neighborhood externality risk and the homeownership status of properties in contrast to corporate and institutional investors single owner occupiers cannot adequately diversify housing investment risk consequently homeownership should be relatively less likely in places with higher housing investment risk using the american housing survey it is documented that neighborhood externality risk a major component of housing investment risk substantially reduces the probability that a housing unit is owner occupied even when controlling for housing type and numerous location and household specific characteristics the effects are quantitatively meaningful and change in change estimates suggest that the effects are causal

environmental kuznets curves real progress or passing the buck abstract recent research has examined the hypothesis of an environmental kuznets curve ekc the notion that environmental impact increases in the early stages of development followed by declines in the later stages these studies have focused on the relationship between per capita income and a variety of environmental indicators results imply that ekcs may exist for a number of cases however the measures of environmental impact used generally focus on production processes and reflect environmental impacts that are local in nature and for which abatement is relatively inexpensive in terms of monetary costs and or lifestyle changes significantly more consumption based measures such co2 emissions and municipal waste for which impacts are relatively easy to externalize or costly to control show no tendency to decline with increasing per capita income by considering consumption and trade patterns the author re examines the concept of the ekc and proposes the use of alternative consumption based measures of environmental impact the author speculates that what appear to be improvements in environmental quality may in reality be indicators of increased ability of consumers in wealthy nations to distance themselves from the environmental degradation associated with their consumption

urban decline and durable housing urban decline is not the mirror image of growth and durable housing is the primary reason the nature of decline is so different this paper presents a model of urban decline with durable housing and verifies these implications of the model 1 city growth rates are skewed so that cities grow more quickly than they decline 2 urban decline is highly persistent 3 positive shocks increase population more than they increase housing prices 4 negative shocks decrease housing prices more than they decrease population 5 if housing prices are below construction costs then the city declines and 6 the combination of cheap housing and weak labor demand attracts individuals with low levels of human capital to declining cities

considering the energy water and food nexus towards an integrated modelling approach the areas of energy water and food policy have numerous interwoven concerns ranging from ensuring access to services to environmental impacts to price volatility these issues manifest in very di

does hazardous waste matter evidence from the housing market and the superfund program this paper uses the housing market to develop estimates of the local welfare impacts of superfund sponsored cleanups of hazardous waste sites we show that if consumers value the cleanups then the hedonic model predicts that they will lead to increases in local housing prices and new home construction as well as the migration of individuals that place a high value on environmental quality to the areas near the improved sites we compare housing market outcomes in the areas surrounding the first 400 hazardous waste sites chosen for superfund cleanups to the areas surrounding the 290 sites that narrowly missed qualifying for these cleanups we find that superfund cleanups are associated with economically small and statistically insignificant changes in residential property values property rental rates housing supply total population and types of individuals living near the sites these findings are robust to a series of specification checks including the application of a regression discontinuity design based on knowledge of the selection rule overall the preferred estimates suggest that the local benefits of superfund cleanups are small and appear to be substantially lower than the 43 million mean cost of superfund cleanups

developments in the throughput income relationship theoretical and empirical observations abstract it has been suggested that the relationship between income and the associated environmental pressure in terms of derived materials inputs and pollution levels may take an inverted u shape indicating a delinking of environmental pressure from economic growth in relation to rising per capita incomes the likelihood of such a relationship being persistent is discussed in the context of a simple macro model of industrial metabolism and the possibility of relinking clearly emerges data on specific indicators of environmental pressure i e the throughput of materials energy and the volume of transport in 19 countries have been used to investigate patterns of delinking the results suggest that delinking may not be persistent already some advanced economies may be entering a new period of relinking the relationships between environmental pressure and welfare in the medium long term may be n shaped rather than inverted u shaped

an alternative analysis of apparent ekc type transitions abstract the hypothesis of the environmental kuznets curve ekc depends upon the assumption that countries pass through a similar environmental impact trajectory as they experience income growth implying that income levels determine pollution levels the authors present evidence that this is not representative of the way many individual country s pollution emission trajectories evolve and question the emphasis on income determinism by the ekc the study proposes that nonlinear dynamic systems analysis provides a more complete description of individual country pollution trajectories in the case of co 2 emissions the nonlinear time trajectories show abrupt transitions that occur contemporaneously with historical events and over a broad range of incomes

the impact of domestic and global trade liberalisation on five southern african countries we compare the impact of alternative domestic and global trade liberalisation scenarios on five economies in southern africa the study applies a computable general equilibrium model that employs standardised 12 sector social accounting matrices for malawi mozambique tanzania zambia and zimbabwe the approach incorporates stylised features such as own household consumption and marketing margins that are of particular importance when a majority of agricultural producers are not sufficiently integrated into formal markets and thus rely on own production to meet their daily diets hence improved infrastructure implies lower marketing costs and better market integration which translates to increased production opportunities the comparison of the results across all five countries reveals that common policy measures have different impacts depending on the underlying economic structures

is urban decay bad is urban revitalization bad too abstract neighborhood revitalization could in theory harm some existing residents if it leads to price increases that exceed their willingness to pay i use data from the american housing survey to estimate a discrete choice model identifying households willingness to pay for neighborhood quality these willingness to pay estimates are then compared to the actual price changes that accompany observed changes in neighborhood quality the results suggest that price increases associated with revitalization are smaller than most households willingness to pay for neighborhood improvements conversely declines in neighborhood quality are generally not accompanied by rent declines sufficient to compensate the typical resident for the majority of the population then neighborhood revitalization is beneficial and decline detrimental

genetic engineering and trade panacea or dilemma for developing countries abstract advocates of the use of genetic engineering techniques in agriculture contend that this new biotechnology promises increased productivity better use of natural resources and more nutritious foods opponents are concerned about potentially adverse implications for the environment and food safety in response to consumer reactions against genetically modified gm foods in some countries crop production is being segregated into gm and non gm varieties this analysis finds that world markets for maize and soybeans adjust well to these changes and also that developing countries will divert their trade patterns in response to preference changes in important trading partner countries

old homes externalities and poor neighborhoods a model of urban decline and renewal abstract this paper investigates urban decline and renewal in the united states using three panels that follow neighborhoods on a geographically consistent basis over extended periods of time findings indicate that change in neighborhood economic status is common averaging roughly 13 percent per decade roughly two thirds of neighborhoods studied in 1950 were of quite different economic status fifty years later panel unit root tests for 35 msas indicate that neighborhood economic status is a stationary process consistent with long running cycles of decline and renewal in philadelphia county a complete cycle appears to last up to 100 years aging housing stocks and redevelopment contribute to these patterns as do local externalities associated with social interactions lower income neighborhoods appear to be especially sensitive to the presence of individuals that provide social capital many of the factors that drive change at the local level have large and policy relevant effects

why do higher income households choose low income neighbourhoods pioneering or thrift this paper offers several hypotheses about which us higher income households choose to move into low income neighbourhoods and why it first explores whether the probability that a household moves into a relatively low income neighbourhood an rlin move varies with predicted household and metropolitan area characteristics secondly it estimates a residential choice model to examine the housing and neighbourhood preferences of the households making such moves thirdly it explores responses to survey questions about residential choices evidence is found that in the us households who place less value on neighbourhood services and those who face greater constraints on their choices are more likely to make an rlin move no evidence is found that households making rlin moves are choosing neighbourhoods that are more accessible to employment rather it is found that households making rlin moves appear to place less weight on neighbourhood amenities than other households and more weight on housing costs

consumption sustainable welfare and human needs with reference to uk expenditure patterns between 1954 and 1994 abstract this paper explores the complex relationship between economic consumption and human welfare or well being conventional economics suggests that increasing levels of economic consumption lead to increasing levels of well being however this view has been criticised on both environmental and social grounds on the one hand the material impacts of increasing consumption are environmentally unsustainable on the other hand material consumption can conflict with crucial social and psychological components of human welfare this paper develops a perspective on human welfare which is based on max neef s characterisation of human needs it discusses the implications of this alternative perspective for the conventional viewpoint and illustrates the importance of it with reference to patterns of consumer expenditure in the uk over the last 40 years the authors suggest that from this perspective modern societies may be seriously adrift in their pursuit of human well being however they also point out that addressing this situation provides far more opportunity for ecologically sustainable development than is generally recognised

the role of agriculture in economic development visible and invisible surplus transfers the financial surplus of agriculture has been central to theories of the role of agriculture in economic development morrisson and thorbecke mt have used a constant price social accounting matrix sam framework to measure rigorously the financial surplus of agriculture and decompose the mechanisms of surplus extraction history and theory have however stressed the role of prices as an invisible transfer mechanism in addition to the visible transfers identified in the sam framework we extend the mt approach by defining and measuring the real surplus of agriculture and decomposing the mechanisms of surplus extraction between visible and invisible financial transfers using an archetype computable general equilibrium model for poor african nations we trace the generation transfer and use of an agricultural surplus created by a productivity gain in agriculture this shows that prices indeed play an overwhelmingly important role in transferring a surplus from agriculture to the benefit of the rest of

moving costs and housing demand abstract several recent housing demand studies use samples of recent movers based on the presumption that only such households are on their demand curves we find contrary to this presumption that the absolute values of the residuals from a standard housing demand equation fall with duration in the present dwelling this shows that the correlation pattern between housing and the explanatory variables at the moving date does not correspond to the average pattern over a typical housing spell we interpret this as evidence of forward looking behavior and show how it may be handled in econometric work with cross section samples

race segregation and postal employment new evidence on spatial mismatch abstract the spatial mismatch hypothesis posits that employment decentralization isolated urban blacks from work opportunities this paper focuses on one large employer that has remained in the central city over the twentieth century the u s postal service we find that blacks substitute towards postal work as other employment opportunities leave the city circa 1960 the response is particularly strong in segregated areas where black neighborhoods are clustered near the central business district furthermore this pattern only holds for non mail carriers many of whom work in central processing facilities more recently the relationship between black postal employment and segregation has declined suggesting that spatial mismatch has become less important over time

mobility and redistribution the ability of individuals to move freely from one jurisdiction to another is generally seen as a constraint on the amount of redistribution that each jurisdiction within a system of governments can undertake in this paper we look at this proposition by developing a positive analysis of income redistribution by local governments in a federal system we ask how much redistribution occurs when only local governments can have tax transfer instruments individuals can move freely among jurisdictions and voters in each jurisdiction are fully aware of the migration effects of redistributive policies local redistribution is shown to induce sorting of the population with the poorest households located in the communities that provide the most redistribution while the threat of out migration affects the potential for redistribution our results suggest that significant local redistribution is nonetheless feasible numerical computations indicate that the proportion of residents who are renters is a major factor affecting the local choice of level of redistribution

agricultural economics and distributional effects the paper examines the main issues surrounding distributional effects in the domains of natural resource management and land policies agricultural technology and research policies agricultural market and trade policies and consumer oriented policies including standards subsidies and labeling agriculture is drifting into an ever more drastic bifurcation at a global level and within many countries correcting that bifurcation will require large investments in rural areas and rural people in institutions and in information and biological technologies accessible by the poor in the world s smallholder sector large and growing national and international inequalities related to agriculture and rural areas threaten peace growth and sustainable development

economic growth trade and energy implications for the environmental kuznets curve abstract the environmental kuznets curve ekc hypothesis asserts that pollution follows an inverted u path with respect to economic growth the ekc has been explained in terms of structural changes in the composition of economic output and increased environmental regulation at higher income levels while some authors have incorporated the impact of trade policy orientation on the ekc the impact of the actual movement between countries of goods that embody pollution has not been considered this paper attempts to econometrically quantify the effect using pooled cross country and time series data the ekc hypothesis is examined with respect to commercial energy consumption the source of many serious environmental problems it was found that while both industrializing and industrialized countries have added to their energy requirements by exporting manufactured goods the growth has been substantially higher in the former at the same time industrialized countries have been able to reduce their energy requirements by importing manufactured goods exports of manufactured goods by industrialized countries has thus been an important factor in generating the upward sloping portion of the ekc and imports by industrialized countries have contributed to the downward slope

linking material and energy flow analyses and social theory the paper explores the potential of habermas theory of communicative action to alter the social reflexivity of material and energy flow analysis with his social macro theory habermas has provided an alternative critical justification for social theory that can be distinguished from economic libertarianism and from political liberalism implicitly most flow approaches draw from these theoretical traditions rather than from discourse theory there are several types of material and energy flow analyses while these concepts basically share a system theoretical view they lack a specific interdisciplinary perspective that ties the fundamental insight of flows to disciplinary scientific development instead of simply expanding micro models to the social macro dimension social theory suggests infusing the very notion of flows to the progress of disciplines with regard to the functional integration of society material and energy flow analyses can rely on the paradigm of ecological economics and at the same time progress the debate between strong and weak sustainability within the paradigm however placing economics at the centre of their functional analyses may still ignore the broader social integration of society depending on their pre analytic outline of research and the methods used

modeling the bio refinery industry in rural areas a participatory approach for policy options comparison the development of bio refineries has become a relevant topic in the eu s agenda however the promotion of a new industry in rural areas is typically hindered by the scarcity of human capital lack of information infrastructures and competing interests in this context public support is unavoidable to assist promotion of this innovative sector the various policy options reveal some strengths and drawbacks posing the problem of finding the best trade off to public decision makers in this paper we aim at developing a methodology to support policy decision making within the biorefinery framework with the purpose of determining a way to identify the most suitable policy option given the actual uncertainty in developing the bio refinery industry in rural areas the empirical experiment based on a simulation of the enforcement of four identified policy instruments highlights that although subsidies and incentives to profitability of dedicated crops appear to have the greatest effects on the development of bio refinery the best performances are exhibited by technological innovation and information options

a bibliometric account of the evolution of ee in the last two decades is ecological economics becoming a post normal science abstract in ecological economics the debate on formalism and formalization has been addressed in the context of a lively discussion on ecological economics as a post normal versus normal science using ecological economics ee as a seed journal and applying bibliometric techniques to all 2533 the articles published in ee from january 1989 to december 2009 we analyze the evolution of the field of ecological economics aiming to shed light on this debate we observe the predominance and increased relevance of certain research topics methodological issues policies governance and institutions and valuation moreover collective action technical change and the environment and values stand as emergent themes of research finally we note that ecological economics experienced an empirical turn reflected in a shift away from exclusively formalized papers towards exclusively empirical and to a larger extent formal and empirical ones the combination of the prominent and emergent topics and the empirical turn mirrors the increasing awareness among researchers in the field of the need to address a key specificity of ecological economics the interdependence of the economic biophysical and social spheres on this basis we argue that at least through the lens of ee ecological economics has evolved towards a post normal science

you can take it with you proposition 13 tax benefits residential mobility and willingness to pay for housing amenities abstract the endogeneity of prices has long been recognized as the main identification problem in the estimation of marginal willingness to pay mwtp for the characteristics of a given product this issue is particularly important in the housing market since a number of housing and neighborhood features are unobserved by the econometrician this paper proposes the use of a well defined type of transaction costs moving costs generated by property tax laws to deal with this type of omitted variable bias california s proposition 13 property tax law is the source of variation in transaction costs used in the empirical analysis beyond its fiscal consequences proposition 13 created a lock in effect on housing choice because of the implicit tax break enjoyed by homeowners living in the same house for a long time its importance to homeowners is estimated from a natural experiment created by two amendments that allow households headed by an individual over the age of 55 to transfer the implicit tax benefit to a new home indeed 55 year old homeowners have 25 higher moving rates than those of comparable 54 year olds these transaction costs from the property tax laws are then incorporated into a household sorting model the key insight is that because of the property tax laws different potential buyers may have different user costs for the same house the exogenous property tax component of this user cost is then used as an instrumental variable i find that mwtp estimates for housing characteristics are approximately 100 upward biased when the choice model does not account for the price endogeneity

weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics the main argument of this paper is that weak comparability of values should be seen as one characteristic feature of ecological economics the formal properties of the concepts of strong comparability implying strong or weak commensurability and weak comparability implying incommensurability will be clarified multicriteria evaluation offers the methodological and mathematical tools to operationalize the concept of incommensurability at both macro and micro levels of analysis the concept of incommensurability of values already has a long tradition in economics moreover we will show that analytic philosophy theories of complexity post normal science and the recent theories of rationality lead with different trajectories to a non algorithmic approach which in our view could be implemented by some forms of multicriteria evaluation 1998 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

empiricism in ecological economics a perspective from complex systems theory economies are open complex adaptive systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium and neo classical environmental economics seems not to be the best way to describe the behaviour of such systems standard econometric analysis i e time series takes a deterministic and predictive approach which encourages the search for predictive policy to correct environmental problems rather it seems that because of the characteristics of economic systems an ex post analysis is more appropriate which describes the emergence of such systems properties and which sees policy as a social steering mechanism with this background some of the recent empirical work published in the field of ecological economics that follows the approach defended here is presented finally the conclusion is reached that a predictive use of econometrics i e time series analysis in ecological economics should be limited to cases in which uncertainty decreases which is not the normal situation when analysing the evolution of economic systems however that does not mean we should not use empirical analysis on the contrary this is to be encouraged but from a structural and ex post point of view