the environmental economic impact of woodland a two stage hedonic price model of the amenity value of forestry in britain woodland is an important part of the environment providing economic benefits through its use in commercial timber production and through its value as an amenity as well as providing recreation for visitors woodland is also important to local residents for whom it provides leisure opportunities and a source of aesthetic enjoyment it is well known that the price of a house may reflect a household s willingness to pay to live near an environmental amenity such as a forest and to gain access to it the nature of this relationship may be examined by applying the hedonic price technique an econometric method which investigates house prices and the variation in structural and environment characteristics over space this study uses a two stage hedonic price model to explore the impact of forest type on house price and to estimate the demand for broadleaved woodland for a sample of houses adjacent to forestry commission land

vintage technologies and skill constraints evidence from u s exports of new and used machines when countries import production machinery they must choose between new and used equipment this article looks at that choice in the presence of labor saving technical progress and complementarity between technologies and skills within the firm it develops a theoretical model of the market for used machines it then analyzes data on united states u s exports of metalworking machine tools by country of destination classifying machines according to their vintage and their technological characteristics the data show that the share of used equipment imported is higher if the importing country has a lower level of development as measured by income per capita econometric estimation of the determinants of this share shows that it also is higher the greater is the technological change embodied in the machine or the greater is the change in the skills required to run the machine efficiently these results indicate that technological factors and skill constraints may be as important as factor prices in determining the choice of technique in developing countries the policy recommendation emerging from this work avoid constraints on imports of used equipment is similar to that in the existing literature but the reasoning is different instead of emphasizing inappropriate capital labor ratios for low wage countries the results indicate that investment in advanced technologies is effective only if importing countries have the skills to use them

natural resources and the marshallian effects of input reducing technological changes abstract input reducing technologies are often cited as potential solutions to the pressure for over harvesting natural resources the underlying implicit assumption that technological change reducing the hicksian input demand also reduces the marshallian input demand neglects the impacts of input reducing technological changes on marshallian supplies this reasearch shows that marshallian supply effects generally offset the impacts of technological change on hicksian input demands and if the offset is large enough marshallian input demands could even increase as an example i statistically determine the extent increased technological efficiency in lumber production reduced the demand for sawlogs in the pacific northwest the statistical results indicate that input reducing technological changes did not reduce the overall marshallian demand for sawlogs resource conservation policies which rely solely on the implementation of input reducing technologies may be ineffective or even counterproductive

the amenity value of english nature a hedonic price approach using a hedonic property price approach we estimate the amenity value associated with proximity to habitats designated areas domestic gardens and other natural amenities in england there is a long tradition of studies looking at the effect of environmental amenities and disamenities on property prices but to our knowledge this is the first nationwide study of the value of proximity to a large number of natural amenities in england we analysed 1 million housing transactions over 1996 2008 and considered a large number of environmental characteristics results reveal that the effects of many of these environmental variables are highly statistically significant and are quite large in economic magnitude gardens green space and areas of water within the census ward all attract a considerable positive price premium there is also a strong positive effect from freshwater and flood plain locations broadleaved woodland coniferous woodland and enclosed farmland increasing distance to natural amenities such as rivers national parks and national trust sites is unambiguously associated with a fall in house prices our preferred regression specifications control for unobserved labour market and other geographical factors using travel to work area fixed effects and the estimates are fairly insensitive to changes in specification and sample this provides some reassurance that the hedonic price results provide a useful representation of the values attached to proximity to environmental amenities in england overall we conclude that the housing market in england reveals substantial amenity value attached to a number of habitats designations private gardens and local environmental amenities

the relationships between science technologies and their industrial exploitation an illustration through the myths and realities of the so called european paradox abstract this paper discusses first the properties of scientific and technological knowledge and the institutions supporting its generation and its economic applications the evidence supports the broad interpretation that we call the stanford yale sussex synthesis second such patterns yield important implications with respect to the so called european paradox i e the conjecture that eu countries play a leading global role in terms of top level scientific output but lag behind in the ability of converting this strength into wealth generating innovations some descriptive evidence shows that contrary to the paradox conjecture europe s weaknesses reside both in its system of scientific research and in a relatively weak industry the final part of the paper identifies a few normative implications much less emphasis should be put on various types of networking and much more on policy measures aimed at strengthening both frontier research and european corporate actors

the evolution of the industrial organisation of the production of knowledge this work elaborates the notion of localised technological knowledge based upon the distinction between information competence and knowledge and analyses the emergence of the new knowledge industry the evolution of the organisation of knowledge production is analysed through four stylised modes scientific entrepreneurship institutional variety vertical integration and technological cooperation the new trends towards the growth of knowledge intensive business service industries are detected and underlined they are considered as the outcome of the institutional formation of a market for knowledge based upon a process of increasing appropriability of localised knowledge based on the blending of generic scientific information and competence and growing scope of applicability via computercommunication systems deverticalisation of research activities from the boundaries of corporations the specification of a demand for technological competence and the specialising of independent firms in the production of technological competence and knowledge

estimation of house price differential of urban tree cover an application of sample selection approach hedonic valuation of urban forest amenities tends to assume that these attributes are exogenous to sample selection which might render the estimated results misleading this article intends to est

a growing trend toward knowledge work in canada abstract this paper answers three questions related to the growing trend toward knowledge occupations in canada i what was the magnitude of the trend between 1971 and 1996 ii was the trend a widespread phenomenon or was it restricted to specific industries iii what are the proximate causes of the trends using five censuses 1971 1981 1986 1991 1996 and the input output i o data the paper provides evidence that the canadian economy is becoming increasingly knowledge based although the upgrading trends differ across knowledge occupations moreover we find that this phenomenon is spread across all industrial sectors finally using a decomposition analysis borrowed from wolff and baumol three factors the substitution effect the productivity lag effect and the demand effect have been examined in order to shed some light on these trends we find that these effects vary according to the nature of the knowledge involved in these different groups of occupations thus reflecting not only the importance of the technological change skill bias but also the increasing complexity of controlling and managing the new economic activities

estimating the demand for tree canopy a second stage hedonic price analysis in portland oregon the benefits of large patches of tree canopy are estimated by applying a hedonic price model to the sale of single family residential properties in portland oregon the first stage analysis provides evidence of diminishing returns from increasing tree canopy past a certain level the second stage analysis uses a survey of property owners preferences and socioeconomic characteristics to overcome the problem of endogeneity average benefit estimates for the mean canopy cover within mile of properties in the study area using the second stage model are between 0 75 and 2 52 of the mean sale price

confidence intervals for elasticities and flexibilities from linear equations information regarding the precision of elasticity and flexibility estimates from equations linear in original variables is typically missing from empirical studies a result due to fieller which allows construction of exact confidence intervals for elasticities and flexibilities from such equations is demonstrated exact confidence intervals are not necessarily narrowest at mean levels nor are they symmetric about the point estimates of the elasticities and flexibilities empirical examples indicate that exact 95 percent confidence intervals for price flexibilities for food items can be quite wide

common trends and drivers of co2 emissions and employment a decomposition analysis in the industrial sector of selected european union countries the countries of the european union face the challenge of reversing the declining role of industry and achieving their targets for sustainable development combining industrial growth with fewer environmental repercussions and more jobs this paper uses a decomposition analysis in order to quantify the effect of the driving factors on two indicators of sustainable industrial development co2 emissions and employment in five european union countries during 2000 2011 the decomposition method applied is the log mean divisia index i and the models developed comprise some common or closely related driving factors the parallel investigation of the factors affecting the two indicators offers useful insights into relevant complementary and or antithetical effects the timeframe of the study is divided into two time periods before and after the start of the economic crisis 2000 2007 and 2007 2011 respectively this time division enables the evaluation of the impacts of the economic crisis directly on the drivers and indirectly on the two indicators it was deduced that in both time periods the two main drivers of industrial co2 emissions and employment were economic growth and resource intensity which counterbalance each other structural changes appeared to have a rather marginal effect even if the general tendency was the expansion of less energy labour intensive sectors finally changes in the fuel mix used in industry were beneficial to emissions reduction in all the examined countries especially in the second time period the results obtained show that the examined eu countries have not found a solid path towards sustainable and inclusive industrial development yet the stronger economies seem to move faster to this direction though

what determines the elasticity of industry demand abstract this paper develops estimates of price elasticity of demand for a sample of u s food and tobacco manufacturing industries and tests a model explaining differences in interindustry elasticity the empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that demand elasticity is in part determined by the competitive behavior of firms in an industry in particular high advertising expenditures result in lower elasticities of demand other important variables influencing demand elasticity are industry concentration the stage of production the existence of protection from domestic and foreign entry and the extent of new product introduction in a particular market

mixed monetary and non monetary valuation of attractive urban green space a case study using amsterdam house prices abstract this paper offers new insight into the monetary value of green space at the intra urban level to this end an established monetary valuation method hedonic price analysis is integrated with a relatively novel non monetary valuation method in specific online value mapping based survey data n 723 are used to inform hedonic models of the preferences that potential home buyers may have for nearby attractive green spaces the estimation uses data on 35 298 home transactions in the amsterdam agglomeration s urban core homes nearby attractive green space are found to sell at a price premium which decays with distance and becomes negligible after one kilometer the estimated price effect varies from 7 1 9 3 for houses within 0 25 km from the nearest attractive green space to 1 7 2 3 for houses located at 0 75 1 0 km away depending on the scale at which omitted spatial variables are controlled for adding to the discussion of spatial controls in this type of analysis the controls are evaluated at multiple scales and a metric that simplifies the interpretation of the scale of spatial controls the mean equalized diameter is introduced this study s findings may inform policymakers who seek to maximize the well being of urban citizens through public investments in attractive amenities

production economics of private forestry a comparison of industrial and nonindustrial forest owners this paper compares the producrion behavior of industrial and nonindustrial privateforestland owners in the southeastern u s using a restricted profit function profits aremodeled as a function of two outputs sawtimber and pulpwood one variable input regeneration effort and two quasi fixed inputs land and growing stock although anidentical profit function is rejected the results indicate behavior consistent with pmfit maximizing motives under both ownerships the two ownerships have similar responsesto input and output price changes both in the shon run and in the long run however nonindustrial owners appear to place a higher value on their standing timber andforestland than do industrial owners the difference in estimated shadow valuesindicates that significant nonmarket benefits are being captured by nonindustriai ownersand the benefits are reflected in their production behavior

technology systems and technology policy in an evolutionary framework the central purpose of this paper is to outline an evolutionary theory of technology policy and to connect it with the emerging literature on national systems of innovation any understanding of technology policy must be based on a clear understanding of the nature of technology and the important differences between science and technology technology can be treated in terms of knowledge skills and artifacts and in each case there are different variety generating mechanisms different selection processes and different institutional structures for policy purposes the degree of connection between these different dimensions of technology is at the core of technology policy c 1995 academic press inc copyright 1995 by oxford university press

from market magic to calypso science policy a review of terence kealey s the economic laws of scientific research the current reconsideration of public research funding policies in the u s and u k and other industrialized economies makes it important that policy makers and the public understand the valid economic grounds for government support of science this review article of a book that which argues for the ending of all government support of non military r d provides an occasion to take stock of what is known about the subject the review concludes that the extreme laissez faire science policy arguments adroitly advanced by terrance kealey s book are analytically without foundation and are based upon distortions and misinterpretations of the evidence of economic history as well as on the misuse of econometric methods the problem is that mr kealey is an engaging writer and there still is in some policy circles an audience for his message hence to undo the damage will call for concerted and persistent efforts on the part of economists specializing in the economics of science and technology this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

identifying individual discount rates and valuing public open space with stated preference models an individual s rate of time preference is an important consideration for individuals deciding whether to support a public good since the benefits of a public good often come in the future our study finds individual discount rates from a contingent valuation method cvm question where the time frame of the payment schedule is varied across surveys we find discount rates similar to the rates found in the recent revealed preference and experimental literature of around 30 our cvm question addresses the preservation of additional open space adjacent to a large regional park at the urban fringe of portland oregon

contracting for tacit knowledge the provision of technical services in technology licensing contracts abstract recent research on the economic payoff from new technology has emphasized the importance of tacit knowledge or know how this paper shows that arm s length contract can overcome the problems in contracting for know how by bundling complementary inputs with know how in a technology package and leveraging the superior enforceability of contracts over the latter in the empirical part of this paper the relationship between bundling and transfer of know how is analyzed using indian data the results imply that tied sales of inputs may increase the efficiency of contracts involving the transfer of know how a striking result in the context of the current north south debates on intellectual property rights is the packaging of patents with know how

the occupational dynamics of recent canadian engineering graduates inside and outside the bounds of technology abstract the increasing pervasiveness of new technologies in a multitude of occupations seems to have given a labour market advantage to engineers offering them a range of job opportunities outside the traditional bounds of technology with important financial and career rewards in this context the oecd technology economy programme tep raised concerns regarding the extent of the increasing availability and attractiveness of job opportunities outside the traditional fields of employment for recent engineering graduates they also however stressed that there was little hard information available to diagnose the problem in canada a series of databases the national graduates surveys allows us to conclude that i there has been no increase in the proportion of recent engineering graduates working in non technical occupations except for the management ladder especially engineering management ii when analysed in a static perspective non engineering occupations do not appear to have generally offered advantages over more traditional occupations and iii using a more dynamic mover stayer analysis which more fully exploits the longitudinal nature of the data non technical occupations and in particular the management ladder have offered certain advantages for at least some engineering graduates thereby raising some concerns in line with those expressed by the oecd tep