Frank Lupi

Socioeconomic Consequences of Mercury Use and Pollution

Abstract In the past, human activities often resulted in mercury releases to the biosphere with little consideration of undesirable consequences for the health of humans and wildlife. This paper outlines the pathways through which humans and wildlife are exposed to mercury. Fish consumption is the major route of exposure to methylmercury. Humans can also receive toxic doses of mercury through inhalation of elevated concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury. We propose that any effective strategy for reducing mercury exposures requires an examination of the complete life cycle of mercury. This paper examines the life cycle of mercury from a global perspective and then identifies several approaches to measuring the benefits of reducing mercury exposure, policy options for reducing Hg emissions, possible exposure reduction mechanisms, and issues associated with mercury risk assessment and communication for different populations.

Biological Pollution Prevention Strategies under Ignorance:The Case of Invasive Species

Invasive alien species (IAS)—species that establish and spread in ecosystems to that they are not native—are argued to be the secondmost important cause of biodiversity loss worldwide (Holmes). Without natural predators, parasites, and/or pathogens to help control population growth, IAS frequently outcompete or prey on native species. They cause or spread diseases to cultivated plants, livestock and human populations. They often encroach on, damage or degrade assets (e.g., power plants, boats, piers, and reservoirs). The associated economic impacts can be significant (Perrings, Williamson, and Dalmazzone). For example, the zebra mussel alone is predicted to create

Linking social norms to efficient conservation investment in payments for ecosystem services

5 billion in damages over the next decade in the Great Lakes (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality). Human activities—particularly those associated with trade and travel—are the most common cause of IAS invasions. IAS invasions are now more frequent than ever before, largely due to the expansion of world trade and travel over the past century (Heywood, Parker et al.). For instance, at least 145 species have invaded the Great Lakes since the 1830s, with one-third

Modeling the choice to switch from fuelwood to electricity Implications for giant panda habitat conservation

An increasing amount of investment has been devoted to protecting and restoring ecosystem services worldwide. The efficiency of conservation investments, including payments for ecosystem services (PES), has been found to be affected by biological, political, economic, demographic, and social factors, but little is known about the effects of social norms at the neighborhood level. As a first attempt to quantify the effects of social norms, we studied the effects of a series of possible factors on peoples intentions of maintaining forest on their Grain-to-Green Program (GTGP) land plots if the program ends. GTGP is one of the worlds largest PES programs and plays an important role in global conservation efforts. Our study was conducted in Chinas Wolong Nature Reserve, home to the world-famous endangered giant pandas and >4,500 farmers. We found that, in addition to conservation payment amounts and program duration, social norms at the neighborhood level had significant impacts on program re-enrollment, suggesting that social norms can be used to leverage participation to enhance the sustainability of conservation benefits from PES programs. Moreover, our results demonstrate that economic and demographic trends also have profound implications for sustainable conservation. Thus, social norms should be incorporated with economic and demographic trends for efficient conservation investments.

Environmental Constraints on Hydropower: An Ex Post Benefit-Cost Analysis of Dam Relicensing in Michigan

Despite its status as a nature reserve, Wolong Nature Reserve (China) has experienced continued loss of giant panda habitat due to human activities such as fuelwood collection. Electricity, though available throughout Wolong, has not replaced fuelwood as an energy source. We used stated preference data obtained from in-person interviews to estimate a random utility model of the choice of adopting electricity for cooking and heating. Willingness to switch to electricity was explained by demographic and electricity factors (price, voltage, and outage frequency). In addition to price, nonprice factors such as voltage and outage frequency significantly affect the demand. Thus, lowering electricity prices and increasing electricity quality would encourage local residents to switch from fuelwood to electricity and should be considered in the mix of policies to promote conservation of panda habitat. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Using an Economic Model of Recreational Fishing to Evaluate the Benefits of Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) Control on the St. Marys River

We conduct a benefit-cost analysis of a relicensing agreement for two hydroelectric dams in Michigan. The agreement changed daily conditions from peaking to run-of-river flows. We consider three categories of costs and benefits: producer costs of adapting electricity production to the new time profile of hydroelectric output; benefits of reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions; and benefits of improved recreational fishing. The best estimates suggest that the aggregate benefits are more than twice as large as the producer costs. The conceptual and empirical methods provide a template for investigating the effects of an environmental constraint on hydroelectric dams. (JEL Q43, Q57)

The Effect of Invitation Design on Web Survey Response Rates

Abstract This paper describes efforts to estimate economic benefits of improved sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) suppression on the St. Marys River. By linking an economic model of recreational fishing in Michigan to fish populations in the Great Lakes, a method is illustrated for estimating economic benefits that accrue to recreational anglers when fish populations increase. Previous economic efforts to evaluate sea lamprey control have taken a basin-wide view to determine optimal steady-state control levels based on economic injury levels, or have focused on whether or not the entire sea lamprey treatment program is justified. While capable of being adapted to either of these types of evaluations, the method presented here was used to estimate benefits to Michigan anglers of several sea lamprey treatments options for the St. Marys River. When estimated benefits are compared to treatment costs, all treatment options examined are shown to have different, but positive, net present value. Thus, the results suggest that sea lamprey suppression efforts on the St. Marys River yield economic benefits that exceed costs, and this holds even though only part of the economic benefits have been measured.

The Economic Equivalency of Drained and Restored Wetlands in Michigan

Web surveys present methodological challenges including lower response rates as compared to other survey methods. The literature on invitations to participate in web surveys builds on previous research suggesting that advance letters are cost-effective means for increasing response rates in mail surveys and interviewer-administered surveys. The efficacy and appropriateness of design elements of invitations to participate in a web survey is not yet well understood. This research reports results of a full-factorial experiment (n = 15,652) of five design elements of web survey invitations—invitation mode, subject line, location of URL link, length of the invitation text, and survey time/effort estimate. There were significant effects of different design elements on response rates. The results suggest that some design elements of invitations may have similar effects across subsets of populations, while others may have different effects on different subsets of potential respondents.

Using partial site aggregation to reduce bias in random utility travel cost models

Wetland ecosystems are valued for a range of ecological services. These services are protected by national, state, and local regulation. The primary federal wetland protection statute is Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Section 1344). Under this statute, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), administers a review and permitting process for the “discharge of fill material” in “waters of the United States.” Since 1989, the guiding principle of federal wetland policy has been the “no net loss” of wetlands criterion (Gaddie and Regens). To implement this principle, the wetland permit process encourages potential dischargers to avoid and minimize wetland impacts wherever possible. Where wetlands are impaired or destroyed, wetland mitigation is required. Mitigation refers to actions taken to recreate, restore, or protect wetlands of an equivalent type and function to those being impaired or destroyed (Denison and Schmid). Since wetlands vary by type, ecological functions, and the services they yield to humans, the means for judging the equivalency of destroyed and mitigated wetlands is both problematic and central to successful implementation of the “no net loss” policy (National

The Effect of Modeling Substitute Activities on Recreational Benefit Estimates

We propose a “partial aggregation” strategy for defining the recreation sites that enter choice sets in random utility models. Under the proposal, the most popular sites and sites that will be the subject of policy analysis enter choice sets as individual sites while remaining sites are aggregated into groups of similar sites. The scheme balances the desire to include all potential substitute sites in the choice sets with practical data and modeling constraints. Unlike fully aggregate models, our analysis and empirical applications suggest that the partial aggregation approach reasonably approximates the results of a disaggregate model. The partial aggregation approach offers all of the data and computational advantages of models with aggregate sites but does not suffer from the same degree of bias as fully aggregate models.