Therese Grijalva

Waste Not or Want Not? A Contingent Ranking Analysis of Curbside Waste Disposal Options

Abstract Recent growth in the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream nationwide has prompted considerable research into alternative waste management programs that would divert a portion of the MSW stream from landfills. Using a sample of 350 individuals from a random digit-dialed telephone survey, a discrete choice contingent ranking (CR) approach is used to estimate households willingness-to-pay for various curbside trash-separation services in Ogden, UT. Results indicate that Ogden residents are willing to pay approximately 3.7–4.6 cents per gallon of waste diverted for a curbside service that enables separation of green waste and recyclable material from other solid waste. Relative to costly waste diversion experiments conducted by other municipalities, the Ogden experience suggests CR is a cost-effective means for municipalities to evaluate waste disposal options.

Trends in co-authorship in economics since 1985

It has been often noted (McDowell and Melvin, 1983; Barnett et al., 1988; Piette and Ross, 1992; Sutter and Kocher, 2004) that the share of co-authored papers in economics has been increasing steadily. The purpose of this study is to investigate some of the theories as to why co-authorship has been increasing in the economics profession. Using data on the publication records of faculty at 129 US colleges and universities that offer doctoral degrees in Economics, Poisson and logit regression models are estimated to explain co-authorship. Results indicate that the likelihood of co-authorship is greater for papers that combine quantitative analysis with another field and for papers published in higher quality journals. Further, co-authorship appears to differ in the many subfields of economics, with the field of Economic History and History of Thought (Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) categories N and B) to be the least likely to co-author and the fields of Financial Economics (JEL category G) and Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics (JEL category Q) to be the most prone to co-authorship.

Social Capital and the Value of Hunting Club Memberships

When the state of New York purchased the Champion Lands in the Adirondack Park and subsequently terminated the leases of 48 hunting clubs on these lands, opponents of the purchase argued that: (1) a rich and unique culture was being destroyed; and (2) that the State failed to include the loss of this social capital in an economic impact analysis as specified by the State Environmental Quality and Review Act. In this study, responses to dichotomous choice contingent valuation (DC-CV) questions are used to estimate the value a member attaches to a hunting club membership. The willingness-to- pay (WTP) for a hunting club membership (beyond other hunting-related expenses) is estimated to be over

A seemingly unrelated Poisson model for revealed and stated preference data

1,290, which corresponds to a total value of about

Does the Convex Time Budget Approach Lead to Evidence of Hyperbolic Discounting When the Time Horizon is Very Long

1.9 million for the 1,500 hunters in the 48 concerned clubs. These estimates should be included in a full benefit-cost analysis of the purchase, and provide useful input to the societal debate regarding future land purchases by states.

Standing: Institutional Change and Rock Climbing in Wilderness Areas

A seemingly unrelated Poisson regression model is proposed as an alternative to single equation Poisson models for joint estimation of revealed preference (RP) and contingent behaviour (CB) trip demand. Findings indicate that RP and CB data should be estimated jointly.

What Interests Environmental and Resource Economists? A Comparison of Research Output in Agricultural Economics versus Environmental Economics

We employ the convex time budget approach in a laboratory experiment to measure individual discount rates for time horizons that are longer (5, 10, and 20 years) than what is typically explored in previous literature. We reject hyperbolic discounting in favor of constant discount rates and because of the long time horizon, the average discount rate of 1.9% is much lower than the rates typically found in empirical estimation of individual discount rates.

Spousal Dictator Game: Household Decisions and Other-Regarding Preferences

In trying to balance multiple uses, U.S. public land managers must confront the issue of standing--whose benefits and costs get to count. As an important illustration, this policy review examines the conflict between providing access to a growing recreational user group (rock climbers) and the preservation of wilderness character in designated wilderness areas. This conflict has given rise to new interpretations by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) of the legislative intent of the 1964 Wilderness Act, and to proposed restrictions in access rules for rock climbers. While the legal process will ultimately determine the question of wilderness access for rock climbers, it is argued that the question of legal standing is not easily separated from the empirical question of economic standing.

Western Public Lands and the Fiscal Implications of a Transfer to States

We compare the research productivity of faculties housed in departments offering doctoral degrees in agricultural economics (AgEcon) with faculties housed in departments offering doctoral degrees in economics (Econ) that specialize in environmental and resource economics. Rankings are based on faculty publications in EconLit between 1985 and 2010. We find that AgEcon departments publish more papers and rate higher overall on productivity measures than Econ departments but that average productivity is greater for Econ departments. AgEcon publications dominate the Journal of Economic Literatures (JELs) agriculture (Q1) subdiscipline while Econ and AgEcon departments publish evenly in the other Q subdisciplines.

Academic Honesty and Online Courses.

Using a laboratory experiment, we collected data on dictator giving among student strangers and married couples in a suburban area in the United States. Confirming common belief and prior empirical evidence, we find that giving among spouses is greater than giving among anonymous students. We further investigated factors associated with spousal giving which may provide insight for the development of future theories, or into explaining other-regarding preferences. Our data shows that giving is positively associated with who manages household money and controls household income. This result is robust after controlling for each spouse’s personal income and using various econometric specifications. The results suggest that spousal giving may be due to household economic roles in addition to other-regarding preferences.