Environmental & Resource Economics
Tuesday October 13, 13:00-14:00
Speaker: Dan Rigby, Manchester
Title: "Some findings on 'excessive choice', difficult choices and anomalous choices"
Venue: G.019, Arthur Lewis
Tuesday Nov 24, 13:00-14:00
Speaker: Jim Smart (York Univ.)
Title: Choice, learning and deliberation in wildlife management
Venue: Rm 3.008, Arthur Lewis
Abstract
Wildlife resource management continues to present considerable challenges to resource economists. Dynamic optimisation approaches tend to simplify ecological and social complexities down to a tractable number of dimensions, agent-based simulations typically portray ecological and spatial elements of the problem with considerable complexity but often characterise agents' behaviour by overly rigid game theoretic frameworks, whereas qualitative social approaches provide nuanced portrayals of agents' concerns and motivations which cannot – and perhaps should not - be readily transferred to predictive quantitative models. Here we use both bio-economic and agent-based models to explore the roots of current conflicts in UK deer management, but find these approaches frustrated by an inadequate understanding and over-simplistic portrayal of the motivations and behaviours of UK private sector landowners and deer managers. We therefore use a choice-experiment workshop approach to collect linked quantitative and qualitative data to better elucidate and explain the preferences which private sector deer managers hold for the multiple outcomes which arise from deer management, together with their preferences for, or aversion to, various forms of collaborative management. The sequential choice experiment approach, along with the use of quantitative and qualitative data in combination, provides additional insight into the hitherto cryptic behaviours of private sector landowners and deer managers: key players in conflict-ridden 'deer world'.
A seminar presentation drawing on work by Zoë Austin, Jim Smart, Piran White & Steve Yearley under the RELU project 'Collaborative Frameworks in Deer Management'
Bio
Jim Smart worked in electrical engineering for 13 years before returning to university to study environmental economics and environmental management. He has developed bioeconomic modelling techniques to analyse conflicts surrounding the management of ecological resources, wildlife in particular. Jim is also interested in using environmental economic modelling to develop policies for managing pollution to air, soil and water. He has also used dynamic optimisation techniques and choice experiments to better understand the actions of different types of resource management businesses and individuals. BSc (Electrical & Electronic Engineering; Leeds 1985), MSc (Environmental Economics and Environmental Management; York 1999), PhD (Environmental Economics and Environmental Management; York 2003)
Tuesday Dec 1, 13:00-14:00
Speaker: Roy Brouwer (Free University, Amsterdam)
Title: Choice certainty and consistency in repeated choice experiments
Venue: Rm 3.008, Arthur Lewis
Tuesday Dec 1, 13:00-14:00
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to examine how repeated choice affects preference learning in stated preference experiments.
Different hypotheses are tested related to preference learning by analyzing response patterns and asking respondents in a choice experiment to report their experienced certainty when going through the choice tasks. In a split-sample test, follow-up choice certainty questions appear to be procedural invariant. The self-reported certainty results indicate that learning occurs, but econometric testing procedures do not identify any significant impact of learning effects on parameter estimates or variance across choice tasks.
Additional tests of choice consistency suggest that preferences in the choice experiment are stable and coherent.
Bio
Roy Brouwer is Professor Economic Valuation of the Environment at the Free University Amsterdam and Professor of Water Economics under the Dutch National Research Programme Living with Water. In his valuation research he focuses on the role of risk and uncertainty in behavioural models of decision-making. In the project AquaMoney Roy writes guidelines for the European Commission on water resource valuation in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive.
Tuesday Dec 15, 13:00-14:00
Speaker: Dan Phaneuf (NC State Univ, USA)
Title: Combining revealed and stated preference data to estimate the second stage hedonic model
Venue: Rm 3.008, Arthur Lewis
Abstract
Hedonic property value models are ubiquitous in environmental economics and the wider literature. Their power derives from the fact that reliable estimates of the marginal willingness to pay/accept for a residential amenity (e.g. clean air, proximity to undesired land
uses) can be gleaned by estimating the gradient relating home prices and levels of the amenity. This is the classical first stage hedonic model. In spite of its success and wide applicability, the first stage hedonic model is notable for its limited ability to reflect values for non-marginal amenity changes. For this one needs second stage hedonic regression - estimation of household level inverse demand functions - which is fraught with conceptual, econometric, and data availability challenges. We address this by combining data on actual home transactions with a survey of recent home buyers, in which respondent answer stated choice questions. We show how (1) the RP data on home prices identifies the baseline marginal willingness to pay; (2) the SP data identifies movements along the marginal willingness to pay curve; and (3) how they can be structurally combined in a GMM estimation framework to identify the full function. We illustrate our idea with an application assessing the willingness to accept by homeowners for proximity to an industrial waste site in Buffalo, NY.
Bio
Dan Phaneuf is professor at North Carolina State University in Agricultural & Resource Economics. His current research interests include revealed preference methods in non-market valuation and the effects of emission permit banking on abatement technology investment decisions.