Amitrajeet A. Batabyal

Taming the waters : the political economy of large dams in India

This study of Indias large dams is set in the dual context of state politics and social classes. It argues that efforts to spend public resources on these dams are not only uneconomical and non-sustainable, but have been monopolized by a privileged few. In confronting issues of water control, the book also examines larger environmental concerns.

On the Scarcity Value of Ecosystem Services

In this exploratory paper, we first make a case for considering the scarcity value of ecosystem services in analyses of jointly determined ecological-economic systems. Next, we point out that insight into the scarcity value of an ecosystem service can be gained generally by examining the manner in which the state of an ecosystem responds to changes in environmental conditions. Following this, we specialize our discussion to the case of eutrophication in lakes. This leads us to pose and analyze a stochastic control problem of lake management in which ecological thresholds are salient. Finally, we show that this stochastic control theoretic framework can be used to obtain a numerical value that is closely related to the scarcity value of an ecosystem service provided by lakes.

Modeling in Natural Resource Management: Development, Interpretation, and Application

This work covers topics in natural resource modelling to explain how they can be, have been, and should be used in making decisions about the management of natural resources. It aims to give managers and students the tools they need to assess and apply models effectively.

International Trade and Biological Invasions: A Queuing Theoretic Analysis of the Prevention Problem

We propose and develop a new framework for studying the problem of preventing biological invasions caused by ships transporting internationally traded goods between countries and continents. Specifically, we apply the methods of queuing theory to analyze the problem of preventing a biological invasion from a long run perspective. First, we characterize two simple regulatory regimes as two different kinds of queues. Second, we show how to pose a publically owned port managers decision problem as an optimization problem using queuing theoretic techniques. Third, we compare and contrast the optimality conditions emanating from our analysis of the M/M/I/U and the M/M/I/I inspection regimes. We conclude by discussing possible extensions to our basic models.

On the Likelihood of Finding the Right Partner in an Arranged Marriage

Even though arranged marriages have been around for quite some time, economists have paid little attention to the nature of decision making in such marriages. Therefore, we know very little about the efficacy of traditional methods of decision making in arranged marriages. Given this state of affairs, I have three goals in this paper. First, I formalize the traditional decision making process in arranged marriages. Second, I study the characteristics of this formalized decision making process from the standpoint of a marrying agent. Third, once again from the standpoint of a marrying agent, I compute the probability that the use of this decision making process will result in the marrying agent finding the right partner for himself/herself.

The concept of resilience: retrospect and prospect

The modern study of stability in ecology can be said to have begun with the appearance of ‘Fluctuations of Animal Populations and a Measure of Community Stability’, by R.H. MacArthur in 1955. Since the publication of this influential paper, ecologists have investigated the properties of a number of different stability and stability-related concepts; the concepts of persistence, resilience, resistance, and variability readily come to mind. Of these various concepts, the concept of resilience itself appears to have been rather resilient. Indeed, as Neubert and Caswell (1997) and others have noted, today there is a vast literature on resilience. However, it is important to note that this literatur—to the best of my knowledge—has been primarily ecological in nature. In other words, the concept of resilience originated in ecology, and this concept has been applied and studied primarily in the context of ecosystems.

CONSISTENCY AND OPTIMALITY IN A DYNAMIC GAME OF POLLUTION CONTROL I: COMPETITION

I model the interaction between a regulator and polluting firms as a Stackelberg differential game in which the regulator leads. The firms create pollution, which results in a stock extermality. I analyze the intertemporal effects of alternate pollution control measures in a competitive industry. The principal issue here concerns the dynamic inconsistency of the optimal solution. Inter alia, I compare the steady state levels of pollution under optimal and under time consistent policies.

Consistency and optimality in a dynamic game of pollution control II: Monopoly

This paper continues a line of research begun in Batabyal (1995a). I model the interaction between a regulator and a monopolistic, polluting firm as a Stackelberg differential game in which the regulator leads. The firm creates pollution, which results in a stock externality. I analyze the intertemporal effects of alternate pollution control measures. The principal issue here concerns the dynamic inconsistency of the optimal solution. Inter alia, I compare the steady state levels of pollution under optimal and under dynamically consistent policies.

The Timing of Land Development: An Invariance Result

The Arrow-Fisher-Henry (AFH) analysis of land development under uncertainty has been conducted in a two-period model. Recently, Capozza and Helsley (1990) and Batabyal (1995) have addressed the question of land development under uncertainty in a many-period setting. In this paper, aspects of this literature are extended by analyzing the land development question in a Markov decision theoretic framework. Inter alia, it is shown that the timing of land development is invariant to the manner in which a landowner uses information about the consequences of development. Copyright 1996, Oxford University Press.

Rangeland Management Under Uncertainty: A Conceptual Approach

A conceptual approach is commonly needed to provide guidance for empirical analyses concerning the use of renewable resources such as rangelands. The theoretical model constructed in this paper captures the essential aspects of dynamic and stochastic issues associated with the management of rangelands. We use our approach to discuss the connections between this papers model and range policy. In particular, we point out scenarios in which there is limited or no role for policy. This is compared to scenarios when policy has a significant role to play in ensuring the sustainable use of rangelands. Finally, we suggest two ways in which our approach might be extended and used in an empirical application.