Marcella Veronesi

Does Adaptation to Climate Change Provide Food Security? A Micro-Perspective from Ethiopia

We examine the driving forces behind farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change, and the impact of adaptation on farmers’ food production. We investigate whether there are differences in the food production functions of farm households that adapted and those that did not adapt. We estimate a simultaneous equations model with endogenous switching to account for the heterogeneity in the decision to adapt or not, and for unobservable characteristics of farmers and their farm. We compare the expected food production under the actual and counterfactual cases that the farm household adapted or not to climate change. We find that the group of farm households that adapted has systematically different characteristics than the group of farm households that did not adapt. The relationship between production and average temperature is inverted U-shaped for farm households that adapted, while it is U-shaped for farm households that did not adapt, and vice versa in the case of precipitation. We find that adaptation increases food production, however, the impact of adaptation on food production is smaller for the farm households that actually did adapt than for the farm households that did not adapt in the counterfactual case that they adapted.

A Contingent Valuation Method Incorporating Fairness and Citizen Participation

This multidisciplinary work explores ways of making environmental policy decisions in managing public goods and natural parks with the goal of maximizing economic benefits to society. The contributors to the volume seek the best strategies for improving the environmental sustainability and quality of a public resource by showing how to develop quantitative information about the natural area and how it interacts with the economy. Such an analysis can be used to define policies that encourage interactions among institutions, local economic agents and park users. At the same time, it provides a measure to account for the implications of those policies on the local economy.

Integrated Assessment and Management of Public Resources

This multidisciplinary work explores ways of making environmental policy decisions in managing public goods and natural parks with the goal of maximizing economic benefits to society. The contributors to the volume seek the best strategies for improving the environmental sustainability and quality of a public resource by showing how to develop quantitative information about the natural area and how it interacts with the economy. Such an analysis can be used to define policies that encourage interactions among institutions, local economic agents and park users. At the same time, it provides a measure to account for the implications of those policies on the local economy.

Baseline Risk and Marginal Willingness to Pay for Health Risk Reduction

Empirical results presented in this paper suggest that parents’ marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for a reduction in morbidity risk from heart disease is inversely related to baseline risk (i.e., the amount of risk initially faced) both for themselves and for their children. For instance, a 40% reduction from the mean of baseline risk results in an increase in MWTP by 70% or more. Thus, estimates of monetary benefits of public programs to reduce heart disease risk would be understated if the standard practice is followed of evaluating MWTP at initial risk levels and then multiplying this value by the number of cases avoided. Estimates are supported by: (1) unique quantitative information on perceptions of the risk of getting heart disease that allow baseline risk to be defined at an individual level and (2) improved econometric procedures to control for well-known difficulties associated with stated preference data.

Travel Cost Estimation Conditional on Leisure Consumption

This multidisciplinary work explores ways of making environmental policy decisions in managing public goods and natural parks with the goal of maximizing economic benefits to society. The contributors to the volume seek the best strategies for improving the environmental sustainability and quality of a public resource by showing how to develop quantitative information about the natural area and how it interacts with the economy. Such an analysis can be used to define policies that encourage interactions among institutions, local economic agents and park users. At the same time, it provides a measure to account for the implications of those policies on the local economy.

Consistency of Risk Preference Measures: An Artefactual Field Experiment from Rural China

ABSTRACT A variety of measures have been developed to elicit individual risk preferences. How these measures perform in the field, in particular in developing countries with non-student subjects, is still an open question. We implement an artefactual field experiment in rural China to investigate (i) consistency across incentivised experimental risk measures, (ii) consistency in risk preferences elicitation between non-incentivised survey measures and incentivised experiments, and (iii) possible explanations for risk preference inconsistency across measures. We find that inconsistent risk preferences across survey and experimental measures may be explained by ambiguity preferences. In the survey, subjects may mix risk and ambiguity preferences.

The diffusion of information and behavior in social networks: Renewable energy technology adoption in rural China

A increase of mean sea surface temperatures up to 4.8°C because of climate change is expected by the end of this century. The actual capabilities of marine invertebrates to adapt to these rapid changes have still to be understood. Adult echinoids play a crucial role in the tropical ecosystems where they live. Despite their role, few studies about the effect of temperature increase on their viability have been reported in literature. In this communication, we report a first systematic study on several Caribbean echinoids of the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago in Panama about their tolerance to temperature rise in the context of global warming. The research focalized on the 6 sea urchins Lytechinus variegatus, L. williamsi, Echinometra lucunter, E. viridis, Tripneustes ventricosus and Eucidaris tribuloides, and the 2 sand dollars Clypeaster rosaceus and C. subdepressus. Mortality and neuromuscular well-being indicators such as righting response, covering behavior, adhesion to the substrate, spine and tube feet movements have been analyzed in the temperature range 28-38°C. The righting time measured in the 6 sea urchin species demonstrated a clearly dependence on the water temperature. The experiments allowed to determine the “thermal safety margin” (TSM) of each species. Echinometra lucunter and E. viridis has resulted the most tolerant species to high temperatures with a TSM of 5.5°C, while T. ventricosus was the most vulnerable with a TSM of only 3°C. The study assessed that all the species already live at temperatures close to their upper thermal limit.Adopting renewable energy technologies has been seen as a promising way to reduce CO2 emissions and deforestation. This paper investigates how social networks may affect renewable energy technology adoption. We distinguish two channels through which social networks may play a role: (i) the diffusion of information; and (ii) the diffusion of behavior. Most empirical studies fail to quantitatively separate the diffusion of information and behavior in social networks. We conduct a survey on biogas technology adopting in rural China to identify individuals’ egocentric information networks. We find that both the diffusion of information and behavior drive farmers’ technology adoption. Farmers with larger egocentric information networks and a larger fraction of known adopters are more likely to adopt the biogas technology. In addition, we collect data on several attributes of alters to explore the composition of social networks. We find heterogeneous social network effects across different types of alters. Alters who have close relationships with egos such as friends and relatives or that are trusted by egos affect egos’ adoption through the diffusion of information, while less trusted alters such as government officials affect egos’ adoption through their adoption behavior.

Preferences for Social Inclusion: Empirical Evidence from Juvenile Rehabilitation in Italy

Social inclusion is a multidimensional phenomenon that involves social, psychological, political, and economic aspects of individuals’ life. While social inclusion is a priority of the European Agenda 2020, little is known about individuals’ preferences for social inclusion and their determinants. We investigate factors affecting preferences for social inclusion using a stated preference survey on juvenile rehabilitation. We show that ideological inclinations, concerns about crime, and altruistic motives play a significant role in explaining preferences for the social inclusion of juvenile offenders.

Incentivi economici per la protezione della biodiversità e degli ecosistemi di proprietà privata

Incentive mechanisms for ecosystem protection on private lands - This study has the objective to bring to the fore the importance of appropriate incentive schemes for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems on private lands. The analysis describes the effectiveness of the regulations implemented in advanced countries. In particular, first the study presents some examples and discusses the implications of the actual legislation in developed countries for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Then, the study analyses the legal doctrine regarding compensation, and the available economic instruments for ecosystem services protection. Finally, the study presents the best economic tools capable to align private behavior with the social goals of protecting the services offered by the ecosystems and favoring the participation of private owners to projects for sustainable production and conservation. Special attention is paid to the institution of Community Foundations using as models those implemented in the United States. JEL: Q57, Q58 Key words: biodiversity, conservation, ecosystems, community foundations, economic incentives, private lands.