Public recognition of the value of wetlands has risen quickly over the past 25 years and numerous policies and programs have been developed to address threats to the quantity and quality of wetlands. However, management of wetland resources located on private land often involves a perceived conflict between social and private interests since landowners usually cannot benefit economically from keeping wetlands on site unless they convert them to alternative uses such as agricultural crops. In order to avoid further degradation and ensure the various environmental benefits wetlands provide, there is a need for government intervention by delivering effective policies. This will be realized through an effective economic valuation process for wetland benefits.<p> This thesis investigates wetland and riparian zones management, with greater emphasis placed on the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of Saskatchewan where the majority of the land is privately owned. Using data from a survey of landowners, the perceived cost of conserving wetland and associated riparian zones is quantified through their willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for a proposed 10-year economic incentive-based program. In addition, the role of landowner and farm characteristics on this perceived cost of conservation has also been assessed. As indicated by the results from two probit models that were developed, per acre payment has a significant positive effect on the probability a landowner will accept the program offer; the average payment respondents required being $32.58/acre. Other factors such as the landowners previous experience dealing with the wetland, personal preferences correlated with economic benefits and landowners who have an heir to take over the farm are also found to have significant impact on their participation decision. For those respondents who did not complete the WTA question, past relative experience, knowledge about wetlands, age, and the agricultural region the farm is located are revealed to be factors that affect to the provision of an explicit answer.

Public recognition of the value of wetlands has risen quickly over the past 25 years and numerous policies and programs have been developed to address threats to the quantity and quality of wetlands. However, management of wetland resources located on private land often involves a perceived conflict between social and private interests since landowners usually cannot benefit economically from keeping wetlands on site unless they convert them to alternative uses such as agricultural crops. In order to avoid further degradation and ensure the various environmental benefits wetlands provide, there is a need for government intervention by delivering effective policies. This will be realized through an effective economic valuation process for wetland benefits.<p> This thesis investigates wetland and riparian zones management, with greater emphasis placed on the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of Saskatchewan where the majority of the land is privately owned. Using data from a survey of landowners, the perceived cost of conserving wetland and associated riparian zones is quantified through their willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for a proposed 10-year economic incentive-based program. In addition, the role of landowner and farm characteristics on this perceived cost of conservation has also been assessed. As indicated by the results from two probit models that were developed, per acre payment has a significant positive effect on the probability a landowner will accept the program offer; the average payment respondents required being $32.58/acre. Other factors such as the landowners previous experience dealing with the wetland, personal preferences correlated with economic benefits and landowners who have an heir to take over the farm are also found to have significant impact on their participation decision. For those respondents who did not complete the WTA question, past relative experience, knowledge about wetlands, age, and the agricultural region the farm is located are revealed to be factors that affect to the provision of an explicit answer.

Wind energy is expanding rapidly in the United States as the nation\'s energy policy objectives increasingly focus on renewables. Public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans support wind energy development but actual wind farm projects often face intense local opposition. This dichotomy between general support for wind energy but opposition towards siting a project nearby is often attributed to the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon. In this study we employ a discrete choice experiment to investigate public preferences for different characteristics of a local wind farm. We investigate NIMBY by first controlling for characteristics that might cause local opposition, such as seeing or hearing a wind farm from home, and then after considering these effects of a wind farm we examine whether people who favor wind energy display NIMBY resistance. Finally, we estimate compensation requirements for siting a wind farm within sight or sound of someone\'s home. Results show that people who somewhat favor wind energy do display NIMBY attitudes since they are predisposed to vote against local wind development even after controlling whether they would see and hear the wind farm from their homes. We do not detect NIMBY attitudes among people who strongly favor wind energy because they have a positive disposition towards local wind farms. Our results suggest that if an incentive program is in place from the onset of a wind development project it could offset NIMBY reactions to specific projects. / Master of Science

This study analyzed preferences for wetland-loss prevention in coastal Louisiana. Data were obtained through a contingent-valuation mail survey of a random sample of Louisiana households. Results, based on 511 responses, indicate that respondents have a strong preference for a short-run program (72.41% chose this program over a long-run program or no action). Respondents that had higher incomes, were white, had prior knowledge of ongoing restoration efforts, and had confidence in government were more likely to support some program relative to no action, as were those citing hurricane, environmental, and/or climate-change protection as their primary concern. Older respondents and those with negative perceptions of climate change were more likely to prefer the short-run over the long-run program. Median net present value of willingness to pay (assuming 18.37% discount rate) was estimated at $17,491 per household for the multinomial logit model and $3,307 under the Turnbull lower-bound method.

This research aimed to apply the theory of environmental benefits valuation to assess the plan of reformation in Zhongtun and Jiangmei village¡¦s wetland. Environmental change affects economy. Therefore, through people¡¦s feedback and tourists¡¦ participation of ecotourism, this paper discussed the economic benefits in transforming Zhongtun and Jiangmei village¡¦s wetland into an eco-garden. Thus, the research adopted the Payment-card method of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), categorized under the Non-market Valuation Techniques (NVT), analyzing the economic benefits of eco-tourism¡¦s virtual market at Zhongtun and Jiangmei village. That is, the amount of people¡¦s Willingness to Pay (WTP) was analyzed to discover the project¡¦s multiple values. Further more, by comparing and contrasting people¡¦s background information, people¡¦s data and differences among other facets were discovered. Finally, in responding to the urgent need in tourism development, this paper integrated tourists and residents¡¦ data to discover the amount of WTP. Such research mode provided a tourism benefits assessment of Zhongtun and Jiangmei village¡¦s eco-garden project, and its conclusion supplied some suggestions to government control and also future plans of the eco-garden. There are 236 respondents (including 162 residents and 74 tourists) willing to take the questionnaire survey assuming the correspondence among people¡¦s background information (resident or tourist), attitude and other variables and WTP. After analysis, the result demonstrates that sex and age have little effect on many variables. On the other hand, people¡¦s background (resident or tourist), education level, average income do have obvious influence. However, the both results are valid, showing the principle this research applied is reliable. The CVM results included: 1. People shows positive attitude toward the ten facets of Zhongtun and Jiangmei¡¦s eco-garden tour. 2. The average accommodation rates for visitors willing to pay for Zhongtun and Jiangmei¡¦s eco-tour is 4000 NT dollars. And each year, about 127000000NT/year dollars 3200NT/year dollars donation per person can be expected in total. 3. The average amount of willingness to pay for people to join in an eco-tour is: 400NT dollars for eco-tour; 400NT dollars for fishing village experience; 400NT dollars for farm life experience, 1200NT dollars in total. 4. The potential tourism benefits of Zhongtun and Jiangmei¡¦s eco-garden are about: 79000000NT/24000000NT year for tourists and 55000000NT/9940000NT year for residents,and 7370000NT/1840000NT year for compensation. In the end, this research hoped to tribute some advices to Zhongtun and Jiangmei¡¦s eco-garden¡¦s management, turning ecological resources into financial sources, for Penghu County to be an ecotourism paradise.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Jason S. Bergtold / In recent years, great attention has been placed on conservation systems for agricultural production. Conservation practices offer economic and environmental benefits, yet conventional practices remain the prevailing system in some regions. As conservation efforts are launched by different local and federal agencies, understanding farmers’ motivations when adopting conservation practices is important to ensure the continuation of adoption through the development of programs that are tailored to meet farmers’ preferences and constraints. The purpose of the first essay was to identify the factors affecting farmers’ choice of tillage practice at the crop level. Farmer’s choice of No-till, Strip-till and Conventional tillage was modeled for dryland corn, wheat and soybean production in Kansas. The results show that tillage decisions are crop-specific and that factors such as risk aversion, baling and grazing of crop residue, crop acreage, and farmers’ approach to adopting new technologies are significant factors affecting farmers’ decisions. The second essay focused on the adoption of continuous no-till, conservation crop rotation, cover crops, and variable rate application of inputs and the effect that incentive payments, payment mechanism, and off-farm environmental benefits from conservation have on the decision to adopt. This essay also examined the risk associated with the variability of net returns and its effect on farmers’ willingness to adopt using a non-linear extended expected utility framework, allowing for the estimation of a utility parameter for net returns, farmer’s subjective judgment of probabilities, and farmers’ risk attitudes. Farmers were found to exhibit risk aversion, with an estimated risk premium of approximately 3% of net returns. Results also suggested a preference for federally-run programs and for programs with higher off-farm environmental benefits. The third essay examined the timing of adoption of continuous no-till, cover crops, and variable rate application of inputs. This study found that risk aversion delays the timing of adoption of cover crops and variable rate application of inputs. However, the timing of adoption of continuous no-till was not affected by risk aversion. Findings also indicated that farmers who consider themselves innovators adopt at a faster rate than their counterparts.

Bottomland hardwood forests and pine forests in the southern United States provide valuable ecosystem services such as timber, recreation, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, floodwater storage, and sediment and nutrient retention. However, these forest ecosystems are threatened because of intensive forest management, forest land conversion, and urbanization. As private landownership dominates in this region, landowner participation is crucial for success of conservation programs facilitating ecosystem services. This research focused on three different aspects of private land conservation programs. First, it estimated the impact of environmental contextual factors, private land attributes and sociodemographic characteristics on landowner concern about environmental issues. Second, it determined the influence of private land attributes, environmental concerns, frequency of contacts with federal agencies and socioeconomic characteristics on landowner satisfaction with available conservation programs. Third, it estimated the monetary compensation required by landowners to implement conservation practices focused on increasing provision of ecosystem services. Data were collected using a mail survey and from online sources. Data were analyzed using seemingly unrelated regression and logistic regression models. Results indicated that private land attributes, particularly size of agricultural land owned, and landownership goals such as providing ecosystem services and profitability, had a greater magnitude of positive association with landowner concerns about environmental issues than other factors. Similarly, size of agricultural land owned, landownership goals such as profitability and personal recreation, concerns about wildlife habitat losses and frequent contacts with federal agencies were positively related to landowner satisfaction with conservation programs. Landowner willingness to participate in a conservation program was positively related to payment amount, concerns about wildlife habitat losses, frequency of contact with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and education level. Similarly, provision of clean water as landownership objective, concerns about hurricanes and tornadoes, and landowner age were negatively associated with landowner interests to participate in conservation programs. This research also quantified landowner median willingness to accept (WTA) compensation which was $229.98 ha-1 yr-1 for participation in a conservation program related to bottomland hardwood or pine forests. The findings help identify likely participants or landowners for conservation programs facilitating ecosystem services and determine actual conservation costs at a regional level.

Title: How the expression “in the bargain” affects the valuation of an item Level: Final assignment for bachelor’s degree in business administration  Author: Pontus Axenfalk and Markus Gustafsson Supervisor: Patrik Sörqvist Date: 2022 - June Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the interaction between endowment effect and product bundling. More specifically, we intend to investigate whether the size of the endowment effect in relation to a purchased product becomes larger or smaller depending on whether the product is bundled together with another product at the time of purchase. Method: The study is based on a quantitative research method with a deductive approach. An experiment was conducted where data were collected via two web-based surveys, which through a random sample generated 86 responses (43 per survey). Data were analyzed in SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Results and conclusions: Since the average value of Willingness to Accept is higher than Willingness to Pay in a product bundle in comparison with an individual purchase, the conclusion can be cautiously drawn that according to the descriptive statistics an interaction is formed between endowment effect and product bundling.Contribution of the thesis: The results of the study give us strong indications that product bundling can be used to increase consumers' perceived value of a product, which is knowledge that cannot least be applied by business economists and marketers.Suggestions for future research: We believe that it would be interesting to carry out studies where a large sample is looking for the interaction between endowment effect for the various techniques in product bundling to be able to present a result with statistical certainty more strongly. Key words: Product bundling, Endowment effect, Willingness to pay and Willingness to accept. / Titel: Hur uttrycket ”på köpet” påverkar värderingen av en vara Nivå: Examensarbete på̊ grundnivå̊ (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Pontus Axenfalk och Markus Gustafsson Handledare: Patrik Sörqvist  Datum: 2022 - Juni Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka interaktionen mellan endowment effect och produktbuntning. Närmare bestämt avser vi att undersöka om storleken på endowment effect i relation till en inköpt produkt blir större eller mindre beroende på huruvida produkten bundlas tillsammans med en annan produkt vid inköpstillfället.  Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvantitativ forskningsmetod med ett deduktivt angreppssätt. Ett experiment genomfördes där data samlades in via två webbaserade enkäter, som genom ett slumpmässigt urval genererade 86 svar (43 per enkät). Data analyserades i SPSS och Microsoft Excel.  Resultat och slutsats: Baserat på att medelvärdet för Willingness to Accept är högre än Willingness to Pay vid en produktbuntning i jämförelse med ett enskilt köp kan slutsatsen försiktigt dras att enligt den deskriptiva statistiken bildas en interaktion mellan endowment effect och produktbuntning. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studiens resultat ger oss starka indikationer på att produktbuntning kan användas för att öka konsumenters upplevda värde av en produkt vilket är kunskap som inte minst går att tillämpa hos företagsekonomer och marknadsförare. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Med vår studie i bakgrunden anser vi att det vore intressant att genomföra studier där man på ett stort urval letar efter interaktionen mellan endowment effect för de olika tekniker inom produktbuntning för att kunna presentera ett resultat som är statistiskt säkerställt. Nyckelord: Produktbuntning, endowment effect, Willingness to pay och Willingness to accept

The decline in bee populations, driven by biodiversity loss, poses a major threat to food production systems, as many wild plants and agricultural crops rely on bee pollination services. Addressing this issue requires coordinated efforts from producers, retailers, and consumers to restore pollinator habitats. This study explores two key aspects of promoting bee-friendly beef as a potential solution to support pollinator conservation. First, the study examines beef cattle producers' willingness to adopt native warm-season grass and wildflower (NWSG-WF) pastures through conservation programs. A discrete choice experiment revealed that producers require cost-share payments to convert pastureland into NWSG-WF systems. For a 10% conversion, producers would accept an average of $134.58 per acre (51% of establishment costs), while increasing conversions to 20% or 30% would raise the required payments to $154.55 (59%) and $199.06 (76%), respectively. Factors influencing producer participation include education level and interest in pollinator restoration, with those having thin forage coverage being more likely to adopt NWSG-WF. Second, a nationwide choice experiment survey of 2,136 U.S. beef consumers reveals a clear preference for bee-friendly beef over conventional options. On average, consumers are willing to pay $0.87 more per pound for beef produced using pollinator-friendly practices. Certain consumer segments, such as those who volunteer or donate to environmental organizations ($1.74/lb) and those knowledgeable about pollinator decline ($1.39/lb), exhibit an even higher willingness to pay. This suggests that raising public awareness about pollinator conservation could drive greater support for eco-labeled products like bee-friendly beef. Overall, the findings highlight opportunities to promote bee-friendly beef through consumer awareness campaigns and targeted conservation incentives for producers. By aligning consumer preferences with producer incentives, bee-friendly beef production can contribute to both pollinator conservation and sustainable cattle farming. / Doctor of Philosophy / The decline in bee populations, mainly due to the loss of biodiversity, threatens food production since many crops and wild plants depend on bees for pollination. Solving this issue requires joint efforts from farmers, retailers, and consumers to help restore pollinator habitats. This study looks at promoting bee-friendly beef as a possible solution to support bees. First, the study looks at whether beef cattle producers are willing to convert part of their pasture to native warm-season grass-and-wildflower pastures, which are better for bees, through conservation programs. Results from the analysis show that if a conservation program requires cattle producers to convert at least 10% of their pasture to NWSG-WF pasture, they would, on average, ask for $134.58 per acre as cost-share payment. This amount covers about 51% of the cost needed to establish the new type of pasture. However, if the program requires them to convert 20% or 30% of their land, the cost-share payment producers would request increases to $154.55 per acre (for 20% conversion) and $199.06 per acre (for 30% conversion). These amounts cover 59% and 76% of the establishment costs, respectively. Factors that influence their decision include education, interest in helping pollinators, and the condition of their current pastures. Second, a survey of 2,136 U.S. beef consumers shows that people prefer bee-friendly beef over regular beef. On average, they are willing to pay $0.87 more per pound for beef produced in ways that help pollinators. Some groups, like those who volunteer or donate to environmental causes ($1.74/lb) and those who know about the decline in pollinators ($1.39/lb), are willing to pay even more. This suggests that raising awareness about bees could boost support for eco-friendly products like bee-friendly beef. In conclusion, the study shows that increasing consumer awareness and offering financial incentives to farmers can help promote bee-friendly beef. By matching what consumers want with support for farmers, this approach can benefit both bee conservation and sustainable cattle rearing.