Contingent valuation has been used extensively in estimating the value of environmental goods. One criticism of this approach, however, is that respondents in referendum-style contingent valuation surveys may express citizen assessments that take into account benefits to others rather than...

The realisation that the world's oceans play an important role in climate regulation and many territory activities, notably food production, coupled with economic changes and the rapid advancement in ocean technology have seen a shift in the perception of the importance of marine resources. This...

This paper presents a simulation-based modelling approach for estimating total visitor numbers and amenity values for prospective non-priced open-access outdoor recreation sites. To begin, the geographic extent of the market for recreation at a policy site is estimated using data from a similar...

This paper considers the use of a “combinatorial optimization” technique in the aggregation of environmental benefit values. Combinatorial optimization is used to statistically match population census data to a Contingent Valuation survey. The matched survey and census information is then...

Contingent valuation has been used extensively in estimating the value of environmental goods. One criticism of this approach, however, is that respondents in referendum-style contingent valuation surveys may express citizen assessments that take into account benefits to others rather than...

Using statistical matching techniques, economists can now create attribute rich datasets by matching across the common variables in two or more datasets. The farm level spatial microsimulation model developed in this paper uses one of many combinational optimisation techniques – simulated...

This paper looks at the statistical matching technique used to match the Irish Census of Agriculture to the Irish National Farm Survey (NFS) to produce a farm level static spatial microsimulation model of Irish agriculture. The match produces a spatially disaggregated population microdata set of...

Currently rates of planting lag far behind levels that would be expected from a comparison of the returns from farm forestry with competing agricultural alternatives. Previous research has focused on the role of economic factors such as government subsidies, returns from competing agricultural...

This paper describes a flexible computing framework designed to create a dynamic microsimulation model, the Life-cycle Income Analysis Model (LIAM). The principle computing characteristics include the degree of modularisation, parameterisation, generalisation and robustness. The paper describes...

1 Introduction -- 2 The Spatial Policy Context of Economic, Agricultural and Environmental Change in Rural Ireland -- 3 A Review of Microsimulation for Policy Analysis -- 4 The SMILE Model: Construction and Calibration -- 5 Validation Issues and the Spatial Pattern of Household Income -- 6 Farm...