The potential role of environmental economics in Teagasc - A scoping exercise 2006

End of project reportEnvironmental economics is a new area within the Teagasc vision programme. It is a distinct branch of economics that acknowledges the value of both the environment and economic activity and makes choices based on those values. The goal is to balance the economic activity and the environmental impacts by taking into account all the costs and benefits. The theories are designed to take into account pollution and natural resource depletion, which the current model of market systems fails to do. This (failure) needs to be addressed by correcting prices so they take into account "external" costs. The aim of this project was to look broadly at theses issues in relation to agriculture and natural resource usage in Ireland. In particular it focused on the role that this branch of economics may play in the research agenda of Teagasc in the future. The project was very short in duration (7 months) and was completed on-time (30th November 2006)

Explaining the non-economic behaviour of farm foresters: The effect of productivist and lifestyle motivations

working paperCurrently rates of planting lag far behind levels that would be expected from a comparison of the returns from farm forestry with competing agricultural alternatives. Previous research has focused on the role of economic factors such as government subsidies, returns from competing agricultural alternatives and structural farm factors in explaining the decision to afforest. By examining the role of farming attitudes and motivations, the aim of this paper is to provide a framework for better understanding farmers’ behaviour in relation to the decision to enter into forestry. The results provide rare quantitative evidence that strong lifestyle and productivist motivations significantly affect farmers’ behaviour. Environmental values and perceptions regarding the extent to which forestry is seen as a component of a natural landscape were two further factors found to affect the probability of participation. We conclude that the design of policies aimed at encouraging changes in farm activities ought to be guided by a better understanding of the motivations and attitudes of farm operators

The effect of decoupling on farming in Ireland: A regional analysis

peer-reviewedData from the Irish National Farm Survey and Census of Agriculture were used to analyse the regional implications of the decoupling of direct payments for farmers in Ireland. A mathematical programming model was used to estimate the regional effects of decoupling while a micro-simulation model was exploited to map the geographic distribution of decoupled payments. The results show that under the historical decoupling scheme, milk quota will shift from less efficient to larger more efficient farms in all regions. Beef cattle numbers are projected to decrease on all farms, with the exception of the Mideast and Southeast regions where numbers are projected to increase. The regional effect of decoupling on sheep farming was marginal with all regions projected to benefit from the policy change. The analysis also shows, using a static micro-simulation model that a shift to a flat rate national calculation of the decoupled payment would result in a significant movement of revenues from the southern regions to the northwestern regions of the country. In particular, large beef and dairy farmers in the southern regions would lose out while small dairy and sheep farmers in the western and northern regions would be most likely to gain

Water quality and recreational use of public waterways. ESRI Research Bulletin 2017/06

Approximately half of the adult population participate in some form of water-based activity every year, across activities such as angling, boating, swimming, and water sports. Prior research from 2003 suggests that water-based tourism accounted for 22 per cent of the domestic tourism market and generated 45 per cent of domestic tourism revenue, all of which is underpinned by Ireland’s marine and freshwater resources. The Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent State of the Environment report notes that while the quality of Ireland’s surface waters is among the best in Europe improvements are still needed and insufficient progress is being made. Over the past six years there was no improvement in quality of river, transitional and coastal waters, while lake water quality has got slightly worse. This research examines how recreational activity is impacted by changes in water quality

Recreational demand modelling for agricultural resources

End of Project ReportIn the last decade the demand for rural recreation has increased in Ireland as the population has become increasingly urbanised. Increased affluence, mobility and changing values have also brought new demands with respect to landscape, conservation, heritage and recreation, with a greater emphasis on consumption demands for goods and services in rural areas. This project’s contribution to the understanding of outdoor recreational pursuits in Ireland is based on the estimation of the first recreation demand functions for farm commonage walking, small-scale forestry recreation and whitewater kayaking. These are all popular activities that take place in Irish rural space. We use this empirical work to investigate the more general conflict between countryside recreational pursuits and farming activity. Through the estimation of travel cost models, the study derives the mean willingness to pay of the average outdoors enthusiast using small-scale forestry sites in Co. Galway, using farm commonage in Connemara and using the Roughty river for kayaking recreation in Co. Kerry. An estimate of the gross economic value of the sites as recreational resources was also derived. The results indicate the high value of Irish farmland (and the Irish rural countryside in general) from a recreational amenity perspective. The project lasted approximately 2 years and was completed on-time (31st July 2007)

Spatial Modelling for Rural Policy Analysis

End of Project ReportThe objective of the project was to provide the diverse group of interest groups associated with the agri-food sector (farmers, policy makers etc.) with a microsimulation tool for the analysis of the relationships among regions and localities. This tool would also be able to project the spatial implications of economic development and policy change in rural areas. To this end the SMILE (Simulation Model for the Irish Local Economy) model was developed. SMILE is a static and dynamic spatial microsimulation model designed to analyse the impact of policy change and economic development on rural areas in Ireland. The model developed provides projection for population growth, spatial information on incomes and models farm activity at the electoral division (ED) level. The sub-projects funded under this project were concerned with the simulation, development and enhancement of a spatial econometric model of the Irish rural economy which would compliment the existing econometric models used in Teagasc; focusing on the agriculture and food sectors, previously constructed under the auspices of the FAPRI-Ireland Partnership by staff at Teagasc and NUI Maynooth. That partnership has produced an econometric model of the entire agri-food sector that has been simulated to produce estimates of the impact of policy changes on commodity prices, agricultural sector variables, food industry production, consumption of food both in Ireland and the EU and trade in food products, as well as costs, revenue and income of the agricultural sector. The SMILE model was built to compliment these other econometric models by using an holistic modeling approach that takes into account the spatial difference of rural populations, rural labour force and rural income

The potential role of environmental economics in Teagasc - A scoping excercise

End of Project ReportEnvironmental economics is a new area within the Teagasc vision programme. It is a distinct branch of economics that acknowledges the value of both the environment and economic activity and makes choices based on those values. The goal is to balance the economic activity and the environmental impacts by taking into account all the costs and benefits. The theories are designed to take into account pollution and natural resource depletion, which the current model of market systems fails to do. This (failure) needs to be addressed by correcting prices so they take into account "external" costs. The aim of this project was to look broadly at theses issues in relation to agriculture and natural resource usage in Ireland. In particular it focused on the role that this branch of economics may play in the research agenda of Teagasc in the future. The project was very short in duration (7 months) and was completed on-time (30th November 2006). The main objectives of this project were: (i) the production of a document outlining what environmental economics involves and the potential role of environmental economics within Teagasc (ii) the organisation of a meeting with leading environmental economists and representatives from environmental institutions in Ireland such as the EPA, SEI, MI and the DoE in order to discuss the potential role of Teagasc within the environmental economic research community in Ireland. Ultimately, this short project was designed to give line management and fellow staff members an overview of what is meant by the term Environmental Economics and what type of research agenda may develop within Teagasc under this heading. It was also intended that fellow staff members would have a chance to suggest and participate in new environmental economic projects in the future

Recreational demand modelling for whitewater kayaking in Ireland.

The primary objective of the thesis is to study the demand for an outdoor recreational pursuit in Ireland. The thesis uses and extends the different travel cost methods of valuation for non-market goods. The vehicle for the research is whitewater kayaking recreation in Ireland. A new method for dealing with the contentious issue of measuring the opportunity cost of time in recreational demand modeling is developed and a number of approaches are adopted to investigate the heterogeneity of tastes and preferences in the Irish kayaking community. Approaches to collecting travel cost data using the internet are also discussed. The first part of the thesis {chapter 2) describes some of the main use and non-use values associated with whitewater river systems. It also reviews the development of the sport of whitewater kayaking in Ireland. Chapter 3 examines the numerous valuation methodologies (and their applications) that are being used in the field of non-market valuation. Following this, chapter 4 reviews the single site study on the Roughty river, where the non-market benefits accruing from the preservation of "natural" conditions on one Irish river are estimated. This chapter focuses on one single river and the development threat coming from investments in new hydroelectric plants on Irish rivers. In chapter 5 the design and development of the main survey instrument are described. This chapter also gives details on survey administration, procedures, database structure and an analysis of the responses to the survey. Chapter 6 then investigates the valuation of time in recreation demand models. It uses a RUM model to analyze site choices made by Irish kayaking participants, with emphasis placed on constructing estimates for individuals’ opportunity cost of time using secondary data. The idea is motivated by a standard two-constraint model in which people can smoothly trade time for money at the market wage rate. Chapters 7 and 8 make use of the multi-attribute kayaking data to investigate the heterogeneity of tastes in the kayaking community. Chapter 7 develops an exogenous approach of incorporating preference heterogeneity using a “clustered” RUM model of whitewater kayaking site choice. In Chapter 8 two empirical models are used to endogenously take account of individual heterogeneity in analyzing whitewater kayaking site choice decisions. The two models are the random parameter logit model and the latent class model (LCM)

The Life-Cycle Income Analysis Model (LIAM): a study of a flexible dynamic microsimulation modelling computing framework

This paper describes a flexible computing framework designed to create a dynamic microsimulation model, the Life-cycle Income Analysis Model (LIAM). The principle computing characteristics include the degree of modularisation, parameterisation, generalisation and robustness. The paper describes the decisions taken with regard to type of dynamic model used. The LIAM framework has been used to create a number of different microsimulation models, including an Irish dynamic cohort model, a spatial dynamic microsimulation model for Ireland, an indirect tax and consumption model for EU15 as part of EUROMOD and a prototype EU dynamic population microsimulation model for 5 EU countries. Particular consideration is given to issues of parameterisation, alignment and computational efficiency.flexible; modular; dynamic; alignment; parameterisation; computational efficiency

Building a Static Farm Level Spatial Microsimulation Model: Statistically Matching the Irish National Farm Survey to the Irish Census of Agriculture

This paper looks at the statistical matching technique used to match the Irish Census of Agriculture to the Irish National Farm Survey (NFS) to produce a farm level static spatial microsimulation model of Irish agriculture. The match produces a spatially disaggregated population microdata set of farm households for all of Ireland. Using statistical matching techniques, economists can now create more attribute rich datasets by matching across the common variables in two or more datasets. Static spatial microsimulation then uses these synthetic datasets to analyse the relationships among regions and localities and to project the spatial implications of economic development and policy changes in rural areas. The Irish agriculture microsimulation model uses one of many combinational optimatisation techniques - simulated annealing - to match the Census of Agriculture and the NFS. The static model uses this matched NFS and Census information to produce small area (District Electric Divisions (DED)) population microdata estimates for a particular year. Using the matched NFS/Census microdata, this paper will then analysis the regional farm income distribution for Ireland.