The Nested PIGLOG Model: An Application to U.S. Food Demand

A new demand system is introduced, the Nested PIGLOG model, nesting thirteen other demand systems including five that are also new. This new model and its nested special cases are applied to models of U.S. food demand that include food-at-home (FAH), food-away-from-home (FAFH), and alcoholic beverages. Although nested tests and out-of-sample forecasting performance favor generalizing models to a certain degree, statistically insignificant improvements to in-sample-fit and even poorer out-of-sample forecast accuracy undermine further generalizations. Based on a subset of preferred models, FAFH is found to be price and income elastic compared to FAH which is price and income inelastic.     

Price Rigidity and the Selection of the Exchange Rate Regime

We evaluate and qualify Friedman's, 1953, “case for flexible exchange rates” in the presence of sticky prices in a two country model. We find that a flexible regime performs indeed better when the degree of nominal price rigidity is high while a bilateral peg does better when prices are fairly flexible. This result obtains independent of whether monetary policy is activistic or not and is mostly due to the negative relationship between employment and productivity shocks when prices are relatively sluggish (Gali, 1999). A unilateral peg tends to produce the lowest level of world welfare but it sometimes represents the best monetary arrangement for the pegger. JEL Classification Numbers: E32, E52, F33, F42     

Developing habitat associations for fishes in Lake Winnipeg by linking large scale bathymetric and substrate data with fish telemetry detections

Understanding relationships between freshwater fishes and habitat is critical for effective fisheries and habitat management. Habitat suitability indices (HSI) are commonly used to describe fish–habitat associations in rivers and other freshwater ecosystems. When applied to large lakes however, standard sampling procedures are inadequate because of larger sampling areas and an increased risk of fish collection bias through one-time observations. Here, we use lake bathymetry, substrate, and multiple fish telemetry detections collected from a systematically deployed receiver grid to develop HSI for four fish species (lake sturgeon, freshwater drum, common carp, and walleye) in Lake Winnipeg. Seasonal variations in habitat use based on water depth and substrate were observed in three of four species. Lake sturgeon remained in shallow locations with predominantly gravel substrate near the mouth of the Winnipeg River regardless of season. Freshwater drum persisted over fine substrate in both summer and winter but had a broader depth range in the summer compared to winter. Common carp shifted from mid-range depths and silt substrate in the summer to shallow depths and gravel substrate in the winter. Walleye showed an unchanging association to fine substrate but expanded from primarily mid-range depths in the summer to include shallower depths in the winter. These findings show how multiple telemetry detections per fish can be combined with hydroacoustic data to provide informative habitat associations for fishes in a large lacustrine ecosystem.     

变化环境下韩江生态流量演变特征分析

选取位于粤东、闽西南地区的韩江流域为研究对象,基于CA-Markov模型对2050年流域土地利用空间格局进行预测,构建SWAT分布式水文模型,以未来土地利用情景和气候变化情景为变量进行水文模拟,分析不同情景下韩江生态流量的时空演变特征。结果表明,未来城镇化扩张将使梅江支流中上游成为韩江流域内生态流量对土地利用变化最为敏感的区域;土地利用和气候变化将导致韩江流域枯水期流量整体减小,枯水期流量对环境变化更加敏感;韩江流域生态流量变化特征将呈现从西南到东北由升到降的趋势,梅江支流中上游地区的生态流量将得到改善;梅江和汀江两大支流上游区域生态流量对气候变化更为敏感;韩江流域径流总量下降,但丰枯流量分化加剧,长期来看枯季生态流量保障风险可能进一步增大。     

基于时序特征的黄河三角洲土地覆盖动态及驱动力分析

综合不同土地利用类型的Landsat影像时序特征和面向对象分割方法,分析1985-2018年现代黄河三角洲土地覆盖时空特征,探讨土地覆盖变化的驱动机制。结果表明:1985-2018年间研究区天然湿地面积大幅减少,共减少9.9847×104 hm²,其中沼泽和草甸湿地面积减少尤为明显,而人工湿地面积则逐年增加,年平均增加率达54.66%,主要是盐田养殖场和水稻种植面积的增大;社会经济因素对研究区土地覆盖的影响程度高于水文因素;输沙量是影响研究区土地覆盖变化的主要水文因素,实测径流量的减少进一步导致天然湿地向旱地类型转化;人口和GDP变化对人工湿地面积增加的正相关作用比较显著,而天然湿地面积的减少则与该两个指标的负相关关系比较明显。     

Operational Research and the environment

The discipline of Operational Research (OR) is primarily concerned with improving the effectiveness and efficiency of decision processes. These processes take place everywhere in society: industry, banking, agriculture, government, politics. Frequent use of mathematical optimization models is typical of OR. Since the early '80s these models are increasingly packaged in a user-friendly way, as Decision Support Systems. In the following we will illustrate how OR can be used to describe and solve a number of environmental problems.     

Land use externalities, open space preservation, and urban sprawl

Parcel data on residential land conversion are used to investigate how land use externalities influence the rate of development and modify policies designed to manage urban growth and preserve open space. Several “smart growth” policies are found to significantly influence land conversion, including a development clustering policy that concentrates development and generates preserved open space. In addition to directly affecting a parcel's hazard rate of conversion, this policy is found to affect neighboring parcels' conversion by generating a positive open space externality that hastens their development. The implication that the clustering policy could generate a more sprawled pattern of development is explored using spatial simulation.     

Industry evolution and R&D externalities

R&D externalities can imply ranges of aggregate increasing returns to scale in R&D. As a consequence several equilibria can exist involving different numbers of firms and different R&D investment levels. In a theoretical model the equilibrium dynamics are analyzed, showing that cyclical fluctuations of the number of firms and R&D investment may be expected, and that the long-run equilibrium is highly sensitive to investors' initial beliefs. The model is tested empirically using a unique database comprising competing firms in various R&D races.     

The housing question in Japan

This article first examines how bad housing conditions are in Japan based on international comparisons. The next question is whether the extremely high land prices in Japan can be explained by economic logic. We then turn to more specific housing policy questions that are peculiar to or important in Japan, such as the tax advantages of owning land that have caused under-utilization of land and the reasons why the average size of Japanese rental housing is so small.