<p> These three essays investigate three different cases where na&iuml;ve good intentions &ndash; policy or econometric &ndash; actually lead to suboptimal policy or measurement outcomes. </p><p> In the first chapter, James Hilger and I investigate bias in the commercial passenger fishing vessel (CPFV) industry when a na&iuml;ve researcher estimates willingness to pay estimates (WTP), derived from random utility models (RUM), in the context of vessel sellouts. Using incorrectly estimated WTP measures may lead to undervaluation of natural resources. </p><p> In the second essay, Richard Carson, Melissa Famulari, and I simulate a university with a benevolent higher level administrator who wants to keep per-student funding roughly the same, or same with adjustment for preferences, across the university in a CES-style fashion. If students also prefer to major in departments with high per-student funding, these two goals are in conflict and necessitate the higher-level administrator to lower per-student funding for popular departments. Using data from UCSD, we find that departments with large numbers of students are less expensive per degree, have higher modified student-to-faculty ratios, and graduate students sooner than other departments. </p><p> In the third essay, I investigate the transition from methyl tertiary-buthyl ether- (MTBE-) enhanced to ethanol-enhanced (E-10) fuel in the Northeastern United States. Using a complicated set of phase-ins and phase-outs, I use difference-in-difference estimation to show that ambient acetaldehyde pollution substantially increased in percentage terms because of E-10 -- although this is a small level increase, since the level of acetaldehyde is low in the area. Using a stylized calculation based on cancer risk still shows damages of this pollution are levels of magnitude lower than the billion dollar water pollution cleanup costs from MTBE additive.</p>

<p> This dissertation comprises of three papers that address the use of stated preference (SP) choice experiment techniques to better understand how people value the methods and consequences of alternative climate change adaptation strategies. Specifically, it addresses two fundamental issues coastal communities face when making adaptation decisions: 1) tradeoffs between natural systems and built assets and 2) uncertainty regarding future climatic conditions. These issues pose methodological challenges for SP research, with potentially significant welfare and policy implications. The first chapter explores how survey choice scenarios should be designed to generate valid and well-defined welfare estimates given the causally related biophysical processes underlying the tradeoffs between natural systems and built assets. The second chapter explores whether and how the provision of numerical probabilities associated with future climatic conditions helps respondents make more informed choices. The final chapter investigates the implications for welfare estimation of using choice scenarios that provide multiple outcomes of the risk-related attribute compared to the two-outcome approach currently standard in the literature. </p><p> Chapter 1 first presents a theoretical model that clarifies why valuation scenarios must include information on all primary ecological and protection outcomes to generate unbiased welfare estimate for coastal adaptation methods. I subsequently use valuation scenarios consistent with this theoretical model to generate welfare estimates for adaptation methods in two coastal New England towns (Old Saybrook and Waterford). This work therefore makes use of advances in the ecosystem service valuation literature to contribute to the growing SP literature that generates willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates for climate change adaptation. I find that residents are willing to pay relatively large amounts for the protection of natural systems, even in the absence of any additional flood protection to private homes. In contrast, I find no evidence that residents are willing to pay for increased hard defenses alone, even in the absence of negative effects on natural systems. </p><p> Chapter 2 contributes to a small but growing literature which finds that embedding numerical probabilities in valuation scenarios influences welfare estimates. I argue that it is not clear whether this influence is due to numerical probabilities per se or due to increased choice task complexity. To explore whether numerical probabilities alone influence welfare estimates, presumably helping respondents make more informed choices, I compare the results of one survey which provides numerical probabilities prior to valuation scenarios to those of an otherwise identical survey that altogether omits numerical probabilities. I find that the two surveys yield statistically indistinguishable WTP values. This suggests that lay individuals may not process numerical probabilities as expected by researchers, a result consistent with numerous studies from psychology and branches of economics outside SP valuation. </p><p> The final chapter also contributes to the emerging SP literature that investigates the effects of the provision of risk information on welfare estimates. In this literature, risk-related environmental outcomes are communicated to respondents using valuation scenarios that allow for only two possible outcomes, each distinguished by a single numerical probability of occurrence (i.e., the probability of policy failure versus the probability of policy success). In reality, however, few environmental phenomena can be characterized by only two possible outcomes. To explore the effects of this reframing of real-world conditions on welfare estimates, I compare the results of a survey which presents a more complex and accurate valuation scenario to those of an otherwise identical survey that maintains the traditional two-outcome approach. Results suggest increased choice task complexity but show also that multiple risk-related outcomes provide additional information on respondents&rsquo; risk preferences and WTP values. Together with the results of Chapter 2, this suggests that a multiple-outcome treatment of risk-related attributes may represent a complementary or&mdash;depending on research objectives&mdash;an alternative way of communicating and accounting for risk and uncertainty in SP research. </p>

<p> This study was undertaken to examine the perceptions of social responsibility as enacted by the micro-financial institution Caja Popular Tamazula, in Jalisco Mexico. The objective was development of insight regarding perceptions held by cooperative members regarding the impact and practices of the microfinance institution within this developing region of Mexico. This survey examined awareness of and satisfaction with the practices of corporate social responsibility exhibited by the micro-financial institution. Research assistants gathered responses from two participant groups: employees (Internal) and local residents (External). The data were compared to examine the manner the institution communicates its endeavors with cooperative members. Generally, satisfaction with the institution was reported. However, limited awareness of the specific social responsibility practices was noted. The findings identified the efforts of the MFI that were perceived by cooperative members as supportive and beneficial for the development of a flourishing community. Actions for future consideration and policy development were proposed. Alternative research approaches should be considered to elicit details from cooperative members regarding perceptions and relational dynamics of the micro-financial institution within this community.</p>

<p> This dissertation presents a three-part study in modern empirical environmental economics. In these three studies, I focus on five core economic issues&mdash;equity, incentives, environmental quality, consumer behavior, and causality&mdash;and ask what environmental economics can teach us about three common topics: energy consumption, cannabis legalization, and pesticide application. </p><p> The first chapter examines how residential natural gas consumers respond to changes in the price of natural gas. With 70 million consumers, residential natural gas has grown to a first-order policy issue. This first chapter provides the first causally identified, microdata-based estimates of residential natural-gas demand elasticities using a panel of 300 million bills in California. To overcome multiple sources of endogeneity, we employ a two-pronged strategy: we interact (1) a spatial discontinuity along the service areas of two major natural-gas utilities with (2) an instrumental-variables strategy using the utilities' differing rules/behaviors for internalizing upstream spot-market prices. We then demonstrate substantial seasonal and income-based heterogeneities underly this elasticity. These heterogeneities suggest unexplored policies that are potentially efficiency-enhancing and pro-poor. </p><p> The second chapter explores what may be unintended&mdash;or unconsidered&mdash;results of cannabis legalization. Cannabis legalization advocates often argue that cannabis legalization offers the potential to reduce the private and social costs related to criminalization and incarceration&mdash;particularly for marginalized populations. While this assertion is theoretically plausible, it boils down to an empirically testable hypothesis that remains untested: does legalizing a previously illegal substance (cannabis) reduce arrests, citations, and general law-enforcement contact? The second chapter of this dissertation provides the first causal evidence that cannabis legalization need not necessarily reduce criminalization&mdash;and under the right circumstances, may in fact increase police incidents/arrests for both cannabis products and non-cannabis drugs. First, I present a theoretical model of police effort and drug consumption that demonstrates the importance of substitution and incentives for this hypothesis. I then empirically show that before legalization, drug-incident trends in Denver, Colorado matched trends in many other US cities. However, following cannabis legalization in Colorado, drug incidents spike sharply in Denver, while trends in comparison cities (unaffected by Colorado's legalization) remain stable. This spike in drug-related police incidents occurs both for cannabis and non-cannabis drugs. Synthetic-control and difference-in-differences empirical designs corroborate the size and significance of this empirical observation, estimating that Colorado's legalization of recreational cannabis nearly doubled police-involved drug incidents in Denver. This chapter's results present important lessons for evaluating the effects and equity of policies ranging legalization to criminal prosecution to policing. </p><p> Finally, the third chapter investigates the roles pesticides play in local air quality. Many policymakers, public-health advocates, and citizen groups question whether current pesticide regulations properly equate the marginal social costs of pesticide applications to their marginal social benefits&mdash;with particular concern for negative health effects stemming from pesticide exposure. Additionally, recent research and policies in public health, epidemiology, and economics emphasize how fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations harm humans through increased mortality, morbidity, mental health issues, and a host of socioeconomic outcomes. This chapter presents the first empirical evidence that aerially applied pesticides increase local PM2.5 concentrations. To causally estimate this effect, I combine the universe of aerial pesticide applications in the five southern counties of California's San Joaquin Valley (1.8M reports) with the U.S. EPA's PM2.5 monitoring network&mdash;exploiting spatiotemporal variation in aerial pesticide applications and variation in local wind patterns. I find significant evidence that (upwind) aerial pesticide applications within 1.5km increase local PM2.5 concentrations. The magnitudes of the point estimates suggest that the top decile of aerial applications may sufficiently increase local PM2.5 to warrant concern for human health. </p><p> Jointly, the three parts of this dissertation aim to carefully administer causally minded econometrics, in conjunction with environmental economic theory, to answer unresolved, policy-relevant questions.</p><p>

This dissertation investigates the impact of organic farming for achieving the environmental and social objectives of sustainability in Europe over the past 20 years. Organic farming is considered the poster child of rural development in Europe, often seen as a model of the integration of small-scale production with environmental considerations. Since this model runs counter to the logic of developing capitalist structures in agriculture, I revisit the Marxian predictions regarding the "agrarian question". Furthermore, I trace the discursive changes in support of small-scale production in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and assess whether small farms have improved their situation under the revised CAP. Subsequently, I use statistical analysis in order to assess the socio-economic and the environmental consequences of the rise in organic farming. Contrary to what is often assumed, organic farms in Europe display larger average sizes and lower rates of labor intensity than their conventional counterparts, casting doubts on the efficacy of organic farms to allow family farmers to remain in the countryside as high-value producers. I argue that this development should be viewed as further evidence of the "conventionalization" of organic farming. In order to explain the process which led to such an outcome, I proceed to explain the different ways through which organic farms could overcome traditional problems which impeded the capitalist development of agriculture. Regarding the environmental implications, I evaluate the rise of organic farming by assessing its impact for different countries' overall pesticide and fertilizer intensity. My results are mixed, with higher organic shares being correlated with decreased application of fertilizer, but less significant results for pesticide intensity. Finally, I present evidence from qualitative work conducted in 2010 in rural Greece which points to the absence of well-established networks among organic producers, and between them and other actors in the chain of distribution. Small producers who switch to organic methods appear unable to reap the benefits from the higher prices and the institutional support for organic farming. Hence, it is larger enterprises which dominate the organic sector. I also examine the role of certification agencies, as a prime recipient of surplus transfers, and question the safeguards of organic enterprises against recent developments in agricultural labor relations, which are highly exploitative of immigrant labor.