In this paper, we construct a dataset of annual expected forest profits in New Zealand from 1990-2008 at a fine spatial resolution. We do not include land values in any of our profit calculations. We estimate four measures of expected forest profits based around net present value (NPV), land...

Our goal is to predict which forests are harvestable in New Zealand each year, and the stumpage profits attained from harvesting. We begin by documenting how Motu updates the 2008 Land Use in Rural New Zealand map to match the 2013 National Exotic Forest Description planted forest dataset. We...

No country has previously attempted to include either agriculture or forestry in an emissions trading system. The New Zealand government is planning to include both. This paper describes how they plan to do it, what some of the critical issues have been and some of the outstanding challenges. If...

As part of international climate change policy, voluntary opt-in programs to reduce emissions in unregulated sectors or countries have spurred considerable discussion. Since any regulator will make errors in predicting baselines, adverse selection will reduce efficiency since participants will...

This paper seeks to clarify the understanding of value in the cultural context, using economics concepts. We develop an economic framework for thinking about value in the cultural context and discuss how well various valuation techniques are able to account for such values. We also discuss why...

Motu and partners were contracted by the World Bank through its Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) initiative to “Draft a proposal for the implementation in Chile of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading System (ETS)”. The specific objective in the terms of reference is to “Propose a...

This paper provides a synthesis of the key conceptual insights from economics that can contribute to the design of effective, efficient, and fair international policy that creates incentives and strengthens capability to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and promote reforestation (REDD...

There are many choices within the design of an emissions trading system. In this paper we focus on one specific aspect – the point of regulation for the energy sector. This choice affects transaction costs; comprehensiveness, and hence the amount of emissions covered and the extent to which...

Land is an important social and economic resource. Knowing the spatial distribution of land use and the expected location of future land-use change is important to inform decision makers. This paper documents and validates the baseline land-use maps and the algorithm for spatial land-use change...

New Zealand’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are usually calculated by taking total emissions as reported under the Kyoto Protocol or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and simply dividing by population. However this focuses on emissions associated with production...