John F. Yanagida

Estimating economic impacts from tourism

Abstract Economists have traditionally used input-output (IO) analysis to examine the impacts of tourism on the economy of a region. This paper introduces a relatively new and alternative technique, computable general equilibrium (CGE). The two approaches are compared and then used to analyze, as an illustration, the impacts on Hawaiis economy from a reduction in visitor expenditure. The study concludes that the results of the IO model are similar in magnitude to those of the CGE model but generally higher and that sectors closely associated with tourism exhibit the largest effects. The ability to account for inter-sectoral resource flows is a major advantage of CGE models and explains differences in IO and CGE results

Role of income diversification in protecting natural forests: evidence from rural households in forest margins of Sri Lanka

Income diversification among households living in forest margins helps to maintain a sustainable livelihood. Reducing forest dependency helps in-situ conservation of biodiversity thereby conserving forest resources. This paper presents evidence of income diversification and its effects on forest resource extraction by rural communities living in forest margins. Diversified income sources of typical households include crop farming, off-farm employment, animal husbandry, home gardening and extraction of non-timber forest products and fuelwood. The calculated mean indexes of diversification for the households in forest margins under investigation were 2.53, 2.57, 2.19 and 2.25. Results of the analysis show that the income diversification index had a negative and significant effect on dependency of rural households on forest resource extraction for three forest reserves. A positive relation between the index of income diversification and total income indicates an increase in household income due to increasing diversification income sources. However, given the complex nature of protecting natural forests, income diversification should be part of a broader integrated policy goal to protect natural forests.

Evaluation of external market effects and government intervention in Malaysia's agricultural sector: A computable general equilibrium framework

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of changes in the external trade environment and domestic economic policies on the agricultural development of Malaysia. The scope of this research also includes providing further insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the computable general equilibrium (CGE) methodology for agricultural policy analysis. The first analysis focuses on the export agriculture sector which encompasses Malaysias two primary agricultural commodities, rubber and palm oil. Heavily dependent on exports of rubber in the 1950s and 1960s, Malaysia has since built a more diversified economy with strong emphasis on manufacturing. Export agriculture, however, is still an important component of the national economy. The second objective examines the influence of domestic policy on agricultural development. The simulation results demonstrate the growing resiliency of the Malaysian economy to external shocks. Also, they point to the domestic economys ability to buffer internal policy-induced distortions.

Stochastic Frontier Analysis with Price Risk: An Application to Organic Tea Production in Vietnam

Traditionally, tea famers have been used chemicals to protect products. But an over usage of pesticides or preservation compounds has negatively affected on the environment and human health. When the living standard has been improved, consumers have changed into buying cleaner and safer products. Therefore, conventional tea production has been gradually converted into organic ones health requirement standards. However, lacks of researches about profit level as well as potential price risk for organic tea industries might be hard to pursue famers and policy makers about that movement. Thai Nguyen province, one of Northern mountainous provinces, has been well-known for its high quality and quantity tea production in Vietnam for along time, which mainly contributes to make tea become one of the country’s primary industrial exports. In this field, Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) was applied to estimate profit levels for 180 tea growers selected from four representative

Life cycle assessment of ethanol production from tropical banagrass (Pennisetum purpureum) using green and dry processing technologies in Hawaii

This study conducted well-to-pump and well-to wheel life-cycle assessment of fossil energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during ethanol production from tropical Banagrass (Pennisetum purpureum) using green-processing (with the use of fresh feedstocks) and dry or conventional processing (with the use of dried feedstocks) in the state of Hawaii. 10 000 MJ of energy was used as a functional unit with a systematic boundary drawn based on relative mass, energy, and economic value method using a 1% cutoff value, and the results were compared to those of conventional gasoline, and ethanol from corn and other ethanol lignocellulosic feedstocks. Detailed techno-economic model was built using the SuperPro designer. Ethanol yields were estimated at 0.27 l/kg (green processing with fungal co-product), 0.27 l/kg (green processing without co-product), and 0.29 l/kg (dry-processing) of feedstock, respectively. The well-to-pump analysis indicate that ethanol production consume 8200 MJ (green processing with co-p...

Factors Affecting Technical Efficiency of Small- holder Coffee Farming in the Krong Ana Watershed, Vietnam

Coffee production is a major source of income for farmers in the DakLak province in Vietnam. Although Vietnam is one of the largest coffee producers in the world, research to improve the coffee industry is lacking, in particular, evaluating production efficiency in coffee farming could highlight factors that improve technical efficiency. The overall objective of this study is to estimate the technical efficiency of coffee production and determine which factors affect technical efficiency of small holder coffee farmers in the Krong Ana Watershed of the DakLak province. Based on the stochastic production frontier, the estimated mean technical efficiency scores were 0.7466 and 0.6836 respectively for the Cu Kuin district and the three combined districts (Krong Ana, Krong Bong and Lak). Formal education of the household head, amount of financial credit obtained, ethnicity, coffee farming experience of the household head, and agricultural extension service used were key factors that can increase technical efficiency in coffee production.

Factors affecting the adoption of school community based management (SCBM) in Hawaii’s public schools

Abstract A qualitative response model was developed to explain a school’s decision to adopt School Community Based Management (SCBM), a voluntary management process, for Hawaii’s public schools. A probit procedure was applied by using school level and socioeconomic data, and the resulting model provided a fairly good fit. The percentage of students enrolled for the entire year and the percentage of classrooms available relative to state requirements were found to positively affect SCBM adoption. The percentage of students on free lunch programs and the percentage of students scoring above average in the Stanford Achievement Test reading test negatively impacted the SCBM decision.