisation, strategic environmental policy, multifunctionality, agri-environmental policy, WTO, Environmental Economics and Policy, D60, F11, F18, Q17,

Optimale Vertragsdifferenzierung in der Agrarumweltpolitik

This article deals with the optimal differentiation of agri-environmental contracts based on a self-selection mechanism. The paper demonstrates that both economic efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditures can be increased, if a menu of combinations of farming practices and payments are offered. However, there is a trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness, since the optimal programme minimising government expenses does not simultaneously minimise farmers’ opportunity costs. A numerical example of differentiated agri-environmental contracts, aiming for the reduction of nitrogen fertiliser in wheat production, illustrates that efficiency and effectiveness gains can be substantial. Furthermore, it is shown that economic rents for agricultural producers do not necessarily shrink as a result of contract differentiation, if the latter aims for the minimisation of public expenditures.agri-environmental policy, efficiency, adverse selection, mechanism design, self-selection, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Seeing the forest for the trees: Assessing technological variability in ancient metallurgical crucible assemblages

AbstractMetallurgical crucible remains have been found in many archaeological contexts and in varying degrees of preservation. The reconstruction of metallurgical activity through the study of these remains, by means of microscopy and chemical analysis, is undertaken with the aims of understanding technological choices of ancient craftspeople, their use of different raw materials and, by extension, the organisation of production and trade. When large assemblages are available for study, an intra-site comparison of technology and material use within different contexts and throughout time offers interesting perspectives.Complete crucible examples are rarely found and it is often difficult to reconstruct full crucible profiles based on the fragmented remains. This in turn means that process variability within a single crucible can be hard to assess. Crucible slag is often highly heterogeneous, even within single fragments, enticing analysts to lose themselves in details. Furthermore, the abundance of remains is highly variable, depending on the scale of activity as well as archaeological recovery and preservation, while technological variation within an assemblage can only be detected through study of multiple samples.Drawing on the analysis of two crucible assemblages, some difficulties and opportunities for technological reconstructions are discussed. Issues related to crucible heterogeneity and inherent process variability are illustrated and a number of interpretative problems arising therefrom are examined. Following a deconstruction of these interpretative issues, some suggestions are made for how, despite methodological difficulties, archaeologically relevant results are obtained where one tries to see the forest for the trees

Food Quality in Producer-Grazer Models: A Generalized Analysis

Stoichiometric constraints play a role in the dynamics of natural populations, but are not explicitly considered in most mathematical models. Recent theoretical works suggest that these constraints can have a significant impact and should not be neglected. However, it is not yet resolved how stoichiometry should be integrated in population dynamical models, as different modeling approaches are found to yield qualitatively different results. Here we investigate a unifying framework that reveals the differences and commonalities between previously proposed models for producer-grazer systems. Our analysis reveals that stoichiometric constraints affect the dynamics mainly by increasing the intraspecific competition between producers and by introducing a variable biomass conversion efficiency. The intraspecific competition has a strongly stabilizing effect on the system, whereas the variable conversion efficiency resulting from a variable food quality is the main determinant for the nature of the instability once destabilization occurs. Only if the food quality is high an oscillatory instability, as in the classical paradox of enrichment, can occur. While the generalized model reveals that the generic insights remain valid in a large class of models, we show that other details such as the specific sequence of bifurcations encountered in enrichment scenarios can depend sensitively on assumptions made in modeling stoichiometric constraints.Comment: Online appendixes include

Neurocognitive Predictors of Treatment Response to Randomized Treatment in Adults with Tic Disorders

Tourette\u27s disorder (TS) and chronic tic disorder (CTD) are neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by involuntary vocal and motor tics. Consequently, TS/CTD have been conceptualized as disorders of cognitive and motor inhibitory control. However, most neurocognitive studies have found comparable or superior inhibitory capacity among individuals with TS/CTD relative to healthy controls. These findings have led to the hypothesis that individuals with TS/CTD develop increased inhibitory control due to the constant need to inhibit tics. However, the role of cognitive control in TS/CTD is not yet understood, particularly in adults. To examine the role of inhibitory control in TS/CTD, the present study investigated this association by assessing the relationship between inhibitory control and treatment response in a large sample of adults with TS/CTD. As part of a large randomized trial comparing behavior therapy versus supportive psychotherapy for TS/CTD, a battery of tests, including tests of inhibitory control was administered to 122 adults with TS/CTD at baseline. We assessed the association between neuropsychological test performance and change in symptom severity, as well as compared the performance of treatment responders and non-responders as defined by the Clinical Global Impression Scale. Results indicated that change in symptoms, and treatment response were not associated with neuropsychological performance on tests of inhibitory control, intellectual ability, or motor function, regardless of type of treatment. The finding that significant change in symptom severity of TS/CTD patients is not associated with impairment or change in inhibitory control regardless of treatment type suggests that inhibitory control may not be a clinically relevant facet of these disorders in adults