Willingness to pay (WTP) estimation typically involves some strategy for mapping nondichotomous contingent valuation (CV) responses onto a dichotomous yes/no dependent variable. We propose a new approach to selecting which responses qualify as ‘yes.’ We apply the proposed method to...

A dynamic model is developed that jointly optimizes over groundwater quality and quantity for extractive municipal and non-extractive agricultural users. The model is applied to an aquifer in southern Ontario to analyze several policy scenarios, demonstrating that interactions between...

This paper argues that policies based on economic instruments are preferable to command and control approaches for effectively protecting biological diversity. This is due to sources of inefficiencies because of informational asymmetries between the regulator and private land users. We propose a...

This is Selected Paper #2846. The title of this paper at the time the abstract was submitted was "Private Incentives for Investments to Mitigate Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface"

We examine the use of performance bonds in tropical forest concessions. Bonds are a promising new policy instrument that have been discussed in several articles and used in some cases as a way of encouraging adoption of sustainable forest management practices, including reduced impact logging...

Existing studies on the economic impact of wildfire smoke have focused either on single fire events or entire fire seasons without distinguishing between individual occurrences. Neither approach allows for an examination of the marginal effects of fire attributes, such as distance and fuel type,...

There is an increasing tendency for forest product firms worldwide to adopt sound environmental management practices by voluntarily agreeing to have their forest practices certified by third parties. Using a simple model of profit maximization, we illustrate that the puzzling emergence of this...

The Truckee/Carson/Walker River watershed in northern Nevada is under an imminent threat of infestation by the New Zealand mud snail, an aquatic nuisance species with the potential to harm recreational fisheries. We combine a utility-theoretic system-demand model of recreational angling with a...