The social discount rate crucially determines optimal mitigation policies. This paper examines two shortcomings of the recent debate and the models on climate change assessment. First, removing an implicit assumption of (intertemporal) risk neutrality reduces the growth effect in social...

Since independence in 1956, the structure of domestic production and export sectors, the level of capacities to absorb economic shocks, and the historically market-oriented nature of the economy, when taken collectively, they constitutes distinguishing characteristics of Sudan economy at...

Adaptation financing is a major challenge for developing countries, including emerging economies in Asia. No single mechanism can bridge the adaptation funding mechanism. Focusing on climate change, many reports recently published intensifying potential climate change impacts on agriculture and...

We examine the relationship between South African Rand and gold price volatility using monthly data for the period 1980-2010. Our main findings is that prior to capital account liberalization the causality runs from South African Rand to gold price volatility but the causality runs the other way...

Ecological economics claims to integrate natural sciences and economics. This is not merely an interdisciplinary task. It is an approach without analogy in the history of science. Therefore, any research strategy following standard approaches and arguments runs the risk of failure. Simple...

We demonstrate the power of the Ensemble Kalman Filter in specifying ecosystem models ideal for bioeconomic analysis. Bioeconomic analysis requires models to be relatively simple, but models must still capture the nature and dynamics of the system. With the Ensemble Kalman Filter, we are able to...

In this article Hamilton describes the growing interest in farming among a new generation of Americans and makes detailed suggestions for how the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and local governments can support policies to help support them. He notes that the interest in farming...

The precise consequences of climate change remain uncertain. We incorporate damage uncertainty into a joint model of climate and the economy, an integrated assessment model. First, both the science and the integrated assessment community analyze uncertainty by means of sensitivity analysis and...

We examine the effects that variations in the international food prices have on democracy and intra-state conflict using panel data for over 120 countries during the period 1970-2007. Our main finding is that in Low Income Countries increases in the international food prices lead to a...