Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Common Pool Resource Issues In Managing Herbicide Resistant Weeds, David E. Ervin

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Controlling herbicide resistance (HR) will require the integration of economics and social science with the biophysical and technological aspects of this growing problem. The existence of mobile herbicide resistance and/or herbicide tolerance traits adds complexity as genetic susceptibility to the herbicide is a resource open to all farmers impacting the weed population. Weed scientists have recognized that the “tragedy of the commons” may appear when herbicide resistance is mobile across farms. However, the private and public institutions that can influence individual and group decisions about HR have received sparse analysis. When such conditions prevail, reliance on voluntary education, technical assistance …

Urban Responses To Climate Change: Theories And Governance Practice In Cities Of The Global South, Dirk Heinrichs, Kerstin Krellenberg, Michail Fragkias

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cities around the world have recently started to become ‘proactive’ initiators of climate strategies containing both mitigation and adaptation elements. The experience of these first movers has been studied and documented both empirically and, to a lesser extent, theoretically, primarily for cities in the global North. This symposium addresses related knowledge gaps by exploring case studies of urban regions in the global South confronting their projected climate change challenges, showcasing the experiences of Delhi, Santiago de Chile and Bogotá. Its specific aim is to explore the urban social response to nature change, the adaptation challenges faced by cities across the …

Economics Of Redd+ And Community Forestry, Randall Bluffstone

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a payment for ecosystem services (PES) system created under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) that tries to reduce deforestation and degradation in countries not subject to requirements under the convention (non-Annex 1 countries) and, therefore, release less and sequester more carbon. Other cobenefits have been added, such as biodiversity protection, poverty reduction and afforestation, which make up the '+' in REDD+. The '+', therefore, attempts to address potentially negative, unintended effects on non-carbon ecosystem services and take account of effects on those who currently have claims to forests. Many …

Does Size Matter? Scaling Of Co2 Emissions And U.S. Urban Areas, Michail Fragkias, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, Karen C. Seto

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban areas consume more than 66% of the world’s energy and generate more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the world’s population expected to reach 10 billion by 2100, nearly 90% of whom will live in urban areas, a critical question for planetary sustainability is how the size of cities affects energy use and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Are larger cities more energy and emissions efficient than smaller ones? Do larger cities exhibit gains from economies of scale with regard to emissions? Here we examine the relationship between city size and CO₂ emissions for U.S. …

Multidisciplinary Research: Implications For Agricultural And Applied Economists, Siân Mooney, Douglas Young, Kelly Cobourn, Samia Islam

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We detail the rewards and barriers to participating in multidisciplinary research (MDR) using a 2011 survey of applied economists at U.S. universities. We compare these findings with an earlier 1993 survey to assess if rewards and barriers have changed over time. Different administrative levels of U.S. universities are sending contradictory signals regarding rewards from MDR. External funding agencies convey positive signals. Although the scope and breadth of questions addressed by applied economists are changing over time, institutional incentives and reward structures are not keeping pace with these changes. Progress toward adapting to new professional demands has been slow.

The Readability Of Principles Of Macroeconomics Textbooks, Sarah Tinkler, James Woods

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The authors evaluated principles of macroeconomics textbooks for readability using Coh-Metrix, a computational linguistics tool. Additionally, they conducted an experiment on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk Web site in which participants ranked the readability of text samples. There was a wide range of scores on readability indexes both between textbooks and within textbooks. Results from the Mechanical Turk experiment revealed that the Flesch Reading Ease Index does not predict which samples readers will prefer, but readers do prefer samples that are thematically similar, as identified by Latent Semantic Analysis. There were differences in the responses of native and non-native-but-proficient English speakers to …

China And Global Imbalances From A View Of Sectorial Reforms, Hiro Ito, Ulrich Volz

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the impact of sectorial reforms on current account imbalances, with a special focus on China. In particular, we investigate to what extent reforms pertaining to the financial sector, social protection, and healthcare may contribute to a rebalancing of China’s persistent current account imbalances. Our forecasting results suggest that reforming the financial sector would be a significant contributor to the country’s rebalancing with an effect much larger than that of capital account liberalization. Strengthened provisions of social protection and publicly-funded healthcare are also found to contribute to a rebalancing of the Chinese economy.

Stewardship Of The Biosphere In The Urban Era, Michail Fragkias

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We are entering a new urban era in which the ecology of the planet as a whole is increasingly influenced by human activities (Ellis 2011; Steffen et al. 2011a, b; Folke et al. 2011). Cities have become a central nexus of the relationship between people and nature, both as crucial centres of demand of ecosystem services, and as sources of environmental impacts. Approximately 60 % of the urban land present in 2030 is forecast to be built in the period 2000–2030 (Chap. 21). Urbanization therefore presents challenges but also opportunities. In the next two to three decades, we have unprecedented …

A Synthesis Of Global Urbanization Projections, Michail Fragkias, Burak Güneralp, Karen C. Seto, Julie Goodness

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter reviews recent literature on global projections of future urbanization, covering the population, economic and physical extent perspectives. We report on several recent findings based on studies and reports on global patterns of urbanization. Specifically, we review new literature that makes projections about the spatial pattern, rate, and magnitude of urbanization change in the next 30–50 years. While projections should be viewed and utilized with caution, the chapter synthesis reports on several major findings that will have significant socioeconomic and environmental impacts including the following:

• By 2030, world urban population is expected to increase from the current 3.4 billion …

The Determinants Of Credit Allocations In A Market-Based Trading System: Evidence From The Reclaim Program, Antonio M. Bento, Emeric Henry, Scott E. Lowe

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the determinants of emission credit allocations under the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM) - a program aimed at reducing nitrogen oxides (NO_X) and sulfur oxides (SO_X) - in the greater Los Angeles area. Our results suggest that deviations in the allocation of emission credits can be systematically explained by firm-level factors and the location of the facility. Our results also indicate that deviations in the allocation of emission credits may have been made in an attempt to regulate toxics, and that certain industries were protected in the early stages of the program.

Eastern Migrations Vs Western Welfare States - (Un)Biased Fears, Kosta Josifidis, John B. Hall, Valérie Berenger

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This inquiry considers some effects of migration on the labour markets and the welfare systems found in the EU-15, and from the perspectives of sustainability of the current welfare state regimes. Our inquiry aims to determine whether and to what extent different approaches in regulation of migration flows between the new and old member states are compatible with related economic and demographic findings. Within this context, our research considers regulations affecting migration flows. Our findings suggest that some effects of migration from the EU8+2 on the labour markets and social protection systems found in the EU-15, both with respect to …

The Effectiveness Of Public Development Banks: Designing Good Impact Evaluations, Alessandro Maffioli, Cesar M. Rodriguez

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDB programs have become a fundamental ingredient of productive development policy strategies in most emerging economies. Although the overall need for these interventions is rarely questioned, academics and policymakers often debate their effectiveness, as well as the optimal approaches and instruments necessary to implement them. Therefore, the need to produce rigorous evaluations of PDBs has become increasingly relevant for both government and civil society (see Chapter 2).

This chapter presents the main concepts and operational arguments regarding the execution of indepth impact evaluations of PDB initiatives and instruments. For a more practical approach, these arguments are presented with examples of …

Access Versus Choice: Testing The “Food Desert” Construct In Champaign, Il, Rhiannon L. Jerch, Kathy Baylis, Sahan T.M. Dissanayake

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

How does one’s food environment affect food purchase decisions? Food access has received significant political and academic attention, particularly under the Obama administration. Existing literature on food access and “food deserts” mainly focuses on geographic distance or the retail of fresh fruits & vegetables versus fast food within a neighborhood to determine and identify inequitable access. In this paper I attempt to develop an endogenous measure of food access by asking how geographic placement of food retail affects food expenditure, particularly of fruits & vegetables. I use novel data on 886 households matched to food prices from a census of …

Urbanization Forecasts, Effects On Land Use, Biodiversity, And Ecosystem Services, Burak Güneralp, Robert I. Mcdonald, Michail Fragkias, Julie Goodness, Peter J. Marcotullio, Karen C. Seto

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several studies in recent years have forecasted global urban expansion and examined its potential impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The amount of urban land near protected areas (PAs) is expected to increase, on average, by more than three times between 2000 and 2030 (from 450,000 km² circa 2000) around the world. During the same time period, the urban land in biodiversity hotspots, areas with high concentrations of endemic species, will increase by about four times on average. China will likely become the nation with the most urban land within 50 km of its PAs by 2030. The largest …