The impact of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on land and property values: A meta-analysis

Throughout the world, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has become a popular transit solution for cities wanting to improve urban mobility and economic opportunities through land and property value uplift (LVU). However, the relevant literature reports a mixed impact of BRT on land and property values. This research aims to explain the variation in impacts by conducting a meta-analysis of 23 empirical studies which have estimated the amount of LVU that is attributable to BRT. Using a random-effects model, four categories of factors that may influence estimates of BRT impacts are analysed: BRT system characteristics; land type and accessibility; research methods; and the spatial and temporal characteristics of the case study. Several factors were found to have a statistically significant impact on estimated LVU impacts from BRT systems including maturity of the BRT system; property or land; type of value (asking price, assessed price or sales price); the distance to BRT stations; the research method; and the geographical location of the BRT system. Using the quantifiability advantages of meta-analysis techniques, we further conducted a broad comparison between our results and the findings from one previous meta-analysis study on Rail-Based Transit (RBT), and discussed how the LVU impact differs between BRT and RBT. The findings from this research suggest several key recommendations for future studies into the impact of BRT on land and property values. They also inform policy analyses on transit funding through land and property value gains.     

不同空间聚类算法在识别优质集聚基本农田图斑中的应用及对比研究

研究目的:探索基于不同空间聚类指数排序识别空间集聚的高质量永久基本农田保护图斑,以期为当前国土空间规划中永久基本农田调整补划和布局优化提供方法借鉴。研究方法:分别利用规则空间聚类算法Local Moran’s I和Getis-Ord Gi*以及非规则空间搜索聚类算法AMOEBA构建能在地块尺度上同时反映耕地质量及其空间集聚信息的表征指数,设计相应的排序优选方案,进而快速识别指定数量的永久基本农田保护图斑,并进行对比及邻域敏感性分析。研究结果:(1)基于AMEOBA算法输出聚类指数并设计相应的排序方案能在研究区识别空间上更为集聚同时具有较高质量的永久基本农田保护图斑;(2)基于邻接关系的邻域定义方式能在研究区取得比基于空间距离的邻域定义方式更好的识别结果。研究结论:应用空间聚类算法计算同时指示耕地质量高低及其空间聚散性的地块级表征指数,并设计相应优选排序方案识别高质量集聚永久基本农田保护图斑是有效可行的。     

Recruiting Agricultural Economics Graduate Students: Student Demand for Program Attributes

We use data from an Internet and traditional print mail survey to determine student demand for graduate program attributes. Results reveal that students value graduate program ranking more than stipend level, geographic location, or office/computer facilities. Higher ranked programs, as a whole, may be able to offer substantially lower stipends to students and remain competitive with lower ranked programs. Results also suggest that students might be willing to accept higher stipends or office space to attend lower ranked schools. The results may provide graduate program leaders with information to improve their recruitment efforts and/or potentially reduce graduate program expenditures.     

Explaining public preferences for high voltage pylon designs: An empirical study of perceived fit in a rural landscape

In many countries, electricity transmission networks are being upgraded and developed arising from policies aiming to decarbonise energy systems. However, new power lines are often controversial, due to their perceived negative impacts on rural landscapes. Despite the fact that visual impacts are an important element of public objections, to date, little research has analysed public preferences for alternative pylon designs, as well as investigating the social and psychological factors that might explain such preferences. This paper sought to address this gap, informed by research on public acceptance of renewable energy technologies, using a survey conducted with a representative sample of UK adults (n = 1519). The findings indicate that the ‘T-pylon’ design, winner of a recent competition, was most strongly preferred and the one most perceived to fit with a rural landscape, by comparison to the conventional ‘A frame’ design and a ‘Totem’ design shortlisted in the competition. Linear regression analyses indicated three factors that explained perceived fit, regardless of the designs: lower levels of educational attainment, positive general attitudes towards transmission lines and higher levels of trust in National Grid were associated with positive perceptions of fit of the pylons in a rural landscape. Finally, findings concerning public support for diverse mitigation measures indicated that the use of alternative designs was less supported than burying new powerlines underground and routing pylons away from homes and schools. The implications of these results for more sustainable grid networks are discussed.     

Tracing the Pathways from Research to Innovation: Evidence from Case Studies

The complex process through which agricultural research stimulates innovation and achieves policy goals has commonly been treated as a ‘black box’ in the scientific literature. Statistical correlations between measured expenditure and impacts, where satisfactorily established, have mostly led to details of the research and innovation system being ignored. However, identifying and exploring causal chains of impact propagation can strengthen agricultural innovation. IMPRESA investigated impact mechanisms for research‐based innovations in six case studies using a Participatory Impact Pathway Assessment approach. Several suggestions result for improving performance and public support for agricultural research. Planning for impact is needed at the design phase of research so that expected advances in technology and their consequences can be explored. At that stage and throughout the research process, soft social skills are required to promote uptake. Greater impact can be achieved through the close involvement of key public and private sector stakeholders, using stakeholder mapping as a supporting tool. There is a strong argument for the close involvement of relevant social scientists and professional facilitators from the design phase of research through to its ultimate impacts. Funding frameworks and the specification of calls for tenders would function more effectively by giving more flexibility for stakeholder engagement.     

The economic and poverty impacts of maize research in West and Central Africa

This article assembles the results of three multicountry surveys on variety performance and adoption patterns to measure the impacts of maize research in West and Central Africa from 1981 to 2005, and uses cost data since 1971 to compute social rates of return on public investments in maize research in the region. Adoption of modern varieties increased from less than 5% of the maize area in the 1970s to about 60% in 2005, yielding an aggregate rate of return on research and development (R&D) investment of 43%. The estimated number of people moved out of poverty through adoption of new maize varieties rose gradually in the 1980s to more than one million people per year since the mid 1990s. Over half of these impacts can be attributed to international maize research at IITA and CIMMYT. The article concludes with a discussion of strategic options to enhance the impacts of maize research in the region.     

Resolving Range Conflict in Nevada? Buyouts and Other Compensation Alternatives

To mitigate the adverse effects of reduced access to public forage, ranchers may require financial or other forms of "compensation." In this paper, we use results from a survey of Nevada ranchers to examine their willingness to sell grazing permits and participate in other schemes that enable them to continue ranching in spite of declining access to public forage. On average, ranchers demand $255 per animal unit month to sell grazing permits, while support for other programs, some of which are performance based, depends on whether respondents trust public agencies and intend to pass their ranch onto an heir.     

Classifying households for water demand forecasting using physical property characteristics

Changes in population distribution across Europe are driving the construction of substantial numbers of new houses, creating a need to forecast water demand for new housing developments. The most certain information available on new households during planning are the physical characteristics of the properties themselves. This paper sets out to establish how to classify properties in terms of their physical characteristics for the purpose of forecasting water demand. Analysis of household water demand under a univariate classification of property type showed significant differences for properties of different size (number of bedrooms), architectural type (e.g. flats vs. terraced) and garden presence but not for age or for garden aspect. Analysis of household water demand under a multivariate classification of property type showed fewer significant differences between property types. The results of the study were compared to studies and found to fit qualitatively. However, quantitative differences were noted indicating geographical and sampling variation which requires further investigation. In addition, further research is required to determine the relative certainty of forecasts derived from physical vs. socio-economic or demographic characteristics.     

土地有偿使用改革与中国的城市发展--来自香港特别行政区公共土地批租制度的启示

研究目的:分析土地有偿使用改革对中国城市发展的意义及发展过程中出现的问题,与香港特别行政区的公共土地批租制度进行比较,探讨完善中国大陆土地有偿使用制度的方法与途经.研究方法:实证与比较研究.研究结果:借鉴香港特别行政区公共土地批租制度的经验教训,中国大陆应加快对土地权益的研究及相关法律规章的修订,逐步建立起房地产年税体系,同时强化政府对土地市场的宏观调控能力及对土地市场需求的适应性.研究结论:土地有偿使用改革对中国大陆城市发展的影响深远、意义重大,但和成熟的香港特别行政区公共土地批租制度相比,无论在经济上还是法律方面均存在诸多缺憾.     

林农视角福建省林业生产类公共信息服务研究

通过问卷调查了解福建省永安市、尤溪县、连城县、永泰县这4个重点林区林农生产类公共信息服务需求情况。在此基础上,以林农个体特征、诱导因素、生产类公共信息服务获取渠道、信息质量、林农付费意愿、林农对信息服务人员的认可等作为林农生产类公共信息服务需求的预期影响因素,利用多元线性回归分别对林农生产类公共信息服务需求影响因素进行了实证分析。结果表明:林农需求的主要影响因素为林农的健康状况、家庭林业年收入、林农付费意愿、对服务人员的认可和信息获取渠道数。因此,提出拓宽林农公共信息服务获取渠道;从数量和质量上提高林业公共信息服务水平;注重信息服务人员与林农需求之间的对接以及提高林农对信息的认知等建议。     

The Amenity and Disamenity Impacts of Agriculture: Estimates from a Hedonic Pricing Model

The positive and negative externalities from farmland are increasingly a focus of public policy discussion about agriculture and land use. A GIS-based hedonic pricing model shows that agricultural open space increases nearby residential property values, but larger-scale animal operations and mushroom production have negative impacts. Animal production facilities with as few as 200 animal equivalent units reduce nearby property values, but larger facilities do not necessarily generate larger impacts. Because they tend to occur together, the negative impacts of animal agriculture and the positive impacts of open space must be simultaneously modeled to avoid omitted variable bias.     

Is Bt Cotton a Pro‐Poor Technology? A Review and Critique of the Empirical Record

Policy makers, journalists and other commentators have hailed genetically modified (GM) crops as a ‘pro‐poor’ success in the developing world. Their confidence appears to be justified by the encouraging conclusions reached by academic studies on the performance and impacts of GM crops, which seem to provide convincing evidence of substantial benefits for smallholders in developing countries. However, a detailed, critical examination of studies on transgenic, insect‐resistant cotton in China, India and South Africa demonstrates that the technology's impacts have been evaluated and represented in selective and misleading ways. The performance and impacts of GM crops have in fact been highly variable, socio‐economically differentiated and contingent on a range of agronomic, socio‐economic and institutional factors. The shortcomings of the GM crop‐impacts literature have done a disservice to public and policy debates about GM crops in international development and impeded the development of sound, evidence‐based policy.     

Using Attribute Importance Rankings Within Discrete Choice Experiments: An Application to Valuing Bread Attributes

We present a new Bayesian econometric specification for a hypothetical Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) incorporating respondent ranking information about attribute importance. Our results indicate that a DCE debriefing question that asks respondents to rank the importance of attributes helps to explain the resulting choices. We also examine how mode of survey delivery (online and mail) impacts model performance, finding that results are not substantively affected by the mode of survey delivery. We conclude that the ranking data are a complementary source of information about respondent utility functions within hypothetical DCEs.     

Spillovers

Interstate and international spillovers from public agricultural research and development (R&D) investments account for a significant share of agricultural productivity growth. Hence, spillovers of agricultural R&D results across geopolitical boundaries have implications for measures of research impacts on productivity, and the implied rates of return to research, as well as for state, national and international agricultural research policy. In studies of aggregate state or national agricultural productivity, interstate or international R&D spillovers might account for half or more of the total measured productivity growth. Similarly, results from studies of particular crop technologies indicate that international technology spillovers, and multinational impacts of technologies from international centres, were important elements in the total picture of agricultural development in the 20th Century. Within countries, funding institutions have been developed to address spatial spillovers of agricultural technologies. The fact that corresponding institutions have not been developed for international spillovers has contributed to a global underinvestment in certain types of agricultural research.     

The Effects of Wind Turbines on Property Values in Ontario: Does Public Perception Match Empirical Evidence?

The increasing development of wind energy in North America has generated concerns from nearby residents regarding potential impacts of wind turbines on property values. Such concerns arose in Melancthon Township (in southern Ontario) following the construction of a large wind farm. Existing literature has not reached a consensus regarding the nature of these impacts. This paper applies a hedonic approach to detailed data on 5,414 rural residential sales and 1,590 farmland sales to estimate the impacts of Melancthon's wind turbines on surrounding property values. These impacts are accounted for through both proximity to turbines and turbine visibility—two factors that may contribute to a disamenity effect. The results of the hedonic models, which are robust to a number of alternate model specifications including a repeat sales analysis, suggest that these wind turbines have not significantly impacted nearby property values. Thus, these results do not corroborate the concerns raised by residents regarding potential negative impacts of turbines on property values.     

The impact of mining and smelting activities on property values: a study of Mount Isa city,Queensland, Australia

Much publicity has been given to the problem of high levels of environmental contaminants, most notably high blood lead concentration levels among children in the city of Mount Isa because of mining and smelting activities. The health impacts from mining‐related pollutants are now well documented. This includes published research being discussed in an editorial of the Medical Journal of Australia (see Munksgaard et al. 2010 ). On the other hand, negative impacts on property prices, although mentioned, have not been examined to date. This study rectifies this research gap. This study uses a hedonic property price approach to examine the impact of mining‐ and smelting‐related pollution on nearby property prices. The hypothesis is that those properties closer to the lead and copper smelters have lower property (house) prices than those farther away. The results of the study show that the marginal willingness to pay to be farther from the pollution source is AUS $13 947 per kilometre within the 4 km radius selected. The study has several policy implications, which are discussed briefly. We used ordinary least squares, geographically weighted regression, spatial error and spatial autoregressive or spatial lag models for this analysis.     

论土地制度的公私矛盾

研究目的：梳理土地制度的公私关系,探讨土地制度运行的内在规律。研究方法：归纳与演绎、文献研究法、比较分析法。研究结果：土地制度是人类进入文明社会（出现国家及法律）以后的基础性制度,并交替存在着公有制、私有制等制度形态;无论是实践中还是在理论上,土地公有制与私有制选择始终是一对矛盾,但产权是否清晰与土地公有私有无关,财产权神圣不可侵犯应同等保护公私财产,平等保护财产权并非追求财产平等。研究结论：土地作为自然资源的本质属性决定了其产权制度的基本特征,土地所有制度属于政治范畴,土地产权制度与财富分配机制属于经济问题,土地制度规则应遵循公权与私权均衡,公利与私利分野。     

Private land use for public housing projects: The Influence of a Government Announcement on Housing Markets in Hong Kong

Insufficient land supply and housing shortage limit the development in Hong Kong. To tackle such obstacles, the Hong Kong government launched a new housing initiative in June 2018, that is, to reallocate private housing sites for public housing in East Kowloon. Yet, the initiative may give rise to two important questions: (1) how does this initiative affect the housing searching behaviour in the housing market; and (2) in what way should the new public housing be developed, if it is to be compatible with the host neighborhood - by the public sector, or with the participation of the private sector. Little is known about the possible impacts of such an initiative.To fill this research gap, this paper adopts an improved spatial econometric model by incorporating spatial and temporal information to explore the above two questions. Our results indicate that (1) the announcement of the initiative leads to a 5% change in time-on-market for private housing in East Kowloon; (2) people in private property prefer more to live near public housing developed by the private sector. These findings somehow echo the invasion theory of urban change: Neighborhood changes in private housing areas will spill-over to adjacent urban areas.     

The impact of different land-supplying channels on the supply of housing

As Hong Kong's property prices have been skyrocketing particularly in the last several years, housing has become even less affordable than it was prior to the Asian Financial Crisis, compromising Hong Kong residents’ living standards. The general public mostly blames the supply-side actors (i.e. property developers and/or the government) for such a predicament, and vociferously demands for higher supply of residential flats both in the private and public sectors. The government, in response, proposes the supply of more residential land, among other measures, in addressing the public's demands, with the notion of “higher land supply results in higher housing supply”. Nonetheless, there are other channels, other than land sale, which provide land for housing construction, such as land exchange, which are usually overlooked in public debates. In the light of this, this paper aims to investigate the respective impact of land sale and land exchange on Hong Kong's housing supply. The findings, interestingly, show that land exchange has a much larger long-run impact on housing supply than land sale does; that housing supply responds to short-run fluctuations in property price; and that best lending rate has neither a short- nor long-run relationship with the supply of housing. The reason behind the finding regarding land sale and land exchange is that, the former is initiated by the government which overlooks property developers’ profit incentives and development strategies, while the latter essentially reflects that a particular land site is ripe for development (i.e. profitable) from the developers’ standpoint. Some implications relating to the recently announced government land policy measures are also discussed.     

The wealth of nature: economics as if survival mattered

Livestock play a key role in the lives of poor, rural people in developing countries, providing a major proportion of their cash income, capital assets, draught power, fuel and fertilizer. Rapid growth in demand for meat and dairy products in Asia presents both opportunities and challenges for livestock development and poverty alleviation. This paper explores the potential of livestock intensification to benefit the livelihoods of upland households and meet market demand in the Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), a South East Asian country undergoing significant economic change.

A review of the livestock sector in Asia shows increasing demand for live animals and meat in neighbouring Vietnam, Thailand and China. Lao PDR is well positioned to capitalize on the growing Asian livestock sector, however the extent livestock production in Lao PDR can reduce poverty, meet growing domestic meat demand and lift livestock exports is problematic. Findings from research in two upland northern provinces demonstrate how the introduction of forages for livestock has revolutionized the lives of some farmers and villages, but concludes that strategies are still needed to engage poorer households. The impacts of changing domestic and export markets are less certain, and are discussed within the context of environmental and public health, cultural traditions, economic development and sustainable livelihoods.