SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Farzin, Y. Hossein; Grogan, Kelly A..

We investigate the relationships between water quality and socioeconomic factors in California at the county level for the years 1993 to 2006 using 24 water quality indicators coming from seven different types of water bodies. We estimate these relationships using three classes of models: the traditional per capita income-pollution level - Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) - specifications, a more inclusive model containing main socioeconomic variables such as agricultural intensity, land use, ethnic composition, population density and educational attainment, and a model that includes the socioeconomic variables while accounting for spatial correlations too. For most water quality indicators, we do not find support for EKC specifications. For pollutants...

Economic and Environmental Impacts of Adoption of Genetically Modified Rice in California

Palavras-chave: Water Quality Indicators; Socioeconomic Variables; EKC; Agriculture; Industry; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q53; Q56; Q58; C23.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/115721

Bond, Craig A.; Carter, Colin A.; Farzin, Y. Hossein.

Sustainability and Optimality in Economic Development: Theoretical Insights and Policy Prospects

Palavras-chave: Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11927

Farzin, Y. Hossein.

This paper takes sustainability to be a matter of intergenerational welfare equality and examines whether an optimal development path can also be sustainable. It argues that the general zero-net-aggregate-investment condition for an optimal development path to be sustainable in the sense of the maximin criterion of intergenerational justice is too demanding to be practical, especially in the context of developing countries. The maximin criterion of sustainability may be more appealing to the rich advanced industrial countries, but is too costly and ethically unreasonable for developing nations as it would act as an intergenerational poverty equalizer. The paper suggests that a compromise development policy that follows the optimal growth approach but...

A PORTFOLIO OF NUTRIENTS: SOIL AND SUSTAINABILITY

Palavras-chave: Sustainability; Intergenerational equity; Optimality; Discounting; Development policy; International Development; Q01; Q56; O21; O13; D62; D63.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7447

Bond, Craig A.; Farzin, Y. Hossein.

This paper develops a basic dynamic economic model that can be used for theoretical and numerical analysis of optimal soil management practices. A dynamic biophysical/economic optimal control model is developed in a multi-disciplinary framework, treating soil as a multi-pool portfolio of a particular limiting mobile nutrient (e.g. nitrogen). This specification allows for fertilizer to directly enter the active pool, while tillage initially affects the decadal pool, reflecting the realities of agricultural production. We examine the properties of the steady-state and the time paths of the optimal solutions. In addition, alternative sustainability criteria of farm-level agricultural practices are presented, and the optimal solution of the problem is...

Tipo: Conference Paper or Presentation

Palavras-chave: Farm Management.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/20035

Estimating Agricultural Pollution Abatement Costs at the Plot Level Using Experimental Data: A Maximum Entropy Approach

Bond, Craig A.; Farzin, Y. Hossein.

This paper uses a directional output distance function to estimate a multi-output production frontier for a sample of experimental plots grown for the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems project at the University of California, Davis. Cross-sectional technical efficiency indices are estimated that take into account two proxies for undesirable output: number of trips across a field as a proxy for air pollution and/or soil erosion, and pints of pesticides applied to account for potential leaching and/or health risks. Shadow price estimates based on marginal rates of transformation ranged from $8-$21 for trips, while shadow prices for pints of pesticides averaged $23-$27.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Directional distance function; Environmental efficiency index; Shadow price; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/8642

Environmental Quality in a Differentiated Duopoly

In a duopoly industry with environmentally differentiated products, we examine the effects of introducing a mandatory environmental quality standard on firms' environmental quality choices, profits, and the average environmental quality offered by the industry. We show that at low standard levels, both firms choose to overcomply regardless of the standard level. At intermediate levels, the mandatory standard can reduce the profit of the low-cost firm while increasing that of the high-cost firm, and that it can lower the industry's average environmental quality below what it would be without the standard.

Non-pecuniary Work Incentive and Labor Supply

Palavras-chave: Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/12183

Recognizing that people value employment not only to earn income to satisfy their consumption needs, but also as a means to gain socio-psychological (nonpecuniary) benefits, we show that once nonpecuniary work incentives are incorporated into standard labor supply theory, (i) the wage rate under-estimates (over-estimates) the true value of nonwork/leisure time when work has nonpecuniary benefits (costs), (ii) nonpecuniary benefits can be a substitute for monetary wages as work incentives, (iii) at very low wage rates, work can become a net source of utility, and (iii) the shape of labor supply curve differs from standard theory. We also identify conditions under which a greater nonpecuniary work incentive generates a larger individual labor supply, and...

EXPLAINING INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD LABELING REGULATIONS

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/12227

Gruere, Guillaume P.; Carter, Colin A.; Farzin, Y. Hossein.

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/13/04.

Tipo: Conference Paper or Presentation

Palavras-chave: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/20341

Non-pecuniary Value of Employment and Natural Resource Extinction

We assume that people value employment not only to earn income to satisfy their consumption needs but also as a means of community/social involvement that provides socio-psychological (non-pecuniary) benefits. We show that the latter incentive can encourage full employment harvesting resources and explain why poor resource-based communities may exhaust a natural resource in a finite time even if there is a sustainable path of resource consumption available. We show that communities could sustain their natural resources by using outside-the-community employment and economic diversification, but, to be effective, such policies must ensure that the outside wage rate and the initial capital stock are above certain minimum levels, which will be higher the...

When is it Optimal to Exhaust a Resource in a Finite Time?

Palavras-chave: Resource /Energy Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/12155

Exhaustion of a natural resource stock may be a rational choice for an individual and/or a community, even if a sustainable use for the resource is feasible and the resource users are farsighted and well informed on the ecosystem. We identify conditions under which it is optimal not to sustain resource use. These conditions concern the discounting of future benefits, instability of social system or ecosystem, nonconvexity of natural growth function, socio-psychological value of employment, and strategic interaction among resource users. The identification of these conditions can help design policies to prevent unsustainable patterns of resource use.