Inefficient social conventions in backward economies

When adopted by each member in a society contracts become conventions: they are focal points that solve coordination problems. This paper develops an evolutionary model with two distinct finite populations of players (landlords and landless) in which players from different populations are repeatedly matched within a period to play a stage game. Choices over the three strategies available (fixed rental, share-cropping and wage contracts) are affected by bounded rationality. In particular, players assume their opponents to carry on playing the action they adopted the previous period (inertia hypothesis) so that mimic the most successful strategy played by their own population mates turns out to be the best strategy (miopia hypothesis). Experimentation allows players to innovate towards the preferred strategy every period. The calculation of the eigenvector related to the unit eigenvalue of the Markov matrix stresses that by better solving the collective action problems and decreasing their attachment to habits, landless can change the status quo towards the desired contract. The analysis of the relative dimensions of the basins of attractions highlights that the long-run equilibrium is likely to be the contract preferred by landlords, unless economic incentives are tuned up in order to drive the society to adopt an alternative one

Combining Econometric, Cost\u2013Benefit, and Financial Methodologies in a Framework to Increase Diffusion and to Predict the Feasibility and Sustainability of Irrigation Schemes: A Case Study in Kurdistan, Iraq

This paper applies ex ante econometric, cost\u2013benefit, and financial methodologies to increase participation in an irrigation project and predict its financial feasibility and social sustainability in Shahrazoor, Kurdistan, Iraq. I investigated the socio-economic, psycho-cultural, and financial factors that determine participation. The socio-economic part of the econometric analysis showed that the project was appreciated more by poorer and economically weaker farmers who rely on agriculture than by those who rely on livestock activities. The psycho-cultural part of the econometric analysis emphasized that the project was appreciated more by literate farmers who adopt a maximization (rather than habit) approach. The cost\u2013benefit analysis applied to the irrigation project was tailored to poorer and weaker farmers (i.e., costs of the irrigation scheme and benefits from new cultivation patterns were defined with reference to small farms) by including indirect benefits from both irrigation (e.g., flood control) and hydropower (e.g., eliminated GHG emissions), and determined a 7.1% mean internal rate of return; this was affected more strongly by uncertainty in crop prices than by uncertainty in indirect benefits. The financial analysis highlighted values for water prices, financial returns, and loan rates that met government and farmer budgets. A single framework summarized the main relevant social, economic, and financial conditions, and, by including insights from sensitivity analyses, determined the feasibility and sustainability of the irrigation project. Provided that the water price charged to farmers is between 0.32 and 0.57 USD/m3, and the loan interest rate paid by farmers is smaller than 3.0%, the irrigation project in Shahrazoor is financially feasible for 13.6% of all reliable economic solutions and socially sustainable for 35.8% of the solution

Predicting diffusion and feasibility of irrigation schemes: a case study in Kurdistan, Iraq

This paper applies ex ante econometric, cost–benefit, and financial methodologies to predict diffusion and feasibility of the irrigation project in Shahrazoor, Kurdistan, Iraq. To do so, I investigated the socio-economic, psycho-cultural, and financial factors that determine participation. The socio-economic part of the econometric analysis showed that the project was appreciated more by poorer and economically weaker farmers who rely on agriculture than those who rely on livestock activities. The psycho-cultural part of the econometric analysis emphasized that the project was appreciated more by literate farmers who adopt a maximization (rather than a status quo) approach. The cost–benefit analysis applied to the irrigation project tailored to poorer and weaker farmers determined an acceptable internal rate of return, but the financial analysis highlighted that values for water prices, a feasible internal rate of return and loan interest rates that simultaneously meet the government and farmer budgets might not exist

Which ethics will make us individually and socially happier? A cross-culture and cross-development analytical model

This paper provides an analytical model representing four polar ethical approaches, by linking them to the main ethics suggested by the philosophical, psychological, and socio-economic literature. Moreover, it develops the analytical model in order to obtain rankings of the 4 polar ethical approaches in terms of happiness and, consequently, to provide insights on which ethical approach should be adopted by each individual, according to his characteristics (income level, in DCs or in LDCs, aspiration level): some dynamics are predicted, if the Golden and the Copper rules are applied. Finally, this paper provides insights on which ethical approach should be adopted by each society, according to its characteristics (DCs or LDCs, social distribution of aspiration levels), by predicting happiness levels in alternative countries, according to the prevailing ethics, and by comparing these predictions with the observed happiness levels, in order to provide an empirical test of the analytical model: some dynamics are predicted, with non-Protestant DCs moving to higher, and Protestant DCs towards lower, happiness levels (conditioned to the per capita income), due to the increasing and decreasing rejection of the Golden and Copper rules, respectively, and with LDCs moving to lower (conditioned to the increasing per capita income) in the short-run and higher happiness levels in the long run, by establishing and entertaining conditions that set clear incentives for moral behaviour, in order to increase and decrease the adoption of the Golden and Copper rules, respectivel

Coherence, efficiency, and independence of the EU environmental policy system: results of complementary statistical and econometric analyses

This paper presents the first empirical test of coherence (i.e., consistency of policies within a framework), efficiency (i.e., ability of policies to meet their objectives), and independence (i.e., logical priority of objectives over policies) of the overall EU environmental policy system. To do so, I applied statistical (cross-sectional and time series) and econometric (dynamic tri-probit) analyses to an original panel dataset, based on addressed issues rather than on implemented policies. In contrast with previous studies of single EU environmental policies, characteristics of the EU environmental policy, or EU environmental objectives, I found that the overall EU environmental policy system is coherent, efficient, and independent. Moreover, the evidence suggests that many issues are correlated: trans-boundary issues became more relevant in 2012, pollution production was more significant than resource use, and flow issues were more important than stock issues from 1995 to 2010. Finally, I show that few objectives overlapped: a “safe environment” objective (1987 to 1997) was preferred to a “greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction” objective (2003 to 2012, but pursued with a 2-year lag), although the latter has recently become preferred to the former. In addition, a “GHG reduction” objective was preferred to “a sustainable development” objective (1998 to 2002)

Values and technologies for sustainable happiness: A cross-development analytical model

This paper develops an analytical model to calculate the amount by which individuals are expected to modify their values (the relationship between lifestyle and happiness, as measured by subjective well-being, SWB) and to adopt innovative technologies (to increase the sustainability of production and consumption, measured by the ecological footprint, EF) to allow current and future generations to achieve sustainable happiness (the pursuit of happiness that does not exploit other people, the environment, or future generations). The paper also examines the dependence of these changes on an individual's concern for future generations and on their country's current state of economic development. Individuals in developed countries can change their values by showing greater concern for future generations as well as by adopting new technologies, thereby reducing the required change in values and achieving sustainability at a high SWB. In contrast, individuals in developing countries must rely solely on technological innovation (and to a greater extent than in developed countries), and their concern for future generations is less relevant, with sustainability achieved at a low SWB. Finally, maximising the concern for future generations will make individuals in developing and developed countries coincide in terms of their potential to substitute values for technologies or vice versa, but not in terms of their potential to achieve sustainable happiness

Comparing religious environmental ethics to support efforts to achieve local and global sustainability: Empirical insights based on a theoretical framework

This paper develops a theoretical framework to assess the feasibility of environmental sustainability solutions, at local and global levels, based on the religious environmental ethics of several key religions: Hinduism (including Jainism), Buddhism (including Confucianism and Daoism), Judaism, Christianity (Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism), and Islam. Solutions are defined in terms of consumption (measured by GDP), environment use (measured by the ecological footprint), and welfare for representative individuals. Empirical insights for alternative religious environmental ethics focus on the relative importance attached to the consumption of goods (\u3b1) vs. involvement in a (local/global) community, and on the importance attached to the environment within the (local/global) community (\u3bc). In terms of feasibility for national environmental problems (i.e., pairs of \u3b1 and \u3bc achieving sustainability, in countries where the religion is a majority) and consistency (i.e., coherence with the religion's precepts) of policies for national environmental problems: Hinduism = Buddhism > Islam > Judaism. Christianity produced no feasible solutions. In terms of effectiveness for global environmental problems (i.e., pairs of \u3b1 and \u3bc achieving global sustainability, if inequalities among nations are reduced in the future) and replicability for local environmental problems (i.e., pairs of \u3b1 and \u3bc achieving sustainability in countries where the religion is a minority): Hinduism = Buddhism > Judaism > Islam

Scholarships vs. training for happiness gained from education in creativity: an analytical model

This paper presents an analytical model of the dynamic interrelationships between education, creativity, and happiness based on both theoretical insights and recent empirical neurological studies. In the model, the outcome is conditional on individual intelligence and risk aversion. Specifically, it focuses on two main determinants of creativity (divergent and convergent thinking), and compares two main educational policies (scholarships vs. training) in terms of their impacts on the happiness gained from creativity in the general and healthy population. An empirical test is provided by matching the model’s predictions with the results of recent neuroscience research. Numerical simulations suggested that improving convergent thinking is more important than improving divergent thinking for creativity to generate happiness throughout an individual’s life, provided both divergent and convergent thinking have achieved a sufficiently large degree; and that unstructured training in divergent thinking (e.g., in accounting schools) is necessary to reach richer but less intelligent people, whereas scholarships or unstructured training in convergent thinking (e.g., in art schools) are necessary to reach more intelligent but less rich people

From economic general equilibrium to ecological system services for nature conservation and management: a methodological analysis and an empirical study based on 30 Italian industries

In this paper, I develop an operational methodology to consistently compare alternative sustainability paradigms (weak sustainability [WS], strong sustainability [SS], a-growth [AG], and de-growth [DG]) and different assessment approaches (life-cycle assessment [LCA], cost-benefit analysis [CBA], and multi-criteria analysis [MCA]) within alternative relationship frameworks (economic general equilibrium [EGE] and ecosystem services [ESS]). The goal is to suggest different environmental interventions (e.g., projects vs. policies) for nature management and guide decisions to achieve nature conservation, defined here as reducing environmental pressures to preserve the future environment and its functioning over time. I then apply the methodology to 30 interdependent industries in Italy for three pollutants (greenhouse-effect gases, polluted rain, and air pollution) and four resources (water, minerals, fossil fuels, biomass) during two periods (from 1990 to 2007 and from 1990 to 2012). The industries were prioritised in terms of interventions to be taken to diminish pollution damage and resource depletion (e.g., fishing and non-energy mining for any sustainability paradigm), whereas sustainability paradigms are compared in terms of their likelihood (i.e., WS > AG = DG > SS), robustness (i.e., AG > SS > DG > WS), effectiveness (i.e., SS > AG > DG > WS), and feasibility (i.e., SS > DG > WS > AG). Proper assessment approaches for projects are finally identified for situations when policies are infeasible (e.g., LCA in WS and SS, MCA in DG and SS within ESS, CBA in WS and AG within EGE), by suggesting MCA in WS within ESS once ecological services are linked to sustainability criteria