VALUING EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND FISHERY ENHANCEMENT ON CHINOOK SALMON

This paper represents a continuing multidisciplinary analysis of species preservation and global change. It explores the economic cost of a potential regional warming's effect on the spring chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshcawytscha). Climate change and planned habitat improvements impact the production and economic value of spring chinook salmon in the Yakima River tributary of the Columbia River in eastern Washington. A chinook salmon's total economic value includes the summation of the existence, commercial, recreational, and capital values. The analysis here applies currently available data on these four components of value to estimated changes in chinook salmon population resulting from regional warming. Results show that the estimated change in economic value per fish associated with reducing one fish run is significant .     

Doha Merchandise Trade Reform: What Is at Stake for Developing Countries?

The LINKAGE model of the global economy and the latest GlobalTrade Analysis Project (GTAP) database (version 6.05) are usedto examine the impact of current merchandise trade barriersand agricultural subsidies and possible reform outcomes of theWorld Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Doha DevelopmentAgenda. The results suggest that moving to free global merchandisetrade would boost real incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa proportionatelymore than in other developing countries or in high-income countries,despite the terms of trade loss in parts of that region. Particularattention is given to agriculture, as farmers constitute thepoorest households in developing countries but the most assistedin rich countries. Net farm incomes would rise substantiallyin Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing country regions,alleviating rural poverty. Partial liberalization could movethe world some way toward those desirable outcomes, the moreso the more developing countries themselves cut applied tariffs,particularly on agricultural imports.     

Heterogeneous Consumers and Fiscal Policy Shocks

This paper studies empirical facts regarding the effects of unexpected changes in aggregate macroeconomic fiscal policies on consumers that differ depending on individual characteristics. We use data from the Consumption Expenditure Survey to estimate individual‐level responses and multipliers for government spending. We find that unexpected fiscal shocks have substantially different effects on consumers depending on their income and age levels: the wealthiest individuals tend to behave according to predictions of standard Real Business Cycle (RBC) models, whereas the poorest ones behave according to standard IS–LM (non‐Ricardian) models, most likely due to credit constraints. Furthermore, government spending policy shocks tend to decrease consumption inequality.     

Is World Trade Becoming More Regionalized?*

The rise in intraregional trade shares and the proliferation of regional trade agreements does not necessarily mean economies excluded from those agreements are harmed. Trade data show that the share of each region's GDP that is traded extraregionally has been growing steadily following its fall in the 1930s. That is, the rapid growth of OECD countries' trade among neighbors has been accompanied by (albeit somewhat less rapid) growth in extraregional trade. This does not constitute proof that regional agreements benefit outsiders, but it at least throws doubt on the opposite conclusion.     

Impact of the GST and Wine Tax Reform on Australia’s Wine Industry: A CGE Analysis

This study analyses the impacts of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced on 1 July 2000, and the associated wine tax reform, on both the premium and non‐premium segments of the grape and wine industry using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Australian economy. Through input cost reductions, the grape and wine industry is projected to gain from the GST tax package. Thus the industry can still gain even though wine consumption is taxed a little more heavily after than before the introduction of the GST. This is particularly so for the export‐oriented premium wine segment. A switch from the current ad valorem to a revenue‐neutral volumetric tax on wine under the GST is shown also to favour the premium segment of the industry, but at the expense of the non‐premium segment.     

Price Bands and Buffer Funds

Price-band stabilization schemes are widely used although they have generally been regarded as second-best options. In this paper, it is shown that a class of control problems with plausible social welfare functions yields price-band stabilization as the optimal solution. Thus the proponents of price-band schemes need not be regarded as satisficers.