Christine Poulos

Treating open space as an urban amenity

Abstract In “the welfare economics of city bigness”, George Tolley asserts that the virtual price of amenities can be used to judge the efficiency of a urban spatial land use patterns. Expanding this test to open space amenities is not straightforward because those amenities are especially difficult to characterize. Bockstael and Irwin [Economics and the land use—environment link. In: Tietenberg, T., Folmer, H. (Eds.), International Yearbook of Environmental and Resource Economics, 2000/2001. Edward Edgar, Cheltenhan, UK, 2000] suggest that open space amenities and their virtual prices depend on whether surrounding land uses are fixed or adjustable. This paper estimates hedonic price functions over nearly 30 years to evaluate, whether the distinctions between fixed and adjustable land uses help in measuring the value of open space amenities.

Cost-Effectiveness of New-Generation Oral Cholera Vaccines: A Multisite Analysis

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a low-cost cholera vaccine licensed and used in Vietnam, using recently collected data from four developing countries where cholera is endemic. Our analysis incorporated new findings on vaccine herd protective effects. METHODS Using data from Matlab, Bangladesh, Kolkata, India, North Jakarta, Indonesia, and Beira, Mozambique, we calculated the net public cost per disability-adjusted life year avoided for three immunization strategies: 1) school-based vaccination of children 5 to 14 years of age; 2) school-based vaccination of school children plus use of the schools to vaccinate children aged 1 to 4 years; and 3) community-based vaccination of persons aged 1 year and older. RESULTS We determined cost-effectiveness when vaccine herd protection was or was not considered, and compared this with commonly accepted cutoffs of gross domestic product (GDP) per person to classify interventions as cost-effective or very-cost effective. Without including herd protective effects, deployment of this vaccine would be cost-effective only in school-based programs in Kolkata and Beira. In contrast, after considering vaccine herd protection, all three programs were judged very cost-effective in Kolkata and Beira. Because these cost-effectiveness calculations include herd protection, the results are dependent on assumed vaccination coverage rates. CONCLUSIONS Ignoring the indirect effects of cholera vaccination has led to underestimation of the cost-effectiveness of vaccination programs with oral cholera vaccines. Once these effects are included, use of the oral killed whole cell vaccine in programs to control endemic cholera meets the per capita GDP criterion in several developing country settings.

Factors affecting farm operators’ interest in incorporating riparian buffers and forest farming practices in northeast and southeast Missouri

Interest in the incorporation of riparian buffers and forest farming were modeled following agricultural conservation and agroforestry adoption studies. Attitudes, individual characteristics, economic diversity of landowners’ household portfolio, and physical and ecological conditions were explanatory variables in Logit regression models of interest. Habitus and field, the values and institutions of farm operators, were included in the framework. Knowledge of the practice, perceived problems with the environment and attitude/habitus variables had a positive effect on the probability of being interested in riparian buffers. Knowledge of the practice was the most important factor in explaining interest in the case of forest farming, followed by attitudes about trees and concern for future generations, both habitus variables. Field variables like CRP payments representing familiarity with government programs that support conservation, had no significant effect on interest in riparian buffers. Older farmers were less interested in both practices, consistent with other findings. Existing economic diversification of the household portfolio had no effect on the probability of being interested in either practice.

Private Demand for Cholera Vaccines in Hue, Vietnam

OBJECTIVES This study aims to measure the private demand for oral cholera vaccines in Hue, Vietnam, an area of relatively low endemicity of cholera, using the contingent valuation method. METHODS Interviews were conducted with either the head of household or spouse in 800 randomly selected households with children less than 18 years old. Respondents were asked whether they would purchase an oral cholera vaccine with different levels of effectiveness and durations of effectiveness (both for themselves and for other household members) at a specified price. RESULTS The median respondent willingness to pay for 50% effective/3-year vaccine was estimated to be approximately

An optimization model for reducing typhoid cases in developing countries without increasing public spending.

5, although 17% of the study sample would not pay for a cholera vaccine. The median economic benefit to a household of vaccinating all household members against cholera, as measured by its stated willingness to pay, was estimated to be

Agricultural household response to avian influenza prevention and control policies

40 for a vaccine with these attributes. CONCLUSIONS The perceived private economic benefits of a cholera vaccine were high, but not evenly distributed across the population. A minority of the people in Hue place no value on receiving a cholera vaccine.

The Value of Preventing Malaria in Tembien, Ethiopia

This article considers the investment case for using the Vi polysaccharide vaccine in developing countries from two perspectives: reducing typhoid cases and limiting new health care spending. A case study is presented using data from South and Southeast Asia. The purpose of the paper, however, is to draw broad implications that may apply to developing countries in general. Typical consumer demand functions developed from stated preference household surveys in South and Southeast Asia are used to predict probabilities of adults and children purchasing typhoid vaccinations at different prices. These functions are incorporated in a formal mathematical model. Using data from the recent literature for South and Southeast Asia for typhoid incidence, Vi vaccine effectiveness, public cost of illness, and vaccination program cost, three mass vaccination policy alternatives are evaluated: charging adults and children different (optimal) prices, charging uniform prices, and providing free vaccines. Assuming differential pricing is politically feasible, different vaccine prices for children and adults would maximize the number of typhoid cases avoided from a mass vaccination program if the public sector faces a budget constraint on spending for the vaccination program. However, equal prices for children and adults produce very similar results, and they might be more readily accepted by the community. Alternatively, if vaccines are free, the number of cases is not significantly reduced compared to either pricing policy, but a large external financial contribution from government or donors would be required. A Monte Carlo simulation explores the effects of uncertain parameters on vaccination program outcomes.

Cost of illness due to typhoid fever in five Asian countries

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Asia, Europe, and Africa have caused severe impacts on the poultry sector through bird mortality and culling, as well as resulting trade restrictions and negative demand shocks. Although poultry producers play a major role in preventing and controlling avian influenza, little research has examined the influence of their farm-level decision making on the spread of the disease. In this study, we describe farm behavior under livestock disease risk and discuss data and analyses necessary to generate sound empirical evidence to inform public avian influenza prevention and control measures.

A discrete-choice experiment to determine patient preferences for injectable multiple sclerosis treatments in Germany.

The authors measure the monetary value households place on preventing malaria in Tembien, Tigray Region, Ethiopia. They estimate a household demand function for a hypothetical malaria vaccine and compute the value of preventing malaria as the households maximum willingness to pay to provide vaccines for all family members. They contrast willingness to pay with the traditional costs of illness (medical costs and time lost because of malaria). Their results indicate that the value of preventing malaria with vaccines is about US

Patients' Willingness to Trade Off Between the Duration and Frequency of Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatments

36 a household a year, or about 15 percent of imputed annual household income. This is, on average, about two or three times the expected household cost of illness. Despite the great benefits from preventing malaria, the fact that vaccine demand is price inelastic suggests that it will be difficult to achieve significant market penetration unless the vaccine is subsidized. The authors obtain similar results for insecticide-treated bed nets. Their estimates of household demand functions for bed nets suggest that at a price that might permit cost recovery (US