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Registros recuperados: 12 | |
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Simpson, R. David. |
There has been considerable recent interest in the valuation of ecosystem services. We focus here on the value of such services in the production of market goods. Although the conceptual basis for conducting such exercises is straightforward, the data with which to implement them empirically is generally not available. An upper bound on the value of ecosystem services arises when the production technology exhibits constant returns to scale in ecosystem services and market inputs jointly. There are compelling reasons to suppose that the existence of fixed factors of production would imply that production technologies exhibit decreasing return to scale. Under these circumstances, no general conclusions can be drawn. We show in an illustrative example that a... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Ecosystem services; Returns to scale; Elasticity of substitution; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; Q29. |
Ano: 2001 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10832 |
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Laxminarayan, Ramanan; Simpson, R. David. |
When the application of pesticides places selective evolutionary pressure on pest populations, it can be useful to plant refuge areas-crop areas intended to encourage the breeding of pests that are susceptible to the pesticide. Renewed interest in refuge areas has arisen with recent advances in biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) crops. In this paper, we use a simple model of the evolution of pest resistance to characterize the socially optimal refuge strategy for managing pest resistance. We demonstrate some interesting analogies with other models of renewable resource management, such as those of fisheries. Among the analogous results are findings that maintaining what we might call "maximal sustainable susceptibility" is typically not... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Pest resistance; Biotechnology; Optimization; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q1; Q2. |
Ano: 2000 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10914 |
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Simpson, R. David. |
Placing production units under common ownership is often suggested as a solution to the problem of externalities. This will not always be true when there are decreasing returns to scale. An atomistic industry could be more efficient than a monopoly in some instances. Even when the "optimal" industry configuration would involve a finite number of producers, no two may have appropriate incentives to combine. An omniscient and benign regulator can always assure a more efficient outcome than would result from the combination of private producers. Whether real-world regulators should be called upon, however, is less clear. |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Externalities; Mergers; Returns to scale; Incentives; Land Economics/Use; L23; Q24. |
Ano: 2001 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10457 |
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Sedjo, Roger A.; Simpson, R. David. |
There is considerable interest in biodiversity prospecting (the search for valuable new products from natural sources) as a conservation strategy. In an earlier paper, we have argued that the value of the marginal species (and, by extension, the incentives for the conservation of the habitat on which it is found) is small. In this paper, we show that investments in biodiversity prospecting are unlikely to increase incentives for conservation by much. If the value of the marginal species were appreciable, researchers ought already to have made investments to exploit it. If it is not, it is doubtful that additional investments will generate any substantial increase. It is important to be clear about our findings: we are not saying that none of the myriad... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Biodiversity; Biodiversity prospecting; Investment; Conservation policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; O13; Q29. |
Ano: 1996 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10821 |
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Ferraro, Paul J.; Simpson, R. David. |
Intact ecosystems provide important global services. Many valuable ecosystems are located in low-income countries in which citizens are not in a position to provide global public goods gratis. To address this problem, international conservation and development donors have been making substantial investments in habitat conservation. Among the more common conservation schemes are interventions aimed at encouraging commercial activities that produce ecosystem services as joint products. We argue that it would be more cost-effective to pay for conservation performance directly. We use a simple yet general model to establish three conclusions. First, the overall cost of conservation is least when direct payments are employed. Second, the donor will generally... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Biodiversity; Conservation; Cost-effective; Incentives; Agricultural Finance; H21; Q28. |
Ano: 2000 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10800 |
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Boyd, James; Caballero, Kathryn; Simpson, R. David. |
There is a growing interest in incentive-based policies to motivate conservation by landowners. These policies include full- and partial-interest land purchases, tax-based incentives, and tradable or bankable development rights. Using legal and economic analysis, the paper explores potential pitfalls associated with the use of such policies. Incentive-based policies promise to improve the cost effectiveness of habitat preservation, but only if long-run implementation issues are meaningfully addressed. While we compare conservation policies, particular attention is devoted to the use of conservation easements and in particular a set of easement contracts and transactions in the state of Florida. The easement analysis highlights the importance of... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Habitat conservation; Conservation easements; Land use policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q15; K11; R52. |
Ano: 1999 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10587 |
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Simpson, R. David; Craft, Amy B.. |
Biologists and conservation advocates have expressed grave concern over perceived threats to biological diversity. "Biodiversity prospecting" -- the search among naturally occurring organisms for new products of agricultural, industrial, and, particularly, pharmaceutical value -- has been advanced as both a mechanism and a motive for conserving biological diversity. Economists and others have attempted to estimate the value of biodiversity for use in new pharmaceutical project research. Most of these existing approaches are incomplete, however, as they have not considered full social welfare, i.e., both consumer surplus and profit. This paper addresses social welfare by calibrating a model of competition between differentiated products with data from the... |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Biodiversity prospecting; Differentiated products; Pharmaceutical research and development; Biogeographic models; Global warming; Habitat conversion; Health Economics and Policy; D43; L13; Q29. |
Ano: 1996 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10877 |
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Simpson, R. David; Sedjo, Roger A.. |
We develop a model of search in which a researcher chooses the size of sequential batches of samples to test. While earlier work has considered similar questions, the contribution of this paper is to use the search model to place a value on the marginal research opportunity. The valuation of such opportunities may be of little interest or relevance in many of the contexts in which search models are employed, but we apply our analysis to an area of considerable societal interest: the valuation of biological diversity for use in new product research. While data from which to make inferences are limited, we find that, using plausible estimates of relevant parameters, the value of biodiversity in these applications is negligible. |
Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Biodiversity; Search; Sequential; Conservation incentives; Environmental Economics and Policy; D83; Q29. |
Ano: 1996 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10618 |
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Registros recuperados: 12 | |
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