When the modern era of environmental policy began with creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, economists and economics were little used. Over time, economics became a major contributor to formation of environmental policy. Executive...

The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments required that water utilities send quality reports to customers. We test whether receiving such reports of health violations increases purchases of bottled water using newly released data and disaggregate changes in demand at the intensive and...

We consider private provision of an environmental public good and the link between voluntary pollution-abatement markets and the optimal level of mandatory environmental regulation. We show that voluntary abatement markets react to the level of mandatory abatement imposed and that an optimal...

In traditional contingent valuation, the researcher seeks the amount a respondent is willing, ceteris paribus, to pay to obtain something. But if a respondent receives a “warm glow†from a yes response, ceteris is not paribus. In estimating willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce...

Research on the efficiency of dairy farming in New Zealand is limited and has focused predominantly on technical efficiency. We contribute to the literature on empirical analysis by examining cost efficiency of New Zealand dairy farms. We construct simplified translog stochastic cost frontiers...

With weather index insurance expanding and common property resources diminishing in low-income agricultural areas, it is essential to understand the potential effects of such insurance on resources that serve as vital input bases for low-income households. Using simple analytical constructs, we...