Economics Commons^™

Undersea Cables: The Ultimate Geopolitical Chokepoint, Bert Chapman

FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security, and Social Systems

This work provides historical and contemporary overviews of this critical geopolitical problem, describes the policy actors addressing this in the U.S. and selected other countries, and provides maps and information on many undersea cable work routes. These cables are chokepoints with one dictionary defining chokepoints as “a strategic narrow route providing passage through or to another region."

Cbe Waves Newsletter: December 2021, Various

Newsletters

• The Economic Value of America's Estuaries
• How Little We Know: Humans and Recreation on the California Coast
• Checking in On Ocean-Based Solutions
• Build Back Better and the Ocean Climate Action Plan
• Student Alice McGown attended COP26 with one focused message: Leave It In The Ground
• Transatlantic Blue Economy Initiative
• Student Mary Patenburg contributes to two WWF articles
• Visualizing the Three- Dimensional Footprint of Ocean Uses
• DIVE-An Inspiring Journey through California's Marine Protected Areas with Virtual Reality
• Celebrating Ten Years at the Center for the Blue Economy

Making Green Mortgages Mainstream & Accessible, Megan Greene, Adam Tooze, Jennifer M. Silva, Rohan Kocharekar, Hannah H. Braun

Regenerative Crisis Response Committee

No abstract provided.

California Coastal Recreation: Beyond The Beach, Charles S. Colgan, Philip King, Sarah Jenkins

Publications

California is known throughout the state, nation, and world for its beaches, but the California coast provides so much more in recreational opportunities than just a day at the beach. However, if one were to ask: “How many people actually visit the coast for recreation”, the answer is “No one really knows”.

The reason is simple. No one asks this question on a regular basis. Extensive monitoring of the physical conditions of the coast and coastal waters takes place but nothing remotely comparable is done to track the millions of people who come to the coast.

Because there is no …

U.S. Policing As Racialized Violence And Control: A Qualitative Assessment Of Black Narratives From Ferguson, Missouri, Jason M. Williams

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

U.S. policing has long been captured within a master narrative of colorblind consensus; however, distinct lived experiences between community groups depict grave disparities in law enforcement experiences and perceptions. Orthodox conceptions of law enforcement ultimately silence marginalized voices disproportionately affected by negative contacts with law enforcement. Centering data in critical theory, this study will present thematic results from semi-interviews gathered in Ferguson, M.O., during a critical ethnographic research project. Themes reveal experiences and perceptions of racialized and violent policing, the unique position of Black officers, and regard for the impact police have on children. Results also help to foreground new …

Cbe Waves Newsletter: September 2021, Various

Newsletters

• Ocean Climate Action and the New Blue Economy: Video from Session #4 of the 5th International Symposium on Ocean Accounts
• Ocean Climate Action Lobby Day follow up & legislative developments
• Recent publications by Center for the Blue Economy Staff and Affiliates
• Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement
• The 2021 Center for the Blue Economy Fellows
• The Center for the Blue Economy Speaker Series
• Youth for Ocean Climate Action

Operating Solar Projects In Nevada, 2021, Kristian Thymianos, Saha Salahi, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) both provide national databases that contain comprehensive lists of active solar projects in the United States. This fact sheet provides a list of operating solar projects in the State of Nevada.

Public Perception Of Uas And Vertiports In The Wastach Front Survey Results, Brent C. Chamberlain, Katelynn Hall, Keunhyun Park

Browse all Datasets

This project aims to further understand the current public perception of UAS and their integration into residential areas for package delivery through the development of vertiports The survey also aims to identify evidence of NIMBY (not in my backyard) in these perceptions. The survey specifically asked participants about demographics, familiarity with UAV, perceptions of UAV, and perceptions of vertiports through 6 different potential vertiport placements in residential of community center focused areas.

Towards Smallholder Food And Water Security: Climate Variability In The Context Of Multiple Livelihood Hazards In Nicaragua, Christopher M. Bacon, William A. Sundstrom, Iris Stewart-Frey, Edwin P. Maurer, Lisa C. Kelley

Environmental Studies and Sciences

Climate variability and change affect both food and water security, as do other hazards, such as shifting food prices, plant pathogens, and political economic changes. Although household food and water insecurity affect billions, most studies analyze them separately. This article develops a relational approach to explaining household access to food and water in a multi-hazard context. We identify pathways linking hazards to livelihood vulnerability and assess the relative importance of climate-related hazards. Analyzing longitudinal data collected from two surveys of the same 311 smallholder households in northern Nicaragua, conducted in 2014 and again in 2017, we find that peak seasons …

Three Essays In Applied Economics, Mohammad Javad Mehregan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Governments worldwide support their national economies to obtain growth, adequate employment, and price durability. Regulation is a unique approach through which governments control the economy. Governments attempt to maintain and regulate the economy in various ways to guarantee that business fosters the common good. The range of government regulations is enormous and touches all areas of the economy and all features of daily life. Understanding the effect of regulations on the economy is essential since its outcomes can improve government interventions’ efficiency. Applied economics can help measure the effectiveness of government intervention on economic outcomes.

This dissertation includes three essays …

Contested Landscapes, Disputed Realities: An Investigation Of Socio-Environmental Conflict From Mining In Northern Ecuador: An Honors Thesis, Ian F. Hirons

Student Works

For decades, Ecuador has been one of the preeminent petrostates in South America. However, in response to recent drops in global demand and pricing for oil products, the country has made serious commitments to further develop its mineral resources. By opening a new natural resource sector, Ecuador has firmly cemented itself as a primarily extractivist nation. In the process, the national government has frequently come into conflict with activist and community groups who protest the encroachment of extractive industry. This thesis explores the various dimensions of socio-environmental conflict created by large-scale mining projects in northern Ecuador with specific attention to …

The Economic Value Of America’S Estuaries: 2021 Report, Tracy Rouleau, Charles S. Colgan, Jefferey Adkins, Castelletto Anthony, Dirlam Patty, Shannon Lyons, Hilary Stevens

Publications

This study builds on the work completed in 2009, “The Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What’s At Stake?,” a report by NOAA in collaboration with the Center for the Blue Economy and the Ocean Foundation, at the request of Restore America’s Estuaries. Like the 2009 study, the 2021 update uses the same data sources (Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and NOAA), and looks in detail at the same five major sectors of the U.S. economy (fisheries, energy infrastructure, marine transportation, real estate, and recreation) from 2009-2018.

The 2021 update includes the economic …

Environmental Policy And Employment: The Effect Of The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative On The Labor Market, Kelly-Anne Moffa

Honors Scholar Theses

This paper estimates the impacts that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, implemented in 2009, has had on labor market outcomes within the policy region. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a carbon cap-and-trade program that consists of ten states in the Northeast. Using a difference-in-difference framework, I found that, overall, there was no significant impact on the annual employment growth rate because of RGGI. When broken down into industry-specific effects, most industries still had no significant employment effects, although the mining industry did see a weakly significant 0.09 percentage point decrease in its annual employment growth rate. These estimates are …

The Beef Industry: The Social Costs From An Ecological, Economic, And Social Perspective, Timothy Keathley

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

Beef products are a staple of western diets and are quickly becoming normalized in more parts of the world. Americans from 1910 to present day have consumed an average of 60 pounds of beef each year, with total beef consumption annually over 27 billion pounds (Beef, 2005). Red meat is a tempestuous topic of discussion. Red meat is a product that has nutritional benefits, is a symbol of status, and has a favored taste for many of its consumers. It can also be said that red meat is associated with health issues, animal cruelty, and environmental sustainability concerns. Jochimsen said …

Recycling Fashion, Haley Moeder

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

Americans tend to think of items they purchase as disposable, and when items become damaged or broken, they are thrown in the trash instead of being fixed or reused. Each year, Americans dispose of huge quantities of items in the trash and that trash is then sent to landfills. Ohioans alone disposed of 17.46 tons of waste in 2019 which then ended up in landfills or incinerated (Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, 2021). If more items were recycled, fewer items would be sent to landfills, creating more space, and reducing the chances of harmful chemicals leaking into the surrounding land. One …

An International Comparison Of Green Building In Cities, Faith Rosenow

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

Green building is a concept that has become more relevant as the world works towards creating more environmentally friendly ways to exist on this planet. As defined by the World Green Building Council, a green building is “...a building that, in its design, construction or operation, reduces or eliminates negative impacts, and can create positive impacts, on our climate and natural environment. Green buildings preserve precious natural resources and improve our quality of life.” (What is Green Building?, n.d.). Some cities in the world have made more progress with moving forward with green building than others. While individually these buildings …

Protecting Ohio’S Water Quality Through Wetland Remediation, Sarah Logel

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

Water reuse and reclamation is vital to the continuation of healthy crop yields, maintaining clean waterways, and for human use and consumption. Combined with the unrelenting ecological changes as a result of global warming, water stress has become ever prominent in the new age of climate change. Most often covered by news and media outlets are the rising sea levels which are undoubtably a dangerous threat. There is though, another menacing water issue, not so frequently discussed and it is the quality of water consumed by residents in America’s cities and towns and used by farmers for growing the very …

Inadequate Accounting, Commoditization, And Ceremonial Tools: The Department Of Defense’S Environmental Remediation Process, Jed Cooper

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

Water on the earth is a precious resource. However, over 99% of the water on the earth is not available as drinking water. Further issues such as uneven distribution, depletion and contamination of aquifers, excess demand, and climate change challenge the current scarce resources that are currently available to humans on the earth. Thus, humans have contaminated and polluted the limited freshwater available through toxic chemicals and human waste and in many parts of the world, leading to limited availability of clean water (Robertson, 2014). One of the biggest threats in the United States and globally the chemical contamination of …

Addressing The Energy Air Pollution Within The Ohio Area, Travis Mcconnell

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

Air pollution is the byproduct of the burning of fossil fuels and is a major issue within the Ohio area because of the lack of utilization of renewable and clean sources of energy. We emit tons and tons of pollutants into the environment each and every day, from when we hop in our cars or even when we simply turn on the lights in our homes. Essentially, anything that requires energy can be a cause of air pollution within the ecosystem. However, it may be the case that it is time that we change our ways and try to conserve …

Proposal To Reduce Waste Pollution And Promote Efficient Waste Materials Lifecycle Management Through Employment Programs And Recycling Infrastructure Investment, Jake Gibson

Student Papers in Local and Global Regional Economies

This proposal seeks to promote more efficient uses of materials by the consumer products industry while simultaneously restoring natural areas and ecological processes through a jobs guarantee program whose efforts will return discarded materials into a more efficient consumer product lifecycle. The proposal consists of two prongs: a jobs guarantee program providing jobs collecting discarded materials from natural areas, sorting high value materials from collected waste streams, and operating recycling equipment during collection and at collection and processing centers; and investments in national recycling infrastructure, namely industrial equipment to be installed at collection and processing centers such as balers, shredders, …

A Climate Chronology, Sharon S. Tisher

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

The most challenging of all endeavors in human history will likely be that of understanding the impact of our industrial and technological enterprises on the planet’s climate and ecosystems, and responding effectively to the threats posed by that impact. I began writing this chronology while developing a climate policy course at the University of Maine. It has grown substantially during the ensuing nine years, and continues to grow.

By juxtaposing developments in climate science, U.S. policy, and international policy over the previous two centuries, I hope to give the reader new insights into where we have been, where we are …

Cbe Waves Newsletter: March 2021, Various

Newsletters

• BROAD CITIZEN LOBBY to PROMOTE OCEAN CLIMATE ACTION;
• WRITING WORKSHOP for OCEAN AND CLIMATE ADVOCACY;
• OCEANS IN NATIONAL INCOME ACCOUNTS 5th. Intl. Symposium Wednesday-Thursday, March 24-25, 2021;
• HOW THE BLUE ECONOMY can HELP SOLVE the CLIMATE CRISIS;
• OPTIONS for SEA LEVEL RISE ADAPTATION on WEST CLIFF DRIVE;
• ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND SUSTAINABILITY SPRING LECTURES & FILM EVENT,

Picking Up Where The Tmdl Leaves Off: Using The Partnership Wild And Scenic River Framework For Collaborative River Restoration, Alan R. Hunt, Meiyin Wu, Tsung-Ta David Hsu, Nancy Roberts-Lawler, Jessica T. Miller, Alessandra Rossi, Lee Lee

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protects less than ¼ of a percent of the United States’ river miles, focusing on free-flowing rivers of good water quality with outstandingly remarkable values for recreation, scenery, and other unique river attributes. It predates the enactment of the Clean Water Act, yet includes a clear anti-degradation principle, that pollution should be reduced and eliminated on designated rivers, in cooperation with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state pollution control agencies. However, the federal Clean Water Act lacks a clear management framework for implementing restoration activities to reduce non-point source pollution, of which …

The Feasibility Of Renewable Natural Gas In New Jersey, Anneliese Dyer, Amelia Christine Miller, Brianna Chandra, Juan Galindo Maza, Carley Tran, Justin Bates, Vicky Olivier, Amy Tuininga

Publications

With traditional natural gas being one of the top options for heating in the United States and the present threat of climate change, there is a demand for an alternative clean fuel source. A Renewable Natural Gas Implementation Decision-Making Conceptual Model was created to provide a framework for considering the feasibility of renewable natural gas (RNG) projects and applied to New Jersey, specifically investigating landfills and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Data from the US EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection Sewage Sludge databases were used to identify seven landfills and 22 WWTPs as possible …

A Perspective On Equity Implications Of Net Zero Energy Systems, Erin Baker, Inês Ml Azevedo

Publications

We present examples of energy inequity, in both the current system and in potential net zero systems, and lay out some research needs in order to center equity in the study of net zero energy systems.

•Our current energy systems are inequitable across several dimensions.

•We must recognize and address barriers to a just and equitable net zero energy system.

•We highlight inequities in energy burden and energy insecurity; health consequences of the energy system; and decision making power.

•There is a need to define, quantify, and explicitly model equity outcomes in net zero systems.

•There is a need to …

Sustainability In The Fashion Industry: Two Case Studies Highlighting Consumer Purchasing Actions Related To Brand Sustainability, Allison Zhang

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The rise of competition in the fashion industry has called for companies to differentiate themselves. One way of differentiation that has been seen in recent years is an increase in sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. This paper explores the use of press releases by fashion companies to see if the releases impact the companies’ bottom line. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if sustainability related press releases impact consumers in the United States decision making in purchasing products or supporting certain brands or companies. To conduct this study, yearly and quarterly financial data was collected to find trends …

What Makes Green Parties Successful: A Comparative Analysis Of Germany, Austria, And France, Macy Miller

Honors Theses

Starting in the 1980s, green parties began to make their debut. Their establishment was considered to be largely in response to environmental and anti-nuclear movements. Although their history has been quite brief, these parties have been making waves throughout the world. Throughout this research, a pattern arises between economic stability and quality of life, mainstream party competition, policy positions, and green voters themselves when examining the success of the green parties. In particular, they have demonstrated great success in the European Union. In an attempt to explain this success, this research explores three specific green parties: the German, the Austrian, …

The Costs Of Critical Habitat Or Owl’S Well That Ends Well, Jonathan Klick, J.B. Ruhl

All Faculty Scholarship

When the Fish and Wildlife Service designated land in four counties of Arizona as “critical habitat” necessary for the protection of the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy‐owl, property values dropped considerably. When the owl was later delisted, property values jumped back up. We use difference-in-difference and synthetic control designs to identify this effect with Zillow property value data. The results provide an estimate of the costs of this critical habitat designation, and they are considerable, contrary to the regulators’ position that critical habitat protection imposes no incremental costs beyond the original endangered species listing.

The Quest For Greener Pastures: Evaluating The Livelihoods Impacts Of Providing Vegetation Condition Maps To Pastoralists In Eastern Africa, Elia Machado, Helene Purcell, Andrew M. Simons, Stephanie Swinehart

Publications and Research

The survival of millions of pastoral households in Eastern Africa has become increasingly at risk. Due to mounting socioeconomic and climatic stressors, pastoral households are faced with making migration decisions under increasing uncertainty about resource availability and limited coping strategies. We assess the potential of providing vegetation condition maps to support the migration decision of pastoralists in Ethiopia and Tanzania and the effect of map usage on their herd condition and size. The maps were generated from remotely sensed data using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a proxy for vegetation condition and overlain with pastoralists’ preferred grazing areas. …

The Role Of Cost, Scale, And Property Attributes In Landowner Choice Of Stormwater Management Option., W. Bowman Cutter, Alexander Pusch

Pomona Economics

Cities throughout the world are experimenting with Low Impact Development (LID) strategies to replace ecosystem services degraded by urbanization. Stormwater management may need both centralized/publicly-managed infrastructure and decentralized provision by landowners. For landowners to participate in these programs they will need some latitude in the choice of techniques and siting. However, these landowner choices will affect the bundle of ecosystem services provided (such as infiltration, aesthetics, pollution filtering, and others) as well as their spatial distribution. We studied the Santa Monica (CA) stormwater regulations that require stormwater management on a large portion of development and redevelopment but allow a significant …