Erin O. Sills

Staged authenticity and heritage tourism.

Abstract Much of today’s heritage tourism product depends on the staging or re-creation of ethnic or cultural traditions. This study analyzes the role of perceived authenticity as a measure of product quality and as a determinant of tourist satisfaction. The event studied was the Flora Macdonald Scottish Highland Games held in North Carolina (United States). Tourists and event organizers were asked to evaluate the authenticity of specific festival events on a Likert scale. The study revealed that high perception of authenticity can be achieved even when the event is staged in a place far away from the original source of the cultural tradition. Important differences in perceived authenticity were observed among various groups of visitors.

Taking stock of agroforestry adoption studies

In light of the large number of empirical studies of agroforestry adoption published during the last decade, we believe it is time to take stock and identify general determinants of agroforestry adoption. In reviewing 120 articles on adoption of agricultural and forestry technology by small holders, we find five categories of factors that explain technology adoption within an economic framework: preferences, resource endowments, market incentives, biophysical factors, and risk and uncertainty. By selecting only empirical analyses that focus on agroforestry and related investments, we narrow our list down to 32 studies primarily from tropical areas. We apply vote-counting based meta-analysis to these studies and evaluate the inclusion and significance of the five adoption factors. Our analysis shows that preferences and resource endowments are the factors most often included in studies. However, adoption behavior is most likely to be significantly influenced by risk, biophysical, and resource factors. In our conclusion, we discuss specific recommendations for the next generation of adoption studies and meta-analyses that include considering a fuller menu of variables, reporting key statistics and marginal probabilities, and conducting weighted meta-regressions.

Do Tropical Forests Provide Natural Insurance? The Microeconomics of Non-Timber Forest Product Collection in the Brazilian Amazon

Tropical forests may contribute to the well-being of local people by providing a form of “natural insurance.” We draw on microeconomic theory to conceptualize a model relating agricultural risks to collection of non-timber forest products. Forest collection trips are positively correlated with both agricultural shocks and expected agricultural risks in an event-count model of survey data from the Brazilian Amazon. This suggests that households rely on forests to mitigate agricultural risk. Forest product collection may be less important to households with other consumption-smoothing options, but its importance is not restricted to the poorest households. (JEL Q23)

Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Cover?: A Farm-Level Evaluation from Costa Rica

Payments for environmental services (PES) are popular despite little empirical evidence of their effectiveness. We estimate the impact of PES on forest cover in a region known for exemplary implementation of one of the best-known and longest-lived PES programs. Our evaluation design combines sampling that incorporates prematching, data from remote sensing and household surveys, and empirical methods that include partial identification with weak assumptions, difference-in-differences matching estimators, and tests of sensitivity to unobservable heterogeneity. PES in our study site increased participating farm forest cover by about 11% to 17% of the mean area under PES contract over eight years. (JEL Q57, Q58)

Economic Impacts of Invasive Species in Forests Past, Present, and Future

Biological invasions by nonnative species are a by‐product of economic activities, with the vast majority of nonnative species introduced by trade and transport of products and people. Although most introduced species are relatively innocuous, a few species ultimately cause irreversible economic and ecological impacts, such as the chestnut blight that functionally eradicated the American chestnut across eastern North America. Assessments of the economic costs and losses induced by nonnative forest pests are required for policy development and need to adequately account for all of the economic impacts induced by rare, highly damaging pests. To date, countrywide economic evaluations of forest‐invasive species have proceeded by multiplying a unit value (price) by a physical quantity (volume of forest products damaged) to arrive at aggregate estimates of economic impacts. This approach is inadequate for policy development because (1) it ignores the dynamic impacts of biological invasions on the evolution of prices, quantities, and market behavior, and (2) it fails to account for the loss in the economic value of nonmarket ecosystem services, such as landscape aesthetics, outdoor recreation, and the knowledge that healthy forest ecosystems exist. A review of the literature leads one to anticipate that the greatest economic impacts of invasive species in forests are due to the loss of nonmarket values. We proposed that new methods for evaluating aggregate economic damages from forest‐invasive species need to be developed that quantify market and nonmarket impacts at microscales that are then extended using spatially explicit models to provide aggregate estimates of impacts. Finally, policies that shift the burden of economic impacts from taxpayers and forest landowners onto parties responsible for introducing or spreading invasives, whether through the imposition of tariffs on products suspected of imposing unacceptable risks on native forest ecosystems or by requiring standards on the processing of trade products before they cross international boundaries, may be most effective at reducing their impacts.

The Significance of Festivals to Rural Economies: Estimating the Economic Impacts of Scottish Highland Games in North Carolina

Festivals are often part of the economic development strategy of rural areas. This study estimates the economic impacts of visitor expenditures at two Scottish festivals in rural North Carolina, using tourist survey data and an input-output model. While local restaurants and lodging and festival vendors and sponsors benefit from substantial visitor expenditures, the multipliers are relatively small, and hence the total economic impact of the festivals represents only a small percentage of economic activity in the two regions considered. Lodging expenditures have the greatest impact on the region with a multiple-day festival, while expenditures on food and beverage have the greatest impact on the region with a single-day festival. The magnitude of the economic impact depends on characteristics of both the festival (number of days) and the local economy (other attractions and linkages).

Forests in a market economy.

Contributors. Preface. 1. Introduction E.O. Sills, K.L. Abt. 2. Global Forests J.P. Siry, F.W. Cubbage. 3. Private Forests F.W. Cubbage, A.G. Snider, K.L. Abt, R.J. Moulton. I: Timber Production and Markets. 4. Optimal Stand Management K.L. Abt, J.P. Prestemon. 5. Forest Production J.P. Siry, F.W. Cubbage, E.O. Sills. 6.Financial Analysis of Timber Investments F.C. Zinkhan, F.W. Cubbage. 7. Timber Production Efficiency Analysis D.R. Carter, J.P. Siry. 8. Aggregate Timber Supply D.N. Wear, S.K. Pattanyak. 9. Timber Demand R.C. Abt, S. Ahn. 10. Structure and Efficiency of Timber Markets B.C. Murray, J.P. Prestemon. 11. International Trade in Forest Products J.P. Prestemon, J. Buongiorno, D.N. Wear, J.P. Siry. II: Multiple Products from Forests. 12. Public Timber Supply under Multiple-Use Management D.N. Wear. 13. Economics of Forest Carbon Sequestration B.C. Murray. 14. Timber and Amenities on Nonindustrial Private Forest Land S.K. Pattanayak, K.L. Abt, T.P. Holmes. 15. Nontimber Forest Products in the Rural Household Economy E.O. Sills, S. Lele, T.P. Holmes, S.K. Pattanayak. 16. Agroforestry Adoption by Smallholders D.E. Mercer, S.K. Pattanayak. III: Non-Market Valuation. 17. Contingent Valuation of Forest Ecosystem Protection R.A. Kramer, T.P. Holmes, M. Haefele. 18. Stated Preference Methods for Valuation of Forest Attributes T.P. Holmes, K.J. Boyle. 19. EstimatingForest Recreation Demand Using Count Data Models J.E. Englin, T.P. Holmes. E.O. Sills. 20. Forest Ecosystem Services as Production Inputs S.K. Pattanayak, D.T. Butry.

Combining qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate participation in Costa Rica's program of payments for environmental services.

The Costa Rican Program of Payments for Environmental Services provides financial compensation to forest owners for the environmental services generated by their forests. This program offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the impacts of direct incentive payments on conservation. In order to measure the causal effect of this program on outcomes of interest, it is fundamental to understand the factors that influence enrollment in the program. Economic theory suggests that opportunity costs are key, but many factors may determine and mediate the influence of these costs. This article reports findings from an integrated qualitative and quantitative approach to this question. Within an iterative field research framework, information was gathered through (a) semistructured interviews with government officials and forestry professionals, (b) case studies of participant and nonparticipant forest landowners based on in-depth interviews, field visits, and a review of records, and (c) a quantitative survey of participant and nonparticipant landowners. The semistructured interviews and case studies provide important insights that can be incorporated into the quantitative analysis, specifically by identifying potential determinants of program participation and land use change. Hypotheses about the relationship between program participation and the opportunity costs of participation are confirmed using both approaches.

Realistic REDD: Improving the Forest Impacts of Domestic Policies in Different Settings

Both theory and evidence regarding forest-relevant decisions by various agents suggest that there are significant constraints on the effectiveness of domestic policies for REDD (i.e., in facilitating a reduction in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation). Economic theory and empirical research identify many factors that affect the incentives for forest clearing, thereby limiting the impact of policies intended to alter any one factor. We summarize three theoretical frameworks that could be employed to gain insights into how to improve REDD policy design. Economists commonly use these frameworks to model decisions in many settings that are relevant for forests and REDD: (1) producer profit maximization given market integration, focusing on the spatial distributions of competing land uses; (2) rural household optimization given incomplete markets and household heterogeneity, to explain uses of land and forest; and (3) public optimization given production and corruption responses by private firms, which we illustrate with harvesting concessions and which is affected by decentralization. We also review empirical evidence concerning the impacts of forest conservation, forest-relevant development, and decentralization within the settings described by these models. Both the theory and the evidence suggest that REDD outcomes can be improved by designing policy to match its setting—the relevant local agents and institutions.

Energy, Gender and Development: What are the Linkages? Where is the Evidence?

The objective of the report is to review the literature on the links between energy access, welfare, and gender in order to provide evidence on where gender considerations in the energy sector matter and how they might be addressed. Prepared as a background document for the 2012 World Development Report on gender equality and development, as well as a part of the social development departments ongoing work on gender and infrastructure, the report describes and evaluates the evidence on the links between gender and energy focusing on the following areas: increased access to wood fuel through planting of trees and forest management; improved cooking technologies; and access to electricity and motive energy. The report is intended to complement ongoing efforts to formulate a gender business plan for the sustainable development network of the World Bank. It focuses on reviewing the academic evidence and does not aim to offer specific operational recommendations which are better left for the gender business plan and other documents that follow up on the 2012 World Development Report. Focusing on the academic peer-reviewed literature, fairly inclusive screening criteria are applied when selecting the evidence to consider. Thus, much of this review is based on quantitative studies with samples that are relatively small, yet sufficient to support multivariate regressions to control for confounding effects. The main finding of this review is that energy interventions can have significant gender benefits which can be realized via careful design and targeting of interventions based on a context-specific understanding of energy scarcity and household decision-making. The Bank may also want to consider a program of rigorous impact evaluations and participatory monitoring of household energy projects.