Arild Vatn

Environmental Valuation and Rationality

Economic valuation of the environment is disputed, in part, due to the number of anomalies. Reactions to these anomalies have included adding new auxiliary hypotheses to the core model or dismissing the whole undertaking. This paper takes a third route, and uses observations made in valuation studies to improve choice theory. The paper covers the information problem, the issue of preference formation, and underlines the role of the social sphere in defining what becomes individually rational. While the findings not simplify theory, they may help us become more realistic and to understand errors produced by illegitimate simplifications. (JEL Q28, D6)

Externalities — A market model failure

We focus here on a set of conceptual problems related to the accepted theory of externalities. We are primarily concerned with difficulties that arise when a theoretical system is extended beyond its logical domain. This is the practice in externality theory when the market model assuming independent agents is used to analyze physical interdependency. The different kinds of dependencies obscure the standard use of the Paretian analysis, as the issues of rights and efficiency are mixed up. The creation of emissions and the creation of externalities are further not held apart producing flows in the efficiency evaluations. Due to the interdependencies involved, actions of both emitter and victim must be taken into account while searching for efficient policies. Finally, we analyze the interrelationships between what is termed the internal structure of the market model and the annexed sphere of externalities. We conclude that the accepted policy prescriptions both assume and demand no interrelationships between these two spheres. We find the assumption unrealistic and inconsistent as concerns the basic foundations of the market model. There are two main traditions addressing externalities — the Coasean and the Pigovian. This paper shows that both are vulnerable to the above critique. Thus the presumption that externality theory is now settled and coherent is seen to be without theoretical support.

ECECMOD: an interdisciplinary modelling system for analyzing nutrient and soil losses from agriculture

Abstract This article discusses a set of principles for policy analysis of environmental problems. The main focus is on integrating economic and ecological analyses through a mathematical modelling framework. The paper starts by developing a general model for the study of environmental issues. Principles for operationalizing the model are discussed, and ECECMOD (a new modelling system constructed to analyze pollution from agricultural systems on the basis of these principles) is introduced. Some of the results obtained by ECECMOD are presented to facilitate a discussion about the gains to be obtained by this kind of analysis. The study shows that it is of great importance to combine economic and ecological analyses at a fairly high level of resolution when studying environmental effects of complex systems.

Scientists' Perspectives on the Deliberate Release of GM Crops

In this paper we analyse scientistsʼ perspectives on the release of genetically modified (GM) crops into the environment, and the relationship between their perspectives and the context that they work within, e.g. their place of employment (university or industry), funding of their research (public or industry) and their disciplinary background (ecology, molecular biology or conventional plant breeding). We employed Q-methodology to examine these issues. Two distinct factors were identified by interviewing 62 scientists. These two fac tors included 92 per cent of the sample. Scientists in factor 1 had a moderately negative attitude to GM crops and emphasised the uncertainty and ignorance involved, while scientists in factor 2 had a positive attitude to GM crops and emphasised that GM crops are useful and do not represent any unique risks

Modernization and pasture degradation: a comparative study of two Sámi reindeer pasture regions in Norway.

We compare two reindeer pasture regions in Norway. Both were exposed to the same external changes, such a new technologies, increased market access, and new state policies. As North became overgrazed in the 1980s, South was not. In explaining this, we focus on interaction between such external factors and internal characteristics like the natural resource base and the Sámi institutions. South herder leaders pursued institutional transformations included in state policies, however, the state policy was not legitimate in the North. We recommend focus on self-governance, cultural dynamics, and examining many relevant factors before the imposition of changes in governance structures and incentive systems. (JEL O13 Q24)

Aspects of a two-pasture — herbivore model

Pastures for reindeer can be divided into green pastures (mainly herbs and grasses) of summer time and more or less snow-covered lichen pastures of winter. Fall and spring pastures have a composition in-between these extremes, but for model purposes bisection is sufficient. For the animals the green-pasture season is an anabolic phase with a physiological building-up of protein reserves, while winter is a catabolic phase where food-intake is reduced and the animals to a considerable extent survive on the accumulated reserves from summer. While protein reserves are stored from summer to winter, lichen pastures are stored from year to year. Grasses and herbs not being grazed are wilting by the end of the growing season, while lichens not grazed can live for many years. This corresponds with fundamental differences in both growth pattern and resilience. The implications of the different features, and their interconnections, are not easy to survey without formal modeling. The point of departure is a simple pasture-herbivore model, well known from the literature building on a set of differential equations. A new two-pasture-herbivore model is developed. The model includes as basic elements the Klein (1968) hypothesis and that a residual lichen biomass is kept ungrazed due to snow-cover protection. Further the annual cycle is divided into four stylized seasons with herd rates of winter survival, spring calving, summer physiological growth and fall slaughtering. Isoclines are derived for summer pasture, winter pasture and herbivores. Stability properties are discussed in relation to various situations of seasonal pasture balance. Empirical examples, particularly that of changes in pasture balance and vegetation cover in Western Finnmark, Norway, are discussed. The article finds that the two-pasture model provides important features of reality, such as the stability aspects of pasture balance, which cannot be displayed by a one-pasture model. It is suggested that this type of modeling can be used as a basis for further research, e.g. implications of climate change.

The EUROSEM-GRIDSEM modeling system for erosion analyses under different natural and economic conditions

Abstract Within the research project, nutrient losses and erosion from agriculture are calculated. Calculations are done with an interdisciplinary modeling system capable of predicting the effect of various policy measures to reduce losses. This paper describes the application of the deterministic one event based erosion model EUROSEM in combination with a digital elevation model GRIDSEM, to analyze erosion at the catchment scale within the frame of the overall project. GRIDSEM uses a grid size of 30×30 m and includes a simple routine for adding up sediment losses in the watershed. For each day during a 20-year simulation period the soil erosion level is estimated for each cell, based on: (1) the permanent landscape related characteristics of slope and soil type; (2) parameters determined by the agricultural management system, including parameters for plant height, soil covered by plants, surface roughness and soil cohesion; and (3) actual weather data. A distinction is made between rainfall and snowmelt induced runoff events. Changes in erosion level could be estimated from the output of GRIDSEM and by analyses of the estimated erosion levels for the cells. Results show that this method is capable of: (1) estimating changes in overall erosion levels; (2) estimating the relative benefits of different agricultural management systems concerning total erosion; and (3) showing the unpredictability and importance of extreme erosion events, in both time and space.

Environmental Resources, Property Regimes, and Efficiency

Why are certain property regimes preferred? They cannot be chosen on the basis of efficiency considerations alone, as what is efficient depends on the institutional structures themselves and the interests they defend. The author highlights some important distinctions between various property regimes: whereas categories like private, common, and state property all may imply some degree of co – ownership and overlap along some dimensions, the logic of each system, ideally defined, may be quite distinct. The author shows that there is nothing inherent in a resource that demands a certain regime. Property regimes are social constructs and must be defended by judgment, not by necessity. The author demonstrates that the main role of property regimes is to defend certain interests. Furthermore, they seem to influence which interests are formed or become activated. The preferences which form the basis for efficiency evaluations are thus dependent upon the chosen system. In this way, technically oriented evaluations like cost – benefit analysis are caught in severe circularities. The implication of this for policy is that the evaluation of regimes implies taking a stand concerning what we want to become, both as individuals and as a society.

Sustainability, Institutions and Behavior

This paper is about how to facilitate sustainability, arguing that it is important to undertake changes in the institutional structures governing economic activity. The basic question concerns which logic or rationality is fostered by prevailing institutions and which changes in these should be facilitated. Two integrated arguments are put forward: Sustainability demands a shift from separating to integrating institutions and away from institutions exclusively fostering individual rationality towards those supporting cooperative rationality. The necessity for such a move is argued on the basis of the characteristics of the problems humanity are facing. Concerning the possibilities for making the proposed institutional changes, a wide variety of literatures from different fields looking at human motivation and the relationship between motivation and institutions is evaluated. The paper also sketches some alternative ways through which an increased emphasis on integration and cooperative rationality could be facilitated.

From the Ashes into the Fire? Institutional Change in the Post-Tsunami Nicobar Islands, India

This article critically analyzes institutional change as a consequence of humanitarian intervention in the tsunami-affected Nicobar Islands in India. It shows that the state and aid agencies distributed resources on the basis of formal rules and norms different from those observed by the Nicobarese. This has created social upheaval by diminishing the stature of the joint family system and imparting greater agency to political representatives. Written communication has overridden the sanctity of the spoken word. Younger, educated Nicobarese, especially men, have been privileged by the new institutional arrangements and are active participants in social change. Thus, humanitarian intervention has resulted in shifting relationships of power and equity. Moreover, the ecological consequences appear to be unsustainable. The article suggests the need for enhanced sensitivity to cultural specificities and inherent human capacity in designing humanitarian intervention.