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The Effect of Landscape-level Pesticide Applications on California Citrus Growers’ Decisions for California Red Scale Management.Analysis of the Influence of Open Space on Residential Values.Why Are Outside Investors Suddenly Interested in Farmland?

The paper offers an assessment of the environmental impact of trade liberalization on the cross-border trucking sector in North America. Specific policies in the realm of transportation, environment and trade are investigated with data directly related to the time of implementation that varied across ports on each of the two international borders in North America subsequent to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The data on truck flows, wait times, air quality and trade value are analyzed using econometrics for quantitative analysis. Results show various policies do have a positive impact on reducing air emissions through changes in trucking characteristics (technology, patterns) in particular ports where they have been implemented.

This research compares economic incentives for sediment and wastewater management of upstream and downstream countries in a shared waterway under cooperative and noncooperative strategies. Asymmetry between the countries in terms of costs, damages and emissions influence the incentives to abate pollution. Along the 2000 mile U.S. Mexico border, water flow runs in many directions, with asymmetric flow and stock effects. The Tijuana River watershed shared by the U.S. and Mexico is one example where the prevailing water flow is from south (in Mexico) to north (in the U.S.) where the accumulation of pollution stock occurs. Hence, Mexico is the upstream country and the U.S. is the downstream country. Quantitative analysis through applied game theory assesses strategies to abate by the U.S. and Mexico. International cooperation on environmental problems yields two types of benefits. First, the free riding incentives are mitigated. Second, costs are reduced when abatement cost differ between the contracting countries. Several game sharing rules (Shapley Value, Chander Tulkens rule, Helsinki Rule, Egalitarian Rule) are analyzed. Financial transfers from two North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) institutions are examined. Two NAFTA institutions, the North American Development Bank (NADBank) and the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC) finance clean up of shared wastewater and to a lesser extent sediment pollution with 75% grants originating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pay for pollution control, often in upstream Mexico.Results show that steady state wastewater and sediment pollution is lowest with cooperation. As expected, the highest steady state pollution occurs under independent action (non-cooperation), where damages are highest for both countries. The net costs and damages are minimized through cooperation. In all cases of cooperation, transfer payments are positive from downstream to upstream that lead to reductions in the flow and stock of pollution.

We study a land developer's decision to invest in a wetlands mitigation bank. The state at which it is optimal to "cash in" the investment in return for restoration credits increases with uncertainty. We calibrate and numerically solve a stochastic control model which describes the developer's investment problem. We study the effect of the parameters of the model on the investment trajectory and the optimal stopping state. A subsidy increases the option value of the investment and the stopping state. A small decrease in the variance of the state dynamics decreases the option value of investment and the stopping state.

This article is concerned with the economics of excessively large and socially costly suburban expansion and attempts to summarize and organize the main economic arguments associated with sprawl due to single-family residential home construction. We also apply standard welfare economics and price policy instruments to the issue of suburban sprawl in order to suggest ways in which economics can participate in and inform the debate over sprawl. The article uses the Inland Empire, which includes the valley regions of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in Southern California east of Los Angeles, as a case study. (JEL R11, R14, Q24), 1. INTRODUCTION This article is concerned with the economics of excessively large and socially costly suburban expansion and attempts to summarize and organize the main economic arguments associated with sprawl [...]

This article offers an analysis of financial incentives for landowners, conservation bank managers, and land developers under habitat regulations for land use. A financial option theory approach is used with call and put options as contracts for habitat conservation and exchange. The market for habitat is modeled as a stochastic game to derive the option price on habitat that allows for arbitrage between land with and without permission to develop. This analysis applies to a variety of policies including transferable development rights, conservation, and mitigation banking to protect wetland and upland habitat and wildlife., INTRODUCTION Habitat loss is the largest threat to biodiversity (Wilcove et al., 1998). Current rates of biodiverse species extinction are estimated at several orders of magnitude above background or natural [...]

Balancing air, water, and land environmental goals can prevent use of harmful substances like methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in gasoline. This article offers an economic analysis of fuel choices using data from California. The full costs of various fuel blends are measured accounting for all multiple environmental impacts. The cost effectiveness of the product standard for oxygenates in gasoline is also assessed. The numerical results show the nonoxygenated gasoline is most cost effective and meets all environmental quality goals. (JEL Q53, Q58, Q49), I. INTRODUCTION Prevailing environmental regulations focus on only one environmental medium at a time, such as air pollution without addressing the potential for simultaneously occurring deleterious effects on other environmental [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2004.11.017 Byline: Ryan H. Dwight (a), Linda M. Fernandez (b), Dean B. Baker (c), Jan C. Semenza (d), Betty H. Olson (e) Abstract: A cost-of-illness framework was applied to health and income data to quantify the health burden from illnesses associated with exposure to polluted recreational marine waters. Using data on illness severity due to exposure to polluted coastal water and estimates of mean annual salaries and medical costs (adjusted to 2001 values) for residents of Orange County, California, we estimated that the economic burden per gastrointestinal illness (GI) amounts to $36.58, the burden per acute respiratory disease is $76.76, the burden per ear ailment is $37.86, and the burden per eye ailment is $27.31. These costs can become a substantial public health burden when millions of exposures per year to polluted coastal waters result in hundreds of thousands of illnesses. For example, exposures to polluted waters at Orange County's Newport and Huntington Beaches were estimated to generate an average of 36,778 GI episodes per year. At this GI illness rate, one can also expect that approximately 38,000 more illness episodes occurred per year of other types, including respiratory, eye, and ear infections. The combination of excess illnesses associated with coastal water pollution resulted in a cumulative public health burden of $3.3 million per year for these two beaches. This paper introduces a public health cost variable that can be applied in cost-benefit analyses when evaluating pollution abatement strategies. Author Affiliation: (a) Environmental Health Science and Policy Program, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA (b) Departments of Environmental Sciences and Economics, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0424, USA (c) Department of Medicine & Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA (d) School of Community Health, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA (e) Environmental Health Science and Policy Program, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA Article History: Received 26 February 2004; Revised 22 October 2004; Accepted 22 November 2004

A stochastic model for jointly managing ecological and economic uncertainty in both types of natural resources is presented. The object is to arrive at an optimal solution to these types of resource management.

The development of a differential game to examine the effects of trade liberalization on transboundary water pollution is described. Non cooperative and cooperative games are examined with changes in trade policy and public health damages.

The method of balancing objectives of cost minimization and pollution prevention is examined in publicly-owned wastewater treatment plants. Parameters in the objective of plants are studied as the basis for ranking its objectives while considering necessary trade-offs between cost and water quality. An estimated model of wastewater treatment is derived as a useful tool in gathering information for publicly-owned treatment plants and policy makers in searching for alternative wastewater management guidelines.