Environmental Economics

Hey, I'm a private landowner in Watauga County

Sign me up ANC!

Audubon North Carolina said it will soon reach out to private landowners across Watauga County to encourage them to protect and restore priority bird habitats, while simultaneously helping landowners enhance their property in cost-effective and sustainable ways.

 

ANC staff will work with private landowners to maintain or enhance their land to benefit golden-winged warbler populations in Western North Carolina.

Watauga County, because of its elevational range and forested landscape, is an important destination for golden-winged warblers to nest each year, according to ANC. The warbler has been petitioned for listing as an endangered species due to its rapid range-wide decline, making the nesting areas in North Carolina crucial for protection and ongoing maintenance.

Audubon has mapped privately owned land in Western North Carolina that contains preferred habitats for the species in hopes of working directly with landowners to preserve the area for long-term sustainability. Landowners who meet certain criteria to participate in the program will be notified with a letter from an ANC representative in the next few weeks.

via m.wataugademocrat.com

I'm just sitting around and waiting on me letter. 

"Did legalizing ivory trade reduce elephant poaching?"

Chris Blattman quoting Hsiang and Sekar:

International trade of ivory was banned in 1989, with global elephant poaching data collected by field researchers since 2003. A one-time legal sale of ivory stocks in 2008 was designed as an experiment, but its global impact has not been evaluated. We find that international announcement of the legal ivory sale corresponds with an abrupt ~66% increase in illegal ivory production across two continents, and a possible ten-fold increase in its trend.

An estimated ~71% increase in ivory smuggling out of Africa corroborates this finding, while corresponding patterns are absent from natural mortality and alternative explanatory variables. These data suggest the widely documented recent increase in elephant poaching likely originated with the legal sale.

More generally, these results suggest that changes to producer costs and/or consumer demand induced by legal sales can have larger effects than displacement of illegal production in some global black markets. ...

A new NBER working paper by Sol Hsiang and Nitin Sekar. Ungated version here.

via chrisblattman.com

Here is the image from the paper:

John's not the only one who gets to post pictures of local wildlife

John lives in the sticks of North Carolina, so it's not too surprising when he posts wildlife pics.  I live in the suburbs of a major metropolitan area. so it's a little more surprising when I get to post wildlife pics.  Here's a pic my wife sent me today:

Raise your hand if you want to work with me...

The Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics (my department) in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (my college) at The Ohio State University (my university) is hiring for four new faculty positions--and I am not ashamed of taking advantage of this blog to promote the positions.  If you have (or are close to earning) a PhD with interests in agricultural economics, environmental economics, regional economics, development economics or some combination of those fields along with other interests, then we can probably align your interests with one of our four positions. 

Come join me in a top rated department (according to the National Research Council at least) in a top 20 public university (according to US News at least) in the Best Opportunity City in the U.S. (according to Forbes at least).

Our open positions are:

• Assistant or Associate Professor in Global Economic Modeling: a tenure-track assistant/associate professor position in the area of global economic modeling and integrated assessment. Economic modeling approaches of particular interest include dynamic optimization and computable general equilibrium modeling, as well as familiarity with approaches for handling decision making under uncertainty. Individuals with experience integrating economic models with physical/biological models are encouraged to apply.
• Assistant or Associate Professor in Sustainable Food and Farm Policy:  tenure-track assistant/associate professor position to conduct innovative research on policies related to food, farming and sustainability and to provide intellectual leadership to the Department and to the University’s Discovery Theme Initiatives in the area of sustainable food and farm policy. 
• Assistant Professor in Agribusiness: a tenure-track assistant professor with teaching and research responsibilities in agribusiness.  Applicants with interests in agricultural markets and marketing, finance, supply and demand analysis, industrial organization, international trade or agricultural and food policy, that complement a primary interest in agribusiness are encouraged to apply.
• Assistant or Associate Professor in Sustainable Development and Economy: an assistant/associate professor, tenure-track position to develop an internationally recognized program of research and teaching focused on sustainable development and the trade-offs among economic development, social equity and environmental protection in international or regional contexts.  Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: economic growth; equity; resource use; technological change; socio-ecological systems; sustainable and resilient communities. 

Click on the links for full descriptions and application info.  

Picture of the day: neighborhood wildlife

Photo credit: PCW

How much is a loon worth?

At today's exchange rates, a Canadian one dollar coin is worth about $0.78. But right over the border, this is different:

Minnesota loons could benefit from an $18.7 billion legal settlement over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a Department of Natural Resources official said Wednesday.

Minnesota could receive up to $25 million over the next 15 years from the settlement between oil company BP and the federal government, Carrol Henderson, the department's nongame wildlife supervisor, told MPR News.

Scientists have conducted a large amount of research documenting the effects of the April 2010 oil spill on wildlife, and the settlement might not have been reached without that research, Henderson said.

"Loons and pelicans were actually in the gulf in April when the oil spill first occurred," he said. "My recollection is that there was just shy of 200 loons that were found dead in the oil."

Henderson said that number may only be a fraction of the loons that were affected by the oil spill. Many that died were never recovered.

Minnesota and Wisconsin likely will be the only non-coastal states to receive settlement money from the spill primarily because of the loon concentration. Minnesota is home to 12,000 loons.

Many loons were contaminated in the oil spill but survived. But those birds have passed health problems on through their eggs. There is some evidence that white pelicans also were affected by the oil spill but the evidence is not as clear.

via www.mprnews.org

$25 million divided by 200 dead loons is equal to $125,000 per loon. But since 200 is only a fraction of the loons that were (negatively) affected, the number is an upper bound. 

Is more information welfare enhancing?

 Sharks are scary to many people.  New technologies, like drones, allow beach authorities to notify swimmers when sharks are nearby.  So when people are told that sharks are near shore, it changes behavior--even though the likelihood of a shark attack has not changed.  The only thing that has changed is the ability to see the sharks.  Are swimmers now better off?

 

Cue the Jurassic Park Theme Music

In the context of the ecological effects of reintroducing lost species into ecosystems, Last week I half-jokingly asked "..if reintroducing wolves is this great, what would happen if we reintroduced dinosaurs?"  Well...

The fierce debate over whether to clone a woolly mammoth has been reignited by a fresh attempt to bring the species back from the dead.

South Korean scientists believe the extinct 'Mammuthus' can be brought back to life using the DNA of an extremely well preserved mammoth found in the Siberian snow.

Insung Hwang, a geneticist at Sooam, the South Korean biotech company working on the project, said this week his team think it is an achievable goal, using the fresh blood samples they have recovered.

“We’re trying hard to make this possible within our generation”, he told a Channel 4 documentary team who have been charting the project’s progress.

via www.telegraph.co.uk

Trophic Cascade

This is pretty cool.  I have no idea if it's accurate but still cool. 

 

I don't doubt that wolves have had an impact on Yellowstone.  But my inner economist has to ask, are we now better off?  How do we know that this new steady state (if in fact it is steasy) is 'better' than the previous state without the wolves?

Oh, and if reintroducing wolves is this great, what would happen if we reintroduced dinosaurs?

 

 

I really like when non-economists sound like economists--it means economic thinking is permeating everyday discussions

I've been a fan of Mike Rowe since his early days on the Discovery Channel's 'Dirty Jobs.'  I don't always agree with his political views, but he's entertaining.  He has a new show on CNN called 'Somebody's Gotta Do it,' where he highlights what seem to many like odd jobs.  Apparently in a recent show, he spotlighted efforts to save the Whooping Crane.  A viewer took exception.  In his response, Mr. Rowe sounds a bit like an environmental economist...at least he's asking economic-like questions:

"You did a disservice to Operation Migration and the whooping crane project on "Somebody's Gotta Do It." You came across as bored and disdainful. You say you work for the people who watch you and not the people who pay you -- OK. You're on probation."

Rowe's response:

...

Fair enough. I've been on probation my whole career, and I'll be grateful to remain there as long as you can tolerate me. But for what it's worth, you're mistaken. I was neither bored nor disdainful of anything I saw at the whooping crane facility. In fact, I was genuinely impressed with Dr. French and his team, and glad to give their program some national exposure. Now it's true - I didn't swoon in their presence, or behave as though I agreed with every single thing I heard. Dr. French was very clear about why he does what he does - he believes the whooping crane has as much right to exist as we do. I doubt that everyone shares that view. Should they?

Read on...