Optimal information revelation in procurement schemes

A buyer procuring a single input possesses private information about each potential supplier's degree of fit with the buyer's needs. She can search among suppliers either sequentially or simultaneously. As long as the distribution of the fit parameter is not overly skewed to the left, sharing information with suppliers yields intensified price competition under simultaneous search. Moreover, the buyer cannot benefit by providing suppliers additional information beyond their own fitness parameter. Information revelation is never optimal with sequential search.     

Environmental amenities and optimal agricultural land use: The case of Israel

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of changing land allocation among crops as a mechanism for increasing net-social benefits, where production profits and amenity values are augmented. A positive mathematical programming model is calibrated and applied to 43 regions in the northern part of Israel, using a crop-discriminating amenity-value function. Changes in land allocation increase net-social benefits by 2.4% nationwide and by up to 15% on the regional level, where in some regions the net-social-benefits-increase/profit-loss ratio exceeds 20. Therefore, the results indicate that a policy encouraging amenity-enhancement of agricultural land use is warranted, provided that it is implemented on a regional scale, rather than as a comprehensive nationwide-enforced program.     

Inflation dispersion and central bank accommodation of supply shocks

Zusammenfassung Internationale Streuung der Inflationsraten und das Auffangen von Angebotsschocks durch die Zentralbank. -Dieser Aufsatz untersucht, ob die Zunahme in der Streuung der Inflationsraten zwischen zehn Industriel?ndern in den siebziger Jahren darauf zurückgeführt werden kann, da? die Zentralbanken Angebotsschocks wie die ?lpreiserh?hung unterschiedlich stark aufgefangen haben. Dabei wird die Reaktion der Geldbeh?rden auf Angebotsschocks und zyklische Nachfrageschwankungen in einem Modell dargestellt. Die Hauptergebnisse sind, da? das Ausma?, in dem Angebotsschocks aufgefangen wurden, von Land zu Land erheblich variiert hat und da? ein gro?er Teil der verst?rkten Streuung der Inflationsraten in den siebziger Jahren mit ziemlicher Sicherheit diesem Verhalten zugeschrieben werden kann.

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Résumé Dispersion internationale d'inflation et I'accomodarion de la banque centrale aux chocs d'offre. -Cet article analyse si l'augmentation de la dispersion des taux d'inflation entre dix pays industriels dans les années soixante-dix peut être associée à la mesure différente avec laquelle les banques centrales ont accommodé aux chocs d'offre, par example aux augmentations du prix pétrolier. La réponse des autorités monétaires aux chocs d'offre et aux changements cycliques de demande est reproduit dans un modèle. Les résultats principaux sont que le degré d'accommodation aux chocs d'offre était apparemment assez différent parmi les pays et qu'une grande partie de la dispersion des taux d'inflation augmentée dans les années soixante-dix peut être contribuée raisonnablement à ce comportement.

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Resumen Dispersión de las tasas de inflación y acomodacion de shocks de oferta através del banco central. -Este trabajo examina si el aumento de la dispersión de las tasas de inflación de diez países industrializados en los a?os setenta puede estar relacionada con las distintas formas de acomodación por parte de los bancos centrales de shocks de oferta como el de la suba del precio del petróleo. La respuesta de las autoridades monetarias a los shocks de oferta y a movimientos de la demanda es incorporada a un modelo. Se concluye que el grado de acomodación de shocks de oferta parece haber variado considerablemente según los países y que gran parte de la mayor dispersión de las tasas de inflación en los a?os setenta se debe a este comportamiento.

     

Models of water market mechanisms and an illustrative application to the Middle East

The growing demand by countries in the eastern Mediterranean over the waters of the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers, and the highly depleted coastal and mountain groundwater reservoirs, raise the need to explore ways and means to ameliorate existing and expected water scarcity. Economists have for some time proposed ways towards more efficient exploitation of existing water supplies, specifically by employing market incentive mechanisms in order to encourage voluntary water sharing among countries and regions. Such trading schemes may involve two or more countries. It can be shown that such schemes — given any initial assignment of property claims to water resources — can often lead to increases in the welfare of the countries concerned.The paper proposes two specific mechanisms for international markets in water claims in the eastern Mediterranean region, in which parties voluntarily engage in such trades, as they would expect to gain real benefits from these transactions. Simulation exercises with real data show that — as is true for any opening of markets to international trade — that all parties in the region might benefit to a greater or lesser degree from auctions of water.     

Measuring Passive Use Value: Pledges, Donations and CV Responses in Connection with an Important Natural Resource

This paper examines monetary valuations of lost passive-use benefits associated with damage to a unique environmental resource – a national park, elicited through contingent valuation, and compares them with actual donations to the same end, where the latter are interpreted as a quasi-market expression of willingness to pay for non-market resource services. The relationships between the two valuation approaches were investigated in the specific context of an environmental episode which damaged a unique natural endowment, Israel's Carmel National Park. The empirical analysis is based on data from two sample surveys; one sample was drawn from the population of people who either pledged or pledged and donated during a fund-raising campaign following the episode, with the proceeds dedicated to rehabilitation or prevention of future episodes; the second sample was drawn from the general population of the country. The results cannot be interpreted as providing unqualified support for the reliability of contingent valuation as a means for obtaining passive use values.