Mountain Viewshed Protection
A current study is
examining the public value of mountain viewsheds in WNC. The study
was funded by an internal research grant to explore the individual
preferences and economic impact of development that alters the view of
mountains. A seminar is scheduled for December 2nd to present preliminary
findings. For more information, contact Pete Groothius.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Global Warming
Scenarios
Annual global CO2 emission forecasts at 2100
span 10 to 40 billion tonnes. Modeling work over the past decade has not
narrowed this range nor provided much guidance about probabilities. We
examine the time-series properties of historical per capita CO2 emissions
and conclude that per capita global emissions are stationary without
trend, and have a constant mean of 1.14 tonnes per person with standard
deviation of 0.02. Mark Strazicich, of the Department of Economics
at ASU, was invited to present this work to leading policymakers at the
Climate Policy Conference in Washington DC. For more information
contact Mark Strazicich.
Wind Energy in WNC
A recent study funded by the NC State Energy
Office sheds light on the primary issues surrounding the potential
development of utility-scale wind energy production in WNC. The
region has highly rated wind resources that could make wind energy a
viable option for energy and development, but the region also presents
many challenges for the future of wind generated energy in WNC. This
study explores the environmental and economic issues regarding wind energy
development in WNC. For more information, contact Todd Cherry.
Integrated and Sustainable Ocean
Observation Systems
The South East Atlantic Coastal Ocean
Observing System (SEACOOS) collects, manages and disseminates coastal
oceanic and atmospheric observation information along the Atlantic coast
of the southeastern United States. This paper estimates the benefits of
SEACOOS information in eleven benefit categories. Following a methodology
used in similar studies of other U.S. coastal regions, we evaluate the
impacts of conservative changes in economic activity in each sector. The
annual economic benefit of SEACOOS information is $170 million (2003 $'s),
an estimate that falls between annual benefits of $33 million for the Gulf
of Maine region and $381 million for the Gulf of Mexico. For more
information, contact John Whitehead.
The Clean Air Act
We examine whether
air quality regulation ignores important
spatial considerations of transboundary air pollution. Is there a
disconnect between who is punished by regulatory oversight and who is
responsible for exceeding air quality limits? This study examines
whether air quality regulation can be more effective by refocusing
incentives to geographical areas that share the same air rather than
arbitrary county delineations? For more information, contact Todd
Cherry.
The Provision of Public Goods: Voting and
Punishment
In many real-world
situations, people work as a collective to set policy rules to manage
many environmental resources--e.g., OPEC summits, environmental quality councils, or school
board meetings. Rather than choosing between cooperation versus
non-cooperation or selecting an individual level of provision, people
in large groups frequently use a voting procedure to coordinate their
efforts. We explore the effectiveness of various voting schemes in
reducing overuse of collective resources and yielding optimal conservation
of of the environmental resource.
For more information, contact Todd
Cherry.
Labels and Bans on GMO Foods
Applying an experiment on the choice of
consumer goods we show that Swedish consumers do not regard GMO food as
being equivalent to conventional food. A central argument by proponents of
GMO is that the end products are identical to those where GMO has not been
used. That respondents in our survey disagree with this argument is
supported by two observations. First, a positive significant WTP is found
for a mandatory labeling policy. This result confirms previous
observations that GMO food can be a credence good causing a market
failure. Second, consumers are also willing to pay a significantly higher
product price to ensure a total ban on the use of GMO in animal fodder.
Even if scientists and politicians argue that most of today’s GMO food is
indistinguishable from GMO free food, the consumers disagree.
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