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Combining Actual and Contingent Behavior to Estimate the Value of Sports Fishing in the Lagoon of Venice
... Choe et al., 1996); or once-off data on both actual and hypothetical visits to a single site at actual and hypothetical quality levels (the CBM; e.g. Ribaudo and Epp, 1984;Englin and Cameron, 1996;Layman et al., 1996;Loomis, 1997;Whitehead et al., 2000;Turpie and Joubert, 2001;Eftec, 2002;Boxall et al., 2003;Hanley et al., 2003;Alberini et al., 2007). The CBM is useful when time and budget constraints preclude data collection at multiple sites or points in time. ...
... In this paper, CBM is used to estimate welfare changes associated with changes in water quality and loss of Blue Flag status. Alberini et al. (2007) test whether actual and contingent behaviour are driven by the same demand function and whether there is evidence of hypothetical bias in the responses to the contingent behaviour questions. They find consistency in preferences across the actual and hypothetical responses, that no hypothetical bias exists, and therefore that actual and contingent data can be pooled to estimate welfare changes. ...
... Accommodation costs were calculated by multiplying reported accommodation costs per day in Margate by the number of days spent in Margate per trip. Alberini et al., 2007 Angling in the Lagoon of Venice hypothetical 50% increase in catch rates ...
This study estimates the costs associated with reduced water quality and withdrawal of Blue Flag status in Margate, Kwazulu-Natal, based on travel costs and contingent behaviour (reported change in visits contingent on a hypothetical scenario). Costs associated with hypothetical loss of Blue Flag status (based on reduced visits) range between R17 and R25 million per annum. Interestingly, Blue Flag status was withdrawn shortly after completion of the survey, owing to reduced water quality. This study therefore provides an estimate of the associated welfare losses, and of the benefits of actions to improve water quality and restore Blue Flag status. Copyright (c) 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Economic Society of South Africa.
... A first generation of studies on ES carried out in Italy has mainly focused on single ecosystems typology (Alberini et al. 2007, Bonometto et al. 2015,Gatto 1988, Alberini et al. 2007, Goio et al. 2008, Notaro and Paletto 2012, Morri et al. 2014, Bonometto et al. 2015, Häyhä et al. 2015, Da Re et al. 2015, Manes et al. 2016, ISPRA 2016, Franzese et al. 2017, ISPRA 2017, ISPRA 2018, Munafò 2019, Munafò 2020, Munafò 2021, protected areas (Schirpke et al. 2015,Sallustio et al. 2017, Masiero et al. Table 8. ...
... A first generation of studies on ES carried out in Italy has mainly focused on single ecosystems typology (Alberini et al. 2007, Bonometto et al. 2015,Gatto 1988, Alberini et al. 2007, Goio et al. 2008, Notaro and Paletto 2012, Morri et al. 2014, Bonometto et al. 2015, Häyhä et al. 2015, Da Re et al. 2015, Manes et al. 2016, ISPRA 2016, Franzese et al. 2017, ISPRA 2017, ISPRA 2018, Munafò 2019, Munafò 2020, Munafò 2021, protected areas (Schirpke et al. 2015,Sallustio et al. 2017, Masiero et al. Table 8. ...
In this experimental study, different components are computed for three different ecosystem services (ES). Specifically, supply, demand and use are estimated for pollination service, flood risk regulation service and nature-based tourism. These are analysed and assessed in 2012 and 2018 for the Italian context, in order to estimate the evolution over this period and to allow a significant comparison of results. The same methodology and models are applied for the selected accounting years and accounting tables and tend to reflect as closely as possible the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA), which is the international standard endorsed by the United Nations to compile Natural Capital Accounting in 2021. Both biophysical and monetary assessments are performed using the ARIES technology, an integrated modelling platform providing automatic and flexible integration of data and models, via its semantic modelling nature. Models have been run adjusting the components of the global modelling approach to the Italian context and, whenever available, prioritising the use of local data to carry out the study. This approach is particularly useful to analyse trends over time, as potentially biased components of models and data are substantially mitigated when the same biases is constant over time. This study finds an increase in benefits over the period analysed for the ES examined. The main contribution of this pioneering work is to support the idea that ES accounting or Natural Capital Accounting can provide a very useful tool to improve economic and environmental information at national and regional level. This can support processes to provide the necessary incentives to steer policy-making towards preventative rather than corrective actions, which are usually much less effective and more costly, both at environmental and economic levels. Nevertheless, particular attention must be paid to the meaning of the estimates and the drivers of these values to derive a direct or indirect relationship between the benefits observable and the actual Italian ecosystems condition.
... Many development of historic sites usually treated as public goods. Ideally, it must be treated as economic goods (Alberini and Kahn 2005, Hoyos and Mariel 2010, Mason 2005. Based on this background, the purpose of this study is to determine the factors of willing to pay and to estimate the economic value in Sangiran. ...
... This method is very popular in CVM analysis because it count non market ecosystem value and non market natural resources value based on willingness to pay from discrete question. Respondent give a question for pay a price if it will happen the improvement of ecosystem or the valuation of environmental services (Alberini and Kahn 2005). Then using an additional entrance fees to Sangiran Sites, it provides a more concrete contingency factors than others commonly used in contingent valuation studies (Jorgensen, Wilson and Heberlein 2001). ...
In this paper we want to determine the factors of willingness to pay for quality improvement and to estimates of economic value in Sangiran, Central Java Province, Indonesia. This paper used contingent valuation approach. The study involved Sangiran visitors, they were surveyed for their willingness to pay for historical, cultural, and educational function. Finding from this study, the significant factors affecting the individual’s willingness to pay are bid, gender, and income. The economic value of Sangiran sites tourism was estimated between Rp 0.665 billion per year until Rp 2.409 billion per year.
... Estimation of the benefit of a site attribute requires one to know what the demand for trips to the site for a given level of this attribute is (Alberini et al. 2007). One way to overcome this is to ask individuals about the change they expect to have in the number of trips they would take to a site under hypothetical change in an attribute. ...
In the last few winters, shark communities have been aggregating near the Israeli Mediterranean coast, at a specific point, near the Hadera power station. This unusual phenomenon has fascinated residents, visitors, kayakers, divers, and swimmers. We analyze the effects of this intense human interest on the sharks, using contingent behavior, in Hadera and in Ashkelon, where sharks are present and there is available infrastructure for their observation. We also report on changes in shark behaviour due to changes in tourism intensity. We find a change of about ILS 4.1 million annually for both sites but a larger individual consumer surplus in Hadera, where sharks are currently observable. Touristic intensity crosses the threshold level by about 12% and making the socio-equilibrium sustainable for both humans and sharks would have a social cost of ILS 0.157 million. This paper, which is based on the assessment of conservation values to marine and coastal tourists, raises a need for spatial planning in order to protect this endangered species.
... Hanley et al., 2001;Grijalva et al., 2002). However, there have also been a number of studies focusing on blue spaces including beaches and coastlines (Czajkowski et al., 2015;Pascoe, 2019), lakes (Egan and Herriges, 2006), reservoirs (Lienhoop andAnsmann, 2011), coral reefs (Ahmed et al., 2007) marine parks (Mwebaze and MacLeod, 2013), and associated activities such as sport fishing (Alberini et al., 2007;Hwang et al., 2021). ...
This study estimates the value of recreational visits to blue-space sites across 14 EU Member States, representing 78% of the Union's population. Across all countries surveyed, respondents made an average of 47 blue-space visits per person per year. Employing travel cost and contingent behaviour methods, the value of a visit is estimated at €41.32 which adds up to a recreational value of €631bn per year for the total adult population surveyed. Using the Bathing Water Directive's water quality designation, the analysis shows that a one-level improvement in water quality leads to 3.13 more visits (+6.67%), whereas a one-level deterioration leads to 9.77 fewer annual visits (-20.83%). This study provides valuations of benefits of recreation and changes of recreational values due to changes in surface water quality, which can be compared to the implementation and monitoring costs of efforts under the EU's Bathing Water, Water Framework and Marine Strategy Framework Directives.
... Only a small number of NCA studies have been carried out for Italy. They have mainly focused on wetlands (Alberini et al., 2007;La Notte, 2011;Bonometto et al., 2015), forests (Gatto, 1988;Goio et al., 2008;Notaro et al., 2012;Morri et al., 2014;Da Re et al., 2015;Häyhä et al., 2015), protected areas (Schirpke et al., 2015), marine ecosystems ISPRA, 2016a;Vassallo et al., 2017) and soils (ISPRA, 2016b(ISPRA, , 2017a(ISPRA, , 2018a, analysed as point cases. Such firstgeneration studies are often highly localized and scarcely replicable or up-scalable for the purpose of accounting. ...
We present methods and results of country-based natural capital assessments for four ecosystem services (ES) in Italy. The spatial mapping and the assessment have been carried out in both physical and monetary terms for (i) crop pollination, (ii) outdoor recreation, (iii) flood regulation (iv) and water provision, using the ARIES (Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services) technology, which provides and integrates the necessary data and models. Extent, supply and use accounting tables have been developed for the same ecosystem services in line with the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) guidelines and Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA) initiative. This work represents a first official and nationwide assessment of ecosystem services for the Italian Government in accomplishment of the Italian law n. 221/2015, applying a variety of different models and economic valuation methods to provide systematic and replicable information on natural capital through national accounting tables. We find that land management and maintenance of the countryside and forestland, which represent the typical Italian landscape, are fundamental. Our application also identifies several modelling challenges that need to be addressed before a methodological path for integrated ecosystem and economic accounting may be considered rigorous and reliable.
... Therefore, the significant difference observed in the number of trips between 2011 and 2012 can be explained because a large part of respondents intercepted at the surveyed beaches in 2012 were first-time users of these beaches. Based on this, we can argue that revealed trips for 2011 and mixed revealed -stated trips for 2012 are driven by the same demand function under similar benefit and cost beach conditions, and hence can be pooled for estimation purposes (Alberini et al., 2007;Hoyos and Riera, 2013). The negative and significant sign of the estimated coefficient on OWF indicates a downward shift of the demand function, suggesting that viewing an OWF from a recreational beach is a disamenity for both residents and tourists. ...
A combined travel cost – contingent behaviour survey of residents and tourists in Catalonia is conducted on-site to examine the effects on beach recreational demand of developing an offshore wind farm (OWF) project. The survey considers four potential OWF scenarios with different degrees of visual impact. We allow for heterogeneity in trip preferences among individuals and control for on-site sampling through the use of a random parameters negative binomial (RPNB) model and a Multivariate Poisson log-normal (MPLN) model, respectively. The welfare measures derived from the RPNB model relate to the current beach users only, whereas those from the MPLN model refer to the general population of residents and tourists in Catalonia. The results show the importance of the specific place of location of the OWF project and how the installation of wind turbines would significantly decrease the demand for trips, depending on their degree of visual impacts, leading to a substantial welfare loss. However, the results also show that the project mainly would cause a displacement of trips to other beaches within Catalonia rather than outside Catalonia and that the welfare per trip measures generated by the RPNB and MPLN models substantially differ. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.
The paper is available from: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1aXMU3JBKIsuRE
... The assessment of CES quality indicators remains imperfect, so scholars have adopted a number of methods to better understand and quantify CES (Feld et al. 2009;Rosa et al. 2015;Maes et al. 2016). Traditional CES evaluation research focuses on the estimation of recreational services through the Traveling Cost Method (TCM) (Font 2000;Shrestha et al. 2002;Alberini et al. 2005), but aesthetic and entertainment values are evaluated through the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) (Bijlenga et al. 2011;Castellanos et al. 2011;Armbrecht 2014), while the market value of tourism is assessed through the Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM) (Qiu and Fan 2016). These studies focus on the use of economic methods, and the results are expressed in monetary terms. ...
As human demand for ecosystem services (ES) continues to increase, ES assessments have gradually become a popular research topic. Among ES, cultural ES (CES) are often overlooked and are difficult to measure during research because of their invisibility. However, the importance and usage of CES increase with supply and demand, which is key to linking the ecosystem with human well-being. This paper quantitatively evaluates various cultural services and generates corresponding Value Index (VI) maps; it then further explores the current dynamics of supply and demand. We selected Cuihua Mountain (CM) as the study area, and we applied the Social Values of Ecosystem Services (SolVES) model to evaluate CES and generated five specific VI maps to indicate the potential service stock (ES capacity). The actual supply (ES supply) is based on the attribute of the visibility of observation points on leisure routes, and the visitors (ES demand) to the service come from socio-economic data as a measure of the rates of access to entertainment venues. The supply and demand relationship (ES budget) solves the significant problems related to the oversupply and shortage of ES in space. The results showed that the CES supply power of CM is greater than the actual demand; thus, there is great potential for future development. This study also provided a reference and guidance for environmental decision-making and development in other regions.
... Refs. [23][24][25]. In the contingent behavior (CB) method, which is one of the stated preference methods for the valuation of non-market goods, respondents are asked about their future behavior under different environmental quality scenarios [26]. ...
Finland is a highly coastal country with a large archipelago area and numerous lakes. Consequently, these provide an essential environment for water-based outdoor recreation activities. To improve the information base for evaluating the welfare effects of policy instruments addressing water quality, such as the EU Water Framework Directive, this study examined the effects of changes in water quality on the recreation benefits, focusing on swimming trips in Finland. National recreation inventory data were used to provide information on welfare changes at the national level. The combined travel cost and contingent behavior approach revealed that the recreation value of a swimming trip in the current state was approximately 16 euros. The approach allowed assessment of the welfare effects of water quality changes beyond the observed levels, showing that a hypothetical decrease in water quality to a level at which the water visibility would be less than 1 m and abundant slime would exist decreased the value to 9 euros. Water quality improvement to a level at which the perceived water visibility would be over 2 m and no slime would exist increased the value per trip to 22 euros. In total, the overall annual value of all visits made for swimming in the case of water quality improvement increased the recreation benefits by 53–80%, while a deterioration in quality decreased the benefits by approximately 80%.
... In light of the difficulties and ambiguities related to the opportunity cost of travel time, some authors decided not to incorporate time costs in their travel cost models (Hanley et al. 2003;Alberini and Longo 2006;Alberini et al. 2007;Fleming and Cook 2008). 19 One of the reasons for this approach is the apprehension that incorporating time might bias the coefficient on the price downwards. ...
The treatment of the opportunity cost of travel time in travel cost models has been an area of research interest for many decades. Our analysis develops a methodology to combine the travel distance and travel time data with respondent-specific estimates of the value of travel time savings (VTTS). The individual VTTS are elicited with the use of discrete choice stated preference methods. The travel time valuation procedure is integrated into the travel cost valuation exercise to create a two-equation structural model of site valuation. Since the travel time equation of the structural model incorporates individual preference heterogeneity, the full structure model provides a travel cost site demand model based upon individualized values of time. The methodology is illustrated in a study of recreational birdwatching, more specifically, visits to a ‘stork village’ in Poland. We show that the usual practice of basing respondents’ VTTS on 1/3 of their wage rate is largely unfounded and propose alternatives—including a separate component of the travel cost survey aimed at valuation of respondents’ VTTS or, as a second best, asking if they wish if their journey was shorter and for those who do—use full hourly wage as an indicator of their VTTS.
... Beaumont et al. 2010 ;Landry and Hindsley 2011 ), coastal lagoons (e.g. Alberini et al. 2007 ; O'Garra 2012 ), mudfl ats (e.g. ), rocky bottoms (Stål et al. 2008 ;Kenter et al. 2013, and kelp forests (e.g. Smith and Wilen 2003 ;Turpie et al. 2003 ) have also received very little attention in the valuation literature. ...
Economic assessment provides one strand of an overall integrated (sustainability) analysis. The core aim of the economic assessment process is to determine how changes in ecosystem services provision are translated into changes in human welfare. The chapter discusses available valuation methods and key issues for appropriate economic valuation of ecosystem services. Since sustainable policies often require choosing between options that differ in temporal patterns of costs and benefits, or that differ in their duration, discounting can be used to compare costs and benefit that occur at different points in time. Different discount rates have different implications for trade-off analysis, including the consideration of intergeneration equity. However, it may not be possible to value all impacts through economic approaches, because of practical or ethical considerations. Contested issues which are commonplace in coastal management, also require the consideration of equity impacts, for which economics/social sciences provide different approaches to inform trade-offs and decision-making.
... Beaumont et al. 2010 ;Landry and Hindsley 2011 ), coastal lagoons (e.g. Alberini et al. 2007 ; O'Garra 2012 ), mudfl ats (e.g. ), rocky bottoms (Stål et al. 2008 ;Kenter et al. 2013, and kelp forests (e.g. Smith and Wilen 2003 ;Turpie et al. 2003 ) have also received very little attention in the valuation literature. ...
This chapter provides a study of two managed realignment cases in comparable estuarine systems located on the English North Sea coast: the Blackwater estuary and the Humber estuary. Two scenarios of salt marsh expansion and reduction in these estuaries are used to analyse the multiple research challenges that arise, including value transfer and stock and flow issues. The coastal ecosystems are complex and require a thorough natural science understanding of conflicting ecosystem services changes. Moreover, net economic benefits of managed realignment can be demonstrated, but they are context and scale dependent and valuation practices and results should reflect this. The chapter offers some solutions and suggestions for further research on these generic research challenges for coastal ecosystem management.
... Although in recent years a significant shift in the geographical distribution of wetland valuation studies has been observed, the overwhelming majority of existing primary published and unpublished studies and reports that document economic values of wetlands come principally from North America . Few primary studies exist to date that cover the Mediterranean region, despite Mediterranean wetlands providing many valuable marketed and non-marketed benefits, including those associated with deliver services of global importance (Signorello, 1998;Alberini et al., 2004Alberini et al., , 2005Birol et al., 2006;EEA, 2010). This chapter contributes to filling this empirical gap by reporting results of a contingent valuation study carried out to estimate benefits of restoring Capo Feto (Sicily), a degraded coastal wetland ecosystem, recently included in the Natura 2000 EU framework and in the Ramsar wetlands' list. ...
... Economic opportunities can arise from alien species presence, thus partially transforming the nuisance into an opportunity such as aquaculture, recreational fishing and fishing tourism. In Italy, fishing tourism is a modern and well-known activity (Scalera & Zaghi 2004;Picchi, Scalera & Zaghi 2006;Alberini, Zanatta & Rosato 2007), and in 2012, in the Lombardy region, a significant increase in fishing tourism practised by German fisherman has been noticed, as a consequence of wels catfish increase. Fisherman often collaborated in conservation projects as happened during LIFE projects in 2003 and 2004 in Emilia region, but, more interestingly, they are available to pay extra admission fees in order to do selective fishing in protected areas. ...
The aim of this review is to clarify the relation between Italian aquaculture and the introduction on alien species in Italy. In Italy, the most common aquatic alien species are rainbow trout and Manila clam, and they represent main economic product of Italian aquaculture. Wels catfish and red clawed crayfish have been voluntarily or involuntarily introduced for aquaculture scope, and they are now the most invasive alien aquatic species. Other alien naturalized species, as some salmonid species, are important economic resources in north Italy for inland professional fishery and are considered worthwhile of conservation. Thus, aquaculture is directly or indirectly responsible of the introduction of several alien species in Italy, but its effect on alien species diffusion is peculiar, as few successfully farmed species have become rapidly common. Until now, conventional aquaculture has played main role in the diffusion of alien species in Italy, while ornamental aquaculture will be the main source of alien introductions in the future.
... When a method requires that primary data be collected with a household survey, it is often possible to design the survey to obtain the data necessary to undertake more than Direct market methods a Indirect market methods a Non-market methods a one valuation method (see, e.g. Carson et al., 1996;Ready et al., 1997;Adamowicz et al., 1998;Hanley et al., 1998;Stevens et al., 2000;Mogas et al., 2006Mogas et al., , 2009Alberini et al., 2007). ...
Making decisions between alternative investments, projects, or policies that affect the provision of ecosystem services often involves weighing up and comparing multiple costs and benefits that are measured in different metrics and are incurred at different points in time. For example, the establishment of a new protected area might involve costs in terms of the purchase of land, compensation of local communities, and ongoing maintenance and enforcement costs; and benefits in terms of biodiversity conservation, recreational use, and improved watershed services. These costs and benefits are likely to be measured in different units, incurred by different groups and have different time profiles. Organizing, comparing, and aggregating information on such a complexity of impacts, and subsequently choosing between alternative options with different impact profiles require a structured approach. Methods for evaluation or appraisal of complex decision contexts provide systems for structuring the information and factors that are relevant to a decision. Benjamin Franklin’s description of his own approach to making complex decisions sets out the intuition behind evaluation methods (Franklin, 1772): When difficult cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under consideration, all the reasons pro and con are not present to the mind at the same time … To get over this, my way is to divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns; writing over the one ‘Pro’, and the other Con.
... Many researchers have combined revealed and stated preference data to estimate demand for non-market goods (Adamowicz et al., 1994;Cameron et al., 1996;Alberini et al., 2007). Here, we jointly estimate CVM payment card WTP and CB models to measure the WTP for electricity consumption under two different types of supply arrangements in rural Rwanda. ...
Hundreds of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity and will not receive it from national grids in the next few decades. Electricity makes up an important component of rural development and so increasing access can have positive socioeconomic benefits. In this study, we use contingent behavior analysis to quantify the potential benefits of electricity in rural Rwandan villages which currently do not have electricity. The proposed method allows for calculation of net benefits as well as electricity bills. We find that even relatively poor, isolated households would pay for electricity, though amounts vary across households and this affects the financial viability of electrification. Common uses for electricity include lighting, battery charging, and agricultural processing. Despite heterogeneity, opportunities exist to improve rural economic welfare through increased electricity access.
... Specifically, some authors have justified the use of normal MLE by implicitly referring to the presence of heavy users. For instance, Alberini et al. (2007) argue that their 'respondents reported numerous trips per year (for an average of 30), which makes the linear model appropriate for this application' (p. 534). ...
This paper presents estimations of recreational demands in the presence of heavy users. Heavy users are a small but non-trivial group of users that determines the tail's thickness of trips' distribution. As a consequence of limits in the dispersion a negative binomial model can handle, negative binomial specifications do not yield reasonable demand relations in this context. This paper shows that, by allowing differences in preferences across users, latent class specifications yield plausible dispersion parameters, and reasonable demand relations and welfare estimates.
... Visitors come all year round, although the vast majority of visits are made in spring and summer, when the weather is warmer and drier. Alberini et al. (2007) Lagoon sports fishing Travel cost increase; quality improvement ICB (3) RE-GLS Accepted Lake Travel cost increase ICB (3) SUNB n.a. Hesseln et al. (2004) Hiking trails Travel cost increase fire effect ICB (4) Poisson n.a. ...
We combine contingent behaviour with travel cost data to estimate the change in the recreational use value of a National Forest due to quality and price changes. Instead of the usual improvement scenario, a hypothetical deterioration in the conditions of the forest due to a fire is considered. A dataset containing five observations for each respondent enabled the estimation of three models for which the number of scenarios differed. The results show that visitors are sensitive to price and quality changes and that in the forest fire scenario the intended number of trips would be reduced and that respondents would experience a welfare loss. Signs of inconsistency between preferences expressed by revealed and intended behaviour were found. This research also provides some indications that strategic bias affects answers to price changes.
... Alberini at al. [52] consider recreational fishing in the Lagoon of Venice in the Mediterranean Sea. They use the TC method to estimate the increase in consumer surplus resulting from a 50% increase in catch rates, achieved by reduced pollution. ...
Marine and coastal ecosystems – and thus the benefits they create for humans – are subject to increasing pressures and competing usages. For this reason, the European Union (EU) adopted the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), which is to guide future maritime policy in the EU and aims at achieving or maintaining a good environmental status (GES) of European seas by 2020. To this end, the MSFD requires the development of improvement measures, which have to be assessed inter alia by examining their cost-effectiveness and by carrying out cost-benefit analysis (CBA) before their implementation. This paper investigates the applicability of environmental CBA in the marine context. It identifies and discusses problems that could hamper the environmental effectiveness of the MSFD. For example, the fact that marine ecosystem services are much less tangible than terrestrial ones implies greater challenges for the quantification of benefits for society in a marine context. One finding is that the limitations of environmental valuation methods regarding their ability to capture the whole total economic value of improvement measures are a potential source of problems, as the MSFD allows countries to disregard measures with disproportionately high costs. The trans-boundary nature of the main European seas adds to the complexity of the valuation task, e.g., due to the danger that benefits that occur outside of national territories are neglected. Moreover, the current state of knowledge on the functioning of complex marine ecosystems and the links to socio-economic impacts and human well-being seem insufficient to meet the MSFD requirements.
... pricing it is not a value revealed from actual transactions but rather a value that respondents state at a hypothetical market. Stated and revealed preferences data (in other words hypothetical and actual demand functions) may sometimes be inconsistent (Shabman and Stephenson, 1996;Ready et al., 1997;Alberini et al., 2007). The CV method was used to value both environmental amenities (Alberini et al., 2005) and flood risk (Shabman and Stephenson, 1996). ...
Toisapu Village Landfills in Ambon has been established since 2003 using open dumping system in processing the waste. These activity has caused negative externalities for the people living around the landfill. This paper aimed to analyze the factors that affected people's willingness to pay a higher levy for better waste management, the amount of the retribution to pay, and the closure of the operational costs through the analysis of willingness to pay (WTP) with four scenarios offered in the Baguala and Nusaniwe Regencies. The results showed that the factors affecting people's willingness to pay a higher retribution in the Baguala and Nusaniwe regencies were the level of education and the distance between their home and landfill. The highest average of WTP in Baguala regency of biogas scenario was Rp 24.250/ KK/ month, and the lowest in the incineration scenario was Rp 20 804/ KK /month. While in the Nusaniwe regency, the highest average of WTP obtained was Rp 21 228/ KK/ month in composting scenario, and the lowest was of Rp 18 220/ KK/ month in sanitary landfill scenario. The value of society WTP obtained was the value of retribution to pay, and this value could cover the operational costs required to implement the four scenarios of waste management offered.
Population declines of Southern Flounder Paralichthys lethostigma have reached levels that present management concerns in Louisiana waters. As the need for regulatory change in this fishery approaches, we conducted a survey to better characterize the Southern Flounder fishery in Louisiana, with two primary goals: (1) determining a value for the economic welfare provided by the fishery and (2) evaluating how this value might change in response to hypothetical regulation scenarios. Based on total travel cost estimates, the aggregate economic value of the Southern Flounder fishery among coastal Louisiana anglers reached an estimated US$119.7 million; however, this value primarily stems from anglers targeting multiple species during their coastal angling trips, as the value of the Southern Flounder fishery while only accounting for anglers that solely targeted this species amounted to an estimated $8.4 million. Respondents revealed strong levels of supportiveness for all regulation scenarios that increased limitations on allowable harvest for Southern Flounder. None of the hypothetical regulation scenarios led to significant behavioral responses in the expected number of coastal angling trips taken, leaving the economic value of coastal Louisiana fisheries unchanged. The results of our study illustrate the relatively inconsequential nature of Southern Flounder regulations upon the behavior of coastal Louisiana anglers. The information gathered by this survey can be used to guide the decision‐making process in developing a sustainable management strategy that is supported by stakeholders and that keeps the strong economic values of coastal Louisiana fisheries intact.
This chapter focuses on the case of the Po river basin. After describing the case study area and its vulnerability to drought, we address the characteristics and the effects of drought in the Po river basin, based on the empirical evidence on the socio-economic impacts of drought events occurred so far. Then, we illustrate and discuss the approach to drought management, taking into consideration the key planning documents and experiences. Our work shows that the Po river basin has reached a turning point, as concerns water resources and drought management. The approach adopted by the local public institutions is essentially reactive; however, it is here maintained that proactive and structural measures are required in order to anticipate and prevent better the negative effects of drought.
Tourism brings positive impacts on personal income and more employment opportunities. Tourism is one of the main determinants of economic growth and development. Given the importance of tourism, identifying the economic factors affecting the foreign tourists helps policymakers to improve or maintain the status quo. Among other factors, exchange rate is one of the main factors affecting tourism. The purpose of this study is to investigate, enter alia, the effect of exchange rates on tourism demand in selected developing countries during the period of 1994-2014 using both static and dynamic panel data methods. The results of the study showed that exchange rates have a significant positive effect on tourism demand. The findings of the research revealed that per capita income and economic freedom index have a significant positive effect on tourism demand, while the effect of inflation on tourism demand is negative.
Although recreational fishing is popular in Japan, few estimates have been made of its economic value to the country. This study aims to (1) evaluate the economic value of recreational fishing in Tango Bay, Kyoto Prefecture using the travel cost method (TCM); and (2) explore the development of related regional economies around Tango Bay. The TCM analysis showed that 150,000 anglers visit Tango Bay annually, and the estimated total annual travel cost and total annual consumer surplus of recreational fishing there are approximately JPY 3.8 billion and JPY 11.7 billion, respectively. The annual commercial fisheries production of Kyoto Prefecture in 2017 was JPY 3.0 billion. Thus, in Tango Bay, coastal fish resources not only have a direct use value as food, but also a large indirect value as targets for recreational fishing. The importance of recreational fishing relative to commercial fishing has increased in Japan similar to in other countries where it is popular. As many people enjoy recreational fishing in Japan, it is expected to have an impact on domestic fish resources. To address this, both commercial and recreational fishing should be included in fish resource management activities aimed at the development of related local economies in Japan.
In this study, we augment the traditional travel cost approach with contingent behavior data for coastal recreation. The objective is to analyze the welfare implications of future changes in the conditions of the Baltic Sea due to climate change and eutrophication. Adding to the literature, we assess the symmetricity of welfare effects caused by improvements and deteriorations in environmental conditions for a set of quality attributes. Responses are derived from identical online surveys in Finland, Germany and Latvia. We estimate recreational benefits using linear and non-linear negative binomial random-effects models. The calculated annual consumer surpluses are considerably influenced by the magnitude of the environmental changes in the three countries. We also observe asymmetries in the effects of environmental improvements and deteriorations on the expected number of visits. In particular, the results indicate that deteriorations lead to larger or more significant impacts than improvements in the case of blue-green algal blooms and algae onshore for Finland, water clarity for Germany, and water clarity and blue-green algal blooms for Latvia. For the remaining attributes, the effects are ambiguous.
Il 2017 ha segnato un importante punto di svolta dell’ articolato e lungo percorso di sostenibilità del nostro Paese. Nel quadro di
riferimento dettato dall’ Agenda 2030 dell’ONU sullo Sviluppo Sostenibile e dalla Strategia nazionale di Sviluppo Sostenibile (SNSvS)
, l’elaborazione del Primo Rapporto sullo Stato del Capitale Naturale in Italia ha consentito di mettere in luce, per la prima volta,
al complesso sistema istituzionale il fondamentale ruolo ricoperto dal Capitale Naturale italiano rispetto al sistema socio -
economico collettivo del Paese. “Dov’è la ricchezza delle Nazioni?” si chiedeva un rapporto della Banca Mondiale del 2011, nel tentativo di superare l’inadeguatezza del PIL come misura di benessere. Il Comitato per il Capitale Naturale cerca, in relazione ai compiti che gli sono stati assegnati, di rispondere a questa domanda avviando la misurazione del valore fisico e monetario della dotazione di foreste, biodiversità, fiumi, mari, e della totalità degli ecosistemi di cui siamo ricchissimi. Tale valore si esplica in benefici di cui usufruiamo tutti giorni e che provengono dall’insieme di servizi ecosistemici che la natura ci fornisce, ma che spesso non percepiamo e non va
lutiamo al loro giusto valore. L’obiettivo che il Comitato per il Capitale Naturale persegue è anche quello di rendere visibile a cittadini e
policy makers il valore di questi benefici.Come sottolineato nelle Raccomandazioni del Primo Rapporto, la “sfida principale”, di un percorso lungo ed appena agli inizi, è quella di elaborare schemi concettuali, raccogliere dati, affinare modelli su una dimensione, quella della misurazione del Capitale Naturale e degli impatti delle politiche su esso. A tal proposito è emersa
sempre più forte la necessità di coinvolgere il mondo della ricerca e delle amministrazioni locali. In questo Secondo Rapporto, importanti progressi sono fatti in termini di arricchimento dei fattori di analisi grazie ad una sempre maggiore sinergia tra esperti della materia, centri di ricerca nazionali ed internazionali, e la pubblica amministrazione.In questo Rapporto viene ancor più raffinata la valutazione biofisica degli ecosistemi terrestri a livello eco-regionale e regionale,anche con aggiornamenti sullo stato di conservazione di alcuni di essi. Inoltre, il focus sul valore biofisico degli stock di Capitale Naturale nelle ecoregioni marine mette in luce i primi risultati di un
progetto sperimentale finalizzato ad un sistema di contabilità ambientale per le Aree Marine Protette italiane.Vengono approfonditi alcuni dei principali elementi di pressione sugli asset del Capitale Naturale. In particolare, vengono valutatisu scala nazionale, ed anche eco-regionale, il consumo di suolo e la frammentazione degli ecosistemi naturali e semi -naturali , che ne mettono a rischio lo stato di conservazione le funzionalità. Inoltre, ampia attenzione è dedicata all’impatto dei cambiamenti climatici sulla capacità degli
ecosistemi di continuare a garantire Servizi Ecosistemici, anche attraverso dei focus su criticità ambientali di grande attualità per l’Italia,
quali gli incendi e la siccità.Questo Secondo Rapporto, inoltre, inizia a delineare un percorso metodologico i
mportante in merito all’attribuzione di una misurazione monetaria del flusso di Servizi Ecosistemici prodotti dal nostro Capitale Naturale. Seguendo le Raccomandazioni del Primo Rapporto, si riporta una prima applicazione, del tutto
introduttiva e sperimen tale, dei sistemi di contabilità economico-ambientale di alcuni Servizi Ecosistemici come
l’impollinazione agricola, i servizi ricreativi, la purificazione delle acque, oltre che valutazioni economiche della
qualità degli habitat e dell’importante servizio di mitigazione dell’erosione del suolo. I valori monetari ottenuti, seppur frutto di metodologie da perfezionare e di ipotesi da raffinare nei prossimi rapporti, aprono una prospettiva ineludibile circa
la straordinaria importanza del Capitale Naturale, anche in cooperazione con altri tipi di capitale come quello Culturale, in merito alla dimensione di quella Ricchezza delle Nazioni di cui si cerca la radice.
Le metodiche rappresentate in questo Rapporto sul tema delle valutazioni ex-ante ed ex-post dell’impatto delle politiche pubbliche
, non solo quelle a scopo ambientale, sul Capitale Naturale sono esplorate con crescente dettaglio. Questi schemi di analisi sono presentati anche nell’ottica di aiutare i decisori politici a valutare in fase preliminare gli effetti delle decisioni politiche sul Capitale Naturale, considerato in una dimensione più ampia di benessere e di qualità della vita dei cittadini, con l’obiettivo di valutare il progresso
della società non soltanto dal punto di vista economico, ma anche sociale e ambientale.Il Comitatoper il Capitale Naturale, infine, propone nuove raccomandazioni che si pongono come agenda per i prossimi rapporti, che intendono assicurare un contributo significativo alla realizzazione degli obiettivi mondiali tracciati dall’Agenda 2030 per una crescita sostenibile che l’Italia deve continuare a perseguire per le generazioni presenti e future.
The natural conservation of coastal lagoons is important not only for their ecological importance, but also because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide for human welfare and wellbeing. Coastal lagoons are shallow semi-enclosed systems that support important habitats such as wetlands, mangroves, salt-marshes and seagrass meadows, as well as a rich biodiversity. Coastal lagoons are also complex social-ecological systems and the ecosystem services that lagoons deliver provide livelihoods, benefits wellbeing and welfare to humans. This study assessed, quantified and valued the ecosystem services of 32 coastal lagoons. The main findings of the study were: (i) the definitions of ecosystem services are still not generally accepted; (ii) the quantification of ecosystem services is made in many different ways, using different units; (iii) the evaluation in monetary terms of some ecosystem service is problematic, often relying on non-monetary evaluation methods; (iv) when ecosystem services are valued in monetary terms, this may represent very different human benefits; and, (v) different aspects of climate change, including increasing temperature (SST), sea-level rise (SLR) and changes in rainfall patterns threaten the valuable ecosystem services of coastal lagoons.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the utility value of boat fishing experience marine tourism activity in Jeju Island`s Chagwido. The utility value is estimated by single bounded and double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. The contingent valuation method is used to estimate economic values for all kinds of coastal ecosystem services. The method involves directly asking people, in a survey, how much they would be willing to pay for specific environmental services. So, the method has great flexibility, allowing valuation of a wider variety of non-market goods and services than is possible with any other non-market valuation technique. This study collects the effective 504 questionnaires from boat fishing experience tourists in Jeju Island`s Chagwido. The results show that the average willingness to pay amount(WTP) is estimated to be about 17,000 Korea won by single bounded and double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. This indicates that the utility value of boat fishing experience marine tourism activity is estimated to be about 17,000 Korea won in Jeju Island`s Chagwido.
Previous work on the formation and stability of cartels has focused on the case of identical players. This assumption is very restrictive in many economic environments. This paper analyses stability of cartels in games with heterogeneous players and spillovers to non-members. I introduce a sharing rule for coalition payoffs, called "optimal sharing" which stabilises all cartels that are possibly stable under any rule. Under optimal sharing the grand coalition is the unique stable cartel if spillovers are negative. I introduce a new property, called "non-essentiality" and determine the set of stable cartels under optimal sharing if spillovers are positive and if the non-essentiality property applies. Finally I analyse cartel stability under optimal sharing in simple public goods game with heterogeneous players. My results show – in contrast to earlier findings for identical players – that large coalitions may well be stable.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic value of boat fishing experience marine tourism activity in Jeju Island`s Chagwido. The economic value is estimated as consumer surplus using count data models including the truncated Poisson model and the truncated negative binominal distribution model. This study collects the effective 504 questionnaires from boat fishing experience tourists in Jeju Island`s Chagwido. The truncated negative binominal distribution model was statistically more suitable and valid than other models. The truncated negative binominal distribution model was applied to estimate consumer surplus as economic value from boat fishing experience tourism activity in Jeju Island`s Chagwido. A consumer surplus value per trip was estimated as about 209,900 won. The annual economic value from boat fishing experience tourism activity was estimated as 273,700 won in Jeju Island`s Chagwido. Consequently, boat fishing experience marine tourism activity has a very large economic value in Jeju Island.
Speed limits were introduced in the Lagoon of Venice in 2002 to reduce wave motion, which damages environmentally sensitive areas in the broader Lagoon as well as buildings in the city of Venice. In this paper, we estimate the welfare losses experienced by recreational boaters as a result of the speed limits. We fit a single-site travel cost model to a sample of boaters intercepted as they depart from or arrive to marinas and launching ramps on the Lagoon. Our Poisson model is corrected for truncation and endogenous stratification. We construct three measures of the price per trip, which allow us to check the sensitivity of models and welfare estimates to possible measurement errors in the opportunity cost of time. Our results are robust to the measure of price used and conservatively peg the welfare losses of boaters to €5.2-6.7 million per year. Even under conservative assumptions, the welfare losses of boaters are sufficiently large that, given current monitoring and enforcement of the speed limits, we believe there is a strong incentive for boaters to disregard the limits.
As a form of economic and community development, agritourism has a strong and widespread appeal to all tourists. To explore the situation and value of agritourism in China, the Qianjiangyue agritourism farm located between Fuzhou City and Yongtai County was chosen to evaluate recreational values. The data was obtained from tourists and farm samples in Qianjiangyue agritourism farm by questionnaires. Two basic models including the zonal travel cost method (ZTCM) and the individual travel cost method (ITCM) were applied for data analysis. The recreational value estimation results obtained from ITCM and ZTCM showed that the total consumer surplus (CS) of the Qianjiangyue agritourism farm in 2011 was estimated at 54,533,300 CNY (8,894,682 US$) which was equal to a CS per tourist of 3029.63 CNY (494.15 US$), and the annual recreational value of agricultural landscapes per hm2 was 361,078 CNY (58,893.82 US$). The average annual recreational value of agritourism farmland was 15.7 times of that from traditional farming, and 6 times of present land business income. This paper will be helpful for exploring and utilizing appropriate environmental resources in China. © 2016, Science Press, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Choice experiments method has important advantages over other environmental valuation methods, such as contingent valuation. The most important one is the possibility to assess complex goods like multi-purpose lakes. Mixed logit allows to account for taste heterogeneity among population, extending Choice experiments skill. This study is an application of Choice Experiments to Lake Montedoglio (Tuscany). Both Mixed Logit and Latent Class models are used.
Geotourism is a new phenomenon, which has emerged in the tourism literature during the past two decades, and whose meaning suffered from global census. Geotourism is still a new discipline and relatively little has been written about its demand side, demonstrated by a lack of studies in the literature This article studies the recreational value of geotourism areas, and focuses on the first geopark in the Czech Republic, namely the Czech Paradise Geopark. To assess the recreational value the travel cost method is applied, specifically the individual travel cost model. The necessary research data was gathered through intensive tourist surveys conducted in the study area. Data gathered in the respondents' survey served to determine the consumer surplus as a measure of recreational value and to develop the single site travel cost model. The dependent variable in the conducted model is the number of visits in the area and among the independent variables, studied age, education, travel cost, family status, economic activity and income. The results were subsequently compared to findings in the available literature, research works and case studies.
For tourist destinations, sustainable economic development requires, together with the attainment of economic efficiency, environmental protection and social cohesion. This latter aspect implies that the local community has to be actively involved in the planning and in the management of the tourism sector, and that (the great part of) tourism earnings have to be fairly distributed among the residents. Desires and aspirations of local residents, and their attitudes towards tourists should be carefully taken into consideration by tourism planners (Akis et al., 1996; Faulkner and Tideswell, 1997). The success of many tourism development programs depends on a local management that is sensible both to the social impact of tourism on the host population, and able to increase the benefits derived from tourism by preventing or reducing its negative aspects. Overall, tourism has both positive and negative externalities on local populations. Previous studies corroborate these effects: Doxey (1975) finds that local residents' attitudes towards tourism may oscillate between euphoria and antagonism (see also Castellani et al., 2007). In this paper we studied how residents are affected by tourism and how they adjust their choices with respect to these effects. This approach might lead to important policy implications: policy makers are aware that tourists and residents needs are often conflicting, and they need precise tools of analysis in order to measure this trade-off and to design their policies. In the last 15 years, the socio-economic impact of tourism and the factors affecting attitudes towards tourism in host communities have received significant attention (Alberini et al., 2005; Akis et al., 1996; Crotts and Holland, 1993; Faulkner and Tideswell, 1997; Haralambopoulos and Pizam, 1996; Lindberg and Johnson, 1997a, b; Lindberg et al., 1999; Zanatta et al., 2005). In particular, tourism impact is often disaggregated into three categories: economic, socio-cultural and environmental (Bull, 1991; Pearce, 1989; Ryan, 1991;Williams, 1979). Since tourism generally disrupts social, cultural and environmental local systems, the non-economic impact often tends to be negative as a whole (Liu et al., 1987), whilst economic effects are perceived as positive.1 Economic impacts are known and well measured because estimated for different purposes (Dwyer and Forsyth, 1993), whereas social and environmental effects are of difficult evaluation. Therefore, the overall benefit of tourism development is often overestimated, and might drive to sub-optimal policy decisions (Freeman, 1993). The intensity and the direction of the overall impact depends on a variety of socio-cultural and economic factors associated to the local destination, including the nature of tourism activities, tourists' personal characteristics, and the pace of tourism development (Haralambopoulos and Pizam, 1996;Wall and Mathieson, 2005). Our study analysed residents' preferences by means of the choice modelling, a survey-based technique often used to place a value on a non-marketable or semipublic good. Its use has spread in many research fields (marketing, cultural, health, transport and environmental economics) and in recent years it has often been applied in tourism economics to analyse tourists' preferences with respect to trip attributes, recreational and heritage demand, the attractiveness of the destination and tourism policies.2 In contrast to the main stream of the tourism literature, our paper focussed on the preferences of residents and local stake-holders regarding possible and hypothetical modifications in the urban and territorial configuration. Interviews to a representative sample of the population were conducted to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for (hypothetical) changes in the composition of goods. Stated preference methods offer advantages in analysing trade-offs between tourists and residents. In particular, the possible trade-off with the local population stems from the fact that the most important resource for tourism - the environment or, more generally, the territory - is to be shared with residents. Since the "holiday" can be seen as a set of different characteristics which compose a generic good, choice experiments seem to fit data better than other stated preference methods. The destination analysed in this paper, Rimini, is one of the major Italian seaside resorts and mass tourism destinations, with more than ten million overnight stays only in the summer months (Orsingher, 2004). Located on the Adriatic sea, Rimini is a middle-size city, with about 130,000 inhabitants and an income per capita of more than € 17,000 (higher than the Italian average). Although tourism represents one of the main economic sectors of the city, Rimini is now a destination in the mature stage of its development, and has been undergoing a strong diversification in the manufacturing sector and in business and cultural tourism. To summarise, different types of tourists and different types of residents3 share the destination and ask for alternative uses of the (scarce) territory. In this paper, we focussed on residents' preferences, while we refer to Brau et al. (2008) for the analysis of tourists preferences; in the final discussion we compared our results with those of Brau et al. (2008) in order to identify synergies or trade-off in the use of the territory and to discuss some policy implications. In particular, we aimed to detect the effects on residents preferences of changes in the intensity (levels) of six key characteristics (attributes) that identify the use of Rimini's territory.4 Residents were interviewed in Spring 2006 and asked to indicate their preferred choices among several pairs of hypothetical alternative scenarios differing in the levels of the six attributes. Conditional logit models enabled us to estimate the relative weight of each attribute in affecting the residents' choice and allowed us to compare their preferences with those of tourists. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few attempts to explicitly use choice modelling to analyse residents preferences in connection with tourism. Lindberg et al. (1999); and Lindberg, (2001) used choice experiments in are (Sweden) to evaluate residents' willingness to accept negative impacts of tourism development (in particular in a sky resort) provided that they also receive positive effects. The remaining of the paper is structured as follows: in Sect. 9.2 we briefly review the methodology applied and we describe the questionnaire. Section 9.3 illustrates some descriptive statistics. Section 9.4 presents the main econometric results of the choice experiments while Sect. 9.5 discusses the policy implications and sets the agenda for future research.
We examine the impact of providing a "no-choice" option in an attribute based valuation experiment. The aim of the experiment was to assess monetary values of cockle fishery management practices in the Dutch Wadden Sea for different stakeholder groups, namely Dutch citizens, local residents, and tourists. The current policy debate about the management of the Wadden Sea stresses the fact that individual preferences with respect to cockle-fishery differ. The aim of this paper is to analyze the individual preferences in an objective way. Special attention is given to the influence of including a "no-choice option", which is analyzed using a nested logit model. We test whether the full set of policy options can be considered as close substitutes. The estimation results show that the influence of including the no choice option differs among the stakeholders considered.
When conducting a travel cost method (TCM) study, researchers often collect observations on actual trips to the natural resource of interest and on intended trips under specified but hypothetical circumstances—usually, changes in prices and/or site quality. Actual and hypothetical trips are combined to estimate single-site TCM demand function for trips.We estimate several models to test whether it is acceptable to pool hypothetical and actual trip data, focusing on respondent heterogeneity in the contingent behavior questions. We apply these models to a TCM study about the recreational use of the Lagoon of Venice for sports fishing.The Lagoon of Venice is a complex natural resource and ecological system that in recent decades has experienced overfishing, water pollution, sediment deposition and the consequences of the introduction of an exotic species of clam. Local policies are being considered that would eventually result, among other things, in restoring fish stocks, thus benefiting recreational anglers. In addition, the European Union's Water Framework Directive includes recreational benefits among the benefits of reaching “good” ecological and chemical status in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters.In April–July 2002, we conducted a mail survey of anglers with valid licenses fishing on the Lagoon of Venice to gather data on their fishing trips, behaviors and expenditures over the previous year. We also asked questions about trips that would be undertaken under hypothetical changes in the price of a trip and/or in the catch rate. Our models suggest actual and contingent behaviors are driven by the same demand function, and can be pooled for estimation purposes. We use this estimated demand function, and its shift when the catch rate is improved, to compute angler surplus at the current catch rate and the change in surplus accruing from a 50% improvement in the catch rate. For the average angler in our sample, the former is about €1700/year, while the latter is about €2800.
By-products from agriculture and forestry can contribute to production of clean and cheap (bio)electricity. To assess the role of such multi-product crops in the response to climate policies, we present an applied general equilibrium model with special attention to biomass and multi-product crops. The potential to boost production of bioelectricity in Poland through the use of multi-product crops turns out to be limited to only 2–3% of total electricity production. Further expansion of the bioelectricity sector will have to be based on biomass crops explicitly grown for energy purposes. The competition between agriculture and biomass for scarce land remains limited. In the scenarios, production of agricultural goods decreases at most with 5%, and the largest price increase for agricultural goods amounts to 5%. These changes in production induce substantial changes in land allocation: around 250,000 ha is converted from agricultural production to forestry and willow plantations.
This paper attempts to examine whether information from valuation studies can help the design of policies adequate to reverse and halt the generally poor state of marine and coastal ecosystems of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Economic implications of managing coastal and marine environments are thus discussed by assessing the results of different valuation studies implemented in the area. Lessons and policy recommendations from existing literature are inferred to guide marine resources management decisions. One of our main findings is that there are extremely few published studies within the Mediterranean and Black Sea region which highlights the potential for future research on coastal and marine ecosystems ability to sustain different goods and services as a result of climate change and anthropogenic drivers in the area. However, results reveal that there are substantial positive economic values attached to marketed and non-marketed services provided by marine and coastal ecosystems that justify their sustainable use and management.
Competition in public utility sectors has been encouraged in recent years throughout Europe. In this paper we try and analyse the welfare effects of these reforms in Italy, with particular attention to water and energy goods. The first step is to introduce a sensible measure of affordability of public utilities and to see how many households fall below a critical threshold. This issue is analysed stressing how climatic conditions dramatically affect households' expenditure and how the affordability of utility bills varies a lot from region to region. So far, utilities' reforms do not seem to have produced negative effects on the weaker group of households.
Innovation policy is increasingly informed from the perspective of a national innovation system (NIS), but, despite the fact that research findings emphasize the importance of national differences in the framing conditions for innovation, policy prescriptions tend to be uniform. Justifications for innovation policy by organizations such as the OECD generally relate to notions of market failure, and the USA, with its focus on the commercialization of public sector research and entrepreneurship, is commonly portrayed as the best model for international emulation. In this paper we develop a broad framework for NIS analysis, involving free market, coordination and complex-evolutionary system approaches. We argue that empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that the ‘free market’ can be relied upon to promote innovation is limited, even in the USA, and the global financial crisis provides us with new opportunities to consider alternatives. The case of Australia is particularly interesting: a successful economy, but one that faces continuing productivity and innovation challenges. Drawing on information and analysis collected for a major review of Australia’s NIS, and the government’s 10-year plan in response to it, we show how the free market trajectory of policy-making of past decades is being extended, complemented and refocused by new approaches to coordination and complex-evolutionary system thinking. These approaches are shown to emphasize the importance of systemic connectivity, evolving institutions and organizational capabilities. Nonetheless, despite the fact that there has been much progress in this direction in the Australian debate, the predominant logic behind policy choices still remains one of addressing market failure, and the primary focus of policy attention continues to be science and research rather than demand-led approaches. We discuss how the development and elaboration of notions of systems failure, rather than just market failure, ca
Among coastal areas, lagoons are probably one of the most active and sensitive areas. They provide numerous goods and services that are of value to people. As public goods, there are freely accessible but in counterpart there are more endangered than other areas. Conflict uses between activities inside and outside the lagoons or between occasional and regular users imply to implement the lagoons economic values in order to provide a useful management tool. Many studies have been driven in order to estimate the impacts of the different activities on water quality and the willingness to pay for a better environment. We collect 32 lagoon studies providing 67 value observations in order to present a comprehensive meta-analysis of the valuation literature. This method allows estimating a function that takes into account the sites characteristics, methodological variables and lagoons services. The estimation of a meta-analytic function proves that all theses kinds of variables are important for the calculus of values. Moreover, we precisely determine the influence of the different variables on the value. Performing the transfer, we find an average transfer error amount equal to 87% but a median transfer error equal to 24%. This result due to a very small number of aberrant values is interesting with one-fourth of the transfers showing errors lower to 10% and nearly three-fourth of the transfers present errors lower to 50%.
This paper combines the travel cost method (TCM) with contingent behavior questions to estimate domestic visitors’ use values for cultural heritage sites in Armenia, a transition economy in which conservation of cultural monuments is hampered by limited resources. Respondents intercepted at four cultural monuments provided information on their visitation patterns, experience at the site, perception of the state of conservation of the monuments, and rating of the quality of the services and infrastructure. We combine actual trips with stated trips under hypothetical programs that would enhance the conservation of the monuments and improve one of (i) the cultural experience at the site, (ii) the quality of the infrastructure, or (iii) the quality of the services, and use the combined actual and stated trips to fit a panel data model. Our study is one of the few applications of the TCM to value cultural heritage sites. Our investigation shows that (i) significant use values are associated with the four study monuments, and (ii) conservation programs and initiatives that improve the cultural experience, or simply make it easier for the respondent to reach and spend time at the monument, are valued by domestic visitors and would encourage higher visitation rates. Actual and intended trips reported by the respondents exhibit good construct validity, in the sense that they are well predicted by price, location, hypothetical scenario and other individual characteristics of the respondents. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
We study the conditions for the emergence of cooperation in a spatial common-pool resource (CPR) game. We consider three types of agents: cooperators, defectors and enforcers. The role of enforcers is to punish defectors for overharvesting the resource. Agents are located on a circle and they only observe the actions of their two nearest neighbors. Their payoffs are determined by both local and global interactions and they modify their actions by imitating the strategy in their neighborhood with the highest average payoffs on average. Using theoretical and numerical analysis, we find a large diversity of equilibria to be the outcome of the game. In particular, we find conditions for the occurrence of equilibria in which the three strategies coexist. We also derive the stability of these equilibria. Finally, we show that introducing resource dynamics in the system favors the occurrence of cooperative equilibria. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007
Results derived from empirical analyses on the stability of climate coalitions are usually very sensitive to the large uncertainties associated with the benefits and costs of climate policies. This paper provides the methodology of Stability Likelihood that links uncertainty about benefits and costs of climate change to the stability analysis of coalitions in a stochastic, empirical setting. We show that the concept of Stability Likelihood improves upon the robustness and interpretation of stability analysis. Our numerical application is based on a modified version of the climate model STACO. It turns out that the only non-trivial coalition structure with a relatively high Stability Likelihood (around 25 percent) is a coalition between the European Union and Japan, though quantitative results depend especially on the variance in regional benefits from abatement.
This paper extends Turing analysis to standard recursive optimal control frameworks in economics and applies it to dynamic bioeconomic problems where the interaction of coupled economic and ecological dynamics under optimal control over space creates (or destroys) spatial heterogeneity. We show how our approach reduces the analysis to a tractable extension of linearization methods applied to the spatial analog of the well known costate/state dynamics. We explicitly show the existence of a non-empty Turing space of diffusive instability by developing a linear-quadratic approximation of the original non-linear problem. We apply our method to a bioeconomic problem, but the method has more general economic applications where spatial considerations and pattern formation are important. We believe that the extension of Turing analysis and the theory associated with the dispersion relationship to recursive infinite horizon optimal control settings is new.
This paper analyses strategic bargaining in negotiations between non-monolithic players, i.e. agents starting negotiations can split up in smaller entities during the bargaining process. We show that the possibility of scission in the informed coalition implies that it loses its information advantages. We also show that when the possibility of a scission exists the uninformed player does not focus on his or her beliefs about the strength of the informed coalition but on the proportion of weak/strong players within this coalition. Finally, our results show that the possibility of a scission reduces the incentives for the leader to propose a high offer to ensure a global agreement. We apply this framework to international negotiations on global public goods and to wage negotiations.
The economy-wide implications of climate change on agricultural sectors in 2050 are estimated using a static computable general equilibrium model. Peculiar to this exercise is the coupling of the economic model with a climatic model forecasting temperature increase in the relevant year and with a crop-growth model estimating climate change impact on cereal productivity. The main results of the study point out on the one hand the limited influence of climate change on world food supply and welfare; on the other hand its important distributional consequences as the stronger negative effects are concentrated on developing countries. The simulation exercise is introduced by a survey of the relevant literature.
While a number of validity tests exist for contingent valuation data, to date there are very few literature examples for contingent behavior (CB) data. The objective of this study is to test the validity of CB trip data for different levels of rock climbing access using data from surveys implemented before and after a policy restricting recreational access was imposed. Results from generalized Negative Binomial and seemingly unrelated Poisson regression models show significant sensitivity to scope, and suggest that CB data may be a valuable supplement to revealed preference data when policy proposals are outside the range of historical conditions.
This article models the recreation demand for Iowa wetlands, combining survey data on both actual usage patterns (i.e., revealed preferences (RPs)) and anticipated changes to those patterns under hypothetical increases in trip costs (i.e., stated preferences (SPs)). We formulate and test specific hypotheses concerning potential sources of bias in each approach and discuss what can be learned about the validity of the models from such tests. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.