Advanced Methods for Environmental Valuation & Decision Making

ECON80072 Advanced Methods for Environmental Valuation & Decision Making 15 Semester 2 Postgraduate Research Postgraduate Research Daniel Rigby Unit coordinator Grada Wossink Unit coordinator Economics 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Doctorate ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 The aim of this module is to enable competent understanding of the debates within environmental economics and of the range of relevant research techniques, to explore issues related to data collection and analysis and appreciate the potential use of environmental economic research in decision making beyond academia.Specifically this module is focused on developing skills in critical evaluation by providing an opportunity to undertake a detailed guided critique of recent publications on selected topics/problems from published academic papers and monographs in environmental economics. This includes the opportunity to replicate the results of empirical analyses where data is available.. After taking this module you should be in a position to:Overall objective:  <ul> <li> Understand and (begin to) contribute to the current methodological debates within environmental economics</li> <li> Critically evaluate current contributions to the applied research literature</li> <li> Understand and apply at a post-graduate research level a range of relevant research techniques, including issues related to data collection</li> </ul> Specific topics: <ul> <li> Understand and analyse (stated) choice and preference data via econometric models</li> <li> Understand the processes involved in stated preference design and critically assess the quality of survey instruments used in the literature</li> <li> The role of economics in interdisciplinary environmental policy issues</li> </ul> <ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman"> <li> The role of economics in interdisciplinary environmental policy issues (lecturer: Ada Wossink)</li> </ol>  Topics <ul> <li> The concept of value, optimality/normative evaluation criteria and distributional issues.</li> <li> Ecosystem valuation through extended traditional CBA</li> </ul> <ul style="list-style-type: circle"> <li> Total Economic Value</li> <li> Environment as direct source of utility or the environment as an input to production.</li> <li> Issues for correct application: marginality, spatial explicitness, and macro-values, double counting trap, non-linearities and threshold effects</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Conceptual limitations of extended traditional CBA, including:</li> </ul> <ul style="list-style-type: circle"> <li> Fundamental obstacles to Pigouvian internalisation, do we need to price nature to support decisions?</li> <li> Weak/ strong comparability vs incommensurability</li> <li> Shared values versus TEV</li> <li> Competing interacting ecosystem services at different spatial scales</li> </ul> <ul> <li>    Alternative tools including:</li> </ul> trade-off analysis based on opportunity costs, MCA, Q method, behavioural economics for environmental policy issues <ul style="list-style-type: circle"> <li>  </li> </ul>    Lectures 2 Written assignment (inc essay) 80% 7 Oral assessment/presentation 20% Y First readingsSegerson, K. (2015) The role of economics in interdisciplinary environmental policy debates: Opportunities and Challenges, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 97(2): 374-389Hanley, N. and E.B. Barbier (2009) Pricing nature: CBA and Environmental Policy, Edward Elgar Publ.Sagoff, M. (2008) On the Economic Value of Ecosystem Services, Environmental Values 17: 239-257. <pre> Wossink, A. and S. Swinton (2007) Jointness in Production and Farmers’ Willingness to Supply Non-   Marketed Ecosystem Services, Ecological Economics 64(2): 297-303 </pre> Nguyen, T.T., Do, T.L., Parvathi, P., Wossink, A., Grote, U. (2018) Production efficiency and natural forest extraction: Evidence from Cambodia, Land Use Policy 71: 480-493Ruijs, A., M. Kortelainen, A. Wossink, C.J.E. Schulp and R. Alkemade (2017) Opportunity costs estimation of ecosystem services, Environmental and Resource Economics 66(4): 717-747. <pre> Admiraal, J., A. Wossink, W. de Groot, G. de Snoo (2013) More than Total Economic Value: How to combine economic valuation of biodiversity with ecological resilience, Ecological Economics 89: 115–122. </pre> <pre> Venkatachalam, L. (2008) <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800908000451">Behavioral economics for environmental policy</a>, Ecological Economics 67: 640-645. </pre>  Readings: Choice AnalysisBateman, I. et al., (2002) Economic Valuation with Stated Preference Techniques: A Manual Edward ElgarBoxall, P.C., and V.L. Adamowicz (2002) Understanding Heterogeneous Preferences in Random Utility Models: The Use of Latent Class Analysis. Environmental and Resource Economics 23 (4): 421-46.Burton, M and D. Rigby (2009) Hurdle And Latent Class Approaches to Non-Participation in Choice Models. Environmental and Resource Economics 42: 279-295Hensher, D.A., J.M. Rose and W. H. Greene (2005) Applied Choice Analysis: A Primer. Cambridge University PressRigby, D., Alcón, F. and M. Burton (2010) Supply Uncertainty and the Economic Value of Irrigation Water. European Review of Agricultural Economics 37(1): 97-117.Rigby, D. and M. Burton (2005) Preference Heterogeneity and GM Food in the UK. European Review of Agricultural Economics 32(2): 269-288.  Readings: Best Worst ScalingMarley, A. and T. Flynn Best Worst Scaling: Theory and Practice. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd  Edition.          <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/Global/business/centres/i4c/docs/papers/wp12-002.pdf">https://www.unisa.edu.au/Global/business/centres/i4c/docs/papers/wp12-002.pdf</a>Rigby, D, Burton, M and J. Lusk (2015) Journals, Preferences and Publishing in Agricultural and Environmental, Economics, American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2015). Erdem, S and D. Rigby (2013) Investigating Heterogeneity in the Characterization of Risks Using Best-Worst Scaling, Risk Analysis 33, (9):1728-1748. Balcombe, P, Rigby, D. and A. Azapagic (2014) Investigating the importance of motivations and barriers related to microgeneration uptake in the UK.  Applie Lectures 16 Tutorials 4 0 130 Pre-Requisite: <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">To take this module you would need a good background in environmental economics at the MSc level (please contact one of the lecturers if you need clarification).A PGR course unitTimetableLecture - Thursday 1-3pmTutorial - Monday 3-5pm -