smallholder market participation concepts and evidence from eastern and southern africa abstract this paper reviews the evidence on smallholder market participation with a focus on staple foodgrains i e cereals in eastern and southern africa in an effort to help better identify what interventions are most likely to break smallholders out of the semi subsistence poverty trap that appears to ensnare much of rural africa the conceptual and empirical evidence suggests that interventions aimed at facilitating smallholder organization at reducing the costs of intermarket commerce and perhaps especially at improving poorer households access to improved technologies and productive assets are central to stimulating smallholder market participation and escape from semi subsistence poverty traps macroeconomic and trade policy tools appear less useful in inducing market participation by poor smallholders in the region

understanding heterogeneous preferences in random utility models a latent class approach a finite mixture approach toconditional logit models is developed in whichlatent classes are used to promoteunderstanding of systematic heterogeneity the model is applied to wilderness recreationin which a branded choice experiment involvingchoice of one park from a demand system wasadministered to a sample of recreationists the basis of membership in the classes orsegments in the sample involved attitudinalmeasures of motivations for taking a trip aswell as their stated preferences overwilderness park attributes the econometricanalysis suggested that four classes of peopleexist in the sample using the model toexamine welfare measures of some hypotheticalpolicy changes identified markedly differentwelfare effects than the standard singlesegment model and provided insight into thedifferential impact of alternative policies

public preferences for hydrogen buses comparing interval data ols and quantile regression approaches we use a quantile regression qr approach to analyse contingent valuation estimates of public willingness to pay wtp for the air and noise pollution reductions associated with the introduction of hydrogen buses in london qr results show that variables that were not significant in interval regression or ordinary least squares regression become significant at certain quantiles along the wtp distribution in addition the determinants of wtp at the lower tail of the distribution differ from those at the higher end of the distribution our findings illustrate the usefulness of quantile regression methods for analysing contingent valuation data enhancing our understanding of the determinants of willingness to pay

upper and lower bounds of put and call option value stochastic dominance approach applying stochastic dominance rules with borrowing and lending at the risk free interest rate we derive upper and lower values for an option price for all unconstrained utility functions and alternatively for concave utility functions the derivation of these bounds is quite general and fits any kind of stock price distribution as long as it is characterized by a nonnegative beta transaction costs and taxes can be easily incorporated in the model presented here since investors are not required to revise their portfolios continuously the price that is paid for this generalization is that a range of values rather than a unique value is obtained in the last decade there has been an increasing interest in the options market by both academicians and practitioners the most well known valuation models are the black scholes 4 model the jump stochastic process model see cox and ross 6 the binomial model see cox ross and rubinstein 7 rendleman and bartler 19 and sharpe 22 and rubinstein s discrete model 21 recently perrakis and ryan 18 using rubinstein s approach have derived upper and lower bounds for option prices the relative pricing theory of contingent claims differs in the continuous time and discrete time models in a continuous time framework the instantaneous expected rate of return of the option and that of the underlying stock must follow a certain market equilibrium condition in this case the equilibrium condition is easily determined by a continuous hedging strategy in the discrete time case there is no hedging strategy to provide a simple relationship between the option and the stock price however for a given value distribution of the stock the value distribution of the option is uniquely determined by the option exercise price and this suggests some possible relationships between the stock and option values

qualitative and quantitative evidence on the true local welfare costs of forest conservation in madagascar are discrete choice experiments a valid ex ante tool summary protected areas may impose local welfare costs through the enforcement of use restrictions predicting their welfare impacts before their establishment could help with the design of compensation schemes discrete choice experiments dces are increasingly used for ex ante evaluations but their validity is largely untested in low income settings using a case study of a new redd reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation project in eastern madagascar we explore the validity of dces in two ways i whether the estimates of welfare costs derived from dce are affected by respondents prior experience of conservation ii whether dce results have high theoretical and content validity we surveyed households who have varying degrees of experience of restrictions to swidden agriculture we also qualitatively debriefed a sub sample of respondents to better understand their thought processes latent class analysis shows that dce outcomes vary with conservation experience households more experienced with forest protection are less willing to trade off rights to clear forest for swidden agriculture with any compensatory interventions whereas less experienced households highly favor support for alternative agricultural techniques and a secure right to clear one hectare of forest although the results show apparent non attendance to some attributes e g cash payments qualitative debriefings suggest that respondents infact do expect relatively low or no utility from the given attributes and hence have theoretically valid preferences similarly the dce has generally high content validity although dce can elicit current preferences in this context using ex ante dce to estimate the welfare costs of such a long term intervention requires caution we conclude that it is difficult to robustly estimate compensation in advance of an intervention there is therefore a need to rethink conservation approaches and the feasibility of achieving fair compensations for conservation imposed restrictions

disentangling the effects of policy and payment consequentiality and risk attitudes on stated preferences abstract incentivizing respondents to truthfully reveal their preferences in stated preference surveys requires that they believe their survey responses can influence decisions related to the outcome in question policy consequentiality and that they will have to bear their share of the coercive cost if the outcome is implemented payment consequentiality we investigate the effects of these two aspects of perceived consequentiality on stated preferences in a field survey concerning renewable energy development in poland we find that beliefs in policy and payment consequentiality strengthen the respondents interest in having the project implemented however policy consequentiality decreases and payment consequentiality increases their sensitivity to the project cost which respectively increases and decreases their willingness to pay for the project we conclude that the two aspects of consequentiality should be addressed separately additionally we inquire the theoretically speculated links between the respondents perceptions of policy and payment consequentiality and their risk attitudes and we find no significant relationship

on option pricing bounds the purpose of this article is to compare the perrakis and ryan bounds of option prices in a single period model with option bounds derived using linear programming it is shown that the upper bounds are identical but that the lower bounds are different a comparison of these bounds together with merton s bounds and the black scholes prices in a lognormal securities market is presented the black scholes 1 option pricing model is preference free its simplicity derives from the continuous trading assumption which enables a portfolio of stock and bonds to be constructed so as to replicate the payouts of the option in an incomplete market with only finite opportunities to revise portfolios no preference free option price can be constructed 3 6 for this case preferencedependent prices can be established rather than place restrictive assumptions on preferences perrakis and ryan pr 5 have recently derived upper and lower bounds for a single and multiple period call option price the development of these bounds is based on the single price law and arbitrage arguments and requires modest assumptions on preferences the bounds exist as equilibrium values given a consensus on stock price distributions in this article we shall develop bounds for option prices based on primitive prices in incomplete markets and compare these bounds to the single period bounds derived by perrakis and ryan towards this goal we first review the pricing approach for primitive securities and proceed to re express the pr bounds as derived from their arbitrage portfolios then using linear programming bounds on option prices are derived linear programming approaches for obtaining relationships among option prices have been investigated garman 2 for example established an algebra for evaluating hedge portfolios using this algebra a one period linear program can be established that provides a way to search for arbitrage opportunities over an infinite number of portfolio strategies one of the features of the algebra is that only one linear program need be solved to determine if riskless arbitrage strategies can be established by investigating the dual of the linear program garman obtained necessary and sufficient conditions for rational option pricing in a one period setting these bounds were shown to be consistent with the bounds determined by merton 4 unlike garman s approach the linear programming approach presented here places constraints on time preferences risk aversion and state probabilities under specific sets of assumptions linear programs are formulated where the objective function to be optimized is the call price minimization and maximi

decreasing absolute risk aversion and option pricing bounds in this paper efficient bounds for the price of a call option are obtained using the decreasing absolute risk aversion dara dominance rule such lower and upper bounds are obtained minimizing and maximizing respectively the objective function of a nonlinear optimization problem an explicit formula related to an exponential utility function is given for the special case of three states of nature a large number of experiments have been carried out and the numerical results support the conjecture that the same formula holds for problems with a number of states n 3 moreover dara bounds are more efficient than the bounds obtained using different criteria

repeated transaction in rural grain markets of ethiopia abstract this article uses the theory of repeated transaction to model exchange in rural grain markets we examine the theoretical and empirical drivers of repeated transaction as well as potential problems that may arise as a result of its widespread use we develop a structural repeated game to represent buyer seller relations in a developing country grain market motivated by observations in ethiopia the model generates hypotheses regarding the logic that drives long term tied transactions as governed by information access screening and investment costs and time preferences the model s predictions are tested using market transaction data collected in ethiopia in 2009 results support the view that a relational contract is driven by access to information and the costs of screening our major finding is that trust in relational trading can emerge through costly repeated interaction

what aspects of formality do workers value evidence from a choice experiment in bangladesh this study uses a choice experiment among 2 000 workers in bangladesh to elicit willingness to pay wtp for job attributes a contract termination notice working hours paid leave and a pension fund using a stated preference method allows calculation of wtp for benefits in this setting despite the lack of data on worker transitions and the fact that many workers are self employed which makes it difficult to use revealed preference methods workers highly value job stability the average worker would be willing to forego a 27 percent increase in income to obtain a 1 year contract relative to no contract or to forego a 12 percent increase to obtain thirty days of termination notice there is substantial heterogeneity in wtp by type of employment and gender women value shorter working hours more than men while government workers place a higher value on contracts than do private sector employees

agricultural marketing by smallholders in kenya a comparison of maize kale and dairy abstract research has demonstrated that commercializing smallholder agricultural production is one of the effective ways to boost farmer incomes employ labor and stimulate rural economies in sub saharan africa but this differs by commodity we use panel data covering over a decade to estimate output supply functions for smallholder farmers in kenya and compare these among three commodities with distinctive product attributes maize kale and milk we find that despite improved market access over the decade there is little discernible growth in market participation except in the case of milk a minority of households consistently sell from year to year and market concentration remains high across all the commodities indicating that production is largely subsistence nevertheless there is greater market orientation and less market concentration in kale and milk than in maize for all the commodities market participation is strongly associated with access to land productive assets technology use expected prices and rainfall amount and reliability we argue that broad based smallholder market participation can only be realized through interventions that raise smallholder production of marketable surpluses through raising productivity and this cuts across even the high value sub sectors such as horticulture and dairy also essential alongside such interventions are strategies to improving market access by reducing transaction costs

heterogeneity in preferences for woody biomass energy in the us mountain west abstract millions of acres of public forest in the us mountain west are substantially degraded and are in need of restoration mechanized restoration treatments can improve forest health and reduce the likelihood of severe wildfire these treatments produce some timber and substantial amounts of forest residues that can be used to generate renewable energy and displace fossil fuels using the choice modeling method this study investigates social preferences for generation of energy with woody biomass produced by restoration treatments on public forests in the mountain west both multinomial logit and latent class logit lcl models are fit to the data and used to estimate marginal willingness to pay mwtp for increased amounts of woody biomass energy generation and important associated co benefits and costs positive and statistically significant mwtp is found for the number of homes powered with wood the extent of healthy forests avoiding increases in the number of large wildfires and local air quality significant heterogeneity was found in respondent preferences for the attributes the heterogeneity can be explained in part by sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics of respondents the lcl revealed four classes of respondents with distinct preferences revealing conflicting viewpoints toward forest management for woody biomass energy generation

effect of government quality grade labels on consumer demand for pork chops in the short and long run abstract despite ample evidence of pork quality variability at present there are few signals that would incentivize growers to produce higher quality pork using split sample choice experiment data from a nationwide online survey of u s pork chop eaters this research determines changes in pork chop demand in response to a potential change in u s government policy that would introduce a new pork quality grading system based on color scores our simulations include novel short run projections in which the conditional and latent class logit models are inverted to yield inverse demand curves the inverse demand curves are used to calculate equilibrium prices and pork revenue given a fixed supply of different pork qualities we supplement these calculations with a more traditional long run analysis in which prices are fixed and quantities of different qualities adjust compared to the status quo control of no quality grades we find that two grading systems based on alternative nomenclatures select choice prime vs good better best both have the potential to increase pork chop sales and revenue to the pork industry however we also find that if only the highest quality is labeled revenue could fall as the increase in demand for the higher quality is offset by the fall in demand for the lower qualities results also highlight important heterogeneity in consumer preferences and although sensory studies strongly suggest redder pork chops are more highly preferred there remains a non trivial share of consumers who prefer whiter pork even after quality grade labeling overall this study offers several insights that can help inform labeling and quality grading policies

a probabilistic choice model for market segmentation and elasticity structure marketing scholars commonly characterize market structure by studying the patterns of substitution implied by brand switching though the approach is useful it typically ignores the destabilizing

estimating distributions of willingness to pay for heterogeneous populations random parameters logit models have emerged as a standard approach in estimating public preferences for a range of goods and services however to simplify calculation of welfare measures the marginal utility of income is often assumed to be constant across the population we show that by shifting distributional assumptions from marginal utilities to the welfare measures themselves a random parameters version of a censored logistic regression model cameron 1988 yields distributions of welfare measures more directly and without imposing any unnecessary assumption on the marginal utility of income we develop the theoretical framework for the model and apply it to contingent choice survey data for siting a noxious facility in rhode island in this application our proposed model and random parameters logit yield similar mean willingness to pay but welfare measures are more readily interpretable in the proposed model

benefit estimates for landscape improvements sequential bayesian design and respondents rationality in a choice experiment a multi attribute stated preference approach is used to value low and high impact actions on four major landscape components addressed by the rural environment protection scheme in ireland several methodological issues are addressed the use of prior beliefs on the relative magnitudes of parameters standardized description of different levels of landscape improvements via image manipulation software adoption of efficiency increasing sequential experimental design and sensitivity of benefit estimates to inclusion of responses from irrational respondents results suggest that bayesian design updating delivers significant efficiency gains without loss in respondent efficiency and estimates are upward biased when irrational respondents are included

a repeated nested logit model of atlantic salmon fishing participation and site choice for atlantic salmon fishing are modeled in the context of a repeated three level nested logit model consumer s surplus measures are derived for different levels of species availability in the penobscot river the most important salmon river in new england for comparison six other travel cost models are estimated these include restrictive cases of the nested logit model a partial demand model and two single site demand models comparisons across these models indicate the importance of modeling the participation decision including income effects and of adopting a nested logit structure rather than a single level logit structure

rice farmers preferences for fairtrade contracting in benin evidence from a discrete choice experiment abstract private standards such as fairtrade have emerged as a response to consumer civil society and corporate concerns about the production conditions of imported food many studies have investigated the welfare implications of smallholder participation in fairtrade schemes and consumers willingness to pay for fairtrade and other labelled products on the other hand no study has yet investigated farmers preferences for fairtrade and other private standards such insights would be valuable to improve the efficiency of certification schemes and ensure that they are tailored to farmers needs using a choice experiment this study investigates the preferences of smallholder rice farmers in benin for fairtrade and organic standards and compares the value of three types of contracts domestic fairtrade and fairtrade organic the results indicate that farmers positively value contracts but prefer domestic over fairtrade contracts because the former involve fewer requirements at current market prices farmers are willing to accept a fairtrade contract that includes fertiliser and child labour restrictions and a social premium but they are not willing to accept a fairtrade organic contract that completely prohibits chemical input use the results imply that adding organic requirements to fairtrade contracts may undermine the adoption and spread of fairtrade certification in the beninese rice sector

explaining smallholder maize marketing in southern and eastern africa the roles of market access technology and household resource endowments research on household food grain sales behavior in developing countries has tended to focus on the roles of market access and prices to explain why many rural households do not sell staple crops though recent literature suggests that low household asset endowments may also be key constraints we use econometric analysis of panel data from smallholders in kenya mozambique and zambia to inform the design of public investments that will enable smallholders to increase their maize sales results show that investments that raise farm level productivity and land access are an essential complement to investments that improve market access

the choice theory approach to market research this paper surveys economic choice theory stressing developments that permit use of data from psychometric and conjoint experiments to produce market demand forecasts alternatives to the widely used multinomial logit model are summarized and a new method for estimating multinomial probits is described an integration of choice models with attitudinal scaling and perceptual mapping within a latent variable system is described estimation of such systems under either random effects or fixed effects descriptions of heterogeneity across individuals is discussed issues in the use of choice models to describe responses from conjoint experiments are presented new regression diagnostic tests for the consistency of multinomial logit representations are discussed

exploring double side selling in cooperatives case study of four coffee cooperatives in rwanda apart from the difficulty to attract new members leakage of sales outside the cooperative is a major challenge for the coffee cooperatives in rwanda local independent traders still constitute a major market for coffee producers yet cooperatives also accept the produce from non members and pay them the same price our objective in this paper is to analyse the importance of this phenomenon of double side selling we collected data from a sample of 170 coffee farmers we use a probit model to analyse characteristics linked to cooperative membership and to study double side selling we describe the trade relationships between farmers and the cooperative on the one hand and between farmers and traders on the other by the attributes of transaction costs involved in the trade of coffee membership characteristics include easy access to labour land tenure risk aversion and mutual trust between farmers and cooperatives management preference to sell to traders can be explained by the trust farmers seem to have in them after the repeated transactions in credit and basic consumption items and by long term relationships in the community

relational contracts and the theory of the firm relational contracts informal agreements sustained by the value of future relationships are prevalent within and between firms we develop repeated game models showing why and how relational contracts within firms vertical integration differ from those between nonintegration we show that integration affects the parties temptations to renege on a given relational contract and hence affects the best relational contract the parties can sustain in this sense the integration decision can be an instrument in the service of the parties relationship our approach also has implications for joint ventures alliances and networks and for the role of management within and between firms

why are african commodity exchanges languishing a case study of the zambian agricultural commodity exchange abstract food price volatility and high transactions costs remain major problems in african food markets these persistent problems provide a strong theoretical justification for the development of commodity exchanges however the majority of african commodity exchanges remain underdeveloped through a case study of the zambian agricultural commodity exchange zamace this article explores why agricultural commodity exchanges in the region have thus far failed to develop into sustainable trading platforms and identifies the most important changes needed to enhance their performance drawing on interviews and group discussions with the primary participants on zamace five main factors that impede volumes traded on the zamace exchange are identified and analyzed 1 the limited success in attracting financial institutions commitment to commodity exchanges 2 the anonymous nature of trading on a commodity exchange exacerbates the risks associated with contract non compliance and opportunistic behavior 3 the potential for conflict of interest among brokers 4 the potential for market manipulation in a thinly traded market and 5 the high fixed costs that are imposed on actors trading in a thin market exacerbating all these factors is the unpredictability of government intervention in cereal markets

production technology option value the case of rbst in michigan agricultural producers are increasingly required to adjust production practices to satisfy retailer and ultimately consumer preferences this article highlights the option value that underlies decisions related to production technologies using the case of michigan dairy farmers and recombinant bovine somatotropin rbst welfare impacts were calculated for dairy producers when milk production systems which allowed the use of rbst were eliminated from the producer choice set those dairy producers using rbst just before its elimination realized a higher welfare loss than those not using the technology however significant welfare impacts were found for all dairy producers indicating that all producers valued the option to use this production technology

heterogeneity of preferences for the benefits of environmental stewardship a latent class approach since 2005 environmental stewardship es has been the principal agri environment scheme for england and is the key instrument for the delivery of increased environmental benefits from agricultural landscapes the main objective of this study is to investigate whether or not individuals preferences for the environmental benefits associated with es vary depending on types of landscapes within which these benefits are delivered a latent class model is applied to data obtained from a choice experiment survey of over 1000 respondents sampled across england the results suggest that individuals have heterogenous preferences for the benefits of es though different segments of the population with more homogenous preferences can be identified in particular higher levels of benefit are often associated with the operation of es in landscapes close to where respondents live this leads to the suggestion that in order to maximise the benefits of es its implementation could take this result into account by encouraging greater uptake from farmers whose land is closer to large populations

are citizens willing to pay for agricultural multifunctionality agricultural multifunctionality is the recognition of the joint exercise of economic environmental and social functions by the agricultural sector in order to make the concept operative for the design of public policies it is necessary to estimate the social demand for such functions the main objective of this article is to present an empirical application in this sense for this purpose we have adopted the agricultural system of cereal steppes in tierra de campos in spain as a case study the economic valuation technique used is the choice experiment the results suggest the existence of a significant demand for the different functions although the demand is heterogeneous depending on the socioeconomic characteristics of the individuals surveyed

environmental damage evaluation in a willingness to accept scenario a latent class approach based on familiarity in this paper we report on the results of the application of a latent class model that was designed to identify and characterize unobserved preference heterogeneity in the context of a willingness to accept wta framework involving negative environmental externalities stemming from the expansion of the port of valencia we investigated the hypothesis that respondents with greater familiarity with the targeted good and any related environmental damage would demand more compensation that is they would have a significantly higher wta based on respondents familiarity with the port of valencia and their pre existing knowledge about the negative consequences of its potential expansion three clusters based on six indicators are identified results show that contrary to what might be expected familiarity with a public good does not in all cases have a significant effect on stated wta

formal institutions and social capital in value chains the case of the ethiopian commodity exchange we explore whether the creation of the ethiopian commodity exchange ecx and its formal monitoring and enforcement institutions has affected social capital and trust in the ethiopian segment of the sesame value chain consistent with a simple theoretical marketing model our panel data suggest this is indeed the case trade in sesame is increasingly governed by formal rather than informal institutions and in response traders have broadened their trading network rely more frequently on traders with whom they do not have social relations and have reduced the provision of credit that cements personalized relationships they also have lower levels of trust in the intentions and capabilities of their trading partners and attach less weight to trust

information communication technology and electricity consumption in emerging economies abstract this study examines the impact of information communication technology ict on electricity consumption in emerging economies the empirical results obtained from dynamic panel demand models show a positive and statistically significant relationship between ict and electricity consumption when ict is measured using internet connections mobile phones or the number of pcs long run ict elasticities are smaller than income elasticities but because ict growth rates are so much higher than income growth rates the impact of ict on electricity demand is greater than the impact of income on electricity demand one implication of these results is that policies designed to close the digital divide between developed and developing economics by increasing the adoption of ict in developing countries are put at odds with energy policies to reduce ghg emissions

valuing smart meters abstract this paper assesses to what extent consumers are willing to make use of the features and capabilities offered by smart meters via a choice experiment households are offered the choice between a set of smart meters described by six attributes impact on the comfort and privacy level functionality visibility cost savings and investment outlay we estimate a main effects conditional logit model and a main effects random parameter logit model including interactions with socio demographic characteristics the results show that households have heterogeneous preferences for some attributes but not for others the estimates are used to assess marginal willingness to pay values from a policy perspective our findings suggest that sufficient effort should be devoted to designing the smart metering devices and to informing households without careful preparation a mandatory or voluntary roll out of smart meters risks to be unsuccessful because device characteristics do not meet consumer needs

farmers willingness to contract switchgrass as a cellulosic bioenergy crop in kansas farmers adoption of cellulosic biofuel feedstock enterprises plays an important role in the future of agriculture and the renewable fuels industry however no set markets currently exist for bioenergy feedstocks outside of very localized geographic locations and farmers may be reluctant to produce the feedstocks without contracts that help mitigate uncertainty and risk this study examines farmers willingness to grow switchgrass under contract using a stated choice approach data were collected using an enumerated survey of kansas farmers and analyzed using latent class logistic regression models farmers whose primary enterprise is livestock are less inclined to grow switchgrass shorter contracts greater harvest flexibility crop insurance and cost share assistance increase the likelihood that farmers will grow switchgrass for bioenergy production

embracing model uncertainty strategies for response pooling and model averaging econometricians modeling stated preference sp data and most other types of data are confronted with the uncomfortable reality that our knowledge of the true model is limited with only certain variables suggested by the application at hand and general classes of functional forms and error structures suggested by the literature accepting our limited knowledge we pursue strategies for analyzing sp data that are more robust to uncertainties in our knowledge of the true model these include non parametric and parametric likelihood based tests of pooling responses from different elicitation formats and a frequentist based model averaging approach for estimating willingness to pay functions we argue that these strategies lead to increased econometric integrity and empower the ultimate users of models such as policy decision makers and even juries to better assess the robustness of the results we apply these approaches to an sp survey of saltwater angling in alaska which utilized split sample rankings and ratings elicitation methods while an important goal of our paper is to develop practicable modeling strategies that will ultimately lead to more robust conclusions and more confidence by the users of sp results an equally important goal is to engender a critical discussion of how we can make the analysis of sp data more robust

addressing preference heterogeneity multiple scales and attribute attendance with a correlated finite mixing model of tap water choice unobserved heterogeneity of error scale in choice models is a recent extension of the better investigated issue of heterogeneity of taste intensity it is achieved by fitting choice panel data with specifications that simultaneously handle inter personal variation in scale and taste the aim is to separate differences in preference intensities across respondents from differences in the degree of consistency in choice behaviour or preference discrimination while accounting for correlation between the two another recent substantive issue in choice data analysis is attribute non attendance we develop a finite mixing model to address simultaneously the three issues above we empirically prove the concept on stated preference data related to tap water attributes in a study for industry regulation

designing a payments for ecosystem services pes program to reduce deforestation in tanzania an assessment of payment approaches abstract payments for ecosystem services pes programs aim to improve environmental outcomes by providing direct incentives to land managers for the provision of ecosystem services participation in pes programs is voluntary so effective program design requires careful consideration of farmers preferences this study quantifies such preferences using a choice experiment the study site is the east usambara mountains tanzania an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot we assess preferences for four payment approaches constant and variable annual cash payments to individual farmers a constant annual cash payment to a village fund on behalf of farmers and an upfront manure fertilizer payment we find that the manure fertilizer payment was statistically significant in motivating farmer participation while the group payment was non significant in addition the relationship between the likelihood of participation and the stringency of conditionality is surprisingly non linear in a test of external validity average willingness to accept wta values are found to be similar to the average opportunity cost of maintaining land uses consistent with conservation objectives

personality and economic choices abstract there is substantial variation in individual preferences for public goods yet much of that variation remains poorly understood however simple measures of personality can help to explain economic values and choices in a systematic way in this paper we examine the effects of personality on individual economic choices over public environmental goods based on three datasets from three separate stated preference studies we use a hybrid choice econometric framework to examine the effects of personality on preferences for the status quo changes in environmental quality and costs of investing in environmental improvements we find effects that are consistent across all datasets personality a stable feature of an individual s character that is simple to measure enriches explanations of why the demand for environmental goods varies across people provides an indication of how different people are likely to react to the introduction of environmental policies and explains substantial differences in willingness to pay

adolescents and electricity consumption investigating sociodemographic economic and behavioural influences on electricity consumption in households with respect to changes in the energy systems of many countries electricity consumption in households is an important topic extensive research has investigated the various determinants of electricity consumption however insights into how specific sociodemographic behavioural and attitudinal determinants influence residential electricity consumption are still scarce in this study we used hierarchical regression analysis to systematically investigate these determinants including household engagement in electricity saving along with a wide range of other measures in a sample of german households n 763 special attention was given to households with adolescents and children by analysing the influence of the number of adolescents on electricity consumption in a path model our results indicate that sociodemographic influences can be explained by the purchasing and use behaviours of residents our findings also suggest that the use of behavioural information provides a more detailed picture of the conditions of electricity consumption and thus allows for more appropriate policy planning

demand effects in stated preference surveys abstract we argue that demand effects in stated preference studies are understudied by demand effects we mean anything in the survey that unintentionally influences respondents beliefs about appropriate behavior which in turn might affect their responses in the survey we implement two methods for measuring and implicitly reducing the influence of demand effects the first approach random selection of good to be valued does not have any effect on respondent behavior the second approach a demand script and a control question with feedback has a sizable and statistically significant effect on respondent behavior in particular estimated marginal willingness to pay for improvements in water quality are substantially around 50 percent lower than a control treatment we attribute this decrease to a reduced demand effect our results suggest that stated preference methods tend to lead to biased willingness to pay estimates due to demand effects but that the bias can be reduced using simple measures

farmers marketing preferences in local coffee markets evidence from a choice experiment in ethiopia this study investigates transactions in the local coffee markets in ethiopia while the ethiopian commodity exchange which was established in 2008 introduced regulatory institutional and organizational innovations in the coffee market informal norms and conventions remain the primary institutions governing transactions in the local markets based on a choice experiment we found that for coffee farmers the characteristics of the traders are more important than the price offered when anchoring their transactions into personal relationships this can be explained as the institutional response of farsighted calculative farmers to poorly organized coffee markets and to lacking credit and insurance markets contrary to the concept of embeddedness which claims that economic transactions are embedded into social relationships social relationships are observed to be embedded into economic relationships one of the perverse effects of these personal relationship based transactions is that farmers are insufficiently incentivized to maintain and improve coffee quality

does one size fit all heterogeneity in the valuation of community forestry programs abstract through the implementation of a choice experiment valuation exercise this study set out to identify the set of community plantation attributes that impact the welfare of potential community forestry program participants we employed a combination of choice models to evaluate the preferences welfare impacts and choice elasticities associated with alternative community forestry programs allowing for different assumptions regarding heterogeneity in line with economic theory increased participation costs reduced the demand for community forestry while increases in expected productivity raised the demand with respect to preferences for the other alternatives considered type of forest area enclosure and type of land upon which the forest was to be situated the results point to significant differences in preferences across the study population suggesting that programs should be tailored to the communities in which the program is to be implemented

the effect of mail in utility rebates on willingness to pay for energy star textregistered certified refrigerators the number and variety of governmental programs designed to promote energy efficiency have increased over time examples include mandatory minimum efficiency standards subsidies for more energy efficient goods and services and consumer labels such as the united states environmental protection agency s energy star textregistered while there has been considerable research on the effects of these programs in isolation there has been less of a focus on joint effects or interactions between programs this study examines how the offer of a mail in rebate influences consumer willingness to pay for an energy star certified refrigerator data used for this study were collected from an online survey containing a hypothetical choice experiment conducted in the united states in 2009 results suggest that the offer of a rebate induces uncertainty about the quality of energy star certified refrigerators and thus could actually reduce willingness to pay for such refrigerators

combining attitudinal statements with choice experiments to analyze preference heterogeneity for functional dairy products abstract in this article we employ a discrete choice experiment to examine preferences for functional dairy product attributes and willingness to pay estimates for consumers in germany we estimate preference heterogeneity by linking stated preference choice data not only to socioeconomic characteristics but also to attitudinal statements in a latent class framework the empirical results indicate the existence of class specific preference heterogeneity based on the consumers attitude towards functional foods emphasizing the importance of attitudinal data in explaining consumers choice behavior our estimates demonstrate that within a class consumers preferences are in accordance with their responses to attitudinal statements that is functional food skeptics prefer non functional dairy products while functional food advocates have a negative preference for non functional dairy products the findings also show that all consumers place high value on dairy products enriched with known functional ingredients such as omega 3 fatty acids

reconsidering heterogeneity and aggregation issues in environmental valuation a multi attribute approach the economic valuation of complex environmental goods composed of multiple attributes is an expanding field of research in ecological and environmental economics however several issues are still subjects of debate this paper focuses on three of them the linearity of the valuation function in the attributes aggregation criteria for obtaining social values and the heterogeneity of individuals utility functions a methodological approach based on multi attribute utility theory which enables us to contrast the impact of these concerns on the valuation of environmental goods is proposed we employ the methodology to value a protected natural area and from the results obtained we can conclude that the non linearity and the heterogeneity of the individual utility function are relevant aspects of environmental valuation that need to be taken into account when valuing environmental goods

perceptions versus objective measures of environmental quality in combined revealed and stated preference models of environmental valuation abstract this study examines perceptions and objective attribute measures in discrete choice models of recreation site choice behavior these forms of attribute measurement are examined in individual and combined revealed preference stated preference models our results suggest that the model based on perceptions slightly outperforms the models based on objective attribute measures however issues such as the definition of the choice set and the measurement of welfare present significant challenges when using perceptions data

on mandatory labeling of animal welfare attributes this paper assesses us resident support for mandatory labeling of animal welfare information on pork and egg products and outlines policy considerations for assessment prior to implementing any mandatory labeling policies regarding animal welfare practices results suggest consumers support mandatory labeling indicating use of gestation crates stalls and laying hen cages estimates suggest consumers would be willing to pay about 20 higher pork and egg prices to obtain this production practice information demographic and latent perception drivers of this support are highlighted multiple issues that warrant consideration prior to imposing mandatory labeling are discussed revealing lines of corresponding future research

do protest responses to a contingent valuation question and a choice experiment differ it is suggested that the number of protest responses in stated preference surveys depends inter alia on the valuation method used choice experiments ce are said to generate a lower number of protest responses than contingent valuation cv however no comparison of both methods with respect to protest responses has been conducted to date we used both ce and cv in a survey on forest biodiversity in two german regions protest beliefs were measured for all respondents irrespective of whether they were willing to pay or not the results show no clear pattern of differences between ce and cv regarding protest beliefs and protest responses using an attitude scale based on respondents protest beliefs we see a significant negative effect of this attitude on willingness to pay in both methods however in one of the two study regions the effect is weaker in ce than in cv

market potential for smart growth neighbourhoods in the usa a latent class analysis on heterogeneous preference and choice with data from a 2011 national association of realtors community preference survey we examined individuals preferences and the resulting market potential for smart growth neighbourhoods in the usa using a latent class choice model we discovered four classes of individuals that reveal distinctive behaviours when choosing smart growth neighbourhoods based on the interplay between aspects of community design socioeconomic characteristics and personal attitudes based on these results we estimated the demand for smart growth neighbourhoods given the way they are planned and built by linking the results of the latent class choice to a market diffusion model we were able to evaluate the effectiveness of a proposed smart growth neighbourhood design in inducing less sprawling development

property rights regimes in complex fishery management systems a choice experiment application the tonle sap wetland fishery was previously divided into 3 different management zones for conservation open access fishing and private fishing rights to the private fishing zone involved auctions for exclusive rights to temporarily designated plots this paper aims to explore the auction based system by investigating how this fishery management system affects different groups of small scale fishermen and how different characteristics of the fishing lots affect the bidding a choice experiment approach was used to model fishermen s choices in a hypothetical auction market by offering fishermen the choice between purchasing different potential fishing lots and a no purchase option implying fishing only in the communal fishing grounds the preferred latent class model with two segments of fishermen showed that the bidding behavior of the more privileged group out competes the other group irrespective of the lot characteristics this result suggests that it is unlikely that the redesign of the auction system itself would be an effective way of securing access to fishing resources for the two observed groups of fishermen this implies that open access fishing grounds and or other regulations may also be needed in future management as they serve an important role for the poorer segments

option pricing bounds in discrete time upper and lower bounds are derived for call options traded at discrete intervals these bounds are independent of assumptions on the stock price distribution other than a restriction satisfied by the stock being non negative beta the development of the bounds relies on the single price law and arbitrage arguments both single period and multiperiod results are produced and put option bounds follow by extension the bounds exist as equilibrium values given a consensus on stock price distribution they are also valid for empirical studies being adjustable for dividends and commissions following the impetus of the black scholes pricing model the majority of option analyses have been in continuous time such approaches have relied on the formation of perfect riskless hedges involving the option its underlying security and a riskless asset since the hedge must be continuously revised and maintained while actual trading opportunities are discrete this crucial assumption limits the accuracy and applicability of the black scholes and related formulae in fact the black scholes formula can only be considered as a valid approximation to the discrete time solution merton 8 p 663 while the closeness of that approximation has not been ascertained in general 1 earlier discrete models such as boness 3 and samuelson 12 have been succeeded by those of brennan 5 cox et al 6 and rubinstein 11 in which distributional restrictions are imposed on share returns usually the discrete formula converges to the black scholes expression under appropriate limit conditions using the rubinstein 11 approach we derive upper and lower bounds for option prices with both a general price distribution and discrete trading opportunities the bounds are functions of the share and exercise prices the riskless rate of interest the distribution of the share price change per period and the number of periods of expiration of the option the lower bound is tighter than that of merton 7 derived from more general arbitrage considerations while being less exact than the results already mentioned for restricted distributions

a latent class approach to tourists length of stay abstract in this paper a conditional demand function is estimated for the length of stay at a tourist destination the microeconomic model specifies the demand for the length of stay conditional on the remaining holiday characteristics that the tourist has chosen the destination type of accommodation etc the empirical model uses a latent class truncated poisson regression which acknowledges the existence of groups or segments of demand with different preferences in the case under study a distinction is made between two segments with a preference for either a longer or shorter holiday the statistical model also resolves a problem of multimodality acknowledged in previous analyses to be one of the main characteristics of this variable

activities in models of recreational demand scholars have taken divergent approaches to incorporating on site activities into their empirical specifications of site choice models we provide a framework for assessing this methodological heterogeneity through a model that explicitly allows individuals to choose both on site activities and site attributes this model not only conditions the marginal value of site attributes on the choice of an activity but also explicitly recovers the marginal rates of substitution across activities this eliminates previously unrecognized biases in the welfare analysis of changes in site attributes we test hypotheses generated by our model by comparing rival models of demand for access to beaches in costa rica

behind the market stage where real societies exist part i the role of public and private order institutions this two part article is an attempt to clarify the social conditions upon which the viability and efficiency of the market system rest it strives to show that the embeddedness thesis that is an explanation based upon the existence of long run personal ties involving the use of reputation mechanisms among transactors cannot fully elucidate the question as to how the problem of trust is solved in market societies as explained in part i there are difficulties of both theoretical and empirical historical kinds and these explain why the market order needs to be sustained by private and public order institutions in part ii the role of generalised morality in backing or supplementing such institutions is discussed in the light of game theory and particular emphasis is put on the ability of moral norms to sustain honest behaviour by generating the right kind of preferences and establishing trust the vexed problem of the dynamics of norm emergence and erosion is then addressed with a view to showing

a latent class approach to investigating demand for genetically modified banana in uganda this study explores consumer acceptance and valuation of a genetically modified gm staple food crop in a developing country prior to its commercialization we focus on the hypothetical introduction of a disease resistant gm banana variety in uganda where bananas are among the most important staple crops a choice experiment is used to investigate consumer preferences for various attributes related to the banana such as bunch size technology producer benefit and price and examine their opinions on gm foodstuff choice data come from 421 banana consuming households randomly selected from three regions of uganda a latent class model is used to investigate the heterogeneity in consumers preferences for selected attributes related to the banana and to profile consumers who are more or less likely to accept gm bananas our results reveal that there is significant heterogeneity in consumer preferences across our sample gm bananas are valued the most by poorer households located in the rural areas of the eastern region these food insecure households would experience the highest benefits i e welfare gains from the commercial release of gm bananas in contrast urban consumers are less accepting of gm bananas and they would experience significant welfare losses if gm banana is released according to our welfare estimates both the total welfare benefits acquired by the gainers and the total welfare losses borne by the losers of this technology are significant and large these results suggest the need for further investigation of the overall welfare effects of the introduction of gm bananas on the ugandan society as a whole

using choice experiments to investigate the policy relevance of heterogeneity in farmer agri environmental contract preferences agri environmental contracts are used to provide incentives for nature management on private land in e g the european union the aim of this article is to investigate preference heterogeneity for agri environmental contracts among farmers in order to discuss potential policy improvements utilising heterogeneity we used a choice experiment to elicit farmers stated preferences for afforestation contracts four attributes are investigated purpose of afforestation option of cancelling the contract monitoring and compensation level all attributes present a potential conflict between farmers and authorities interests which emphasises the importance of knowing how to handle these interests a random parameter logit model shows that having the option to cancel the contract decreases farmers required compensation level and monitoring increases it furthermore farmers are willing to accept a lower compensation when the aim is to protect biodiversity and ground water relative to recreation latent class models with class probability variables reveal discrete heterogeneity and support a division into four groups with divergent preferences for example a group of farmers who already have forest areas does not find the option of cancelling the contract important whereas another group relying on the farm for income requires higher compensation the findings indicate potential for efficiency gains from targeting the contracts

a latent class approach to modeling endogenous spatial sorting in zonal recreation demand models a method for incorporating unobserved heterogeneity into aggregate count data frameworks is presented and used to control for endogenous spatial sorting in zonal recreation models the method is based on latent class analysis which has become a popular tool for analyzing heterogeneous preferences with individual data but has not yet been applied to aggregate count data the method is tested using data on backcountry hikers for a southern california study site and performs well for relatively small numbers of classes the latent class model produces substantially smaller welfare estimates compared to a constrained version that assumes homogeneity throughout the population

modeling disinterest and dislike a bounded bayesian mixed logit model of the uk market for gm food mixed logit models represent a powerful discrete choice analytical model but require assumptions about the functional form of the parameter distributions the use of unbounded distributions such as the normal distribution may be regarded as unsuitable where theory indicates that all are negatively affected by increases in an attribute such as price bounded distributions such as the triangular and log normal are unable to model the case where a section of the population is indifferent towards an attribute while the remainder are negatively disposed toward it train and sonnier s bounded mixed logit model accommodates these features and is employed in this paper a censored normal and johnson s s b distribution are used to model preferences in the uk for food attributes including price and gm technology bi modal distributions are identified regarding gm food some are unlikely to ever consume it some are close to indifference and willing to consume at relatively small discounts while the remainder are fairly unresponsive to further price reductions

how pastoralists perceive and respond to market opportunities the case of the horn of africa this article examines how pastoralists of the horn of africa negotiate the need for herd mobility production under conditions of variable rainfall and grazing conditions with the necessity to market animals at fixed market locations it addresses a set of related questions 1 are herder mobility and other production decisions being altered by improved market opportunities 2 what roles do markets play in pastoralist drought and drought recovery strategies 3 which groups of producers are taking advantage of and or benefiting from which market chains and 4 what factors other than price help to explain why and when pastoralists sell livestock the article concludes that macro economic forecasts about supply response in the region may be overly optimistic and off target because they fail to appreciate the non price factors that influence pastoralist households decisions to sell livestock

a joint latent class model combining likert scale preference statements with choice data to harvest preference heterogeneity in addition to choice questions revealed and stated choices preference surveys typically include other questions that provide information about preferences preference statement data include questions on the importance of different attributes of a good or the extent of agreement with a particular statement the intent of this paper is to model and jointly estimate preference heterogeneity using stated preference choice data and preference statement data the starting point for this analysis is the belief that the individual has preferences and both his her choices and preference statements are manifestations of those preferences our modeling contribution is linking the choice data and preference statement data in a latent class framework estimation is straightforward using the e m algorithm even though our model has hundreds of preference parameters our estimates demonstrate that 1 within a preference class the importance anglers associate with different green bay site characteristics is in accordance with their responses to the preference statements 2 estimated across class utility parameters for fishing green bay are affected by the preference statement data 3 estimated across class preference statement response probabilities are affected by the inclusion of the choice data and 4 both data sets influence the number of classes and the probability of belonging to a class as a function of the individual s type

measuring birdwatchers preferences a case for using online networks and mixed mode surveys abstract this paper reports findings derived from a study of birdwatchers in the azores the subject was birdwatchers preferences for given management actions designed to improve the attractiveness of bird watching sites in the absence of official statistics on this market segment use was made of a mixed mode survey incorporating both on site and off site surveys and the use of on line social networks and communications tools the variable willingness to stay more time at the site was used as a welfare measure it has the advantage that it can be used to demonstrate the significant returns of eco tourism to local communities two findings emerge first tourists practicing wildlife viewing and nature based activities are less worried about infrastructures and care more about biodiversity and habitat quality and second the research technique appears to be successful when surveying seasonal recreation communities that are small and socially cohesive

information and communication technologies a new round of household electrification abstract information and communication technologies icts increasingly permeate everyday life in industrialized societies the aim of this paper is to explore ict related transformations of everyday practices and discuss the implications particularly for residential electricity consumption the present socio technical changes are seen in a historical perspective and it is argued that the integration of ict into everyday practices can be seen as a new round of household electrification comparable to earlier rounds that also led to higher electricity consumption a case study carried out in denmark in 2007 2008 explores the present changes in everyday life based on qualitative interviews the study focuses on people s ways of integrating icts into their everyday practices on any significant changes in these practices and on the influence of the changed practices on electricity consumption the paper concludes with a discussion on the implications for energy policy

the state of the art of environmental valuation with discrete choice experiments abstract this paper provides with a review of the state of the art of environmental valuation with discrete choice experiments dces the growing body of literature on this field serves to emphasize the increasing role that dces are playing in environmental decision making in the last decade the paper attempts to cover the full process of undertaking a choice experiment including survey and experimental design econometric analysis of choice data and welfare analysis the research on this field is found to be intense although many challenges are put forward e g choice task complexity and cognitive effort experimental design preference and scale heterogeneity endogeneity or model uncertainty reviewing the state of the art of dces serves to draw attention to the main challenges that this methodological approach will need to overcome in the coming years and to identify the frontiers in discrete choice analysis

relating environmental attitudes and contingent values how robust are methods for identifying preference heterogeneity we assess the importance and robustness of cluster analysis and latent class analysis as methods to account for unobserved heterogeneity we provide a critique and comparison of both methods in the context of measuring environmental attitudes and a contingent valuation study involving endangered species we find strong evidence of robustness for these methods group characterization and assignment of individuals to groups are similar between methods and willingness to pay estimates are consistent in addition there are significant differences in willingness to pay across environmental attitudinal groups and we find that accounting for unobservable heterogeneity provides a significantly better fitting model

evaluating water policy scenarios against the priorities of the rural poor summary a stated choice method evaluates how well water policy responds to the preferences of the rural poor in south africa household priorities to experimental scenarios of water resource and water services attributes are investigated in two communities with poor water access in a semi arid zone results identify improved water accessibility as the most important intervention for social welfare gains particularly benefiting female water collectors a latent class specification reveals two sub groups with different weighted preferences this specification reinforces the primacy of domestic water access and also identifies a smaller but significant group with preferences for water availability for kitchen garden irrigation

effects on welfare measures of alternative means of accounting for preference heterogeneity in recreational demand models multiattribute revealed preference data are used to investigate heterogeneity in a sample of kayakers for a panel of whitewater sites in ireland this article focuses on a comparison of preference heterogeneity using a random parameter logit model with correlated tastes and a latent class model in terms of the implications for welfare measures of environmental quality and site access changes recreationalists skill levels are found to affect preferences in both approaches statistics for the estimated distribution of welfare changes for the average respondent are computed for changes in site attributes but contrary to previous work these are found to be of similar magnitude

combining ecological and recreational aspects in national park management a choice experiment application increasing pressure to diversify development of national parks emphasizes the need for new and relevant information for park management decisions in this paper we use choice experiment to value different tradeoffs that evolved in park development scenarios specifically we examine which kind of development profiles are worth considering and which paths not to follow we focus on biodiversity and recreational services provided by oulanka national park in finland which represents a popular recreation site attracting a large number of visitors the increase of biodiversity was the most highly valued feature by the respondent national park visitors thus our results show that the protection of biodiversity and recreational and tourism use of national parks can cause conflicting welfare effects if managed in inappropriate ways increasing the number of visitors expanding present resting places constructing new resting places and an intense increase in information boards especially if combined with shrinking biodiversity are welfare reducing managerial actions in national parks

random coefficient models for stated preference surveys abstract this paper combines the use of random coefficient discrete choice models that allow for correlated errors in the form of unobserved preference heterogeneity with an investigation of the reliability and usefulness of rankings data for the data we examine we find significant unobserved preference heterogeneity in the rankings which violates the underlying assumptions of the rank ordered logit model further directly modeling unobserved preference heterogeneity results in significant improvement in the precision of the parameter estimates and in estimated willingness to pay wtp the reliability and usefulness of rankings data should be re examined with econometric models not subject to the independence of irrelevant alternatives iia

fuzzy logic and preference uncertainty in non market valuation in seeking to value environmental amenities and public goods individuals often have trouble trading off the vague good or amenity against a monetary measure valuation in these circumstances can best be described as fuzzy in terms of the amenity being valued perceptions of property rights and the numbers chosen to reflect values in this paper we apply fuzzy logic to contingent valuation employing a fuzzy clustering approach for incorporating preference uncertainty obtained from a follow up certainty confidence question we develop a fuzzy random utility maximization frum framework where the perceived utility of each individual is fuzzy in the sense that an individual s utility belongs to each cluster to some degree the model is then applied to a swedish survey that elicited residents willingness to pay for enhanced forest conservation and to a canadian survey of agricultural landowners that elicited their willingness to accept compensation for a tree planting program both the wtp and wta measures we obtain using the fuzzy approach are well below those obtained using standard probability methods based on goodness of fit measures and monte carlo experimentation a case can be made for using a fuzzy preference approach for modeling preference uncertainty as opposed to incorporating respondent uncertainty within the random utility maximization framework

a semiparametric smooth coefficient estimator for recreation demand we introduce a semiparametric smooth coefficient estimator for recreation demand data that allows more flexible modeling of preference heterogeneity we show that our sample of visitors each has an individual statistically significant price coefficient estimate leading to clearly nonparametric consumer surplus and willingness to pay wtp distributions we also show mean wtp estimates that are different in economically meaningful ways for every demographic variable we have for our sample of beach visitors this flexibility is valuable for future researchers who can include any variables of interest beyond the standard demographic variables we have included here and the richer results price elasticities consumer surplus and wtp estimates are valuable to planners and policymakers who can easily see how all these estimates vary with characteristics of the population of interest

the approach of institutional economics this paper assesses the old institutional economics it emphasizes the importance of key old institutionalist themes concerning the necessity of habits and rules and the role of institutions a problem in the alternative theoretical program of the new institutionalism is the untenability of its assumption of an original institution free market or state of nature even optimizing behavior requires the prior existence of habits and rules although it still lacks a complete and systematic theory the evolutionary approach of the old institutionalists tackles the problem of the interactive relationship of actor to structure without analytical reduction to one or the other

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

social capital as obstacle to development brokering land norms and trust in rural india summary based on a study of how rural land brokers mediate the arrival of a special economic zone in rural rajasthan this paper argues that theories of collective social capital cannot explain how networks norms and trust interact in a process of economic change it then reconstructs bourdieu s distinct theory of individual social capital by showing how better connected farmers are able to broker land and capture profits at the expense of fellow villagers undermining trust norms and collective action it argues that social capital is most plausibly seen as an aspect of social inequality that hinders inclusive development

on the equality of two lower bounds on the call price a note this note shows that appearances to the contrary the lower bounds on the price of a call option obtained by levy and by ritchken are identical and that this common bound is never inferior to the lower bound obtained by perrakis and ryan

presidential address institutions and culture how and why does distant political and economic history shape the functioning of current institutions this paper argues that individual values and convictions about the scope of application of norms of good conduct provide the missing link evidence from a variety of sources points to two main findings first individual values consistent with generalized as opposed to limited morality are widespread in societies that were ruled by non despotic political institutions in the distant past second well functioning institutions are often observed in countries or regions where individual values are consistent with generalized morality and under different identifying assumptions this suggests a causal effect from values to institutional outcomes the paper ends with a discussion of the implications for future research jel a10 d7 e00

testing the influence of substitute sites in nature valuation by using spatial discounting factors this paper investigates the effect of nearby nature substitute sites on preferences for nature restoration contrary to prior studies we use a respondent centric approach to control for substitute sites we assess each respondent specific spatial context by computing densities of nature substitute sites within various ranges from each respondent s home this approach considers the use and non use values of nature together data from three similar discrete choice experiments carried out in flanders belgium are compared different spatial discounting factors are tested to explore how the substitution effect behaves with regard to distance latent class analyses are performed to account for preference heterogeneity among respondents we observe divergent behaviours across groups of respondents the distance to substitutes affects how respondents gauge substitute sites we find a significant influence of the squared average buffer distance but this effect varies in sign across case studies and classes of respondents our results demonstrate that individual specific gis data can significantly improve the representation of the spatial context and the transferability of value functions however the roles played by preference heterogeneity and nature perception on respondents capacity to value nature still deserves further attention in future research

lifestyle factors in u s residential electricity consumption abstract a multivariate statistical approach to lifestyle analysis of residential electricity consumption is described and illustrated factor analysis of selected variables from the 2005 u s residential energy consumption survey recs identified five lifestyle factors reflecting social and behavioral patterns associated with air conditioning laundry usage personal computer usage climate zone of residence and tv use these factors were also estimated for 2001 recs data multiple regression analysis using the lifestyle factors yields solutions accounting for approximately 40 of the variance in electricity consumption for both years by adding the household and market characteristics of income local electricity price and access to natural gas variance accounted for is increased to approximately 54 income contributed 1 unique variance to the models indicating that lifestyle factors reflecting social and behavioral patterns better account for consumption differences than income geographic segmentation of factor scores shows distinct clusters of consumption and lifestyle factors particularly in suburban locations the implications for tailored policy and planning interventions are discussed in relation to lifestyle issues

respondent experience and contingent valuation of environmental goods abstract respondent experience i e a respondent s information set has long been suspected to influence contingent valuation estimates of environmental values we assess the influence of experience by explicitly modeling the relationship between respondent experience and both fitted individual resource values and the conditional variance of these estimated values using three different joint specifications for experience and wtp normal censored normal poisson censored normal and zero inflated poisson censored normal we find discrete jumps in resource values as experience increases from zero and that more experienced respondents have smaller conditional variances simulation of arbitrary levels of experience allows standardization of the amount of information when developing welfare estimates

estimating the willingness to pay for reliable electricity supply a choice experiment study abstract this research examines households willingness to pay wtp for an improved electricity service households stated wtp is estimated using the choice experiment ce method the data used in the estimations come from 350 in person interviews conducted during the period 5 22 august 2008 in north cyprus compensating variation cv estimates for a zero outage scenario are calculated using the parameter estimates from the mixed logit ml model these are 6 65 ytl turkish lira per month 3 02 usd for summer and 25 83 ytl per month 11 74 usd for winter in order to avoid the cost of outages households are willing to incur a 3 6 and a 13 9 increase in their monthly electricity bill for summer and winter respectively the wtp per hour unserved is 0 28 ytl 0 13 usd for summer and 1 08 ytl 0 49 usd for winter a preliminary cost benefit analysis indicates that the annualized economic benefits are approximately 42 7 million ytl 19 4 million usd for the residential sector this would justify an investment in additional generation capacity of approximately 268 mw which is far more than that which is needed to eliminate the service reliability problem