Significant progress in seawater desalination technology has lowered its costs considerably, making it an attractive option to policy makers in countries facing water shortages. However, in making the decision to implement desalination, two issues are often ignored: firstly, seawater...

High taxes on new cars in Israel provide an incentive for car owners to defer the purchase of new vehicles. The result is a vehicle fleet of older, more polluting vehicles, with air pollution costs estimated at up to $530 million annually. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a cost benefit...

As pressures mount to develop intensive business operations along a coastline prized for its natural beauty, varied plant and wildlife and archeological sites, it is important to present decision makers with a full analysis of all values associated with the area. In this study, we examine...

This paper attempts to measure, in a cost–benefit analysis, a stricter noise abatement programme for noise originating from roads in Israel. Using the hedonic price method for three large cities and rural area transactions, a benefit from noise reduction was found. In order to perform a social...

This study examines the economic viability of relocating polluting industrial factories from densely populated residential areas to designated industrial zones. This solution requires a significant economic investment consisting of relocating and remediating costs. This solution has a direct...

We use an empirical estimation procedure to examine the effect of macroeconomic variables of Israel's trading partners on the country's exports. The main goal of our study is to use the estimation results to point to the optimal trade policy for Israel, and compare it with the current policy.

This paper analyzes the effect of water supply uncertainty on farmers' choice of crop portfolio. The paper presents an innovative model to estimate the value of uncertainty of water supply, and then tests the model using data from Israel. The modeling results provide support to the hypothesis...

This paper explores the implications of the transformation of the system of water resources allocation to the agricultural sector in Israel from a one in which allotments are allocated to the different users without any permission to trade with water rights. A mathematical planning model is used...

This paper illustrates the use of alternative, non-market valuation methods to estimate the economic value of ecological damage caused by the invasive plant Acacia saligna. We discuss the motivation to perform an economic valuation for bio-invasion in general and then examine the costs and...

The issue of pricing nature reserves becomes more relevant as budgetary constraints become a limiting factor for their proper operation. This paper considers and compares different pricing alternatives for managing Nature Reserves (NRs) and applies them to two nature reserves in Israel. We...