1,721,065 research outputs found
Challenges In Managing Natural Resources: A Short Review Of Economic Instruments
Full text linkAs planetary boundaries impose a wider sustainable management of natural resources within private and public sectors, scientists, economists and practitioners are challenged to cooperate to promote newer strategies for natural resources. The framework of Ecosystem Services is paving a new way to bridge cross-discipline research. This short article reviews the Ecosystem Services classification and suggests economic methods and approaches that could play an important role in improving the management of natural resources. The review presents economic methods and approaches which can support broadening the application of Ecosystem Services framework and cross-discipline collaboration
La domanda di ricreazione all'aperto in parchi e riserve della Toscana
No full textRecently the environmental protection has become more pervasive and many locations have been protected through national and regional regulations. This protection is costly and its economic benefits are poorly investigated. The purpose of this paper is to report on preliminary results of a study conceived to cast light on these benefits. The paper analyzed the Tuscany residents socio-economic characteristics influencing the demand for outdoor recreation in environmental protect areas. We develop here two separate outdoor recreation models: (a) a dichotomous choice logit model to estimate the probability of participation conditional on household covariates; (b) a conditional logit model to estimate the probability of site selection conditional on site attributes. Finally, we report the estimated per trip welfare changes related to an enlargement protected areas
La disponibilità a pagare per la rivalorizzazione del territorio: il caso della ferrovia Colle-Poggibonsi.
No full textPerformance of error component models for status-quo effects in choice experiments.
No full textEnvironmental economists have advocated the use of choice modelling in environmental valuation. Standard approaches employ choice sets including one alternative depicting the status-quo, yet the effects of explicitly accounting for systematic differences in preferences for non status-quo alternatives in the econometric models are not well understood. We explore three different ways of addressing such systematic differences using data from two choice modelling studies designed to value the provision of environmental goods. Preferences for change versus status-quo are explored with standard conditional logit with alternative-specific constant for status-quo, nested logit and a less usual mixed logit error component specification (kernel logit). Our empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that alternatives offering changes from status-quo do not share the same preference structure as status-quo alternatives, as found by others in the marketing literature, in the environmental economic literature and in food preference studies. To further explore the empirical consequences of such mis-specification we report on a series of Monte Carlo experiments. Evidence from the experiments indicates that the expected bias in estimates ignoring the status-quo effect is substantial, and—more interestingly—that error component specifications with status-quo alternative specific-constant are efficient even when biased. These findings have significant implications for practitioners and their stance towards the strategies for the econometric analysis of choice modelling data for the purpose of valuation
Evaluating research activity: impact factor vs. research factor
No full textThe Impact Factor (IF) “has moved ... from an obscure bibliometric indicator to become the chief quantitative measure of the quality of a journal, its research papers, the researchers who wrote those papers, and even the institution they work in” ([2], p. 1). However, the use of this index for evaluating individual scientists is dubious. The present work compares the ranking of research units generated by the Research Factor (RF) index with that associated with the popular IF. The former, originally introduced in [38], reflects article and book publications and a host of other activities categorized as coordination activities (e.g., conference organization, research group coordination), dissemination activities (e.g., conference and seminar presentations, participation in research group), editorial activities (e.g., journal editor, associate editor, referee) and functional activities (e.g., Head of Department). The main conclusion is that by replacing the IF with the RF in hiring, tenure decisions and awarding of grants would greatly increase the number of topics investigated and the number and quality of long run projects
Experimental designs for environmental valuation with choice-experiments: A Monte Carlo investigation
No full textWe review the practice of experimental design in the environmental economics literature concerned with choice experiments. We then contrast this with advances in the field of experimental design and present a comparison of statistical efficiency across four different experimental designs evaluated by Monte Carlo experiments. Two different situations are envisaged. First, a correct a priori knowledge of the multinomial logit specification used to derive the design and then an incorrect one. The data generating process is based on estimates from data of a real choice experiment with which preference for rural landscape attributes were studied. Results indicate the D-optimal designs are promising, especially those based on Bayesian algorithms with informative prior. However, if good a priori information is lacking, and if there is strong uncertainty about the real data generating process - conditions which are quite common in environmental valuation - then practitioners might be better off with conventional fractional designs from linear models. Under misspecification, a design of this type produces less biased estimates than its competitors
Coal mining and policy responses: Are externalities appropriately addressed? A meta-analysis
Full text linkThe paper combines a systematic literature review and a cluster analysis to investigate the progress and challenges of policy instruments designed to mitigate coal mining externalities. Coal is a widely abundant fossil fuel and it is forecasted to remain in the energy mix for many years to come. However, coal mining is responsible for multiple social and environmental externalities that need to be fully internalized in the coal supply market. Around the world, multiple policy instruments have been adopted to mitigate externalities but our review reveals that several coal mining externalities remain largely neglected, including impacts to biodiversity. The cluster analysis provides a comprehensive reading of the literature findings and reveals that policy instruments can moderate the negative externalities of coal mining but the majority of current coal mining policies lack a formal assessment and quantitative performance measures. It is noteworthy, that market-based instruments as well as innovative instruments are more effective than command and control at internalising coal mining externalities especially coal mine methane. A second cluster analysis by country highlights the heterogeneity of policy instruments adopted and the mix of success and failure. We conclude that few successful policies exist, that there is a need for more policy evaluation and that growth in coal mining poses challenges for our sustainable future
Good Parks – Bad Parks: The Influence of Perceptions of Location on WTP and Preference Motives for Urban Parks
Full text linkUrban parks generate substantial public benefits yet explicit economic assessments of such
values remain relatively rare. Surveys of willingness to pay (WTP) were undertaken to assess
such values for proposed new parks. The analysis assessed how preference motives and
values varied according to the location of parks. Results revealed greater altruistic
motivation and higher overall values for the creation of inner city as opposed to suburban
parks. Spatial decomposition revealed that, after controlling for other determinants such as
incomes, values generally increase for households closer to proposed parks, but that a
significant downturn in values is evident for households located very close to a proposed
inner city park; a finding which echoes concerns regarding the potential for such sites to
provide a focus for antisocial behaviour. While these findings provide strong overall support
for provision of public parks they highlight the importance of perceptions of location and
the potential for localised dis-benefit
An analysis of the effects of policies: the case of coal
No full textThe shift to more sustainable energy regimes requires the implementation of the right mix of policy options to internalize fossil fuel externalities. In this paper the attention is dedicated to the coal. Coal is the main fossil fuel for energy production and also the key driver of emerging economies (China, India). On the other end, the coal has been the driver of developed economies (EU, US) and a systematic review of policy options can offer several insights on the path to sustainability. Whereas coal combustion externalities (mainly CO2) are well regulated, policies for coal mining externalities are mainly neglected. Policy options present several characteristics and a formal discussion of the nexus externality and efficiency is provided. The result of a systematic web search for the coal mining externalities is presented. The strength of this search is to review several national and international reports/papers on coal mining effects. Policies for environmental and societal externalities are reviewed. Results show that the command and control is still the most popular instrument. However, mature economies (e.g. US) have successfully shifted towards voluntary agreements. These instruments promote efficiency and minimize distributional effects. It also emerges that landscape and biodiversity lost are not well regulated
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