Orientador: Ademar Ribeiro Romeiro / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T00:18:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrade_JoaoPauloSoaresde_M.pdf: 1085430 bytes, checksum: b91b8aa1a5e343fd2e7183340d769a25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: A conservação dos recursos naturais é importante dado os inúmeros serviços ecossistêmicos que estes proporcionam, como é o caso do Território Portal da Amazônia, localizado no Norte do Mato Grosso, Brasil. Esta área é classificada pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente como de extrema importância biológica e por conseqüência recomendada para ações com o objetivo de conservação da biodiversidade. O Território registra as mais altas taxas de desmatamento na região amazônica em função da principal atividade agrícola, a pecuária, que ocupa mais de 90% da área aberta e que continua a se expandir aceleradamente. Este trabalho procurou responder sobre a viabilidade de aplicação de instrumento econômico, o Pagamento por Serviços Ecossistêmicos (PSE), para o fornecimento de dois serviços, o seqüestro de carbono e a biodiversidade. O emprego da análise multicritério mostrou ser mais indicado para uma proposta de política ambiental para essa área, o estabelecimento de ação combinada de recuperação de matas ciliares com o reflorestamento de áreas degradadas. O link entre esse resultado e os princípios básicos que devem orientar a formulação de PSE permitiu concluir ser possível a implementação de um programa Território / Abstract: The conservation of natural resources is important because of the innumerous ecosystem services that those can provide, as occurs in the Território Portal da Amazônia, located in the North of Mato Grosso, Brazil. This area is classified by the Ministry of the Environment as being of extreme biological importance and consequently recommended for action with the objective of conserving the biodiversity. The territory registers the highest rate of deforestation in the Amazonian area due to the main agricultural activity, livestock, which occupies more than 90% of the agricultural area and continues to expand quickly. This work tried to answer the question about the viability of applying the economical instrument, the Payment for Ecosystems Services (PES), in order to supply two services, the carbon sequestering and biodiversity. The use of the multicriterial analysis appeared to be more appropriate for a proposal of ambiental politics in this area, the establishment of combined action for recovery of cilliary forests with the reforestation of degraded areas. The union between this result and the analysis of the basic principles should orientate the formulation of the PES, permitted to conclude that it is possible to implement such a program in this Territory / Mestrado / Economia do Meio Ambiente / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

<p> Many reasons have been suggested as explanation for observed differences in citizens' environmental conservation projects policy choices and willingness-to-pay (WTP) values. Some people attribute this distinctive decision behavior to contrasts in the overall policy outcome expectations (preference heterogeneity) and/or differences in reactions to the changes in the environmental attributes (response heterogeneity). Others attribute this to differences in individual choice rationales, personalities, encounters, and past and present experiences. In other words, regardless of the possibility that outcomes are the same, people do not have the same emotions, convictions, disposition, or motivations. </p><p> In three separate essays, I investigate the possible reasons for the observed differences in citizens' environmental conservation policy choices and examine how preference and response heterogeneity arise. In the first essay, I ask if a priori environmental damage perception is a source of heterogeneity affecting conservation option choice decisions. In the second, I investigate if social networks (interactions among decision-making agents) affect choice decisions. In the third, I investigate if preferences change when decision making agents are allowed to deliberate among peers. </p><p> For the first essay, I conducted an on-line choice experiment (CE) survey. The survey asked questions that help to measure citizen preference for protecting environmental public goods, ascertain the value local residents are willing-to-pay (WTP), and determine how preference heterogeneity arises. CE attributes included groundwater use (measured by share of total water use from groundwater), aquatic habitat (measured by count of spawning kokanee salmon return), natural habitat health (measured by the sensitive ecosystem area reclaimed), and rural character (measured by a decrease in urban sprawl and/or a decrease in population density in rural areas). I used a special property levy as the vehicle of payment. Random parameter logit (RP) and latent class (LC) models were estimated to capture response and preference heterogeneity. The results suggest that (1) both preference and response heterogeneities were found for the choices and all environmental attributes respectively (2) respondents who have a higher value for one environmental good will have a higher value for other environmental goods, and (3) a priori damage perception could be one of the sources of response and preference heterogeneity. </p><p> In the same survey, I included people's egocentric networks, interactions, environment related activities and perceptions to empirically evaluate whether social network effect (SNE) is a source of systematic differences in preference. I estimate consumer preferences for a hypothetical future environmental conservation management alternative described by its attributes within a Nested Logit Model: nesting broader and distinct conservation options within choices impacted by individual&rsquo;s network structure. The results show that some network centrality measures capture preference heterogeneity, and consequently the differences in WTP values in a systematic way. </p><p> Third, I compare the value estimated based on the traditional choice experiment (CE) with the results obtained using the citizen jury (CJ) approach or a group-based approach or also called the "Market Stall" in some literature. I estimate the effect of deliberation on conservation choice outcomes by removing any significant differences between the people who participated in the CJ (people who volunteered to be contacted again after deliberation treatment) and those people who did the survey twice but did not volunteer for CJ (control group) in terms of their socioeconomic status and be able attribute the changes in preferences to deliberation treatment only. CJ approach involved two 90 minute deliberations held over two days to discuss and consider their preferences and WTP values with other household members. Results show that deliberation improves individuals' valuation process and there is observed difference in choice outcomes between the deliberation treatment and control groups. Both preference and response heterogeneity relatively vanish when people were allowed to deliberate among peers.</p>

Most energy sources are derived from the sun, directly or indirectly. Stopping the increase of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will likely require more reliance on current rather than ancient terrestrial solar input. Yet which forms of renewable energy are most appropriately used is a significant question for the twenty-first century. This dissertation concerns the potential supply of biomass energy crops as a renewable energy source in Massachusetts. Biomass represents a low-efficiency solar collector, and supplying society with an important portion of its energy from biomass would require a great deal of land. The cellulosic biomass crop evaluated in this research is switchgrass, among the most studied of possible biomass crops. The study looks at biomass energy crop potential from three perspectives. First, a biomass crop supply function is developed for switchgrass by (1) using a GIS model to estimate land availability by current land use and soil type; (2) using a crop-growth simulation model to estimate potential switchgrass yields; (3) estimating marginal production cost by land parcel; and (4) calculating a supply function from marginal production costs. Total technical potential is estimated to be about 1.3 million dry metric tons of switchgrass per year, though financial constraints would likely limit production to some portion of the estimated 125,000 metric tons per year that could be produced on existing grasslands. Next, the study examines circumstances under which landowners might opt to make land available for biomass crop production. The social challenge of minimizing biomass energy cost is described. Potential biomass crop landowner decisions are characterized in a theoretical utility maximization model, with results suggesting that non-price attributes of crop production are likely important to landowners. Finally, an empirical study using a landowner survey assesses interest in growing biomass crops, and uses contingent valuation (CV) to estimate landowner willingness to accept (WTA) land rent for biomass crops. The median estimate is $321/ha/yr, with a much-higher mean estimate of $658/ha/yr (based on a parametric estimator). While the realistic potential for biomass crops is some fraction of technically feasible potential, there are other potentially important roles for biomass crops in Massachusetts, for example in preserving unused farmland that would otherwise revert to forest.

This dissertation consists of three chapters studying topics in development economics and political economy. The first two chapters explore the political economy of drought relief in India and potential consequences for local economies. The third chapter focuses on the effect of the residential segregation of the South Asian community on the political views of natives in England and Wales. In the first chapter, I study the allocation of drought relief in three states of southern India between 2008 and 2019. I compare the observed allocation against the national government’s guidelines for drought relief and show that state governments systematically deviate from these guidelines. To assess the potential role of political motives in this mistargeting, I develop a dynamic probabilistic voting model. The model provides testable implications relating electoral incentives to the allocation of relief, which I show hold empirically. In the second chapter, I consider the potential impacts of receiving drought relief on agricultural output at the local level. Using a satellite-based vegetation index as a proxy for agricultural production, I find that drought relief is associated with increased agricultural output. However, I also show that this positive correlation is strongest when relief is appropriately allocated to drought-affected areas. I consider a number of alternative explanations for these results, but conclude that the results are consistent with drought relief being more effective in drought-affected areas. In the third chapter (joint with Sergio Villar Vallenas), we study how the size and spatial distribution of South Asians influences the sentiments of natives towards the group in England and Wales. We use voting for the British National Party (BNP), an extreme right political party, to measure natives’ sentiment. One obstacle to causally identifying the effect of segregation on the voting for the BNP is that the antipathy for South Asians reflected in BNP support might lead to segregation. To address this concern, we isolate variation in the settlement patterns of South Asians using historical immigration patterns. We find that a rise in the residential segregation of South Asians increases voting for the BNP in both a European Parliament and UK general election.

Thesis advisor: Joshua Snyder / In my work I seek to define and understand the best consequences approach to correcting market failures that result in negative environmental outcomes. I do this by exploring the relationship between markets and environmental outcomes through the introduction of case studies. Additionally, I outline the policy solutions used to try to correct these failures. These case studies are evaluated using Peter Singer’s ethical framework as a criterion for best consequences. Based on this analysis, I argue for the use of economic policy to achieve policy goals set in accordance with the needs of stakeholders both human and non-human on an intertemporal scale. Economic terms often fail to capture the true value of natural resources, however, making the best consequences unattainable through such policies alone. Considering this, I argue that we must develop a fundamentally different understanding of consumption and commodities if we are to achieve the most beneficial outcome. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Philosophy.

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