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Mapping and valuation of South Africa's ecosystem services: A local perspective

We used locally-sourced and other relevant information to value ecosystem services provided by South Africa's terrestrial, freshwater and estuarine habitats. Our preliminary estimates suggest that these are worth at least R275 billion per annum to South Africans. Notwithstanding benefits to the rest of the world, natural systems provide a major source of direct income to poor households, and generate significant value in the economy through tourism and property markets, as well as providing considerable non-market benefits. Higher values


Health Impacts of Power-Exporting Plants in Northern Mexico

In the past two decades, rapid population and economic growth on the U.S.–Mexico border has spurred a dramatic increase in electricity demand. In response, American energy multinationals have built power plants just south of the border that export most of their electricity to the United States. This development has stirred considerable controversy because these plants effectively skirt U.S. environmental air pollution regulations in a severely degraded international airshed.





The Value of Air Quality and Crime in Chile: A Hedonic Wage Approach

We estimate the implicit prices of crime rates and airborne pollution in Chile, using spatially compensating price differentials in the housing and labor markets. We evaluate empirically the impact of different estimation strategies for the wage and rent equations, on the economic value of these two amenities. The results show that increments in the crime rate or air pollution have a negative impact on welfare and that the estimated welfare measures and their variance are sensitive to selection bias, endogenous amenities, and clustering effects.


Estimation of the Water Quality Amelioration Value of Wetlands:A Case Study of the Western Cape, South Africa

Wetlands are commonly understood to have the capacity to reduce the loads of excess nutrients, pathogens, sediments, and other contaminants generated by various activities in their catchment areas. However, quantifying these “services” is difficult and most research in this field has concentrated on artificial treatment wetlands. Understanding the value of their water treatment characteristics, as well as the other services they provide, is increasingly recognized as essential to achieving a balance between conservation and activities that degrade or replace wetlands.


Small but Effective Moves towards A Greener China



Decision making under information constraints

The purposes of placing sensors in water distribution systems vary from complying with water quality regulations, monitoring accidental contamination events, and detecting intentional contamination events.


Decision making under information constraints



Cost of Land Degradation in Ethiopia: A Critical Review of Past Studies

This study will review the past studies of the cost of land degradation in Ethiopia, assess the major methodological and conceptual issues and problems existing in the different approaches, compare the findings across these studies considering the relative merits of the different approaches, and draw implications for policies and programs, as well as for future research related to land management in Ethiopia.


Anonymity, Reciprocity and Conformity: Evidence from Voluntary Contributions to a Natural Park in Costa Rica

In a natural field experiment, the authors quantified the importance of anonymity, reciprocity, and conformity through the provision of social reference levels in order to explain voluntary contributions. In the study setting, the effects of the various treatments were small, suggesting that the self-image as an honorable person, irrespective of other people’s opinions, could be an important explanation of contribution behavior. The experiment overall showed no clear evidence that current practice by charitable organizations is inefficient.


    Comparison of cost-of-illness with willingness-to-pay estimates to avoid shigellosis: evidence from China

    Previous studies have shown that cost of illness (COI) measures are lower than the conceptually correct willingness-to-pay (WTP) measure of the economic benefits of disease prevention. We compare COI with stated preference estimates of WTP associated with shigellosis in a rural area of China. COI data were collected through face-to-face interviews at 7 and 14 days after cultureconfirmed diagnosis. WTP to avoid an episode similar to the one the respondent just experienced was elicited using a sliding-scale payment card.


    Smokers’ expectations to quit smoking

    We investigate the effectiveness of different smoking policies on smokers’ expectations to quit smoking using a choice experiment on a sample of smokers identified within the World Health Organization (WHO) MONICA Project.