Environmental Economics

@CEA -- Bonus points on your final exam to the first person to explain the blue shaded area to @realdonaldtrump

I'm complaining about the free ice cream

I have an in-class VEconLab experiment planned for my 10 am environmental and resource econ class. It's 9 am and I'm trying to set it up. Here is the message I'm getting:

The program could not make a connection with the database. Possible cause: the Veconlab server may be down for some reason, e.g. extended power failure. We apologize. Please try again later.
Too many connections

Ugh.

"Exxon pushes back at #exxonknew study"

From TheHill's Overnight Energy email (March 1):

Exxon pushed back in a report released Thursday against claims from a study last year on its public statements on climate change.

The August study from two Harvard University -- one of whom, Naomi Oreskes, is an outspoken Exxon critic -- used content analysis on decades of Exxon advertisements and statements to conclude that it misled the public about climate change.

But Exxon retained Kimberley Neuendorf, a Cleveland State University content analysis expert, to rebut the conclusions.

"I have concluded that [the authors'] content analysis does not support the study's conclusions because of a variety of fundamental errors in their analysis. [The authors' content analysis lacks reliability, validity, objectivity, generalizability, and replicability," she said.

"These basic standards of scientific inquiry are vital for a proper content analysis, but they are not satisfied by the [authors'] study."

Neuendorf wrote the book that laid out the methods that the Harvard researchers cited.

In her report for Exxon, Neuendorf argues that the study suffered problems with sampling, coding, consensus measurement, lack of disclosure and other issues.

Read the study here.

This sounds too familiar.

"US solar company to lay off hundreds of workers after Trump tariffs"

You should beware U.S. companies making announcements about decisions and using government policy as a cover these days, but this seems to make economic sense:

American solar company SunPower will lay off about 3 percent of its workforce in March, a decision that comes after President Trump began imposing new tariffs on imported solar materials earlier this month. 

SunPower has already started the process of laying off between 150 and 250 workers, largely from its research and development and marketing positions, CEO Tom Werner told The Hill. The cuts will amount to about a 10 decrease in operational expenses.

The cuts made by the publicly traded company, which is based in San Jose, Calif., are largely an effort to stop the bleeding from the new costs associated with the 30 percent tariffs, Werner said.

via thehill.com

If you like anecdotal evidence that climate change isn't happening (i.e., a cold day in December) then you should like this

From the local paper:

With a warm February that saw temperatures climb into the 60s and 70s, several area ski mountains felt the pinch of the weather.

Beech Mountain Resort, located in the town of Beech Mountain, closed its slopes for the season on Feb. 24 in response to the recent extended stretch of abnormally warm February temperatures. ...

via www.wataugademocrat.com

I got a new coat and hat for my birthday. Haven't worn either since. 

New publication: "Estimating willingness to pay for a cycling event using a willingness to travel approach"

John C. Whitehead and Pamela Wicker, Tourism Management, Volume 65, April 2018, Pages 160-169

Abstract

This study examines the monetary value of nonmarket benefits to participants of an active sport tourism event, such as happiness and pride from participating in an event. Willingness to travel (WTT) greater distances for future events is assessed and converted into willingness to pay (WTP) estimates using travel costs. Using survey data from the 2014 and 2015 Blood Sweat Gears bike ride, the intended visitation models show that changes in travel cost have a significant negative effect. WTP to revisit the event was between $41 and $57. The likelihood of return visit decreases as travel costs increase, indicating that WTP estimates are internally valid. WTP estimates stemming from two years of data collection are stable, suggesting that they are also temporally reliable. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using stated preference WTT questions to assign a monetary value to nonmarket benefits of active sport tourists.

 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.09.023