I'm off for three days in lovely San Antonio, Texas. I'm attending the W-1133 meetings--Benefits and Costs of Resource Policies Affecting Public and Private Lands. The point of these meetings might take a little explanation.
Every land grant university receives federal funding to support research. To justify our existence, faculty in the ag. departments at land gran universities must work on a multi-state project that is receiving federal funds. W-1133 is the project that academic environmental economists tend to sign up for.
While John and I were at East Carolina University, we repeatedly tried to get ourselves invited to these meetings--because we thought they were keeping secrets from us. We were repeatedly denied because we weren't listed as "friends of W-133*." When I moved to The Ohio State University six years ago, I was immediately eligible to attend the W-1133's. Unfortunately I have always had a scheduling conflict--until this year. I'm finally going to learn the secrets that most other environmental economists seem to know. If you're lucky, John, I'll let you in on it when I get back.
Hopefully when I get back I'll be able to give you an update on the state of the art in environmental valuation/cost benefit research. The call for papers asks for presentations that address one or more of the W1133 project objectives. These are:
- Estimate the Economic Benefits of Ecosystem Management of Forest and Watersheds
- Estimate the Economic Value of Changing Recreational Access for Motorized and Non-Motorized Recreation
- Calculate the Benefits and Costs of Agro-Environmental Policies
- Estimate the Economic Values of Agricultural Land Preservation and Open Space
As long as I can get internet access at the Riverwalk Plaza Hotel, I'll keep y'all updated.
*The project was originally called W-133, but changed names to W-1133 a few years ago for reasons I'm not privy to.
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