This thesis develops an experimental procedure to value the environmental benefits from two pre-production genetically modified (GM) products, MVR tomatoes and Bt eggplant. The procedure explicitly tells subjects the GM nature of the products, and frames the value as an actual donation to the scientific organization pursuing the product research. The procedure is tested in the United States and the Philippines. The tests suggest that United States students give significantly different values than Filipino farmers with Filipino farmers valuing the environmental benefits much higher than United States students. The tests also suggest that slight changes in procedures can significantly affect values. Subjects also use information learned during the experiment to form their valuations. For example, Filipino farmers significantly increase their values as the procedure progresses. / Master of Science

While extensive research has been carried out to examine the yield growth brought about by innovations in agricultural technology, not enough work has been done to document the economic impacts of these innovations on areas besides yields and income. This study presents two papers which contribute to our understanding of the health and environmental impacts of agricultural innovation, "Expected economic benefits of meeting nutritional needs through biofortified cassava in Nigeria and Kenya," and "Projected farm-level impacts on income of conservation agriculture in the Andean Region." The first paper is motivated by the public health consequences of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which affect more than two billion people worldwide and can lead to increased incidence of illness, disability, and mortality. Through the use of the disability adjusted life years concept (DALYs), economic surplus analysis, and benefit-cost analysis, the authors determine the economic impact of a staple crop biofortification project. The study finds that biofortified cassava in Nigeria and Kenya is a cost effective means of reducing health problems associated with vitamin A and iron deficiency. The second paper considers the significant livelihood challenges faced by rural communities in the Andes, including poverty, food insecurity, and natural resource constraints. Through the development and implementation of a linear programming model, the study analyzes the economic impact of a conservation agriculture project in central Ecuador, and finds that certain experimental cropping activities designed to decrease soil degradation may contribute to increased incomes for farm households. / Master of Science

Accuracy of measurements is one of the most vital issues for industry and society as a whole. In this context, medical devices create a significant impact on the costs of health care services, such as additional medicine treatments, longer hospital stays, etc. The main aim of this thesis is to analyze and explain the use of metrology services and the socio-economic impact of medical metrology on consumers in Turkey. A framework for economic impact assessment of the calibration services for three specific medical devices, namely patient bedside monitors, ventilators and pacemakers &ndash / both of which are required for use especially after open-heart surgeries, has been developed and a cost-benefit analysis has been performed. The Benefit-to-Cost ratios of the calibration activity on patient bedside monitors, ventilators and pacemakers were calculated as 36.74, 2.22 and 1.79, respectively. Calibration services seem to have a very favorable Benefit-to-Cost ratio even based on the lower-bound estimations.

<div>Every year power outages cost billions of dollars and affect millions of people. Historical data shows that between 2000 and 2016, 75% of power outages (in terms of duration) were caused due to severe weather events. Due to climate change these severe weather events are becoming more frequent. The National Association of Regulatory Commissioners have recently emphasized on the importance of building electricity sector's resilience thus ensuring long term reliability and economic benefits for the stakeholders. These severe weather events are called High Impact Low Frequency (HILF) events, which means that these events may not occur every year, but when they happen, the impact is likely to be severe. So, it is imperative that the risk of power outages due to severe weather events and their economic impact is persistent. To mitigate the risk, utilities need to invest heavily so that the impacts due to these HILF events can be minimized. Under this situation, utilities face three key questions (1) where to invest (2) how much to invest and (3) how to justify the investment. Therefore, there is a need to develop a framework for investment related decision-making, which can identify the optimal strategies for minimizing the economic impacts of severe weather induced power outages under different budget conditions. It is equally important to understand the cascading impacts of the sustained power outages during natural disasters before investment can be planned for building resilience in electricity sector. The existing frameworks to access the costs of severe weather induced power outages grossly undermines the overall economic impacts. This research has (1) assessed the economic loss due to severe weather induced power outages in terms of loss of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and (2) developed a framework for identifying the optimal risk reduction strategies to minimize the economic impact. For assessing the economic impact, this research has adopted Inoperability Input-Output Model (IIM) using 20 years of historical data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The proposed framework has the flexibility to accommodate the risk appetite of the decision maker. The framework can be used by the Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) for the rate approvals from the State Utility Regulatory Commissions by justifying the importance of their resilience building projects to the State's economy. <br></div>

The erection of tollgates along the N1 freeway has triggered a great deal of interest. As a result of the toll fees, traffic has been diverted to alternative roads. This study investigates how traffic diverted from the toll road affect the welfare of users of the alternative road. The literature review provides a theoretical framework of economic impact assessment and road pricing. Furthermore, the literature study reviews previous studies of a similar nature and compare them with the findings of this study. There is no conclusive evidence that diversion of traffic from the N1 causes congestion on the R101 and has a negative impact on the economy of the region. On the contrary, evidence suggests that there was an initial diversion of traffic when the toll came into operation but that is slowly filtered back after six months. In the application of the RED model, economic benefits are derived from user benefits, which is a function of savings in VOC’s and time of normal and generated traffic on a road or saving due to an improvement in road safety, resulting from improved roads. A decrease in traffic has a measurable effect on vehicle travel speeds and travel time only when the roads are significantly congested. In the case of scenario 1 (including diversion), frequent maintenance needs to be performed under increased traffic. Increased traffic due to “diverted traffic” causes congestion in accidents and travelling time, which is a cost to the economy. Under scenario 2 (excluding diversion), it is assumed that ADT will return to normal. Due to lower levels of congestion and travelling times would be faster, while maintenance costs and accident rates would decrease. Scenario 2 is selected as being economically the most feasible option. It is clear that the R101 cannot cope with the current levels of traffic and congestion. One can speculate about the causes of the congestion but in order to derive at a solution to the problem more research needs to be done on the cause of the congestion in order to resolve the problem. / Dissertation (Magister Commercii)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Economics / unrestricted

Cooperation-88 (C88) is a late blight resistant potato variety that was formally released in China in 2001 and has become popular in China's Yunnan Province. The International Potato Center (CIP) and Yunnan Normal University collaborated to produce the variety, which is one of CIP's most successful varieties. C88 is popular due to its high quality and taste, and it is used commonly in China's expanding potato chip processing market. The purpose of this study is to examine adoption of C88 in the Yunnan Province, its value chain, and economic impacts. The analysis indicates that C88 is still popular with 16.8% of the potato area in Yunnan devoted to this variety in late spring 2015. To examine factors affecting household decisions to adopt and the intensity of their adoption, village adoption, household adoption, and household intensity of adoption were assessed. A village's proximity to a metropolitan county was the most important factor explaining adoption and intensity of adoption. Households in villages closer to a metropolitan county disadopted at higher rates than those farther away. To quantify the economic benefits of C88 adoption, an economic surplus analysis was conducted. Total surplus changes ranged from $2 to 3 billion indicating significant economic benefits to consumers and producers in Yunnan. / Master of Science

<p>There are two central themes to this thesis. Firstly, it shows how the adoption of people-centered and greening development paradigms, designed to improve mainstream development problems of the late 20^th century, continue to produce unsatisfactory and unsustainable results for intended beneficiaries in the 21^st century. Secondly, it shows how the “intended beneficiaries” use their experiences and their knowledge of the development processes to analyze, explain and voice why it has not worked for them. Their <em>local knowledge</em> illustrates how beneficiaries continue to remain on the “outside” or peripheral to development instead of being equal partners as the people-centered discourse claims.</p> <p>This thesis reviews the development of the Wadi Rum Protected Area (WRPA) in southern Jordan. This development fostered both conservation and tourism projects to assist members of the seven local Bedouin communities or clans whose historical rangelands constitute the protected area. Four significant development decisions and projects are examined to better understand how this development functioned. Many Bedouin commentaries and those of some non-Bedouin involved in the projects provide social, economic and environmental assessments of the protected area's progress over a ten year continuum. What emerges is a nuanced awareness of how the WRPA has not achieved its stated goals or the benefits promised to the Bedouin, but did support other developers', lenders' and government objectives. Bedouin knowledge also highlights how “development” has contributed to a near dissolution of their control over what had been their tourism industry, how it has usurped their control of their lands and villages, how the project has created greater divisiveness between and within the clans and how it has come to support the growth of tourism over environmental protection. In general, the development of the Wadi Rum Protected Area has not achieved its people-centered and green goals.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The accelerating pace of growth of aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa has received much positive appraisal because of the potential of the industry to contribute to economic development and food security by providing jobs and animal protein. Adoption of best management practices (BMPs) holds the potential to ameliorate the related environmental impacts of aquaculture, such as in the amounts of nutrients and sediment that will enter natural water bodies from earthen pond effluents. The goals of this study were to characterize adoption of aquaculture BMPs on small-scale, pond-based farms in Ghana, and to assess selected economic, social, and environmental outcomes of BMP adoption. Two BMPs: 1) water reuse, and 2) commercial floating feeds, were investigated for adoption by pond-based fish farmers in Ghana. I conducted my study in Ghana using on-farm experiments involving intensive monitoring of water quality and growth of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) over two production cycles. Additionally, I administered a baseline survey to 393 (and a follow-up survey to 160) fish farmers. I determined the best model for modelling farmed Nile tilapia growth with multi-model inference based on Akaike information criterion (AIC), the profitability of adopting BMPs with stochastic enterprise budgets and, social welfare impact with the Economic-Surplus model. I used a Markov model to predict the equilibrium rate of adoption of the two BMPs and determined the impact of BMP adoption on the reduction of pollutant loading with the Minimum-Data method of the Tradeoffs Analysis (TOA-MD). My results showed that the logistic model is a better alternative to the von Bertalanffy model for modelling the growth of Oreochromis niloticus under pond aquaculture conditions. There were no significant differences in fish weight between the water re-use BMP and the use of new water. Adoption of the commercial floating feed BMP resulted in a 100% increase in fish final weight and yield, and in higher profitability, compared to the sinking feed type. Probability of making a profit was highest (72%) in the scenario with commercial feed and self-financing. Net present values (NPV) of about US$ 11 million and US$ 375 million could be obtained from the adoption of commercial floating feed and Genetically-Improved Farm Tilapia (GIFT) strain, respectively, in Ghana. Hence, any innovation that has a significant impact on fish yield also will have a significant impact on mean NPV and social welfare. However, I identified a number of potential negative ecological and genetic impacts exist from introducing the GIFT strain into Africa from Asia. Although considered low-intensity production systems, nutrients and solids in study ponds were found to be higher than levels expected in intensive culture ponds by wide margins. Pond water quality was significantly higher with commercial floating feed. The water-reuse BMP also prevented pollutants from leaving ponds altogether for the number of cycles for which pond water was reused, especially if associated BMPs such as rainfall capture and avoidance of water exchange are observed. Significant reductions in the loading of all water quality variables (nitrogen, phosphorus, solids, and BOD5) could be achieved with the adoption of the recommended feed type in Ghana. Adoption of the water reuse BMP has the potential to cause pollution reductions of 200% - 3,200% above that from the floating feed BMP. The strongest influence on the combined adoption of these BMPs were from : farmer's awareness of the feed BMP, perceived necessity and relative profitability of the water reuse BMP, and farmer's years of experience. A combination of central media (workshops), demonstrations, and lateral diffusion was found to be the most effective channel for disseminating these BMPs. Maximum adoption rate of the feed BMPs was estimated to be 38% - 58%. Also, US$ 6,000/year and US$12,000/year need to be paid per 0.6 ha pond surface area to push adoption of the feed BMP to 50% and 70%, respectively. Hence, to ensure the successful adoption of aquaculture BMPs, I recommend that regular well-planned workshops be organized to create awareness and a conducive atmosphere to target farmers at multiple stages of the innovation decision process. Incentives and effective dissemination will encourage the adoption of these and other environmental BMPs. Feed costs need to be lowered in order to encourage the adoption of commercial floating feed in Ghana. Future analyses could quantify the differences in production costs between using the two water types, to reveal the possible higher relative profitability of pond water reuse over draining ponds after each production cycle. Also, African governments are advised to commission rigorous baseline and ecological risk analyses before adoption of the GIFT strain. Improvements in management practices and infrastructure could increase the yield and profitability of the local strains even if genetically-improved strains are not introduced. / Ph. D.