Environmental Economics

John Whitehead knows college hoops

Figuring Duke just killed everyone's bracket, I checked the EnvEcon bracket pool.  Lo and behold look who's in first...our own JC.  I'm just happy my name's in the picture.  For full ranking mid-way through round 2, click here. 

I'm #2, or even lower

While I'm waiting for Tim to report on round 1 in our NCAA pool (is he really that upset with yesterday's UMBC loss? by the way, I'm tied for first), I read Econbrowser's NCAA update and found this nugget:

John Whitehead from Environmental Economics is in a two-way tie for second place, on the strength among other things of his correct call for 12th-seeded Western Kentucky to upset #5 Drake. Then again, he also incorrectly picked #11 Kentucky to upset #6 Marquette. Do I see a pattern here?

Right on. I'm a sucker for teams from Kentucky. Three-fourths of my senior art class table at OCHS graduated from WKU with art-related degrees (one-fourth didn't). Go Hilltoppers!

My typical bracket has UK reaching the final four and usually winning (and I always lose NCAA pools). However, this is not a typical UK year so my first round mistake won't haunt me the next two weekends.

I also have an SEC bias and must have a non-UT SEC team in the final 4. This year it is Mississippi State (Jamont Gordon knocked UK out of the SEC tourney last year). Go Bulldogs! Looking ahead, the loss of those pampered rich kids from Vandy will hurt me the next two rounds.

Friday Beer Post

Ummmm...John? 

According to the study, published in February in Oikos, a highly respected scientific journal, the more beer a scientist drinks, the less likely the scientist is to publish a paper or to have a paper cited by another researcher, a measure of a paper’s quality and importance.

Oddly enough, the more beer I drink the more likely you are to read my posts.  Strange.

What is are the data telling you?

What is are the data telling you?  That's a question I like to ask my 1st year PhD students to help them avoid the trap of thinking that economic theory provides answers.  Theory provides questions.  Data provide answers. 

Now take a look at the graph to the right (click for a bigger version if you are getting to an age like me and are starting to have trouble reading small print).  The graph has monthly corn prices to farmers from 1975-present (Source, USDA).  What is are the data telling you? 

PS:  Anyone know what caused the price spike in 95-96?  I'm too lazy to look it up.

Strange but true

Wolves as a Symbol of People's Willingness to Pay for Large Carnivore Conservation; Göran Ericsson;  Göran Bostedt; Jonas Kindberg; Society & Natural Resources, Volume 21, Issue 4 April 2008 , pages 294 - 309

Abstract
A successful implementation of a mammalian conservation policy requires knowledge of how people value animals. Little is known about how people value large carnivores. The discussion is therefore dominated by people's perception of wolves. In a mail survey (65% response rate) we asked persons residing in areas with populations of wolves, bears, lynx, and wolverines whether they were willing to pay to reach the national conservation goals for those species. We compared 69 Swedish counties with a representative national sample of Swedes living outside the areas with large carnivores. We found that the behavioral intention willingness to pay (WTP) was negatively related to the presence of wolves, to the urban profile, and to opposition against the European Union Monetary Union. We encourage future studies to compare national surveys with local samples in controversial issues to discover conflicting views among national, regional, and local natural resource management stakeholders. [Emphasis added]

Huh?

Quote of the day year

"The right wing always suspects you of being a tree-hugging environmentalist and the left wing accuses you of being a money-grubbing capitalist," says [Richard] Sandor, who back in the 1990s developed a markets-based system to cut down on pollutants causing acid rain.

Two comments:

• Translation: everyone hates us (sniff).
• Also: I thought Rob Stavins developed the EPA's acid rain program via EDF? Of course, I was very, very young in 1990 and it was likely not just a single person. In fact, highly likely. In fact, it is a certainty that more than one single person "developed a markets-based system to cut down on pollutants causing acid rain." Therefore, the WSJ should report either:
  
  1. "... who back in the 1990s claims to have developed a markets-based system to cut down on pollutants causing acid rain."
  2. "...who back in the 1990s helped developed a markets-based system to cut down on pollutants causing acid rain."
  The quote above is almost like me saying that back in the 1990s John Whitehead wrote "Willingness to Pay for Quality Improvements: Should Revealed and Stated Preference Data Be Combined?"

Source: Economist Strikes Gold in Climate-Change Fight (WSJ).

More evidence that economists don't want to pillage the environment

Economics of Overexploitation Revisited, R. Q. Grafton, T. Kompas, R. W. Hilborn, Published 7 December 2007, Science 318, 1601 (2007)

About 25% of the world's fisheries are depleted such that their current biomass is lower than the level that would maximize the sustained yield (MSY). By using methods not previously applied in the fisheries conservation context, we show in four disparate fisheries (including the long-lived and slow-growing orange roughy) that the dynamic maximum economic yield (MEY), the biomass that produces the largest discounted economic profits from fishing, exceeds MSY. Thus, although it is theoretically possible that maximizing discounted economic profits may cause stock depletions, our results show there is a win-win: In many fisheries at reasonable discount rates and at current prices and costs, larger fish stocks increase economic profits. An MEY target that exceeds MSY and transfers from higher, future profits to compensate fishers for the transition costs of stock rebuilding would help overcome a key cause of fisheries overexploitation, industry opposition to lower harvests.

The one page "brevia" is not much longer than the abstract so don't worry if you can't get hold of the PDF. However, there is much analysis behind these results:

• "With use of perturbation methods..."
• "We modeled population dynamics with an age-structured model..."

The nitty gritty is available as "supporting online material" here.

Market Power NCAA pool trash talk

Phil: you could have been Tim's 50th participant. He is royally bummed out that he has fallen short on yet another one of his goals:

Hey John Whitehead

I tried to join your NCAA group via Environmental Economics, but I lollygagged and didn't get it done in time.  Too bad, cuz I would have been the winner!

Au contraire, mon ami, au contraire.

Picture of the Day

From the inbox:

This is the picture of the Atlanta tornado. It was taken by a professional photographer from his balcony. He told a local TV news station that he was just taking photos of the storm and lightning over the city.

It was dark, so he did not even know that he had caught the tornado until later, when he downloaded the photos to his computer. The sky is illuminated by lightning. This view is looking south toward downtown, with the Westin in the center. The funnel is behind the tall building at left.

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Note: I was there!

Hat tip: Blue Chicken

Drive Less! Quote of the Day

"I think that wouldn't make any sense.  Ugh ... who's making the money from all this and where is that money going? Is it going to go green? I don't see any green things anywhere."

Motorist Frankie Hoe, responding to Rep. John Dingell's, D-Mich., proposal of a 50 cent a gallon gas tax increase.