heterogeneity in the adoption of photovoltaic systems in flanders abstract we study the determinants of pv adoption in the region of flanders belgium where pv adoption reached high levels during 2006 2012 because of active government intervention based on a unique dataset at a very detailed spatial level we estimate a poisson model to explain the heterogeneity in adoption rates we obtain the following findings first local policies have a robust and significant impact on pv adoption second there is a strong unconditional income effect implying a matthew effect in the subsidization of pvs our third finding is however that this income effect is largely driven by the fact that wealthier households are more likely to adopt because they tend to be higher users are more frequent house owners or own houses that are better suited for pv in several extensions we consider the determinants of the average size of installed pvs and the differential impact of certain variables over time

a review of wta wtp studies abstract willingness to accept wta is usually substantially higher than willingness to pay wtp these constructs have been studied for roughly 30 years and with a wide variety of goods this paper reviews those studies we find that the less the good is like an ordinary market good the higher is the ratio the ratio is highest for non market goods next highest for ordinary private goods and lowest for experiments involving forms of money a generalization of this pattern holds even when we account for differences in survey design ordinary goods have lower ratios than non ordinary ones we also find that ratios in real experiments are not significantly different from hypothetical experiments and that incentive compatible elicitation yields higher ratios

european schemes for promoting renewables in liberalised markets abstract the paper describes possibilities and problems for penetration of supply systems based on renewable energy sources in liberalised markets the analysis is based on recent development in eu with different models for support of installations based on renewable energy these include feed in models with guaranteed minimum tariffs tender models for different bands of technologies and green certificates trading models with obligatory consumer quota the paper describes the market situation in selected european countries including germany the uk holland and denmark an eu directive from september 2001 has postponed the decision on a possible harmonisation of promotional models until at least 2005 in order to obtain more practical experience with the different support schemes a critical evaluation is given in this paper of the different models with proposals for a balanced development between environmental and trading concerns it is argued that too much emphasis is presently given to the side of free trade at the expense of long range planning for a sustainable energy development

an experimental validation of hypothetical wtp for a recyclable product using a within subject experiment we compare hypothetical andreal willingness to pay wtp for an improvement in therecyclability of a product subjects are faced with a real paymentscenario after they have responded to a hypothetical question contrary to most of the results obtained in similar studies at apopulation level there are no significant median differencesbetween actual and hypothetical stated values of wtp however within subject comparisons between hypothetical and actual valuesindicate that subjects stating a low high hypothetical wtp tendto underestimate overestimate the value of their actualcontributions

behavioural development economics lessons from field labs in the developing world abstract explanations of poverty growth and development depend on the assumptions made about individual preferences and the willingness to engage in strategic behaviour economic experiments especially those conducted in the field have begun to paint a picture of economic agents in developing communities that is at variance with the traditional portrait we review this growing literature with an eye towards preference related experiments conducted in the field we also offer lessons on what development economists might learn from experiments we conclude by sharing our thoughts on how to conduct experiments in the field and then offer a few ideas for future research

on the measurement of risk aversion from experimental data attitudes towards risk are measured for households in northern zambia using an experimental gambling approach with real payoffs that at maximum were equal to 30 of average total annual income per capita the results of the experiment show decreasing absolute risk aversion and increasing partial risk aversion determinants of risk aversion are investigated using random effects interval regression model exploiting the panel data structure of the repeated experiments wealth indicator variables are found to be significant and partial relative risk aversion decreases as wealth increases females are found to be more risk averse than males

induced value tests of the referendum voting mechanism abstract an induced value laboratory experiment is conducted testing the incentive compatibility of the referendum voting mechanism for eliciting willingness to pay for public goods although errors were observed at the individual level aggregate results suggest incentive compatibility in both hypothetical and real referenda

anomalies risk aversion economists ubiquitously employ a simple and elegant explanation for risk aversion it derives from the concavity of the utility of wealth function within the expected utility framework we show that this explanation is not plausible in most applications since anything more than economically negligible risk aversion over moderate stakes requires a utility of wealth function that is so concave that it predicts absurdly severe risk aversion over very large stakes we present examples of how the expected utility framework has misled economists and why we believe a better explanation for risk aversion must incorporate loss aversion and mental accounting

the impact of price floors on farmland investments a real options based experimental analysis price floors are a common instrument for market intervention to stimulate investments in some cases it can be observed that a price floor does not have the stimulating effect we experimentally analyse the investment behaviour of students who take the role of farmers the experiment considers an investment problem under uncertainty in a with price floor and a no price floor treatment stylizing a decision to take an ongoing farmland investment option we compare the actual investment behaviour with normative benchmarks of the net present value and the real options approach furthermore we look at order and learning effects the results show that the price floor has no significant impact on the willingness to invest whereas the effects of order were statistically significant the investment reluctance arising from an abolishment is stronger than the investment stimulation arising from the introduction of a price floor furthermore neither the net present value nor the real options approach is appr

consumer renewable energy technology adoption decision making comparing models on perceived attributes and attitudinal constructs in the case of solar water heaters in lebanon climate change and environmental problems are of major concern to governments organisations and consumers this stresses the need for a transition towards clean renewable energy systems to enable the diffusion of cleaner energy technology it is not enough to just have supportive policies in place the challenge is to ensure that consumers adopt them this article integrates insights from different research traditions into a research model to analyse consumers adoption decision making behaviour the innovation diffusion model by rogers was used and hypotheses from environmental psychological models were later added a survey was conducted among householders to assess the adoption of solar heating systems in the metn neighbourhood in lebanon n 200 the results revealed that adopters and non adopters differ significantly according to socio demographic factors such as income and household size the study confirmed the significance of typical variables of the diffusion of innovation model such as relative advantage observability independent judgment making and novelty seeking even when testing integrative analytical models furthermore the results indicate that by integrating hypotheses from environmental psychology models to the diffusion of innovation model a reasonable fit was achieved which is higher than the value of each model tested separately the results can be of use to policy makers the article ends with suggestions for future research

stochastic production and heterogeneous risk preferences commercial fishers gear choices we present a model of fishers gear choice which allows for heterogeneity both in production technology and risk preferences and apply it on a panel of swedish trawlers stochastic revenue functions are estimated and used to predict the mean and standard deviation of revenue for each trip in a random parameters logit model we test if these predicted values explain gear choice a majority of fishers respond positively to increased mean and negatively to increased variability of expected landing values indicating risk aversion but also show a strong tendency to choose the same gear used on the previous trip

price output and exchange rate movements in the open economy abstract since the advent of managed floating it has come to be accepted as a stylized fact that short run deviations from purchasing power parity are both substantial and persistent two explanations of these deviations have been advanced in the literature one emphasizes the role of changes in non traded goods prices while the other views deviations from purchasing power parity as being due to sticky goods prices and slow adjustment of goods markets this paper presents yet a third possible explanation of deviations from purchasing power parity they may be necessary in order to facilitate the relative price changes that are required to maintain equilibrium in the face of unanticipated shocks in addition the issue of exchange rate overshooting is addressed whereas the sticky price models view exchange rate overshooting and exchange rate volatility as symptoms of some fundamental disequilibrium the perspective taken here is that these events are in principle compatible with a world in which all markets clear continuously

valuation of landmass degradation using fuzzy hedonic method a case study of national capital region a hedonic model to determine the revealed willingness to pay for landmass of different suitability classes based on landmass functional characteristics obtained through subjective assessments is developed for the national capital region in india the inherent non specificity involved in subjective evaluation is minimized using fuzzy logic based regression technique the proposed fuzzy regression involves regression using central values of triangular fuzzy number and minimization of non specificity using linear programming the revealed willingness to pay for landmass of different suitability classes is used for valuation of disbenefits due to urban expansion on landmass of different agricultural suitability classes in national capital territory of delhi appropriate pricing policies to prevent the future inappropriate landuse practices are developed using the landmass valuation

biogas energy from family sized digesters in uganda critical factors and policy implications dependence on fossil energy sources is increasingly becoming unsustainable due to ecological and environmental problems and rapid depletion biogas energy could augment these conventional energy sources but despite its advantages and favourable conditions for its production biogas energy use in uganda remains low due to technical economic and socio cultural impediments based on primary data on households in central and eastern uganda and the use of logistic regression this study analyses factors affecting the adoption of biogas energy in uganda the empirical results suggest that the probability of a household adopting biogas technology increases with decreasing age of head of household increasing household income increasing number of cattle owned increasing household size male head of household and increasing cost of traditional fuels in contrast the likelihood of adoption decreases with increasing remoteness of household location and increasing household land area policy options and recommendations including educational and awareness campaigns on biogas benefits and successes the provision of financial and non financial incentives to households and establishment of an institutional framework could bolster wider biogas energy acceptance in uganda

simultaneous estimation of risk and time preferences among small scale cattle farmers in west africa this article reports results from economic field experiments with cattle dependent small scale farmers in west africa we simultaneously estimate both risk and time preferences and examine how demographic and socio economic characteristics are correlated with each preference the empirical basis for our analysis is a panel data survey of 211 households conducted in mali and burkina faso in 2007 and 2011 and economic experiments conducted with the heads of these households in 2011 the theoretical basis for our analysis is a discounted utility model we apply prospect theory and quasi hyperbolic discounting to estimate the present values of future utility streams we apply a maximum likelihood approach to jointly estimate risk and time preferences and to investigate the correlations among the preference parameters and observable characteristics we find that on average the west african cattle farmer is generally more risk averse and more patient than similarly situated respondents from asia additionally risk and time preferences are correlated with wealth education and religion we find that constraints in wealth and education are associated with greater risk aversion and impatience furthermore time spent in a koranic school is positively related to the overweighting of small probabilities greater risk taking behavior and patience

do reminders of substitutes and budget constraints influence contingent valuation estimates a test is performed of the recommendation by the noaa panel on contingent valuation that respondents be reminded about other substitute resources and their budget constraint prior to answering the willingness to pay wtp question the context for this experiment is a cvm study of the benefits from reducing fire hazards to old growth forests in oregon the test was performed using two mail surveys that were otherwise identical except for the inclusion of reminder statements prior to the wtp question the dichotomous choice logit equations were not statistically different between versions and the mean wtp results were identical

self selection and market power in risk sharing contracts abstract although the theory of optimal contracts and the principal agent model are now well established in the literature empirical support for this theory has been mixed at best we use economic experiments to test contract theory and assess the empirical relevance of two possible confounding factors that may explain why the theory has not received stronger empirical support first parameters of interest may be biased if agents self select into projects with differing risk profiles based on risk preferences second differing levels of market power on either side of the market could shift contract terms in ways contrary to theoretical predictions in general we find support for classical contract theory augmented to accommodate market power and self selection based on risk preferences we also find evidence for a third confound in the form of the characteristics of agents not party to the transaction affecting the terms of the contract

willingness to pay for renewable energy primary and discretionary choice of british households for micro generation technologies this paper documents the policy context of renewable energy production in the european union the research adopts a choice experiment approach to investigate households wtp for these renewable energy technologies in the uk the micro generation technologies comprise solar photovoltaic micro wind solar thermal heat pumps and biomass boilers and pellet stoves the study compares the results from conditional and mixed logit models which estimate the distribution of utility coefficients and then derives wtp values as a ratio of the attribute coefficient to the price coefficient with a model in which the wtp distribution is estimated directly from utility in the money space the results suggest that whilst renewable energy adoption is significantly valued by households this value is not sufficiently large for the vast majority of households to cover the higher capital costs of micro generation energy technologies

distributed photovoltaic power generation possibilities benefits and challenges for a widespread application in the mexican residential sector mexico plans to implement a national program to support the adoption of distributed photo voltaic generation dpvg among qualified households the main objectives of such a program would be to reduce the burden of the substantial federal energy subsidy and increase the share of renewable energy sources used to generate electricity in this paper we assess the current conditions under which the mexican residential electricity sector operates and quantify the potential effects that the massive adoption of dpv systems would have on household expenditure and welfare subsidy reduction pollution and water resource usage based on the positive results in terms of both economic and environmental effects our paper provides a significant support for further design and implementation of a dpvg program

a learning design for reducing hypothetical bias in the contingent valuation method over the last few years a great deal of research has focussed on hypothetical bias in value estimates obtained with the contingent valuation cv method and on means for ameliorating if not eliminating such bias to date efforts to eliminate hypothetical bias have relied on calibration techniques or on word smithing of one kind or another to induce subjects to provide responses to hypothetical questions that mimic responses made by subjects facing actual payments in the valuation experiment this paper introduces a different approach for eliminating hypothetical bias a design for a cv survey format is presented which provides subjects with the opportunity to learn how the cv institution works sequential referenda are conducted where respondents gain experience in cv settings by participating in both hypothetical and real referenda the logic of this learning design is a straightforward application of the trials process used in experimental economics we demonstrate that the learning design is effective in eliminating hypothetical bias in surveys concerning donations to two different public goods

household biomass energy choice and its policy implications on improving rural livelihoods in sichuan china abstract it is widely known that a switch from traditional biomass energy to modern clean safe and efficient energy could improve local rural livelihoods by enhancing the access to high quality energy and reducing the negative impacts of traditional biomass energy on health environment and living standards hence in this paper we used alternative specific conditional logit model asclm to examine the rural household energy choice behaviors in sichuan province of china from the perspective of revealed and stated preferences the results show that the fuel switching in our study region is not a simple unidirectional process from traditional biomass energy to modern fuels as incomes improve household energy choice behaviors could be not only affected by energy specific characteristics such as fuel price smoky level and safety risk but also influenced by household specific factors such as income level age and educational level of the decision maker household demographic structure number of people frequently eating at home distance to the nearest biomass collecting spot and household location suggesting that government should attach more importance to simultaneously improve energy quality control energy price and enhance household socio economic status

risk aversion and incentive effects new data without order effects holt and laury 2002 used a menu of ordered lottery choices to make inferences about risk aversion under various payment conditions the main results of that paper were a subjects are risk averse even for relatively small payments of less than 5 b risk aversion increases sharply with large increases in the scale of cash payoffs and c there is no significant effect from increasing the scale of hypothetical payment with a few exceptions noted in the paper all treatments began with a low payment choice followed by a choice with hypothetical payments that had been scaled up by 20 50 or 90 followed by a real cash decision with the same high payment scale 20 50 or 90 followed by a single final low 1 real payment choice those in the 90 treatment could earn amounts ranging from 9 00 to 346 50 in this task as glenn w harrison et al 2004 correctly note this design confounds order and treatment effects since the high real payment choice was always completed after the low real and high hypothetical payment tasks in a new experiment reported below we first seek to replicate harrison et al s finding that the order effect participating in a low payment choice before making a high payment choice magnifies the scale effect in a second treatment each subject completes the menu of lottery choices under just one payment condition 1 or 20 real or hypothetical thereby eliminating any order effects i new data

gender differentiation in risk taking behavior on the relative risk aversion of single men and single women we relate an observed difference between single men sm and single women sw in attitudes towards risk to the higher value assigned to social status by sm than by sw in the marriage market low status carries a harsher penalty for sm than for sw because when selecting a partner the social status of a man is more important to a woman than the social status of a woman is to a man correlating social status with relative wealth we show how intensified distaste at experiencing low relative wealth reduces relative risk aversion

renewable energy support mechanisms in the gulf cooperation council states analyzing the feasibility of feed in tariffs and auction mechanisms renewable energy will be a crucial ingredient in the transition to a more sustainable future the renewable energy sector requires a variety of financial support mechanisms in order to further consolidate and expand currently the most prominent renewable energy support mechanisms are feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions although these mechanisms have been used and analyzed extensively in western countries and more recently economies in transition they have rarely been examined in the arab gulf region yet particularly the gulf cooperation council gcc states have undertaken important steps towards renewable energy adoption which could be greatly facilitated with the use of financial support mechanisms this paper analyzes the feasibility of feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions adoption in gcc based on an extensive meta analysis of the literature on these two mechanisms in both developed and developing countries the paper identifies a set of conditions necessary for success and evaluates the presence of favorable these conditions in the gcc context our findings reveal that while conditions that would ensure political feasibility are largely absent for both types of mechanisms auctions could be a more successful strategy at the moment

inequality social sanctions and cooperation within south african fishing communities abstract we explore the effect of income inequality and social attitudes on cooperation and sanctioning in nine south african fishing communities where allocation of fishing rights via quota and permits have been unequal and controversial we use a linear public goods experiment design with heterogeneous endowments and peer sanctioning in the punishment treatment aggregate contributions towards the public good are significantly higher amongst unequal groups with low endowment players contributing the greatest endowment share sanctioning is significantly lower in unequal groups but demand for punishment is similar irrespective of differences in relative costs free riding drives punishment but retaliation is another important motivator specifically in unequal groups in equal groups antisocial punishment of cooperators is more common the effect of real wealth and inequality on contributions and punishment is less salient possibly due to real wealth not being discernible in the experimental context interestingly social attitudes are important in explaining sanctioning behavior indicating that distrust in formal institutions and specifically in the top down quota allocation process may have a significant impact on behavioral outcomes and the effectiveness of community sanctioning mechanisms

renewable energy sector development in the caribbean current trends and lessons from history island regions and isolated communities represent an understudied area of not only clean energy development but also of innovation caribbean states have for some time shown interest in developing a regional sustainable energy policy and in implementing measures which could help to protect its member states from volatile oil markets while promoting reliance on local resources here we examine four case studies of renewable energy advancements being made by public utility companies and independent energy companies in the caribbean we attempt to locate renewable energy advances in a broader historical framework of energy sector development indicating a few policy lessons we find that different degrees of regulatory and legislative sophistication have evolved in different islands islands should have specialized policy focus contrasting the ad hoc nature of current regional energy policy discussion we also conduct a cost benefit analysis which shows that these early innovative alternative energy projects show themselves to be both profitable and significant sources of emissions reduction and job creation this lends support to the potential benefits of regional energy policy

power sector reform in small island developing states what role for renewable energy technologies abstract due to various pressures and desires more and more developing countries embark on power sector reform programmes yet there are a wide range of reform options and at present insufficient evidence is available as to which path will deliver best the desired objectives presently most small island developing states sids are dependent on high cost fossil fuel imports for power generation in spite of evidence that harnessing abundant domestic renewable sources of energy can deliver environmental social and economic benefits however depending on the type of power sector reform the transition towards renewable energy technologies rets can be either undermined or facilitated the specific focus on sids is justified because they have inherent characteristics that limit the degree to which the power sector can be transformed in comparison to larger continental developing countries with specific reference to sids this manuscript reviews the drivers and desires for power sector reform as well as presenting the available reform options and their implications on the up take of rets in addition to elaborating aspects of market governance other barriers to the consideration of rets such as financial bias in investment human capacity and environmental policy are discussed in view of this discussion which is based on evidence from recent reform programmes and theoretical academic literature recommendations are formulated that discourage full privatisation of the power sector as well as proposing less dogmatic lending conditions by international assistance bodies

gender specific starting point bias in choice experiments evidence from an empirical study abstract in this paper we test whether preferences and willingness to pay estimates obtained in a choice experiment study are susceptible to starting point bias as is often the case in dichotomous choice contingent valuation studies on the basis of a multinomial probit model we find that preferences are indeed susceptible to starting point bias in a split sample design our results suggest that varying the price levels displayed in a so called instructional choice set presented prior to the actual preference eliciting choice sets significantly impacts respondents preferences and willingness to pay for protecting danish nature areas from new motorway development in particular our results show that the bias is gender specific only female respondents are significantly affected results further reveal that the impact of the starting point bias decays as respondents evaluate more and more choice sets this supports the discovered preference hypothesis and on the basis of this we suggest a number of ways to potentially mitigate the starting point bias

review of barriers to the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems abstract this paper reviews the available literature dealing with the barriers to the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems decentralized renewable energy systems may face a range of technical economic institutional socio cultural and environmental barrier to their dissemination in the paper barriers impeding the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems have been identified and assessed in addition appropriate remedial measures and corresponding responsibility centers as reported in the literature have also been discussed inappropriateness of technology unavailability of skilled manpower for maintenance unavailability of spare parts high cost lack of access to credit poor purchasing power and other spending priorities unfair energy pricing lack of information or awareness and lack of adequate training on operation and maintenance of decentralized renewable energy systems are found to be the most critical barriers long term conducive policies appropriate regulatory framework financial incentives capital subsidies and soft loans to users technology and skill development internalization of externalities in the cost of energy withdrawal of subsidies presently being given to fossil fuels development of specialized institutions cooperation with international agencies participation of local community and awareness generation have been recommended for increased dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems

electricity restructuring greenhouse gas emissions efficiency and employment reallocation abstract this paper focuses on demonstrating the feedback relationships between greenhouse gas emissions efficiency in the electricity sector and employment reallocation with a consideration of the effects of electricity restructuring and socio demographic factors we postulate the construction information manufacturing utilities and mining sectors as a group of emissions efficiency related industries and identify the mutual relationships the emissions efficiency positively influences the job shares of these industries except mining whereas increased employment in these industries has a negative effect on the emissions efficiency electricity restructuring has a positive effect on overall employment however it does not have a statistically significant effect on the emissions efficiency additionally population aging and educational attainment have positive effects on the emissions efficiency and a higher proportion of rental households has a negative influence on it increases in renewable energy and nuclear energy generation have elastic effects on enhancing emissions efficiency

risk aversion and expected utility theory a calibration theorem within the expected utility framework the only explanation for risk aversion is that the utility function for wealth is concave a person has lower marginal utility for additional wealth when she is wealthy than when she is poor this paper provides a theorem showing that expected utility theory is an utterly implausible explanation for appreciable risk aversion over modest stakes within expected utility theory for any concave utility function even very little risk aversion over modest stakes implies an absurd degree of risk aversion over large stakes illustrative calibrations are provided

a dual self model of impulse control we propose that a simple dual self model gives a unified explanation for several empirical regularities including the apparent time inconsistency that has motivated models of quasi hyperbolic discounting and rabin s paradox of risk aversion in the large and small the model also implies that self control costs imply excess delay as in the o donoghue and rabin models of quasi hyperbolic utility and it explains experimental evidence that increased cognitive load makes temptations harder to resist the base version of our model is consistent with the gul pesendorfer axioms but we argue that these axioms must be relaxed to account for the effect of cognitive load

assessment of government support for the household adoption of micro generation systems in korea abstract this paper investigates how korean government support affects household adoption of renewable energy based micro generation systems by analyzing household preferences in relation to the costs and benefits of system installation and different kinds of government support the research adopts a discrete choice experiment approach and focuses on two micro generation technologies solar voltaic and solar thermal our empirical analysis revealed firstly that households prefer micro generation systems that have low installation costs but high energy saving benefits and long warranty periods and secondly that households prefer direct subsidies to low interest loans however we also found that households are reluctant to install photovoltaic or solar thermal systems in reality because they see the cost of system installation as being higher than the benefits they would receive from such installation in short while existing government supports are somewhat effective in promoting household adoption of micro generation systems there also exists the obstacle that the majority of households are unwilling to install such systems despite government support thus several policy improvements which focus on increasing the benefits and decreasing the installation costs of micro generation systems are suggested in this paper

do non strategic sanctions obey the law of demand the demand for punishment in the voluntary contribution mechanism abstract the prospect of receiving a monetary sanction for free riding has been shown to increase contributions to public goods we ask whether the impulse to punish is unresponsive to the cost to the punisher or whether like other preferences it interacts with prices to generate a conventional demand curve in a series of experiments we randomly vary the cost of reducing the earnings of other group members following voluntary contribution decisions in our design new groups are formed after each interaction and no subject faces any other more than once so there is no strategic reason to punish we nonetheless find significant levels of punishment and we learn that both price and the extent to which the recipient s contribution is below the group mean are significant determinants of the quantity of punishment demanded moreover punishment is mainly directed at free riders even when it costs nothing to the punisher

walk in my shoes nudging for empathy conservation abstract the traditional policy approaches to encourage conservation including offering monetary incentives and direct regulation may lead to unintended consequences which may undermine their effectiveness in this paper we experimentally test the effectiveness of complementing financial nudging incentives with nudging for empathy our framed experiment models a situation in which an upstream farmer influences the water quality downstream by choosing the level of conservation financial nudging is represented by a crop insurance subsidy conditional on conservation compliance consistent with the 2014 farm bill policy empathy nudging is represented by a downstream water user sending a message to the upstream farmer encouraging the latter to walk in the shoes take the perspective of the former we found that empathy nudging can counteract the elimination of financial incentives however it is less effective than financial nudging empathy nudging coupled with financial incentives has a synergic effect and conservation increased significantly compared to using one of the nudges alone furthermore the combination of empathy and financial nudging was particularly effective in low initial conservation cases we argue that policy makers and the public should encourage empathy conservation and that the environmental policy narrative should appeal to empathy and call for farmers to join the cause for conservation and environmental protection

renewable energy diffusion in asia can it happen without government support the dramatically increasing population of asia necessitates equally as dramatic increase in energy supply to meet demand rapidly increasing energy demand is a major concern for asian countries because the increase in demand is being met through the increased use of fossil fuel supply largely domestic coal and imported fuel renewable energy supply presents a lower emission pathway that could be a viable option for steering off the higher emissions path however several market economic institutional technical and socio cultural barriers hinder countries in moving from high to low emission pathway following a discussion on the rising demand for energy in asia and the prospects of partly satisfying it with renewable energy we outline the reasons for government support to tackle the barriers for widespread diffusion of grid based renewable energy additionally we also discuss workable models for strategic government intervention to support diffusion of grid based renewable energy in asia

envisaging feed in tariffs for solar photovoltaic electricity european lessons for canada abstract while it is widely agreed that support schemes need to be put in place to promote the use of renewable electricity there is less consensus as to what are the best kinds of strategies to use what is attracting increasing attention in canada is a system of renewable portfolio standards in this all power suppliers are under an obligation to ensure that a certain percentage of the electricity they generate is from renewable resources they can either generate that electricity themselves or purchase green certificates from those who have used renewables to generate electricity recent experience from europe however suggests that a whole hearted commitment to this single strategy could be premature and potentially damaging for the development of all kinds of renewable electricity in canada solar photovoltaics included on the other side of the atlantic ocean the use of so called feed in tariffs that is an obligation for utilities to purchase at a set price the electricity generated by any renewable energy resource is widely credited with accelerating the development of renewable electricity in many countries the purpose of this article is to reflect upon this european experience with feed in tariffs to stimulate discussions regarding what promise they might hold for the development of solar photovoltaic electricity in canada the article is divided into three main sections in the first section policies to promote renewable electricity presently in place in different parts of canada are reviewed attention is then focused more specifically in the second section of this article upon feed in tariffs after defining and describing this alternative system experiences in the countries of the european union are reviewed the main strengths and weaknesses of feed in tariffs in the european experience are also examined the focus then moves back to canada in the third section of the article in this a system of feed in tariffs is proposed for the province of ontario in order to provide just one example of the kind of support that could be forthcoming

output variability under monetary policy and exchange rate rules this paper examines the controversy concerning the relative desirability of fixed versus flexible exchange rates by examining whether a country can achieve a smaller variance of domestic output around its full employment path operating under an exchange rate rule or under a money supply rule the paper finds that neither policy will always dominate the other however it does find that if shocks in one market of the economy are large relative to shocks to other markets then one type of rule can be shown to dominate the other

a public perspective on the adoption of microgeneration technologies in new zealand a multivariate probit approach the growing demand for electricity in new zealand has led to the construction of new hydro dams or power stations that have had environmental social and cultural effects these effects may drive increases in electricity prices as such prices reflect the cost of running existing power stations as well as building new ones this study uses canterbury and central otago as case studies because both regions face similar issues in building new hydro dams and ever increasing electricity prices that will eventually prompt households to buy power at higher prices one way for households to respond to these price changes is to generate their own electricity through microgeneration technologies mgt the objective of this study is to investigate public perception and preferences regarding mgt and to analyze the factors that influence people s decision to adopt such new technologies in new zealand the study uses a multivariate probit approach to examine households willingness to adopt any one mgt system or a combination of the mgt systems our findings provide valuable information for policy makers and marketers who wish to promote effective microgeneration technologies

further investigations into the factors affecting compliance with uk fishing quotas this paper reports the results of a more recent study of quota compliance in the u k fishery that was investigated in an earlier article in this journal hatcher et al 2000 the study collected more detailed data on fishermen s perceptions and experience of enforcement and sought to measure the financial incentive to cheat in addition whereas the earlier study used a binary approach to modelling the data we employed an orderedresponse model and included a number of scale regressors without transformation although we still find some evidence of normative influences on violation levels the results suggest that conventional economic incentives predominate in the fishery

exchange rate determination an equilibrium approach with imperfect capital substitutability abstract two stylized facts of the open economy are often considered prima facie evidence of goods market disequilibrium persistent deviations of relative prices from purchasing power parity and the higher variability of the nominal exchange rate relative to price levels we develop an equilibrium model characterized by imperfect goods and asset substitutability across countries and show how it is consistent with the aforementioned stylized facts we also show that increases in the degree of risk aversion of speculators leads to higher exchange rate variance if shocks are monetary

normative and social influences affecting compliance with fisheries regulations economic models of regulatory compliance in fisheries usually assume an instrumental determination of individual behavior in which the decision to comply or to violate depends primarily on the expected monetary costs and benefits policy implications tend as a result to focus only on deterrence that is increasing the expected monetary costs of violation more complete models of compliance behavior take into account factors such a social influence moral values and the perceived legitimacy of regulations and the regulatory authority the paper describes an investigation into the non monetary factors affecting compliance with output quota restrictions among fishermen in the united kingdom

poverty risk aversion and path dependence in low income countries experimental evidence from ethiopia in most low income countries rural households depend on mixed rain fed agriculture livestock production which is very risky due to numerous market failures there are few ways to shift risks to third parties the literature has focused on what determines the responses of households in such environments of special concern are path dependencies in which households experiencing failure are prone to further failure and potential poverty traps this paper estimates levels and determinants of risk aversion in the highlands of ethiopia we find high risk aversion and evidence that constraints have important impacts on risk averting behavior with perhaps significant implications for long term poverty the results also suggest the possibility of path dependence and offer insights into links between risk aversion and poverty traps copyright 2009 oxford university press

a review of international green power markets recent experience trends and market drivers green power marketing the act of differentially selling electricity generated wholly or in part from renewable sources has emerged in more than a dozen countries around the world almost two million customers worldwide buy green power today this paper reviews green power marketing activity in australia canada japan the us and in a number of countries in europe to gain an understanding of consumer demand for electricity generated from renewable sources it also examines key factors that influence market penetration of green power products such as product designs pricing incentives marketing strategies policies and product certification 2002 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

renewable energy in russia markets development and technology transfer abstract five potential markets in russia offer commercial opportunities for renewable energy that are nearly cost competitive with conventional forms of energy grid connected electricity from wind power electricity for villages and small settlements from hybrid wind diesel and biomass district heating for buildings from biomass hot water for buildings from solar thermal and electricity and heat from geothermal over the last several decades the soviet union conducted research and development on several forms of renewable energy technological infrastructure scientific and technical knowledge engineering and technical skills and factories and equipment are all well developed assets but the translation of these assets into commercial renewable energy technologies and markets is a problem because associated market oriented skills and institutions are still lacking many barriers also exist including lack of information and demonstration experience lack of long term commercial financing a perceived climate of high investment risk technology acceptance some direct and indirect energy price subsidies most energy prices have risen to market levels utility monopolies and the absence of operational regulatory frameworks for independent power producers and historical enterprise specialization market intermediation is very important for renewable energy investments and technology transfer providing the knowledge information skills services financing and analysis that is necessary to overcome barriers joint ventures with foreign multinational corporations represent another important means for overcoming barriers one that takes advantage of russian technological capabilities four case studies illustrate the most prominent examples of renewable energy technology transfer with russia ukraine and the baltic states during the period 1992 1996

risk and ambiguity aversion behavior in index based insurance uptake decisions experimental evidence from ethiopia abstract index based insurance ibi is an innovative pro poor climate risk management strategy that suffers from low uptake evidence on the role of behavioral impediments in adoption of ibi is scant we conducted lab in the field experiments with 1139 smallholders out of whom 596 have adopted ibi in ethiopia to elicit their risk and ambiguity aversion behavior and examine whether risk and or ambiguity aversion can explain actual ibi uptake decisions our study suggests that an increase in risk aversion increases uptake but an increase in ambiguity aversion lowers uptake of ibi we also find evidence that an increase in risk aversion speeds up the uptake of ibi while an increase in ambiguity aversion delays the adoption of ibi

a framework for evaluating wtp for bipv in residential housing design in developing countries a case study of north cyprus this paper explores people s preferences for a built in photovoltaic bipv renewable energy system to be integrated into housing construction a novel methodology was developed to study the case of northern cyprus for better understanding of possibilities that abound in bipv integration the methodology incorporates building information modeling bim as a real time design and economic assessment tool for bipv choices this serves to benefit both the construction companies and potential house owners in their decision making in addition it uses a contingent valuation cv method to assess the willingness to pay wtp and the willingness to accept wta compensation the results indicate that the capital cost of pv is not instrumental in choice and a lower feed in tariff could be acceptable

harmonization of renewable electricity feed in laws in the european union this paper focuses on the harmonization of feed in laws in the european union as a support mechanism for the promotion of renewable electricity in particular it proposes a methodology for harmonization based on a feed in law with a modular and transparent premium for renewable electricity producers this premium considers technology costs some grid services political incentives and national priorities the proposed approach includes flexibility mechanisms to update and revise premiums to avoid windfall profits for producers and to share technology innovation benefits with electricity consumers while maintaining incentives for innovation our approach is based on the review of the main features of the german and spanish feed in laws and takes into account other necessary considerations for harmonization such as grid access funding definitions and standards ownership of rights derived from renewables and exceptions for small non commercial producers and energy intensive industries

policy instruments fostering wind energy projects a multi perspective evaluation approach abstract during the last decade a large number of policy instruments have been developed and implemented all over europe aiming at supporting renewable energy project development however the success of the different policy approaches varies significantly given the very different mechanisms of the diverse instruments the design or the selection of appropriate instruments may cause methodological difficulties in order to support instrument selection economists have developed several evaluation criteria however this paper states that most of the typically proposed and applied criteria catalogues still neglect the interests and requirements of important stakeholder groups this paper therefore proposes a more integrated evaluation approach taking into account the different interests of all relevant stakeholder groups in the three fields renewable energy business especially wind industry policy making and conventional power business

world bank gef solar home systems projects experiences and lessons learned 1993 2000 abstract twelve projects provide energy services to off grid rural households in developing countries by enhancing markets for solar home systems and by removing barriers to their dissemination project approaches are reviewed along with early implementation experience and lessons suggested by experience most projects incorporate the following features pilot private sector and ngo delivery models pilot consumer credit delivery mechanisms pay first cost subsidies and offer affordable system sizes support policy development and capacity develop codes and standards and establish certification testing and enforcement institutions and conduct consumer awareness and marketing programs most projects are just beginning implementation a few are almost completed lessons from early experience suggest that solar home system delivery firms face a myriad of difficulties operating in rural areas credit risk is a serious concern of both financiers and dealers and makes credit sales particularly challenging technical performance of systems is becoming well proven customers desire a range of component options and service levels and can benefit from even small systems projects must recognize the link between rural electric grid extension and solar home system demand and marketing campaigns can be extremely costly and time consuming in rural areas challenges are to demonstrate sustainable and replicable business models develop regulatory models for energy service concessions and integrate rural electrification policy with solar home system delivery

the context for substitutes in cvm studies some empirical observations abstract the purpose of this paper is to report results from a set of experiments that provide data to test the noaa 13 panel recommendation that subjects be reminded of budgetary substitutes when providing values the results suggest that simply reminding subjects of alternative environmental goods does not affect the distribution of values for a specific good such values are affected however whenever subjects simultaneously value alternative goods

renewable energy technology diffusion an analysis of photovoltaic system support schemes in medellin colombia abstract colombia s electricity mix is dominated by hydropower which constitutes over 65 percent of the installed capacity the country has important potential for introducing solar photovoltaic sources into its electricity generation mix given its high average annual insolation however there is a lack of incentives and support schemes for alternative renewable energy technologies this paper analyzes the diffusion of a photovoltaic system in colombia with a focus on medellin colombia s second largest city a diffusion model is constructed based on the classic bass diffusion theory where the adoption rate is a function of awareness raising campaigning and social interaction the model incorporates both subsidy and feed in tariff policies policy implementation scenarios and the effects of policy mixes are analyzed results show that a 50 percent subsidy for investment together with a usd 0 30 kwh feed in tariff rate jointly provide the highest marginal increase in diffusion rate however given the cheapness of the country s current hydroelectric resources photovoltaic system diffusion might remain a challenge for both the government and private sectors for the foreseeable future

policy measures to promote the widespread utilization of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation in the maldives abstract this study adopts a stakeholder based approach to understand the size and nature of the market and financial barriers to the widespread utilization of renewable energy technologies rets in the maldives in light of these barriers and the interests of relevant stakeholders this study evaluates different policy options in terms of their suitability to develop a domestic market for rets in the maldives evaluating the different policy instruments it was found that pricing laws that regulate market access are more suitable than quota systems provided that the current subsidies for conventional energy are removed or shifted towards rets as for the other financial incentives rebates on investments and low interest loans should be provided to ret project developers to overcome the high initial project costs in addition to these measures the limited institutional capacity suggests that policy support should also focus on enabling the steady development of regional institutions rather than on supporting individual ret projects these institutions should enable islands in each atoll to take advantage of efficient management and access to financial capital this will allow the development of sustained renewable energy projects that in turn will result in increased renewable capacity and decreased costs

renewable energy adoption in an ageing population heterogeneity in preferences for micro generation technology adoption abstract many countries are endeavouring to supply more of their energy from renewable resources such countries are also experiencing an aging population with a greater proportion of people aged 65 years this demographic shift may reduce the uptake of renewable energy if older person households are less inclined to accept change and adopt new technologies this paper assesses whether such households have different behavioural responses to energy efficiency compared to the rest of society and investigates whether micro generation renewable energy technologies are less likely to be adopted by these households it uses conditional logit and mixed logit models to investigate the impact of age of household on primary heating adoption and also to assess the impact of older households on the installation of discretionary micro generation technologies solar thermal solar voltaic and wind power to supplement existing heating and lighting systems results indicate that primary heating choice is not affected but that older person households are less inclined to adopt micro generation technologies

time to change what to sow risk preferences and technology adoption decisions of cotton farmers in china this paper examines the role of individual risk attitudes in the decision to adopt a new form of agricultural biotechnology in china i conducted a survey and a field experiment to elicit the risk preferences of chinese farmers who faced the decision of whether to adopt genetically modified bt cotton a decade ago in my analysis i expand the measurement of risk preferences beyond expected utility theory to incorporate prospect theory i find that farmers who are more risk averse or more loss averse adopt bt cotton later farmers who overweight small probabilities adopt bt cotton earlier

filling the gaps policy supports and interventions for scaling up renewable energy development in small island developing states abstract sids have both opportunities and challenges economic social and environmental vulnerability for low carbon development economically they are highly dependent on international trade they have limited domestic markets too small to provide significant scale economies their exports are constraint by their isolation and remote location we provide an overview of current energy situation in sids their goals to adopt low carbon economic development paths policies already in place or required to achieve the goals and challenges to implement their plans and strategies the focus is on energy policy landscape that needs to be addressed in order to scale up renewable energy technologies needed to stimulate low carbon economic growth we find that sids face four key barriers to renewable energy development information to improve the energy information network by strengthening existing information systems and building awareness of renewable energy financing mechanisms for renewable energy projects including regional loan structures and technical assistance to banks policy supports to implement regulatory frameworks that enable renewable energy development and building technical capacity among players in the renewable energy field we recommend policy enablers that underlie what could positively impact on renewable energy goals and more broadly energy efficiency and climate change

risk aversion and incentive effects comment charles a holt and susan k laury 2002 develop an experimental design to determine the risk attitude of an individual they use their observations to argue that increased incentives appear to change risk attitudes leading to greater risk aversion popular utility functions that do not allow for such effects are therefore misspecified building on this finding they estimate a flexible utility function that characterizes their aggregate data well but that does not assume constant absolute or relative risk aversion the basic holt and laury 2002 hl design should become an important tool for the interpretation and design of experiments in which risk attitudes could play a role however their most important result showing the effect of scaling up the stakes of the lottery choice task is confounded by a possible order effect an order effect occurs when prior experience with one task affects behavior in a subsequent task the primary methodological contribution of experiments in economics is to enhance control ideally such control makes the explanatory variables of interest in this case scale orthogonal to other explanatory variables such as order allowing clearer inferences about behavior than one could get from field econometric data we argue that not controlling for order effects results in a misspecification of utility functions that is as important as that of scale the subjects in the hl design were given sequences of three or four tasks as shown in table 1 task 1 involved choices over lotteries with a baseline level of prizes which we will refer to as the 1 scale task 2 involved hypothetical choices over prizes with a scaled up level of prizes either 20 50 or 90 task 3 repeated task 2 but with choices that involved real payoffs task 4 was a return to the baseline task with real 1 prizes in some sessions subjects were not given task 2 or task 3 what could one infer from the comparison of measured risk attitudes in the 1 and 20 tasks in hl unfortunately any observed difference could be due either to the scale of the prizes involved or the task order or some combination of both thus the effect of scale is intrinsically confounded with the possible effect of task order this is a logical flaw in their design which

learning and fatigue effects revisited investigating the effects of accounting for unobservable preference and scale heterogeneity using multiple choice tasks per respondent in discrete choice experiment studies increases the amount of available information however respondents learning and fatigue may lead to changes in observed utility function preference taste parameters as well as the variance in its error term scale they need to be controlled to avoid potential bias a sizable body of empirical research offers mixed evidence in terms of whether these ordering effects are observed we point to a significant component in explaining these differences we show how accounting for unobservable preference and scale heterogeneity can influence the magnitude of observed ordering effects

resolving questions about bias in real and hypothetical referenda despite 10 years of research on behavior in hypothetical referenda conflict remains in the literature on whether or not the mechanism generates biased responses compared to real referenda and the nature and source of any such bias almost all previous inquiry in respect of this issue has concentrated on bias at the aggregate level this paper reports a series of three experiments which focuses on bias at the individual level and how this can translate to bias at the aggregate level the authors argue that only an individual approach to hypothetical bias is consistent with the concept of incentive compatibility the results of these experiments reflect these previous conflicting findings but go on to show that individual hypothetical bias is a robust result driven by the differing influence of pure self interest and other regarding preferences in real and hypothetical situations rather than by a single behavioral theory such as free riding in a hypothetical situation these preferences cause yea saying and non demand revealing voting this suggests that investigation of individual respondents in other hypothetical one shot binary choices may also provide us with insights into aggregate behavior in these situations

choice under uncertainty evidence from ethiopia india and uganda we review experimental evidence collected from risky choice experiments using poor subjects in ethiopia india and uganda using these data we estimate that just over 50 of our sample behaves in accordance with expected utility theory and that the rest subjectively weight probability according to prospect theory our results show that inferences about risk aversion are robust to whichever model we adopt when we estimate each model separately however when we allow both models to explain portions of the data simultaneously we infer risk aversion for subjects behaving according to expected utility theory and risk seeking behaviour for subjects behaving according to prospect theory

are commercial fishers risk lovers fishers are risk averse according to most empirical studies while expected utility theory predicts risk neutrality even for sizable stakes we test this prediction using data from a stated choice experiment with swedish commercial fishers our results show that only 48 of the fishers can be broadly characterized as risk neutral while 26 are modestly risk averse and 26 are strongly riskaverse fishers are more risk neutral the higher the fraction of their household s income comes from fishing sensitivity testing implies that modest stake decisions like a few days of fishing are not influenced by wealth level

risk aversion experimental evidence from south african fishing communities we estimate the risk attitudes of a large sample of individuals from various fishing communities along the west coast of south africa female fishers and rights holders are found to be more risk averse than their male counterparts while rights holders are found to be less risk averse relative to subjects without fishing rights risk attitudes are found to be correlated with compliance with fisheries regulations in particular a greater degree of risk aversion translates into a reduction in compliance furthermore in the case of gender female fishers and rights holders are more likely to comply with fisheries regulations

exchange rate dynamics abstract dornbusch and stock flow models are tested using time series data on the swiss u s exchange rate efficient estimates of the models are derived and the overidentifying restrictions tested in each case the restrictions implied by the dornbusch model are rejected but those of the stock flow model are not purchasing power parity in the long run is a feature of the stock flow model

tests of equilibrium macroeconomics using contemporaneous monetary data abstract this paper uses contemporaneous monetary data to carry out econometric tests of the equilibrium approach to modelling the relation between monetary disturbances and macroeconomic fluctuations the theoretical analysis introduces into an equilibrium macroeconomic model the availability of preliminary data on current monetary aggregates and the process of accumulation of revised monetary data the econometric analysis tests two hypothesis derived from this extended model one hypothesis concerns the neutrality of perceived monetary policy the econometric results imply rejection of this hypothesis the other hypothesis concerns the non neutrality of errors in preliminary monetary data the econometric results fail to reject the contrary of this hypothesis these tests provide strong evidence against the reality of the equilibrium approach

using ex ante approaches to obtain credible signals for value in contingent markets evidence from the field while contingent valuation remains the only option available for measurement of total economic value of nonmarketed goods the method has been criticized due to its hypothetical nature we analyze field experimental data to evaluate two ex ante approaches to attenuating hypothetical bias directly comparing value statements across four distinct referenda hypothetical cheap talk consequential and real our empirical evidence suggests two major findings hypothetical responses are significantly different from real responses and responses in the consequential and cheap talk treatments are statistically indistinguishable from real responses we review the potential for each method to produce reliable results in the field

recreation demand models with taste differences over people we estimate random parameter logit models of anglers choice of fishing site the models generalize logit by allowing coefficients to vary randomly over anglers rather than being fixed the models do not exhibit the restrictive independence from irrelevant alternatives property of logit and can represent any substitution pattern estimation explicitly accounts for the fact that the variation in coefficients over anglers induces correlation in unobserved utility over trips by the same angler willingness to pay for improved fish stock and the value to anglers of specific sites are calculated from the models and compared with the estimates obtained from a standard logit model

risk preferences technology adoption and insurance uptake a framed experiment abstract despite the yield improvements associated with the adoption of new farming technologies and modern inputs technology diffusion amongst small scale farmers in developing countries is slow in this context given the inherently risky environments in which farmers in the developing world operate poor households are thought to be caught in a risk induced poverty trap specifically poorer households that are unable to insulate themselves from consumption risk avoid these risks by opting for lower return lower risk agriculture and thus do not benefit from technological innovation using a series of laboratory experiments in a south african setting this paper examines whether the provision of a framed index insurance product induces individuals to opt into riskier but potentially more profitable activities to do so we use a simple gambling task with real monetary prizes to elicit subjects risk preferences elicited risk preferences are applied to the uptake of credit and insurance in a series of framed insurance simulation games experiment participants are small scale and subsistence urban food growers overall the results of the experiment lend empirical weight to the poverty trap argument firstly a high degree of risk aversion is evident among the sample secondly risk averse individuals are more likely to opt into traditional agriculture reflected as traditional seeds in the experiment and are less likely to use modern farming inputs that require financing high yield varieties despite the availability of insurance the results indicate that the provision of index insurance is not a panacea for the problem of promoting technology diffusion to small scale farmers in the developing world but that residual production risk and basis risk must be considered in the contract design

wind electricity in denmark a survey of policies their effectiveness and factors motivating their introduction this paper surveys the development of the policies supporting the introduction of wind electricity in denmark in the last 15 years with special attention to the new policy introduced after a 2 year long debate the aim of this paper is to explore the roles of financial support policy certainty and planning constraints in the diffusion of wind electricity in denmark and the reasons prompting the change of the system in the current decade it is discovered that political uncertainty has badly affected the effectiveness of the feed in law in the years immediately after its introduction with regard to the new system it is concluded that the change has been prompted by generous conditions under the feed in law and by the desire to facilitate the modernisation of old turbines it is also concluded that incentive based systems can be more effective than tradable quotas in promoting the modernisation of renewable plants this finding is relevant to the development of energy policy in countries such as germany and spain where the average age of wind turbines is much younger than those existing in denmark

location choice of commercial fishermen with heterogeneous risk preferences location choice of commercial fishermen with heterogeneous risk preferences author s johan a mistiaen and ivar e strand reviewed work s source american journal of agricultural economics vol 82 no 5 proceedings issue dec 2000 pp 1184 1190 published by oxford university press on behalf of the agricultural applied economics association stable url http www jstor org stable 1244248 accessed 25 01 2012 20 19

risk aversion and expected utility of consumption over time the calibration theorem by rabin rabin m 2000a risk aversion and expected utility theory a calibration theorem econometrica 68 1281 1292 rabin m 2000b diminishing marginal utility of wealth cannot explain risk aversion in kahneman d tversky a eds choices values and frames cambridge university press implies that seemingly plausible small stake choices under risk imply implausible large stake risk aversion this theorem is derived based on the expected utility of wealth model however cox and sadiraj cox j c sadiraj v 2006 small and large stakes risk aversion implications of concavity calibration for decision theory games econ behav 56 45 60 show that such implications do not follow from the expected utility of income model one may then wonder about the implications for more applied consumption analysis the present paper therefore expresses utility as a function of consumption in a standard life cycle model and illustrates the implications of this model with experimental small and intermediate stake risk data from holt and laury holt c a laury s k 2002 risk aversion and incentive effects amer econ rev 92 1644 1655 the results suggest implausible risk aversion parameters as well as unreasonable implications for long term risky choices thus the conventional intertemporal consumption model under risk appears to be inconsistent with the data c 2009 elsevier inc all rights reserved less

does realism matter in contingent valuation surveys the importance of stressing the realism or policy relevance of a contingent valuation cv survey is commonly recognized by cv researchers this paper focuses on the relationship between the probability that a subject s response will result in real consequences and the subject s accurate reporting of willingness to pay results from experiments support the argument that efforts to make contingent valuation surveys real are important however our results also suggest that the connection between the survey and the likelihood of a payment must be rather powerful before surveys generate accurate reporting of willingness to pay for a public good

discrete modelling of supply response under uncertainty the case of the fishery abstract in the absence of complete control in a regulated industry effective management requires prediction of firms behavioral responses to public policy this paper develops a discrete choice model of supply response under uncertainty and applies it to fishery choice problems of new england fishing firms while fishermen demonstrate a bias towards remaining within the same fishery sufficient incentives in terms of changes in expected returns and risk are shown to elicit response due to extreme uncertainty concerning population dynamics of fish stocks a satisficing approach to management facilitated by this type of modelling may be more appropriate than bioeconomic optimization

producer decision making under uncertainty role of past experiences and question framing limited research examines the role of reference points or how uncertain outcomes are processed in producer decisions this study employs a survey containing a split sample choice experiment varying how uncertain outcomes are portrayed and assesses multiple candidate reference points results suggest that u s cattle producers use the best outcome experienced as reference points in their decisions and the method by which uncertain outcomes are presented impacts loss aversion marginal willingness to pay and market participation estimates this illustrates how research employing split samples multiple reference points and alternative methods of portraying uncertain outcomes may better identify producer decision making

the influence of rebate programs on the demand for water heaters the case of new south wales this paper examines the role of australian hot water system rebate programs in shifting the existing stock of electric water heaters toward more climate friendly versions using two unique data sets from new south wales homeowners the first data set is based on a survey of households who recently purchased a water heater before and after the rebate programs were in place the other is based on a set of stated preference questions asked of households soon to face a replacement decision while the former allows us to look at recent responses the latter enables us to forecast future demand we find that the programs significantly increase shares of solar heat pump systems the programs however appear less effective in reducing the stock of electric heaters for households with access to natural gas this pattern is consistent in both datasets results from the discrete choice experiments suggest considerable heterogeneity with respect to household preferences toward different types of water heaters and the discount rates they hold the effective cost of reducing carbon emissions via incentives for water heater replacement is considered from the counterfactual perspective of no government incentives