Environmental Economics

I'm very humbled that you read this blog

Urban Dictionary:

I'm very humbled

October 25, 2011 Urban Word of the Day

A phrase used to be modest under false pretenses.

A. I'm very humbled to except this award.

B. I'm very humbled that so many people could be here.

Community based research

Here is a product of CBR Consulting (i.e., my benefit cost analysis class):

We gathered email addresses at Rocky Knob Mountain Bike Park a few weeks ago and sent an internet survey. Of the 106 people who agreed to be interviewed we've received responses from 60 and complete responses from 52 -- enough to do some basic analysis and provide information to local decision makers.

The double log OLS recreation demand model is above (n=50). Price elasticity is -0.66 and consumer surplus per trip is $81 (from the semi-log model). We also asked stated preference questions about future trips and future trips when the trails are completed.

"The workshop is open to a limited and selected audience"

From the inbox:

International Workshop on
"Recent Trends in Non Market Valuation"

November 3^rd-4^th, 2011
International Center for Climate Governance, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice – Italy
The International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) - a joint initiative of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini - in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC), is pleased to announce the International Workshop on "Recent Trends in Non Market Valuation" to be held in Venice, on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, on November 3-4, 2011.

Objectives

Non-market valuation is a collection of methods and techniques for placing a monetary value on goods that are not traded in regular marketplaces. These include environmental quality, health risks, artistic and cultural heritage, and natural resources that are visited and used for recreational purposes.
The goal of this workshop is to examine and discuss recent and emerging methodological and technical issues, solutions to such issues, and applications of existing methods to novel areas and topics. Hedonics, consumer-behavior methods, contingent valuation and conjoint choice experiments, and the travel cost methods will be covered.

Further information, including the programme, is available at http://www.iccgov.org/workshop_non_market_valuation.htm.

The workshop is open to a limited and selected audience.

So ... the program looks great but you can only get a seat if you are one of the special people? So ... what is the point of the announcement on the RESECON list?

Here is what I would have put in the email:

Here is our great workshop.

You weren't invited to speak.

We don't want you to attend (even if you could get a decent flight to Venice at this late notice).

We just wanted you to know that we are great and you, dear sirs and madams, are peons.

Enjoy your mailbox clutter.

Now go back to your mundance, uninteresting and trivial research.

Closure

I think I might retire the "another reason to hate Duke" joke:

The crowd at Rupp Arena got two treats during Monday night’s exhibition basketball game between the Big Blue All-Stars and The Villains. Christian Laettner was “ejected” and Enes Kanter finally made his Lexington debut.

Both drew huge applause from a half-full crowd of University of Kentucky fans who came to watch the group of Wildcats alumni play a team of anti-heroes from the program’s past, coached by Laettner, the 1992 Cat Killer. ...

... Laettner said he welcomed the cascade of boos. He even had a couple of pro-wrestling-style skits worked up for the UK faithful who remember the buzzer beater he hit 19 years ago to knock the Wildcats out of the NCAA Tournament.

Late in Monday’s game, after a player slipped on a slick spot on the court, Laettner dropped down on his knees with a towel to dry the floor. The crowd howled.

“All the fans started yelling ‘Laettner, get on the floor and wipe up their sweat!’ ” he said. “I thought it was a good idea. That’s what we were here for. Just to have fun.

“There’s nothing wrong with booing, yelling and cursing someone every now and then.”

Later, with about three minutes to go in regulation, Laettner picked a fight with an official and got a technical. He didn’t let it go, making a big, dramatic scene, and was quickly tossed from the game — although neither technical resulted in any free throws.

Before he exited, Laettner went out to the spot on the court from which he hit that 1992 game winner and pretended to call for a pass. Big Blue All-Stars coach Rex Chapman playfully tackled him and Laettner left to another round of boos.

via www.courier-journal.com

Nah. The joke creates too much funny confusion amongst readers. But as far as Laettner goes, all is forgiven.

Picture of the day: imports

 

Photo credit: John Whitehead (after a 2:30 double shot of espresso)

A Republican who believes the scientists*

"I'm very disappointed in the NFL union and what they're doing here ... I'm sure you saw the AP story that two dozen scientists and lab directors around the world signed a letter sent to the NFL and players association stating that current tests for Human Growth Hormone are safe, scientifically reliable and appropriate for use in professional sports leagues. The letter was signed by 23 scientists and lab directors saying, 'Any suggestion in the press that its accuracy is a matter of debate is incorrect.' ... Look, these athletes, these NFL players, owe it to the fans to implement these tests right away.''

-- Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, to KTAR in Phoenix, via sportsradiointerviews.com, on the stance of the NFL Players Association that it isn't sure of the validity of testing for human growth hormone.

via sportsillustrated.cnn.com

*What? You thought I was talking about climate change?**

**I know, McCain is one of the few who believes the climate science too.

Estimating the cost per job created or saved from the ARRA stimulus in North Carolina

Beware that I'm using arithmatic below (Stimulus brings boost not bounty):

A 2.3-mile stretch of road that bridges the Neuse River is set to open this week in Johnston County - a sliver of the $19.4 billion in federal stimulus money being spent in North Carolina. ...

There are no precise numbers on how many jobs were created or preserved in North Carolina by the stimulus package.

The state recovery office has tracked the effects of stimulus spending in North Carolina for the past two years.

The office's best guess is that about 25,000 North Carolinians have worked - either through jobs created or jobs preserved over that period, said John McHugh, who worked as a senior analyst for the office.

Some of the money went to help local governments balance their budgets, which kept many communities from potentially having to lay off thousands of public school teachers and police officers in recent years. ...

McHugh believes the 25,000 jobs figure provides an incomplete picture because it excludes the effect of major portions of the stimulus package.

It doesn't include jobs created through loans and grants made to businesses through various stimulus programs.

The stimulus office estimates 9,600 North Carolina jobs were saved and another 4,600 were created through such programs.

Based on the three numbers above, the jobs created by the ARRA in North Carolina is 39,200. Assuming that "thousands of teachers and police officers" is equal to zero, the cost per job is $494,898. If ARRA saved all of the teacher and police officer jobs in North Carolina then the cost per job saved would be $127,523. Of course, the range is too wide. Suppose that ARRA saved between 10% and 50% of the teacher and police officer jobs. Then the range would be $202,792 to $384,212.

Given the most generous estimate of my narrow rangae, if the purpose of ARRA was to create jobs it would have been 50% cheaper to lump sum transfer $100k to eligible job losers.

The cost of ARRA as a job creation problem seems high in North Carolina. What am I missing?

Finally a story that recognizes the problem with touting job creation

A huge reservoir of natural gas trapped in shale rock deep beneath Ohio holds the promise of a fresh supply of cheap energy and thousands of new jobs.

But what does it mean to the state’s coal industry?

via www.dispatch.com

I'm assuming that's a rhetorical question.

I'm voting for Kentucky as the worst college football state

Get ready for a Jax State (FCS) upset today in Lexington (can you believe the game is on ESPNU?):

The most spirited "competition" in college football this season might be between those ancient gridiron antagonists — the state of New Mexico and the commonwealth of Kentucky — over which state with multiple FBS programs is producing the worst caliber of football.

Here in Kentucky, we might have to fumigate the entire commonwealth if the level of football doesn't pick up dramatically over the second half of the season.

The University of Kentucky is 2-4 and has not yet beaten a team from a BCS automatic-qualifying conference.

The University of Louisville is 2-4 and has not yet beaten a team from outside Kentucky.

Western Kentucky University is 2-4 and has not yet beaten a team worth a darn. The Hilltoppers have won their last two but against foes (Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic) who are a combined 1-10.

How bad is our football in Kentucky?

Out of the 120 major-college football programs that comprise the Football Bowl Subdivision, when it comes to scoring points, our three entrants rank No. 106 (WKU, 18.5 points), No. 111 (U of L, 16.33) and No. 118 (UK, 13.0) in the nation.

In this week's Sagarin Ratings, Louisville is ranked No. 98, with UK at No. 112 and WKU at 157.

To put that in perspective, there are 10 teams from the FCS (the former I-AA) ranked higher than any of our state's three FBS schools.

It gets worse. ...

via www.kentucky.com

At the end we find out that NMSU has beaten Minnesota which gives Kentucky the edge.

I'm B.E.S.T. too!

From the blog formerly known as Green, Inc. (Climate Study Does Not Placate Skeptics):

As we noted on the blog on Thursday, a new study designed to address critiques of climate science by skeptics has confirmed that “global warming is real” and the world’s average land temperature has risen by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since the mid-1950s.

The findings, released by a group of scientists and statisticians at the University of California known as the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, were welcomed by climate scientists and advocates of climate policy action, who had been hoping that skeptics would finally have to cry uncle.

Not so fast. ...

Surprise! Keep reading for the goofy reasons:

1. The "BEST" study used 60 years of data instead of 30
2. There were spelling errors in the report
3. Lack of peer review

Number 1 is a virtue, 2 is easily corrected (and invalidates most papers submitted to peer-reviewed journals) and 3, I'm sure, is in the works.

Note: Boone Economist Studies TCM (travel cost method).