Environmental Economics

Picture of the day: last big snow of the year?

"Five years of aguanomics"

Happy anniversary:

I launched Aguanomics on 26 March 2008 when I closed my blog, Sex, Drugs and Water Utilities. (The last post there -- also on this blog -- gave a critique of virtual water and footprinting; some things never change.)

In the 4,000+ posts since then, I've covered all there is to know (i.e., all that I can find) on the political economy of water and other topics -- some of which (corruption, development, climate change) affect how we manage water.

As I've often said (here's last year's post), I've used this blog to develop my thoughts, explain ideas to readers, and learn new things. These latter two activities are what make blogging different from a diary or academic paper and more like an endless seminar in which participants can explore ideas in all directions over time. I love this aspect because the matters we discuss are far too complex to get right at one time or from a single angle. It's the multiple layers of discussion -- different related topics in various places with many people -- that put flesh and blood on the bones of ideas, institutions and impacts that we all experience in different ways.

Thank you for your support and contributions.

via www.aguanomics.com

Quote of the Day: That about sums it up

I could sum it up as: we need to fish less and in less destructive measures, waste less, pollute less and protect more

via www.cnn.com

By Callum Roberts, "who helped form the first network of marine protected areas in the high seas in 2010."

Florida Gulf Coast is Env-Econ's kind of school

Southwest Florida and the FGCU campus contain beautiful environments where people can be closer to the natural world and the wildlife within it. Our campus is located on 760 acres with over 400 acres of carefully restored and preserved wetlands and uplands that are home to a variety of wildlife - some of which are listed by state and federal agencies as Endangered, Threatened, or Species of Special Concern.

via www.fgcu.edu

That and they have a frickin' beach.

 

Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit News: From Hopeless to Curious? Thoughts on Hausman’s “Dubious to Hopeless” Critique of Contingent Valuation

Our working paper was picked up by EV&CBN:

From Hopeless to Curious? Thoughts on Hausman’s “Dubious to Hopeless” Critique of Contingent Valuation

http://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp1307.pdf

Abstract: 

Hausman (2012) “selectively” reviews the CVM literature and fails to find progress over the 18 years since Diamond and Hausman (1994) argued that unquantified benefits and costs are preferred to benefits and costs quantified by CVM for policy analysis. In these comments, we provide counter-arguments to the claims made by Hausman. We provide these counterarguments not with the intent to convince the reader that the debate over contingent valuation is settled but rather to urge the community of economists to recognize that the intellectual debate over contingent valuation is still ongoing and that plenty of work remains to be done. We review the literature and argue that (1) hypothetical bias raises important research questions about the incentives guiding survey responses and preference revelation in both real and hypothetical settings that contingent valuation can help answer, (2) the WTP-WTA gap debate is far from settled and the debate raises important research questions about the future design and use of benefit cost analyses of which contingent valuation will undoubtedly be a part, and (3) CVM studies do, in fact, tend to pass a scope test and there is little support for the assertion that an adding up test is the definitive test of CVM validity. 

by Timothy C. Haab, Matthew G. Interis, Daniel R. Petrolia and John C. Whtehead

via www.envirovaluation.org

Just taking advantage in case you missed it when I posted it last week!

NIT Challenge round 1 results

I wonder if I violated this court ruling by posting this story

A US federal judge has ruled that the online news "clipping" service Meltwater violates copyright law by using excerpts from Associated Press articles, the parties said Thursday.

The US news organization sued Meltwater, claiming the service infringed on AP's copyright by delivering its articles to clients without paying a subscription fee.

The case has pitted news organizations seeking to protect copyrighted material against digital rights activists who argued that a ruling for the AP would hurt freedom of expression online.

via www.france24.com

John Whitehead's 2013 NIT Bracket Challenge! (Second Round)

Who would've thought that round 2 started today! I haven't even recovered from UK's first round loss yet. 

Here is the second round (hint: pick Maryland): 

Congress knows best

Congress took a giant step on Wednesday toward easing the threat of another budget stalemate, but the price of securing that compromise will continue to be felt at research universities and especially at those involved in political science.

The Senate, by a vote of 73 to 26, approved a measure to finance the government through the end of the fiscal year, on September 30. The bill is expected to win approval in the House of Representatives.

But the legislation would restore very little of the 5-percent cuts in the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation that took effect on March 1 as a result of a process known as sequestration.

And the Senate included an amendment that broadly restricts the ability of the NSF to approve any grants involving political science unless the agency can certify them "as promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States."

The amendment was proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma who has sharply criticized the foundation's spending priorities.

Mr. Coburn sent a letter last week to the NSF's director, Subra Suresh, listing a series of agency-financed projects he considered a waste of taxpayer money. His list included several involving political science, including studies of voter attitudes toward the Senate filibuster and of the cooperation between the president and Congress.

Such subjects "may be interesting questions to ponder or explore" but aren't necessarily the best use of taxpayer money, Mr. Coburn told Mr. Suresh. "Studies of presidential executive power and Americans' attitudes toward the Senate filibuster hold little promise to save an American's life from a threatening condition or to advance America's competitiveness in the world," he wrote.

The Senate vote drew condemnation from Michael Brintnall, executive director of the American Political Science Association, who called it a dangerous act of political interference in science.

"Basically, it's shutting down a whole mode of independent federally funded research on the behavior of the government," Mr. Brintnall said.

via chronicle.com

Ummmm....yeah.

A highly technical illustration of Hotelling's Rule for depletable resource extraction with backstop technologies

They said it couldn’t be done. They tried to tell us that renewable energy could only survive if it were propped up with government subsidies. Never mind that our whole system of economic development, beginning with the patent office, is predicated on the idea that fledgling, underfunded industries need special protection for a limited time until they are strong enough to go it alone. Never mind that the fossil fuel industry, which can hardly be considered fledgling or underfunded, is still receiving billions in taxpayer subsidies.

But like the little engine that could, or the middle aged rock star that, after twenty years of struggling in sleazy dives has suddenly become an overnight sensation, solar power, having now surpassed the 100 GW threshold, has finally arrived and is good to go, in many places, without subsidies.

via www.enn.com

Here's a picture to help you understand the complex economics underlying the story: