Greenhouse gas emissions are fundamental both to the world’s energy system and to its food production. The production of CO2, the predominant gas implicated in climate change, is intrinsic to fossil fuel combustion; specifically, thermal energy is generated by breaking the chemical bonds in the carbohydrates oil, coal, and natural gas and oxidizing the components to CO2 and H2O. One cannot have cheap energy without carbon dioxide emissions. Similarly, methane (CH4) emissions, an important greenhouse gas in its own right, are necessary to prevent the build-up of hydrogen in anaerobic digestion and decomposition. One cannot have beef, mutton, dairy, or rice without methane emissions. Climate change is the mother of all externalities: larger, more complex, and more uncertain than any other environmental problem. The sources of greenhouse gas emissions are more diffuse than any other environmental problem. Every company, every farm, every household emits some greenhouse gases. The effects are similarly pervasive. Weather affects agriculture, energy use, health, and many aspects of nature—which in turn affects everything and everyone. The causes and consequences of climate change are very diverse, and those in low-income countries who contribute least to climate change are most vulnerable to its effects. Climate change is also a long-term problem. Some greenhouse gases have an atmospheric life-time measured in tens of thousands of years. The quantities of emissions involved are enormous. In 2000, carbon dioxide emissions alone (and excluding land use change) were 24 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (tCO2).

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The Economic Effects of Climate Change

This article proposes contemporary best-practice recommendations for stated preference (SP) studies used to inform decision making, grounded in the accumulated body of peer-reviewed literature. These recommendations consider the use of SP methods to estimate both use and non-use (passive-use) values, and cover the broad SP domain, including contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments. We focus on applications to public goods in the context of the environment and human health but also consider ways in which the proposed recommendations might apply to other common areas of application. The recommendations recognize that SP results may be used and reused (benefit transfers) by governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations, and that all such applications must be considered. The intended result is a set of guidelines for SP studies that is more comprehensive than that of the original National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Blue Ribbon Panel on contingent valuation, is more germane to contemporary applications, and reflects the two decades of research since that time. We also distinguish between practices for which accumulated research is sufficient to support recommendations and those for which greater uncertainty remains. The goal of this article is to raise the quality of SP studies used to support decision making and promote research that will further enhance the practice of these studies worldwide.

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Contemporary Guidance for Stated Preference Studies

This article reviews 25 years of literature focused on the adoption of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) in the United States to examine general trends in the categories of capacity, awareness, attitudes and farm characteristics. The study uses a vote count methodology and counts every instance of positive, negative and insignificant relationships in 55 studies. Education levels, capital, income, farm size, access to information, positive environmental attitudes, environmental awareness, and utilization of social networks emerge as some of the variables that are more often positively, rather than negatively, associated with adoption rates. The type of statistical analysis used in the studies has a negligible effect on the results. When different types of BMPs are examined in similar groupings, the aggregated findings generally hold true. The study concludes that farmer adoption rates can be improved by focusing on the generally consistent determinants of agricultural BMP adoption. This paper also highlights future areas of research that are needed including a focus on the determinants of adoption of water and livestock management BMPs and more study of the role of tenure and farm proximity to a river or stream.

Determinants of agricultural best management practice adoption: Evidence from the literature

Non-market valuation has become a broadly accepted and widely practiced means of measuring the economic values of the environment and natural resources. In this book, the authors provide a guide to the statistical and econometric practices that economists employ in estimating non-market values.

Valuing Environmental and Natural Resources

https://lter.kbs.msu.edu/docs/robertson/swinton_et_al._2007_ecolecon.pdf

Ecosystem services and agriculture: Cultivating agricultural ecosystems for diverse benefits

To reduce the potential for response bias on the follow-up bid in multiple-bound discrete choice CVM questions while maintaining much of the efficiency gains of the multiple-bound approach, we introduce the one-and-one-half-bound (OOHB) approach. Despite the fact that the OOHB model uses less information than the double-bound (DB) approach, efficiency gains in moving from single-bound to OOHB capture a large portion of the gain associated with moving from single-bound to DB. In an analysis of survey data, our OOHB estimates demonstrated higher consistency with respect to the follow-up data than the DB estimates and were more efficient as well.

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One-and-one-half-bound dichotomous choice contingent valuation.

Optimal Bid Selection for Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Surveys

One-and-One-Half Bound Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation

Farmers can be encouraged to voluntarily adopt environmentally sound management practices through the use of incentive payments. This paper uses both a bivariate probit with sample selection model and a double hurdle model on data from a survey of farmers to predict farmer adoption of the practices as a function of the payment offer. The five management practices addressed here are integrated pest management,legume crediting, manure testing, split applications of nitrogen, and soil moisture testing. Also estimated are models that predict the acreage on which these practices would be applied given the decision to accept the incentive payments estimated.

Incentive payments to encourage farmer adoption of water quality protection practices

Farmers can be encouraged to voluntarily adopt environmentally sound management practices through the use of incentive payments. This paper uses both a bivariate
probit with sample selection model and a double hurdle model on data from a survey of farmers to predict farmer adoption of the practices as a function of the payment offer. The five management practices addressed here are integrated pest management,legume crediting, manure testing, split applications of nitrogen, and soil moisture testing. Also estimated are models that predict the acreage on which these practices would be applied given the decision to accept the incentive payments estimated.

/pdf/incentive-payments-to-encourage-farmer-adoption-of-water-3yn3hgadlu.pdf

Joseph C. Cooper

Papers

One-and-one-half-bound dichotomous choice contingent valuation.

Optimal Bid Selection for Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Surveys

One-and-One-Half Bound Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation

Incentive payments to encourage farmer adoption of water quality protection practices

Incentive Payments to Encourage Farmer Adoption of Water Quality Protection Practices