Sandra O. Archibald

Expected Transaction Costs and Incentives for Water Market Development

California provides the opportunity to analyze both the potential social gains from water transfers and the institutional constraints, including transaction costs, that can limit water market performance. Common law principles, constitutional provisions, State and Federal statutes, court decisions, water agency policy and contracts all govern how water is developed, allocated and used (xcState of California, 1995). This complex institutional setting creates a heterogeneous system of water-use rights resulting in uncertainty regarding the precise legal entitlements conferred with use rights. State and Federal law and policy governing water transfers and liability for any related economic and environmental impacts have been clarified over the past ten years to facilitate water market development. Despite these clarifications, uncertainty regarding use rights, transfer procedures, and transaction costs remains. As a consequence, water markets are yet to develop as anticipated. Drawing on recent experience, this chapter explores both the potential for social gains-from-trade in water-use rights and the institutional barriers constraining such trade, particularly focusing on the impact of heterogeneous water-use rights and transaction costs.

Identifying agricultural sites for biomass energy production in Minnesota

Abstract This research examines the potential of producing hybrid poplar on location specific marginal agricultural lands in Minnesota. It is assumed that all poplar production would be used to meet biomass energy requirements for two potential 100 MW power plants located in Alexandria and Granite Falls, Minnesota. The delivered fuelwood costs for each power plant are calculated using a cost minimization model. In addition to traditional production and harvesting costs, the model also incorporates landowners opportunity cost of fuelwood production as well as the actual transportation costs associated with supply from each individual analysis area to each power plant. The inclusion of any analysis area as a potential fuelwood supplier is greatly dependent on the interaction and combination of variables such as the opportunity cost, yield rates, and the distance from the power plants. The results show that approximately 40×10 3 hectares of land capable of producing about 3.2×10 [6] dry Mg of wood would be required to fuel each power plant for a 10 year planning period. The average present value costs of delivered (to the plant gate) fuelwood is about

Market Liberalisation and Sustainability in Transition: Turning Points and Trends in Central and Eastern Europe

32 dry Mg −1 for Alexandria and

A flexible model of factor biased technological change An application to Japanese agriculture

37 dry Mg −1 for Granite Falls.

Trends in the U.S. Food-Processing Industry: Implications for Modeling and Policy Analysis in a Dynamic Interactive Environment

This contribution assesses the impact of market liberalisation on the sustainability of the transformation in ten Central and East European countries (CEE10). Although a significant body of literature assesses economic and social consequences of the transformation, there are limited numbers of investigations that examine the impact of liberalisation on the environment. For CEE countries, assessing environmental effects of structural change in the economy, rising personal consumption, rapid transition to market-oriented economies, and dramatically increased liberalisation is critical. Equally important is assessing the outcomes of environmental and other policy and institutional reforms. To assess these changes, a set of sustainability indicators is used to estimate an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and sustainability trends. The EKC concept assumes that environmental pressure rises initially with an increase in income but declines beyond some estimated level or ‘turning point’. The question is how market liberalisation has affected this observed relationship. This study demonstrates the progress of the CEE10, relative to other CEE and new independent states (NIS), and how much progress is still needed to secure more sustainable development.

Demand Side Management Policies for Residential Water Use: Who Bears the Conservation Burden?

Abstract Results indicate that when restrictive assumptions on production structure and parameter constancy are avoided and quality adjusted flow variables employed, an explanation of factor-biased technological change emerges that is consistent with observed patterns of factor use. While substitution possibilities during this period were limited, biol nearly as strong a substitute for labor as for land. Technological change was found to be significantly labor-saving and using in biological inputs and machinery and only weakly land-saving. Descriptions of pre-World War II technology as primarily land-saving miss the significant contribution of labor-saving technology in agricultural transformation and ignore the dynamics of inter-sectoral factor demand.

Debertin, David L. Agricultural Production Economics. New York: Macmillan Co., 1986, xviii + 366 pp.,

The evolving changes in demand, industry structure, and technology evident in the U.S. food-processing industry, identified in this session by Connor, Heien, Kinsey, and Wills and Sanderson and Schweigert have significant implications for agricultural economic analysis. It is evident that the food-processing industry is increasingly dynamic, interacts extensively with the farm and consumer sectors, is being integrated into nonagricultural industries, and continues to expand its international dimensions. Equally important as these trends in shaping the future are constraints imposed by microand macropolicies. Given industry dynamics and complex policy interactions, it is likely that traditional static competitive models for evaluating firm and industry performance may be inappropriate. This paper examines the implications of industry dynamics for economic analysis of the food-processing industry and develops a framework of the interactive policy environment in which the industry operates. Within this framework, implications of some key policy variables are explored to suggest their importance to empirical models.