STRATEGY‐PROOF ALLOCATION OF INDIVISIBLE GOODS AMONG COUPLES

We consider the problem of allocating indivisible goods among couples. Agents in a couple share the indivisible good assigned to them. The main result is that an allocation rule is strategy‐proof, neutral and non‐bossy if and only if it is serially dictatorial. An allocation rule is serially dictatorial if there is a priority order of couples and a function that identifies who chooses in each couple, such that for all preference profiles, a good assigned to couple i is the best element according to the preference of the identified agent in couple i among the remaining goods when the couples with higher priorities have made their choice.     

Beach ‘lovers’ and ‘greens’: A worldwide empirical analysis of coastal tourism

This paper examines worldwide tourist coastal destination choice using a comprehensive global dataset at the country level, for both domestic and international tourists. This data includes a systematic profile of the countries' coastline with respect to economic and natural environments, such as marine biodiversity related indicators. Tourist demand is modelled using a system of simultaneous structural equations estimated by a 3SLS routine. We identify two tourist demand segments, denoting different preferences for the worldwide coastal destinations. International tourists choose their coastal destination because they have a strong preference for the cultural and natural environments. This, in turn, depends on the destination of country's coastal habitat abundance and marine biodiversity. We label this segment of coastal tourism, as “greens”. Alternatively, domestic tourists have a preference for beach characteristics, in particular beach length. This in turn depends on anthropogenic pressure, the built environment and climatic variables. For this reason we interpret this tourism segment as “beach lovers”. This information is, in turn, of high significance for stimulating coastal tourism demand as well as for identifying market based policy instruments with the objective to finance the conservation of environmental and cultural capital hosted at the coastal communities.     

Joint Land Titling and Household Bargaining in Madagascar

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates analytically and through numerical simulations how the intrahousehold bargaining positions of a couple are affected by the opportunity to title agricultural land, and how the couple’s choice between an individual male title and a joint title is determined. The results suggest that when land registration is offered to couples as a discrete choice between individual or joint titles, there is a risk that women with weak initial bargaining positions will be further weakened following the reform. A joint title will only be chosen if the spouses start off with relatively equal bargaining positions; otherwise a male title will be chosen. An application of the model to the situation of Madagascar, using household survey data, supports the predictions of the model.     

Sad or Happy? The Effects of Emotions on Stated Preferences for Environmental Goods

A substantial literature in behavioural science and psychology shows that emotions affect human choices and values. This paper investigates whether such emotional impacts are also present in stated choice experiments for environmental goods. If this were so, it would introduce an additional element of context dependence to the welfare measures derived from such methods, and would be at odds with the rational choice model underlying welfare economics. A laboratory experiment using three different emotion treatments was combined with a stated preference choice experiment concerned with changes in coastal water quality and fish populations in New Zealand. No statistically significant effects of changes in emotional state on estimated preference parameters, willingness to pay or the randomness of choices were found. The paper concludes by questioning, why such a contrast exists with empirical findings in behavioural science.     

The impact of more complex family structure upon marital earnings premiums

This article employs a unique data set from Trinidad and Tobago to examine the impact of their more complex family structures upon marital earnings premiums. While family structure includes the single married couple structure common in the US, families in Trinidad and Tobago often have more adults living in the household, multiple married couples living in the same family, and multigenerational families. Marital premiums for family members most likely to invest in labor market production are estimated to increase with more complex family structure. In contrast, estimated marital premiums for members most likely to invest in home production are decreased with more complex family structure. Results suggest that specialization within the larger family help explain the existence of marital premiums.     

Household Versus Individual Valuation: What’s the Difference?

Standard practice in stated preference typically blurs the distinction between household and individual responses, but without a clear theoretical or empirical justification for this approach. To date there have been no empirical tests of whether values for say a two adult household elicited by interviewing one randomly selected adult are the same as the values generated by interviewing both adults simultaneously. Using cohabiting couples, we conduct a choice experiment field study valuing reductions in dietary health risks. In one treatment a random individual is chosen from the couple and interviewed alone; in the other treatment, both partners are questioned jointly. We find significant differences in household values calculated from joint as opposed to individual responses, with further variation between the values elicited from men and women. Our results question the assumption, implicit in common practice, that differences between individually and jointly elicited estimates of household values can effectively be ignored.      

Accounting for Preference and Scale Heterogeneity in Establishing Whether it Matters Who is Interviewed to Reveal Household Automobile Purchase Preferences

The choice of automobile purchases in households often involves participation of more than one household member, each of which exerts some degree of influence on the final choice outcome. The influence of more than one agent has been recognised for many years, and yet the majority of automobile choice studies develop choice models as if a single agent is involved in the preference revelation process. What is not clear is whether it makes any substantive difference in preference revelation according to who is interviewed in a household. Using a generalised mixed logit framework that accounts for preference and scale heterogeneity, we estimate a series of models to investigate whether there are significant differences between the preferences of each individual in a household when assessed in isolation from other household members, as well as their joint preferences when expressing their preferences through a group choice task. The context is choosing amongst petrol, diesel and hybrid fuelled vehicles (associated with specific levels of fuel efficiency and engine capacity) when faced with a mix of vehicle prices, fuel prices, fixed annual registration fees, annual emission surcharges and vehicle kilometre emission surcharges. Using a stated choice experiment, we find that sampling a single individual as a representative of the household’s preferences is less appropriate than utilising preference information from the relevant group of decision makers in the household.     

Port-induced erosion prediction and valuation of a local recreational beach

This study attempts to integrate environmental economics and coastal engineering in managing port-induced coastal erosion occurring at a common beach by using Map Ta Phut port in Thailand as a case study. The existence of the port creates coastal erosion which can be considered an externality that affects local inhabitants, and a port owner and shipping companies can be seen as “polluters”. Overlaying of aerial photographs provided strong evidence that the coastline was severely eroded after the construction of the port. Coastal engineering softwares, LITPACK and MIKE 21 PMS, were utilized to predict future shoreline positions and investigate wave patterns around the port. The port alters wave climate and the port-induced erosion is jeopardizing a local recreational beach called Nam Rin, which is projected to disappear in 5 years. A valuation of Nam Rin beach using single-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method revealed individual willingness to pay (WTP) for the beach, being 867.5 baht (approximately US$ 24.8) per year. Multiplying the individual WTP with the appropriate number of population to acquire the beach protection benefit and dividing such benefit by construction and maintenance costs of a particular beach protection measure, the polluters can select a proper beach protection approach that fulfills their benefit-cost requirement.     

Can People Value Protection against Invasive Marine Species? Evidence from a Joint TC–CV Survey in the Netherlands

Harmful algal-bloom species (HABs) are invasiveexotic species that are primarily introduced inNorth European waters through ballast water ofships. Some produce important damages to themarine ecosystem such as the red tides thatcause a massive destruction of marine livingresources, including fish and bottom-livinganimals. Others are responsible for theproduction of thick foams with repellent odorsand the coloration of the beach water, causingimportant damages on beach recreation. Thisarticle reports a monetary valuation study of amarine protection program. This program focuseson the prevention of HABS along the coastlineof the Netherlands. It entails the constructionof a ballast water disposal treatment in theRotterdam harbor and the implementationof a monitoring program of the water quality inthe open sea along the North-Holland beaches.The valuation study is based on a questionnaireundertaken at Zandvoort, a famous Dutchbeach resort. The economic value of the marineprotection program includes non-market benefitsassociated with beach recreation, human healthand marine ecosystem impacts. Both contingent-valuation and travel-cost methods are used.These valuation techniques have not yet beenapplied to value HABs damages. The valuationresults indicate that the protection programmakes sense from an economic perspective aslong as its cost is, in any case, less than 225 millioneuro, and possibly less than 326 million euro, depending on how survey refusals are dealt with.     

Choice modeling at the “market stall”: Individual versus collective interest in environmental valuation

The market stall, or valuation workshop, has recently been proposed as a way of addressing some of the limitations of conventional stated preference analysis. In this paper, we attempt to combine a participatory technique similar to the “citizens' jury” with choice modelling, a stated preference technique increasingly being applied in environmental economics. Our focus is on how changes in the context of decision-making (between choices made in isolation and those made in a group setting, and between choices made on individual well being versus collective criteria) produce differences in estimated welfare measures. The empirical context used is that of water quality improvements under the Water Framework Directive, the most significant reform in water legislation in the European Union for many years. We find that the choice experiment format can be successfully implemented in a valuation workshop and that moving from individual to collective choice produces, in this instance, a rather interesting change in both values and preferences which depends on the respondent's interests.     

Wind turbines and coastal recreation demand

We examine the impact of coastal wind turbines on local coastal tourism and recreation for residents of the northeastern coastal counties in North Carolina. A combination of telephone and web survey data are used to assess the impact of coastal wind farms on trip behavior and site choice. Most of the respondents to our telephone survey claim to support offshore wind energy development, and independent survey data suggest that the observed levels of support may be indicative of the broader population in this region. Overall, we find very little impact of coastal wind turbines on aggregate recreational visitation; loss in annual consumer surplus associated with wide spread wind development in the coastal zone is insignificant at $17 (or about 1.5% of annual consumer surplus). Results suggest that NC local coastal tourists are averse to wind farms in the near-shore zone; average compensating variation for wind farms one mile from the shore is estimated at $55 per household. On average, we find no evidence of aversion to wind farms 4 miles out in the ocean, or for wind farms located in coastal estuaries. For all wind farm scenarios, we find evidence of preference heterogeneity—some respondents find this appealing while others find it aversive.     

Accounting for Latent Attitudes in Willingness-to-Pay Studies: The Case of Coastal Water Quality Improvements in Tobago

The study of human behaviour and in particular individual choices is of great interest in the field of environmental economics. Substantial attention has been paid to the way in which preferences vary across individuals, and there is a realisation that such differences are at least in part due to underlying attitudes and convictions. While this has been confirmed in empirical work, the methods typically employed are based on the arguably misguided use of responses to attitudinal questions as direct measures of underlying attitudes. As discussed in other literature, especially in transport research, this potentially leads to measurement error and endogeneity bias, and attitudes should rather be treated as latent variables. In this paper, we illustrate the use of such an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable model in the context of beach visitors?? willingness-to-pay for improvements in water quality. We show how a latent attitudinal variable, which we refer to as a pro-intervention attitude, helps explain both the responses from the stated choice exercise as well as answers to various rating questions related to respondent attitudes. The incorporation of the latent variable leads to important gains in model fit and substantially different willingness-to-pay patterns.     

SIZE MATTERS: THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BEACH EROSION AND NOURISHMENT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Despite the widespread use of nourishment in California, few studies estimate the welfare benefits of increased beach width. This paper relies on panel data funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies. Beach choices of respondents were combined with beach attribute data to reveal how changes in width affect choice and the economic value of beach visits. We use a random‐utility approach to show that the value of beach width varies for different types of beach uses: water contact, sand‐, and pavement‐based activities. We also find that the marginal value of beach width depends on initial beach width. (JEL Q50)     

海岸带地区环境资源经济价值的评估方法及实证分析

以大连市金石滩国家海洋公园为例,利用条件价值法,通过建立双边界二分式Logit模型,分别计算了居民和游客对改善和保护海岸带三种最重要环境资源(海水、沙滩、生物种群)的平均意愿支付,进而评估了金石滩国家海洋公园海岸带游憩资源的经济价值。结果显示:金石滩国家海洋公园的海水、沙滩和生物种群的经济价值分别为4.30亿元、3.92亿元和3.57亿元。最后指出:将这些信息纳入海岸带地区的综合管理成本效益分析,对于实现海岸带资源的可持续发展有重要意义。     

辽宁沿海经济带地脉文化旅游开发利用的经验、问题与对策

地脉文化也被称为地脉和文脉，是一个地方旅游发展的基石。根据地脉文化与旅游产品关系对比可以将旅游开发分为两类四型：（1）旅游产品扎根于地脉文化发展模式 （根基稳固、主次分明）；（2）旅游产品脱离地脉文化发展模式 （左顾右盼、横生枝节）。本文根据这一基本原理对辽宁沿海经济带旅游发展及旅游产品进行了系统分析，总结了辽宁沿海经济带地脉文化旅游开发利用的经验、问题与对策建议。结果显示：辽宁沿海经济带的地脉文化基础有 “海” “滩” “宜” “河” “港” “城” “工” “农” “山” “史”十大方面。 “海” “城” “山”的旅游产品是辽宁沿海经济带各地当前旅游发展主要方向； “滩” “农” “史”旅游产品是辽宁沿海经济带各地当前旅游发展主要方向； “滩”“农”“史”正在发展； “宜”（宜人气候、度假资源）表面发展丰富，实际潜力巨大； “河”（河流、湖泊、水库） “港” （港口） “工”（工业旅游）是被忽视或者发展滞后的地脉文化资源。     

选择实验理论及其在食品需求研究中的应用:文献综述

概述了选择实验理论及其应用,在此基础上对利用选择实验方法研究食品需求的国内外文献进行综述。得出结论:美国的此类研究主要聚焦于消费者对食品质量和安全属性的偏好和支付意愿方面;欧洲的此类研究除了关注消费者的食品质量和安全需求外,还关注转基因、动物福利等问题。提出后续基于此类方法的研究应进一步关注食品特定属性的变化对消费者或社会福利的影响以及由此导致的市场效应的评价,而消费者需求行为与食品生产者行为、政府角色的结合可作为未来研究的切入点,同时应将选择实验方法更多地应用于中国食品需求研究。     

Modeling Spatial Patchiness and Hot Spots in Stated Preference Willingness to Pay

Stated preference analyses often impose strong assumptions regarding spatial welfare distributions that can influence the validity of welfare analysis and aggregation. These include spatial homogeneity and continuous distance decay. Global assumptions such as these are increasingly questioned by non-economics disciplines in favor of approaches that allow for local patchiness. Drawing from this literature, this article proposes methods to identify and evaluate hot spots in stated preference welfare estimates using local indicators of spatial association. Methods are illustrated using geocoded choice experiment data addressing river restoration. Results suggest the presence of statistically significant, non-continuous patterns overlooked by current approaches.     

基于选择实验法的环境资源属性价值评价及实证研究

建立条件Logit模型和随机参数Logit模型,利用效用理论、福利经济学理论研究了滨海资源环境属性的重要性、边际价值以及环境资源状态改变对社会福利的影响。以大连市付家庄滨海公园为例,利用问卷调查数据进行实证研究。结果表明:随机参数Logit模型的拟合度比条件Logit模型要高、其回归效果更好;受访者对改善环境资源属性均持较为积极的态度,游客对环境资源属性的偏好程度由高到低为海水能见度、沙滩舒适度、沙滩清洁度和海洋生物种群数量;在付家庄滨海公园的当前环境下,游客的社会福利价值为64.82元/人,环境资源属性组合的最佳(最差)状态下游客的社会福利价值为127.12元/人(-18.18元/人),当前环境资源状态并非理想状态,还可以进一步改善。     

Valuing the Benefits of Coastal Water Quality Improvements Using Contingent and Real Behaviour

Recent moves in the European Union have beenmade towards a toughening of legislation onbathing water quality. This has focussedpolicy-makers thoughts on the welfare benefitsresulting from such improvements, especiallygiven their cost. Our paper uses a combinedstated and revealed preference approach tovalue coastal water quality improvements,focussing on an area of Scotland which hasconsistently failed to meet standards under theBathing Waters Directive. We combine data onreal behaviour with data on contingentbehaviour using a random effects negativebinomial panel model. This allows us to predictboth the change in participation (trips) shouldwater quality be improved, and the welfareincrease per trip. Our model includes allowancefor the existence of substitute sites, and forchanges in recreational behaviour during abeach visit.     

The Economic Value of Water Quality

Stated preference values for water quality ratings based on the US Environmental Protection Agency National Water Quality Inventory ratings provide an operational basis for benefit assessment. Iterative choice survey results for a very large, nationally representative, Web-based panel imply an average valuation of $32 for each percent increase in lakes and rivers in the region for which water quality is rated “Good.” Valuations are skewed, with the mean value more than double the median. Sources of heterogeneity in benefit values include differences in responses to average water quality information and the base level of water quality. Conjoint estimates are somewhat lower than the iterative choice values. The annual economic value of the decline in inland US water quality from 1994 to 2000 is over $20 billion.