A Framework for Managing the Biophysical Effects of Tourism on the Natural Environment in New Zealand

Tourists in New Zealand often impact on the natural environments that are the very reason for their visits. It is, therefore, necessary to manage those natural environments to help ensure that tourism is an environmentally sustainable activity. To assist that management process, it is helpful to establish an overarching classification framework so that consistent guidelines and environmental performance standards can be applied. This paper describes a framework for management of the biophysical impacts of tourism using a natural environment classification of the assets visited by tourists. 'Best available information' is then used to develop indicators of environmental change and associated guidelines for management at a range of levels. As a minimum, broad guidelines can be developed for the upper levels of each component of the classification. More detailed and site-specific guidelines are available in some circumstances, where appropriate research has been undertaken. Ongoing evaluation of the combination of indicators and guidelines establishes if the natural attraction is being sustainably managed. The system has been applied to 'scenic icons', wildlife attractions and caves on the West Coast of the South Island.     

The Demand for Vices in Malaysia: An Ethnic Comparison Using Household Expenditure Data

A trivariate Tobit system is estimated to investigate the demand for vices (tobacco, alcohol, and gambling) in Malaysia. Estimation results, segmented by ethnicity, suggest that years of formal education, occupation type, and household head’s age negatively affect both the likelihood to spend and the overall amounts spent on tobacco by all Malaysians. Additionally, while higher income Malay households are more likely to spend and have higher tobacco expenditures, affluent Chinese and households of other races are more likely to spend and to spend more on smoking, drinking and gambling. Male-headed households of all races are more likely to spend and also spend more on smoking, drinking and gambling than female-led households.     

Quasi- and Simulated-Likelihood Approaches to Censored Demand Systems: Food Consumption by Food Stamp Recipients in the United States

A quasi-maximum-likelihood estimator is proposed and applied to a censored Translog demand system for foods, using a sample of food stamp recipients in the United States. The procedure produces remarkably close parameter and elasticity estimates to those of the simulated-maximum-likelihood procedure. A two-step procedure is also considered but it produces different elasticities. Demands are found to be price elastic for pork and fish but price inelastic for all other food products. Gross complementarity and net substitutability are obvious but these cross-price effects are much less pronounced than own-price and total food expenditure effects.     

Benchmarking Warehousing and Distribution Operations: An Input-Output Approach

We developan input-output model of a warehouse system to assess operationalefficiency. Our model simultaneously accounts for all of thecritical resources (labor, space, storage and handling equipment)and the different workload requirements (broken case, full caseand pallet picking, storage and order accumulation) of a warehouse.We collected extensive data on 57 warehouse and distributionfacilities from a variety of industries, including auto parts,dental and office supplies, electronics, fine papers, hardware,health care, industrial packaging, mail order apparel, officemachines, photographic supplies, and wholesale drugs, and usedthe model to assess and compare their efficiencies. We offer3 conclusions based on a statistical analysis of the operatingefficiencies obtained from several models: Smaller warehouses tend to be more efficient than larger warehouses.Warehouses using lower levels of automation tend to be moreefficient. This association is more pronounced in small firms.Unionization is not negatively associated with efficiencyand in fact may actually contribute to higher efficiency.     

Are CSR Disclosures Value Relevant? Cross-Country Evidence

Using proprietary data that rate corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures of firms in 21 countries, this study examines how the strength of nation-level institutions affects the extent of CSR disclosures. We then examine the valuation implications of CSR disclosures and consider how the relation between CSR disclosures and firm value varies across countries. In contrast to prior studies, we separate CSR disclosures into an expected and unexpected portion where the unexpected portion is a proxy for the incremental information contained in CSR disclosures. We observe a positive relation between unexpected CSR disclosure and firm value measured by Tobin's Q. We also find that, while countries with strong nation-level institutions promote more CSR disclosures, the valuation of a unit increase in unexpected CSR disclosures is higher when nation-level institutions are weak.     

Reaggregation and firm-level inference in multiplant technologies

We examine conditions under which plant-level data can be used to make firm-level inferences about technology, supply, and demand. Global conditions for such reaggregation involve nonjointness restrictions in both the plant and product dimensions. In the neighborhood of the firm’s fixed overheads, however, restrictions may be eased by appealing to a multiplant generalization of Kohli’s notion of almost nonjointness, which we term “almost reaggregation.” While global conditions for almost reaggregation are the same as for full reaggregation, the local conditions outlined are more easily satisfied. Analysts thus are less likely to commit reaggregation bias when firm-level overheads are constant, and can take advantage of this conclusion through judicious model design.      

The Welfare Impact of Self-supplied Water Pricing in Canada: A Computable General Equilibrium Assessment

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model to assess the welfare cost of changing the method of water allocation in Canada towards one that uses prices to ration demand. We model the introduction of a price on both water that is abstracted as well as water that is consumed (that is abstracted, and not returned to the source). We estimate that reducing water consumption by 25 % would require imposition of a price on water consumption of around $$\$0.21/\text{ m }^{3}$$ . Similarly, introduction of a water abstraction charge of about $$\$0.013/\text{ m }^{3}$$ would be sufficient to reduce water abstraction by 25 %. We find that if revenues from water pricing are returned in lump sum to households, the introduction of water pricing would result in a modest welfare loss. When revenues from water pricing are used to offset existing taxes, we find a gain in welfare corresponding to a ‘strong double dividend.’