Environment
Efficient Water Allocation with Win-Win Conservation Surcharges: The Case of the Ko‘olau Watershed
The one-demand Hotelling model fails to explain the observed specialization of non-renewable resources. We develop a model with multiple demands and resources to show that specialization of resources according to demand is driven by Ricardian comparative advantage while the order of resource use over time is determined by Ricardian absolute advantage. An abundant resource with […]
Read MoreValuing Indirect Ecosystem Services: the Case of Tropical Watersheds
Mitigating the harmful effects of development projects and industries (negative environmentalism) is inadequate, especially in resource-dependent economies whose resources are at risk from other forces. While positive environmentalism includes conservation projects, the non-market benefits of such projects are difficult to evaluate. This paper provides and illustrates a method for evaluating the indirect, watershed benefits of […]
Read MoreControl of Invasive Species: Lessons from Miconia in Hawai’i
The threat of invasive species stems from their ability to rapidly and irreversibly change ecosystems and degrade the value of ecosystem services. Optimal control of a pre-established exotic pest minimizes the costs of population reduction plus the residual damages from the remaining pest population. The shrubby tree, Miconia calvescens, is used to illustrate dynamic policy […]
Read MorePrevention, Eradication, and Containment of Invasive Species: Illustrations from Hawaii
Invasive species change ecosystems and the economic services such ecosystems provide. Optimal policy will minimize the expected damages and costs of prevention and control. We seek to explain policy outcomes as a function of biological and economic factors, using the case of Hawaii to illustrate. First, we consider an existing invasion, Miconia calvescens, a plant […]
Read MoreMitigating Runoff As Part of an Integrated Strategy for Nearshore Resource Conservation
This report first presents theoretical considerations for integrated resource management of forested watershed and nearshore resources, then estimates current economic benefits from nearshore resources (beaches and reef) as well as expected economic benefits, in the form of preserved nearshore resource benefits, from conservation of forest resources.
Read MoreEfficient Groundwater Pricing and Intergenerational Welfare: The Honolulu Case
Optimal water usage and pricing programs discussed in literature tend to take for granted the users’ willing to pay higher efficiency prices in order to obtain the resulting benefits. Yet proposals for marginal cost water pricing on Oahu have often been found to be politically infeasible because current users will have to pay a higher […]
Read MoreEnvironmental Valuation and the Hawaiian Economy
Economic planning and policy analysis are commonly criticized for their failure to properly account for adverse effects of economic development on the environment and other interactions between nature and the market economy. The limited and piecemeal curbs on land development projects, e.g. as provided by environmental impact requirements, fail to diagnose the major negative impacts […]
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