EfD Publications

 

New publications from the Environment for Development initiative will be published to this page as they become available. Visit the official Environment for Development initiative website at www.efdinitiative.org. Books The Emergence of Land Markets in Africa  RFF Press | December 2008 Stein T. Holden, Keijiro Otsuka, and Frank M. Place, editors High poverty rates and the need for increased agricultural productivity remain acute in rural areas across sub-Saharan Africa. A new book from RFF Press marks the first systematic attempt to address emerging land markets in Africa and their implications for poverty, equity, and efficiency.

 

EFD Discussion Paper Series  2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

 

2012
Plot and Household-Level Determinants of Sustainable Agricultural Practices in Rural Tanzania Menale Kassie, Moti Jaleta, Bekele Shiferaw, Frank Mmbando, Geoffrey Muricho RFF Discussion Paper EfD 12-02 | January 2012 The authors examine adoption decisions for sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs), using multiple cross-sectional, plot-level observations from rural Tanzania in 2010, and a multivariate probit technique to model simultaneous adoption decisions by farm households. Their study reveals that rainfall, insect, and disease shocks; government effectiveness; tenure status of plot; social capital; plot location and size; and asset ownership all influence farmers’ adoption of sustainable practices. SAP policies aimed at organizing farmers into associations, improving land tenure security, and enhancing skills of civil servants can increase the likelihood that smallholder farmers will adopt SAPs.
Coping with Fuelwood Scarcity: Household Responses in Rural Ethiopia Abebe Damte, Steven F. Koch, Alemu Mekonnen RFF Discussion Paper EfD 12-01 | January 2012 The authors used survey data from randomly selected rural households in Ethiopia to examine coping mechanisms employed to deal with fuelwood scarcity. The determinants of collecting other biomass energy sources were also examined. The authors’ analysis shows that households in forest-degraded areas respond by increasing their labor for fuelwood collection during shortages. For households in better-forested regions, forest stock and forest access may be more important in determining labor for fuelwood collection. There is limited evidence of substitution of dung or crop residue for fuelwood. Natural resource and forest management policies, especially related to rural energy, should distinguish regions with different levels of forest degradation.
2011
Private Trees as Household Assets and Determinants of Tree-Growing Behavior in Rural Ethiopia Alemu Mekonnen and Abebe Damte RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-14 | December 2011 This study analyzes the decisions of rural households in Ethiopia of whether to grow trees and, if so, how many. The authors used household- and parcel-level data from the four major regions of Ethiopia and analyzed them with a zero-inflated negative binomial model, Heckman’s two-step procedure, and panel data techniques. Their findings show the importance of parcel-level analysis as well as household-level analysis, and that the determinants for growing trees are not the same for deciding the number of trees. The results also suggest a need for education on the role of trees.
What Do Respondents Bring to Contingent Valuation? A Comparison of Monetary and Labor Payment Vehicles Godwin Kofi Vondolia, Håkan Eggert, Ståle Navrud, and Jesper Stage RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-13 | December 2011 With contingent valuation, that which is being valued and the payment vehicle used to value it are both mostly hypothetical. The impact of experience with a good on the willingness to pay is well studied, but less attention has been given to payment vehicles. The authors examined how this influences responses to a contingent valuation scenario of maintenance for irrigation canals, using a split-sample survey and convergent validity tests. They found that experience with both monetary and labor payment vehicles reduces the time/money response asymmetries in acceptance rates.
Impacts of Policy Measures on the Development of State-Owned Forests in Northeast China: Theoretical Results and Empirical Evidence Xuemei Jiang, Peichen Gong, Göran Bostedt, and Jintao Xu RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-12 | December 2011 The authors examined the effects of forest policies and socioeconomic conditions on state-owned forest enterprises (SOFEs) in northeast China and Inner Mongolia. Both the extent to which supervisory authorities emphasized improving forest resources and the increases in SOFE management expenses affected harvest and investment decisions as well as development of forest resources. Promotion of non-timber resources and reforms for more efficient forest management reduced timber harvests as intended, while improving investment and forest resources. However, these effects were relatively small. In contrast, reforms aimed at timber harvest and afforestation activities actually increased the timber harvest, negatively affecting development of forest resources.
The Use of Hypothetical Baselines in Stated Preference Surveys Dale Whittington and Wiktor Adamowicz RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-11 | December 2011 Researchers using stated preference (SP) techniques increasingly rely on “hypothetical baselines.” The authors argue that hypothetical baselines are often used without careful consideration of the cognitive challenges they pose for respondents or the difficulties this practice creates for advising policymakers. Four types of SP studies are presented, two of which rely on hypothetical baselines, with six conditions that may be changed to create a hypothetical baseline. The authors discuss four main reasons why SP analysts use hypothetical baselines, some risks associated with hypothetical baselines, and guidance for use.
Farmers’ Response to Rainfall Variability and Crop Portfolio Choice: Evidence from Ethiopia Mintewab Bezabih, Salvatore Di Falco, and Mahmud Yesuf RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-10 | December 2011 This paper studies the patterns of farmers’ crop choices for a multiple-crop portfolio, where production risk considerations and rainfall uncertainty are likely to be critical factors. Our analysis employs plot-level panel data from Ethiopia, combined with seasonal and yearly rainfall variability (from 30 years of meteorological data corresponding to the survey villages). Using the single index approach, our results indicate that the combined riskiness of crop portfolios at a household level responds negatively to annual rainfall variability, while seasonal rainfall variability has less consistent impact. Farmers are more likely to select less risky crops with less return, even when intercrop interactions are taken into account. Moreover, development policies designed to enhance accumulation and risk taking should take into account the importance of such exogenous factors as weather in ex-ante risk taking.
Climate Change and the Ethiopian Economy: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis Zenebe Gebreegziabher, Jesper Stage, Alemu Mekonnen, and Atlaw Alemu RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-09 | October 2011 This paper analyses the economic impacts of climate change on Ethiopia’s agriculture using a countrywide computable general equilibrium model. The impacts on agriculture are based on results from a Ricardian model where current (and future) agricultural production is analyzed as a function of temperature and precipitation. We project that the effect of overall climate change will be relatively benign until approximately 2030 and then worsen considerably. Our simulation results indicate that, over a 50-year period, the projected reduction in agricultural productivity may lead to 30 percent less average income, compared with the possible outcome in the absence of climate change. Autonomous adaptations that the farmers make and government policies in response will be crucial for Ethiopia’s future development.
Does Eco-Certification Boost Regulatory Compliance in Developing Countries? ISO 14001 in Mexico Allen Blackman RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-08 | August 2011 Private sector initiatives certifying that producers of goods and services adhere to defined environmental process standards are increasingly popular worldwide. According to proponents, they can circumvent chronic barriers to effective public sector environmental regulation in developing countries. But eco-certification programs will have limited effects on producers’ environmental performance if, as one would expect, they select for those already meeting certification standards. Rigorous evaluations of the environmental effects of eco-certification in developing countries that control for selection bias are rare. The author used plant-level data on more than 80,000 Mexican facilities to determine whether ISO 14001 series certification of environmental management systems boosts regulatory compliance.
Conditional Cash Transfers and Payments for Environmental Services A Conceptual Framework for Explaining and Judging Differences in Outcomes U. Martin Persson, Francisco Alpízar RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-06 | May 2011 Factors that determine the success of conditional cash transfers and payments for environmental services programs are not well understood. The authors developed a conceptual framework for insight, using an agent-based model and validating the results with empirical data from existing programs. The percentage of participants who meet program conditions at baseline can predict program efficiency, but selection bias erodes it, due to participants that already meet program criteria self-selecting at high rates into a program. They also discuss possibilities for improving efficiency and evaluation criteria for these programs.
Sustainable Agricultural Practices and Agricultural Productivity in Ethiopia: Does AgroecologyMatter? Menale Kassie, Precious Zikhali, John Pender, Gunnar Kohlin RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-05 | May 2011 Using household- and plot-level data from surveys in the Tigray and Amhara highlands of Ethiopia, the authors examine the contribution of sustainable land-management practices to net values of agricultural production. Both parametric and nonparametric estimations consistently predicted that minimum tillage was superior to commercial fertilizers, as were farmers’ traditional practices without commercial fertilizers in areas with low agricultural potential. By contrast, commercial fertilizers were better than minimum tillage and traditional practices in areas with high agricultural potential. The results highlight the need to carefully target sustainable land-management practices.
Choice Experiments in Environmental Impact Assessment: The Case of the Toro 3 Hydroelectric Project and the Recreo Verde Tourist Dora Carías Vega, Francisco Alpízar RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-04 | May 2011 Choice experiments, a stated-preference valuation method, can assign monetary values to environmental externalities during the ex-ante stages of environmental impact assessments (EIA). This case study looks at Costa Rica’s Toro 3 hydroelectric project and its impacts on the Recreo Verde tourism center, using questionnaires with hypothetical but realistic scenarios for consumers to generate restoration alternatives for the affected good. Choice experiments have limitations that must be taken into account in EIA, but incorporating economic parameters—especially resource constraints and tradeoffs—can substantially enrich the assessment.
Health Impacts of Power-Exporting Plants in Northern Mexico Allen Blackman, Santosh Chandru, Alberto Mendoza-Domínguez, and Armistead G. Russell RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-03-REV | April 2011 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. Yet to our knowledge, this concern has not been subjected to rigorous scrutiny. This paper uses a suite of air dispersion, health impacts, and valuation models to assess the human health damages in the United States and Mexico caused by air emissions from two power-exporting plants in Mexicali, Baja California. The authors find that these emissions have limited but nontrivial health impacts, mostly by exacerbating particulate pollution in the United States, and value these damages at more than half a million dollars per year. These findings demonstrate that power-exporting plants can have cross-border health effects and bolster the case for systematically evaluating their environmental impacts.
Use of Anthropometric Measures to Analyze How Sources of Water and Sanitation Affect Children’s Health in Nigeria Sunday Olabisi Adewara and Martine Visser RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-02 | April 2011 The authors used 2008 DHS data sets to construct child height- and weight-for-age Z-scores and used regression analysis to analyze the effects of different sources of drinking water and sanitation on child health outcomes in Nigeria. They also calculated the probability of a child being stunted or underweight as a measure of malnutrition among children aged 0–59 months. The results suggest that increasing access to, or providing, safe drinking water and flush toilets for households will significantly reduce the high incidence of malnutrition and water-borne diseases among children in Nigeria and should be a high priority for the government.
A Market for Environmentally Responsible Investment? Stéphanie Giamporcaro RFF Discussion Paper EfD 11-01 | January 2011 The authors analyze the South African investment industry and the likelihood that environmental risks will be included in investment decision processes. Based on an empirical qualitative survey of 22 investment organizations (all signatories to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment), it describes tension between social developmental and environmental goals as a major political obstacle and highlights the need to legislate standardized environmental disclosure by corporations and the need for institutional investors to make long-term commitments to responsible investment philosophies.
2010
Does Eco-Certification Have Environmental Benefits? Allen Blackman and Maria A. Naranjo RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-25 | November 2010 Eco-certification of coffee, timber, and other high-value agricultural commodities is increasingly widespread. In principle, it can improve commodity producers’ environmental performance, even in countries where state regulation is weak. However, evidence needed to evaluate this hypothesis is virtually nonexistent. To help fill this gap, the authors use detailed farm-level data to analyze the environmental impacts of organic coffee certification in central Costa Rica. They find that organic certification improves coffee growers’ environmental performance as well as significantly reduces chemical input use and increases adoption of some environmentally friendly management practices.
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth: A Multiple-Country Test of an Oath Script Allen Blackman and Maria A. Naranjo RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-24 | November 2010 In the authors’ study of climate change and emissions reductions, they investigated the effect of an oath script in a contingent valuation survey in Sweden and China. Their results indicate that an oath script has significant effects on respondent behavior in answering willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, some of which vary by country and by respondent group.
The Role of Land Certification in Reducing Gender Gaps in Productivity in Rural Ethiopia Mintewab Bezabih and Stein Holden RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-23 | November 2010 The importance of secure land rights to smallholder farmers in developing countries is widely recognized. The authors analyze whether land certification boosts productivity of female-headed households in Ethiopia, which are systematically more tenure insecure than male counterparts. In parametric and semi-parametric analyses, the impact of certification on plot-level productivity is positive and significant, but has different impacts on productivity: male-headed households gain significantly, female-headed households only modestly. So, certification does indeed increase farm productivity, but does not necessarily help women.
Urban Energy Transition and Technology Adoption: The Case of Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia Zenebe Gebreegziabher, Alemu Mekonnen, Menale Kassie, and Gunnar Köhlin RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-22 | August 2010 Dependency of urban Ethiopian households on rural areas for about 85 percent of their fuel needs is a significant cause of deforestation and forest degradation, resulting in growing fuel scarcity and higher firewood prices. One response to reducing the pressure on rural lands is for urban households to switch fuel sources (from fuelwood to electricity, for example) to slow deforestation and forest degradation and reduce indoor air pollution. However, such an energy transition is conditioned on the adoption of appropriate cooking appliances or stove technologies by the majority of users. This paper investigates urban energy transition and technology adoption conditions using a dataset of 350 urban households in Tigrai, in northern Ethiopia. Results suggest that the transition to electricity is affected by households adopting the electric mitad cooking appliance, which in turn is influenced by the level of education and income, among other things.
Participation in Off-Farm Employment, Rainfall Patterns, and Rate of Time Preferences: The Case of Ethiopia Mintewab Bezabih, Zenebe Gebreegziabher, Liyousew GebreMedhin, and Gunnar Köhlin RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-21 | August 2010 Devoting time to off-farm activities, while complementing agricultural incomes, may be constrained by labor availability and financial capacity. This paper assesses the importance of rainfall patterns, which condition the availability of agricultural labor, and financial constraints on off-farm employment decisions. Using panel data from Ethiopia, which include experimental rate-of-time preference measures, we found that these and rainfall are significant determinants off-farm employment. Rural development policies should take into account the financial capacity of households and the role of offfarm opportunities as safety nets in the face of weather uncertainty.
Urban Fuel Demand in Ethiopia: An Almost-Ideal Demand System Approach Zenebe Gebreegziabher, Arie J. Oskam, and Demeke Bayou RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-20 | August 2010 This paper investigates the opportunities for reducing the pressure of urban centers on rural forest areas, using a dataset of 350 urban households in Tigrai in northern Ethiopia. We applied an almost-ideal demand system to fuels. Because the same fuels were not always used by households, the analysis started with a probit model of fuel use. The inverse Mills ratios derived from it were inserted into the estimation of the fuel demand system to obtain a full set of price and income elasticities. The results suggest that reducing the pressure of urban centers on local forests cannot be seen in isolation from broader development policies aimed at raising the level of education and income of the population. Higher income also stimulates the demand for fuel.
Risk Preferences as Determinants of Soil Conservation Decisions in Ethiopia Hailemariam Teklewold and Gunnar Köhlin RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-19 | August 2010 Soil degradation is one of the most serious environmental problems in the highlands of Ethiopia. The prevalence of traditional agricultural land use and the absence of appropriate resource management often result in the degradation of natural soil fertility. This has important implications for soil productivity, household food security, and poverty. Given the extreme vulnerability of farmers in this area, we hypothesized that farmers’ risk preferences might affect the sustainability of resource use. This study presents experimental results on the willingness of farmers to take risks and relates the subjective risk preferences to actual soil conservation decisions. The study looks at a random sample of 143 households with 597 farming plots. We found that a high degree of risk aversion significantly decreases the probability of adopting soil conservation. This implies that reducing farmers’ risk exposure could promote soil conservation practices and thus more sustainable natural resource management. This might be achieved by improving tenure security, promoting access to extension services and education, and developing off-farm activities that generate income.
Environmental Goods Collection and Children’s Schooling: Evidence from Kenya Simon Wagura Ndiritu and Wilfred Nyangena RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-18 | August 2010 This paper presents an empirical study of schooling attendance and collection of environmental resources using cross-sectional data from the Kiambu District of Kenya. Because the decision to collect environmental resources and attend school is jointly determined, we used a bivariate probit method to model the decisions. In addition, we corrected for the possible endogeneity of resource collection work in the school attendance equation by using instrumental variable probit estimation. One of the key findings is that being involved in resource collection reduces the likelihood of a child attending school. The result supports the hypothesis of a negative relationship between children working to collect resources and the likelihood that they will attend school. The results further show that a child’s mother’s involvement in resource collection increases school attendance. In addition, there is no school attendance discrimination against girls, but they are overburdened by resource collection work. The study recommends immediate policy interventions focusing on the provision of public amenities, such as water and fuelwood.
Responsible Investment: A Vehicle for Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth in South Africa? Stéphanie Giamporcaro, Lise Pretorius, and Martine Visser RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-17 | June 2010 The authors explore whether any investment products or strategies in South Africa take environmental sustainability into account. By looking at how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are used in investment decisionmaking, we found that most socially-responsible investment products and responsible investment strategies focus on infrastructure, development, and black economic empowerment. Environmental criteria do not yet receive comparable attention from South African asset managers and owners. Mainstreaming responsible investment principles will need to come from an increase in demand by asset owners or from company positions on ESG issues.
Don’t Tell Me What to Do, Tell Me Who to Follow!: Field Experiment Evidence on Voluntary Donations Francisco Alpízar and Peter Martinsson RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-16 | June 2010 The authors conducted a field experiment on voluntary donations to explore the effects of conformity to a social reference versus a comparable, but imposed, suggested donation. Treatment 1 (conformity to a social reference) saw a significant increase in people donating and an increase in the average conditional and sample donations as the reference increased. We also observed an inflection point. Treatment 2 (donation amount suggested) showed more people donating, but had lower conditional donations. We concluded that people use their peers as a reference to conform to, but partially reject an imposed suggestion on how to behave.
Estimation of the Water Quality Amelioration Value of Wetlands: A Case Study of the Western Cape, South Africa Jane Turpie, Elizabeth Day, Vere Ross-Gillespie, and Anton Louw RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-15 | June 2010 The authors estimated the water treatment capacity of wetlands and its economic value on a landscape scale in the southwestern cape of South Africa. They collected samples at the outflow points of 100 subcatchment areas and measured the loads of nitrogen, dissolved phosphorus, and suspended solids, noting significant reduction of nitrates, nitrites, and ammonium (but not dissolved phosphorus or suspended solids). This suggests an average value of wetlands’ water treatment service to be high enough to compete with alternative land uses and that wetlands should receive more attention in land-use planning and regulation.
Climate Change, Total Factor Productivity, and the Tanzanian Economy: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis Mintewab Bezabih, Muyeye Chambwera, and Jesper Stage RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-14 | June 2010 The authors analyze the economic impacts of climate change-induced adjustments on the Tanzanian economy, using a countrywide CGE model. Their simulation results indicate that, despite projected reductions in agricultural productivity, negative impacts can potentially be limited because the time scale and low economic starting point leave ample space for factor substitutability and increased overall productivity. Policies that give farmers opportunity to invest in autonomous climate adaptations, plus policies that improve overall economic performance, can be as important as direct government policies for climate adaptation.
Behavioral Response to Plastic Bag Legislation in Botswana Johane Dikgang and Martine Visser RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-13 | May 2010 The authors investigated the use of charges and standards in dealing with plastic litter from shopping bags in Botswana after the country began taxing plastic bags to curb demand. Interestingly, the 2006 legislation did not force retailers to charge for plastic bags, which they did voluntarily at different prices. By analyzing consumers’ sensitivity to the improvement of the plastic bag and price (levy plus retailer charge) for the bags, the authors assessed environmental effectiveness and efficiency of the legislation. The levy led to a significant decline in plastic bag consumption due to constantly high prices of the bags.
Paying for Mitigation: A Multiple Country Study Fredrik Carlsson, Mitesh Kataria, Alan J. Krupnick, Elina Lampi, Åsa Löfgren, Ping Qin, Susie Chung, and Thomas Sterner RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-12 | May 2010 Unique survey data from a contingent valuation study conducted in three different countries (China, Sweden, and the United States) were used to investigate the ordinary citizen’s willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing CO2 emissions. A large majority of respondents in all three countries believe that mean global temperature has increased and humans are responsible. Sweden had the highest WTP for CO2 reductions and China the lowest, despite similar attitudes toward climate change. When WTP is measured as a share of household income, WTP is the same for Americans and Chinese, and higher for Swedes.
Adoption and Impact of Improved Groundnut Varieties on Rural Poverty: Evidence from Rural Uganda Menale Kassie, Bekele Shiferaw, and Geoffrey Muricho RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-11 | May 2010 The authors evaluated the ex-post impact of adopting improved groundnut varieties on crop income and poverty in rural Uganda, utilizing cross-sectional farm-household data collected in 2006 in seven districts. They estimated the average adoption premium using propensity score matching, poverty dominance analysis tests, and a linear regression model to check robustness. They computed income-based poverty measures and investigated their sensitivity to different poverty lines. Adoption of improved groundnut technologies has a significant positive impact on crop income and poverty reduction. These results are not sensitive to unobserved selection bias.
The Evidence Base for Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of “Sustainable” Certification Allen Blackman and Jorge Rivera RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-10 | March 2010 Initiatives certifying that farms and firms adhere to predefined environmental and social welfare production standards are increasingly popular. According to proponents, they create financial incentives for farms and firms to improve their environmental and socioeconomic performance. This paper reviews the evidence on whether sustainable certification of agricultural commodities and tourism operations actually has such benefits. We conclude that empirical evidence that sustainable certification has significant benefits is limited, but can be expanded by incorporating rigorous, independent evaluation into the design and implementation of projects promoting sustainable certification.
Investments in Land Conservation in the Ethiopian Highlands: A Household Plot-Level Analysis of the Roles of Poverty, Tenure Security, and Market Incentives Genanew Bekele and Alemu Mekonnen RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-09 | March 2010 This study focuses on poverty, land tenure security, and market access to explore factors that affect Ethiopian households’ decisions at the plot level to invest in land conservation and intensity. Using a double-hurdle model with panel data from a household survey of 6,408 plots, our results suggest that conservation and intensity decisions may be explained by different processes and have mixed effects from poverty-related factors. Conservation adoption is influenced by whether the plot is owner-operated, and intensity is determined by expectation of cultivating the land for five years, land ownership, and plot-to-home distance.
The Poverty Demography Trap in Third World Countries: Empirical Evidence from Tanzania Asmerom Kidane RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-08 | March 2010 This study suggests that reducing fertility should be a primary policy variable used in concert with macroeconomic policies and poverty reduction strategies. It empirically verifies the existence of a poverty demography trap by analyzing survey data from two regions in northern Tanzania. The results show that demographic variables (high fertility and number of children ever born) and direct (undernutrition and malnutrition) and indirect (expenditure on food; assets; access to clean water, sanitation facilities, energy, and land) poverty indicators are closely intertwined.
The Bioeconomics of Conservation Agriculture and Soil Carbon Sequestration in Developing Countries Wisdom Akpalu and Anders Ekbom RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-07 | March 2010 Improving soil carbon in developing countries by leaving crop residue on the farm may generate private benefits to farmers and sequester carbon emissions. The authors modeled and developed an expression for an optimum economic incentive. The found through empirical investigation of the determinants of crop residue left on the soil that it depends on the soil’s cation exchange capacity, maize prices, extension officers visiting the plot, household size, education level of the household head, and alternative cost of soil conservation.
Paying the Price of Sweetening Your Donation: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment Francisco Alpízar and Peter Martinsson RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-06 | February 2010 Using a natural field experiment in a recreational site (a public good almost fully dependent on voluntary donations), the authors explored the crowding-out effect of gift rewards. Receiving a gift in appreciation of a donation had no effect. Interestingly, when the gift was combined with an attempt to trigger reputational and self image motives, the probability of donating decreased significantly, compared to the social reference treatment alone.
Does Relative Position Matter in Poor Societies?: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Rural Etheopia Alpaslan Akay, Peter Martinsson and Haileselassie Medhin RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-05 | February 2010 The authors investigated attitudes toward positionality among rural farmers in northern Ethiopia, using a tailored two-part survey experiment. On average, they found positional concerns neither in income per se, nor in income from aid projects among the farmers. These results support the claim that positional concerns are correlated with absolute level of income of a country.
Attitudes Toward Uncertainty Among the Poor: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia Alpaslan Akay, Peter Martinsson, Haileselassie Medhin, and Stefan Trautmann RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-04 | February 2010 The authors examined risk and ambiguity attitudes among Ethiopian peasants and compared their attitudes to Western university students, using the same decision task. The Ethiopians showed strong risk aversion and ambiguity aversion, similar to the university students. Testing for socioeconomic variables on uncertainty attitudes revealed that poor health increased both risk and ambiguity aversion. Unlike other studies, they found no gender effect for risk attitude. The results suggest that both risk and ambiguity attitudes are important to economic decisions in poor agricultural societies, and should be considered by policymakers.
Determinants of Performance of Drinking-Water Community Organizations: A Comparative Analysis of Case Studies in Rural Costa Rica Róger Madrigal, Francisco Alpízar, and Achim Schlüter RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-03 | February 2010 The authors examine the performance of community organizations that provide safe drinking water to 60 percent of rural Costa Rica. They uses a qualitative approach and matching techniques to analyze how the complex characteristics of watersheds, delivery, governance, and socioeconomic attributes of local users affect three key dimensions of performance (financial health, water delivery infrastructure, and user satisfaction) in four community organizations. The conditions that promote better performance are a demand-driven approach with local accountability, working rules for tariff collection and infrastructure maintenance, and appropriate support from the government.
Conservation Policies and Labor Markets: Unraveling the Effects of National Parks on Local Wages in Costa Rica Juan Robalino and Laura Villalobos-Fiatt RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-02 | February 2010 Using household surveys with highly disaggregated geographic reference, the authors explored how national parks affect local wages in Costa Rica and how effects on local welfare can be positive or negative in different parks or even within different areas of a park. They found that wages close to parks are higher only when jobs are near tourist entrances. The location of national park entrances and the possibility that agricultural workers can switch to higher-paid service activities near entrances may be important tools for helping local workers take advantage of the economic benefits of protected areas..
Household Tree Planting in Tigrai, Northern Etheopia: Tree Species, Purposes, and Determinants Zenebe Gebreegziabher, Alemu Mekonnen, Menale Kassie, and Gunnar Köhlin RFF Discussion Paper EfD 10-01 | January 2010 Trees have both economic and ecological purposes in rural Ethiopia, supplying households with wood products for consumption and sale, and decreasing soil degradation. The authors used cross-sectional household-level data in a sample selection framework that simultaneously took into account whether or not to plant trees and how many, and a logistic regression that analyzed tree attributes contributing to households’ tree-planting decisions. Land size, age, gender, tenure security, education, exogenous income, and agroecology increased the propensity to plant trees and the amount of trees, whereas increased livestock holding impacted both decisions negatively.
2009  To Trade or Not to Trade: Firm-Level Analysis of Emissions Trading in Santiago, Chile Jessica Coria, Åsa Löfgren, Thomas Sterner RFF Discussion Paper EfD 09-25 | November 2009 The authors surveyed firms participating in emissions trading programs in Santiago, Chile, to explore further whether tradable permits are appropriate for transition and developing economies. Their survey information revealed serious implementation and design flaws in Chile’s trading, but they are not more severe than the EU or U.S. systems. Countries with similar income levels and institutional maturity as Chile should be able to develop well-functioning permit trading schemes.
Fuel Tax Incidence in Developing Countries: The Case of Costa Rica Allen Blackman, Rebecca Osakwe, Francisco Alpizar RFF Discussion Paper EfD 09-24 | October 2009 Although fuel taxes are a practical means of curbing vehicular air pollution, congestion, and accidents in developing countries—all of which are typically major problems—they are often opposed on distributional grounds. Yet few studies have investigated fuel tax incidence in a developing country context. The authors use household survey data and income-outcome coefficients to analyze fuel tax incidence in Costa Rica, concluding that distributional concerns need not rule out using fuel taxes to address pressing public health and safety problems, particularly if gasoline and diesel taxes can be differentiated.

Climate Change in a Public Goods Game: Investment Decision in Mitigation versus Adaptation Reviva Hasson, Åsa Löfgren, Martine Visser RFF Discussion Paper EfD 09-23 | October 2009 The authors studied the potential tradeoff between countries’ investments in mitigation versus adaptation to climate change. Mitigating greenhouse gases may be a public good, but adaptation to climate change is a private good, benefiting only the country or individual. They used a one-shot public-goods game with a stochastic term to account for probabilistic destruction, mapping the probability density function to within-group levels of mitigation, and compared low-vulnerability and high-vulnerability treatments by varying the magnitude of disaster. Results showed no significant difference in mitigation level and emphasized the role of trust in enhancing cooperation.

Production Risk and Farm Technology Adoption in Rain-Fed, Semi-Arid Lands of Kenya Maurice Juma, Wilfred Nyangena, Mahmud Yesuf RFF Discussion Paper EfD 09-22 | October 2009 Poor Kenyan farmers in rain-fed, risky environments are reluctant to adopt new technologies with potential production gain because of enormous downside risks. The authors looked at the effects of production risk on farm technology adoption using plot-level data and computed the mean and production risk factors using a moment-based approach and a pseudo-fixed effect probit model to determine the effects of production risk and farm variables on technology adoption decisions. They show that productivity gains are necessary, but not sufficient to attract farmers to adopt new agricultural technologies.

Social Background, Cooperative Behavior, and Norm Enforcement
Martin Kocher, Peter Martinsson, and Martine Visser
RFF Discussion Paper EfD DP 09-21 | October 2009
Studies have shown differences in cooperative behavior across countries and in the use of (and reaction to) a norm enforcement mechanism in cross-cultural studies. The authors present data that prove that stark differences in both dimensions can exist even within the same town. They created a unique data set, based on one-shot public goods experiments in South Africa. Most of the group differences can be explained by variables for social capital and social environment, such as trust or household violence.

Taxes, Permits, and the Adoptation of Abatement Technology under Imperfect Compliance
Clara Villegas and Jessica Coria
RFF Discussion Paper EfD DP 09-20 | October 2009
The authors analyze how price-based and quantity-based emissions regulations affect compliance incentives and social welfare with incomplete enforcement and technology adoption. If the policy level is not adjusted in response to new technology, violations under tradable emissions permits (TEPs)—in contrast to taxes—decrease with the rate of technology adoption. Regarding welfare, ranking the instruments is not so straightforward: taxes may induce lower emissions damages, while TEPs induce lower costs of abatement, investment, and expected enforcement. The overall ranking depends on the extent to which these effects offset each other. 

Enforcement of Exogenous Environmental Regulations, Social Disapproval, and Bribery
Wisdom Akpalu, Håkan Eggert, and Godwin K. Vondolia
RFF Discussion Paper EfD DP 09-19 | October 2009
Many resource users are not involved in formulation and enforcement of resource management regulations in developing countries and do not generally accept such rules. Enforcement officers who have social ties to resource users may encounter social disapproval if they enforce regulations zealously, so they may accept bribes to avoid it. The authors present a neoclassical utility maximization framework that characterizes this situation, derive results for situations where officers are passively and actively involved in the bribery, and make some interesting policy recommendations.

Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change
Francisco Alpízar, Fredrik Carlsson, Maria Naranjo
RFF Discussion Paper EfD DP 09-18 | September 2009
The risk of losing income and productive means to adverse weather can differ significantly among farmers and is hard to estimate empirically. Moreover, the costs associated with climate adaptation investments can exhibit economies of scope. Using a framed field experiment, we explore the implications of these characteristics on Costa Rican coffee farmers’ decisions to adapt to climate change. Despite a baseline of high risk aversion, farmers frequently chose safe options when faced with unknown risk and largely coordinated their decisions to secure lower adaptation cost.

To Bribe or Not to Bribe: Incentives to Protect Tanzania’s Forests
Elizabeth J.Z. Robinson, Razack B Lokina
RFF Discussion Paper EfD DP 09-17 | September 2009
In forests managed by participatory management in Tanzania, “volunteer” patrollers often enforce access restrictions, receiving a share of collected fine revenue as incentive. The authors explore how shared revenue and alternative sources of forest products for villagers determine the patrollers’ enforcement effort and decision to take bribes rather than report violators. Using an optimal enforcement model, they show that without transparency or funds to pay and monitor these patrollers, policymakers face tradeoffs among efficiency, enforcement effectiveness, and revenue collection. 

Conditional Cooperation and Social Group: Experimental Results from Colombia
Peter Martinsson, Clara Villegas-Palacio, Conny Wollbrant
RFF Discussion Paper Efd DP 09-16 | September 2009
There is growing interest in understanding whether behavior is the same across locations. By holding cross- and within-country dimensions constant (in contrast to previous studies on cross-group comparisons of conditional cooperation), the authors investigated cooperative behavior between social groups in the same location. Their results reveal significantly different cooperation behavior, suggesting that different social groups exhibit differences both in terms of composition of types and extent of conditional cooperation.

Farmers' Preferences for Crop Variety Traits: Lessons for On-Farm Conservation and Technology Adoption 
EfD 09-15 | July 2009
Sinafikeh Asrat, Mahmud Yesuf, Fredrik Carlsson, and Edilegnaw Wale
Using a choice experiment approach, the authors investigated what governs Ethiopian farmers’ in-situ conservation decisions and crop-variety preferences. Environmental adaptability and yield stability were important attributes, such that farmers were willing to forgo some income or output for them. Household land holdings, livestock assets, farming experience, and extension services were major factors for household heterogeneity of crop-variety preferences. These results have important policy implications for on-farm conservation, breeding priorities, and improved variety adoption in Ethiopia.

Alternative Pollution Control Policies in Developing Countries: Informal, Informational, and Voluntary
EfD 09-14 | June 2009
Allen Blackman
In developing countries, weak environmental regulatory institutions often undermine conventional command-and-control policies. As a result, these countries are increasingly experimenting with alternative approaches that aim to leverage nonregulatory “green” pressures applied by local communities, capital markets, and consumers. This article reviews three strands of the empirical literature on this trend.

Risk Implications of Farm Technology Adoption in the Ethiopian Highlands
EfD 09-13 | May 2009
Mahmud Yesuf, Menale Kassie, and Gunnar Köhlin
In developing countries, production and consumption risks play a critical role in the choice and use of production inputs and adoption of new farm technologies. The authors investigated impacts of chemical fertilizer and soil and water conservation technologies adoption on production risks, using a moment-based approach and two years of cross-sectional data. Their results revealed that the impacts of technology adoption on yield variabilty and downside risk vary by technology type. The results underscore the need for complementary policies to hedge downside risks for effective adoptation strategies.

Sustainable Agricultural Practices and Agricultural Productivity in Ethiopia: Does Agroecology Matter?
EfD 09-12 | April 2009
Menale Kassie, Precious Zikhali, John Pender, and Gunnar Köhlin
This paper investigates the impact of sustainable agricultural practices on crop productivity, particularly whether reduced tillage results in more or less productivity gain than chemical fertilizer. The authors' results, using two sets of plot-level data in Ethiopia, revealed clear superiority of reduced tillage over fertilizer in enhancing productivity in the low-rainfall region. In the high-rainfall region, fertilizer is overwhelmingly superior and reduced tillage potentially results in productivity losses. This underscores the need to understand the role of agroecology in determining the profitability of farm technologies.

Impacts of Land Certification on Tenure Security, Investment, and Land Markets: Evidence from Ethiopia
EfD 09-11 | April 2009
Klaus Deininger, Daniel Ayalew Ali, and Tekie Alemu
Using a difference-in-difference approach, this paper assesses the effects on investment of a low-cost land registration program in Ethiopia, which covered some 20 million plots over five years. Despite policy constraints, the program increased land-related investment and yielded benefits significantly above the cost of implementation.

Changing Access to Forest Resources in Tanzania
EfD 09-10 | April 2009
Elizabeth J.Z. Robinson and George C. Kajembe
This is an empirical exploration of villagers’ dependence on non-timber forest products in the Morogoro region in Tanzania, the decision rules used concerning where and how much they collect, how collection changes with forest degradation, and the implications of more restrictive access from participatory forest management. Villagers’ responses to increased degradation vary by forest product;  some collection tends to be displaced to other forests, less of the resources are collected, and collection times increase considerably.

Benefits of Organic Agriculture as a Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy for Developing Countries
EfD 09-09 | April 2009
Adrian Muller
Organic agriculture (OA) is a concrete and promising strategy for adaptation to climate change and variability for rural communities has additional potential as a mitigation strategy. OA is a sustainable livelihood strategy with decades of use in several climate zones and widely variable local conditions. Its financial requirements for adaptation or mitigation are low. Further research is needed on yields from OA and its mitigation and sequestration potential. Other critical aspects to consider are information provision and institutional structures.

Optimal Enforcement and Practical Issues of Resource Protection in Developing Countries
EfD 09-08 | March 2009
Elizabeth J.Z. Robinson, Ajay Kumar Mahaputra, and Heidi J. Albers
This paper relates principle findings in the optimal economic enforcement literature to practical issues of enforcing and managing forest and wildlife access restrictions in developing countries. The authors identified large gaps in the theoretical literature that limit its usefulness for practical management, particularly regarding limited funding and cost recovery, multiple layers of enforcement, different incentives faced by enforcers, and conflict between protected-area managers’ job requirements and rural people’s needs.

Spatial Aspects of Forest Management and Non-Timber Forest Product Extraction in Tanzania
EfD 09-07 | March 2009
Elizabeth J.Z. Robinson and Razack B. Lokina
The authors explore the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) in Tanzania that excludes villagers from traditional access to forests to collect non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Using fieldwork and a spatial-temporal model, they focused on forest degradation and regeneration and villagers’ utility before and after PFM has been introduced. Although the PFM forest improves, they found that a moratorium on NTFP collection often adversely affects villagers’ livelihoods and more distant, less-protected forests. 

Unintended Impacts of Multiple Instruments on Technology Adoption
EfD 09-06 | March 2009
Jessica Coria
This paper analyzes unintended impacts of the interaction of multiple environmental policy instruments, specifically, the effects of tradable permits and seasonal direct regulations on adoption rates of advanced abatement technologies. When environmental emergencies are exogenous, mixing direct regulations with tradable permits induces an inefficient rate of adoption, while tradable permits maximize social welfare. If endogenous, then tradable permits and emissions standards could eventually offer a higher level of social welfare.

Impacts of the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia on Livestock and Tree Holdings of Rural Households
EfD 09-05 | March 2009
Camilla Andersson, Alemu Mekonnen, Jesper Stage
We evaluated the impacts of the Ethiopian Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on rural households’ holdings of livestock and forest assets including trees, applying both regression analysis and propensity score matching to panel data. We found no indication that participation in PSNP induces asset disinvestment; rather, households increased tree holdings, but not livestock. Shocks appear to lead households to disinvest in livestock, but not trees. Results suggested increased forestry activity with PSNP participation and that credit access positively impacted livestock holdings.

The Design, Compilation, and Interpretation of Satellite Accounts for South Africa’s Fisheries: Some Critical Thoughts
EfD DP 09-04 | March 2009
Anthony Leiman, Timothy Harris
Using South Africa’s hake and rock lobster fisheries, the authors argue the need for satellite accounts of South Africa’s commercial fisheries. They stress the policy role of satellite accounts where access to fish stocks is contested, value of better information on stock depletion, past and present excessive fishing effort, returns-to-effort reduction, harvest resource rents, and value of the resource stock. The United Nation’s SEEAF can help construct physical accounts (with caveats) and by extension monetary accounts, but the current guidelines embody flaws that can yield anomalous results.  

User Financing in a National Payments for Environmental Services Program: Costa Rican Hydropower
EfD DP 09-03-REV | February 2009
Allen Blackman and Richard T. Woodward
National government-funded payments for environmental services (PES) programs often lack sustainable financing and fail to target payments to providers of important environmental services. In principle, these problems can be mitigated by supplementing government financing with contributions from leading environmental service users. The authors use original survey data and official statistics to analyze user financing in Costa Rica’s renowned national PES program, focusing on the amounts and sources of user financing, the drivers of contributions, and contributors’ perceptions of the PES program.

Effects of Global Fisheries on Developing Countries: Possibilities for Income and Threat of Depletion
EfD DP 09-02 | January 2009
Håkan Eggert and Mads Greaker 
Fisheries in developing countries are often characterized by poorly defined property rights, open access, and overcapitalization. The authors explore how trade liberalization generally is beneficial, but combining it with open access may reduce a country’s welfare and fish stocks, especially when reinforced by bad subsidies. Trade liberalization may also promote development of property rights in response to increased fish exploitation. The WTO can help facilitate trade by reclassifying subsidies to eliminate bad ones and distinguish good ones. 

Adoption of Organic Farming Techniques: Evidence from a Semi-Arid Region of Ethiopia
EfD DP 09-01 | January 2009
Menale Kassie, Precious Zikhali, Kebede Manjur, and Sue Edwards
Poor farmers need sustainable agriculture that relies on renewable local resources, such as conservation tillage and compost. This study looked at factors influencing decisions to adopt these two practices, using multinomial logit analysis of plot and household characteristics. We found that poverty and access to information affected choice of farming practices. The impact of gender on technology adoption was technology specific, and plot characteristics showed that adopting particular technologies was location specific. Our stochastic dominance analysis indicated that sustainable farming practices enhance productivity, even more than chemical fertilizers.

2008 

Agroforestry Price Supports as a Conservation Tool: Mexican Shade Coffee
EfD DP 08-36-REV | December 2008
Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio and Allen Blackman 
Economic policies that boost profits from agroforesty, thereby creating financial incentives for land managers to favor these systems over less environmentally friendly land uses, could, in theory, have ancillary environmental benefits. This paper analyzes primary and secondary data to determine whether a voluntary price support program for Mexican coffee—mostly grown in shaded systems that supply important ecosystem services—has had such “win-win” benefits by stemming land-use change in the coffee sector.

Forestland Reform in China: What do the Farmers Want? A Choice Experiment on Farmers' Property Rights Preferences
EfD DP 08-35 | December 2008
Ping Qin
With decentralization experiments occurring in the Chinese forestry sector, the authors used a survey-based choice experiment to investigate farmers’ preferences for various property-rights attributes of a forestland contract. Farmers are highly concerned with what rights a contract provides. Reducing the risk of contract termination and introducing a priority right to renew a contract significantly increase farmers’ marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for a forest contract. Farmers are also concerned with tenure length and waiting time to harvest. In one region, the annual WTP for a 50-year contract is higher than a 25-year contract.

Tradable Permits in Developing Countries: Evidence from Air Pollution in Santiago, Chile
EfD DP 08-34 | December 2008
Jessica Coria and Thomas Sterner
Santiago was one of the first cities outside the OECD to implement a tradable permit program to control air pollution. This paper looks closely at the program’s performance over the past 10 years, stressing its similarities and discrepancies with trading programs in developed countries, and analyzing how it has reacted to regulatory adjustments and market shocks. Studying Santiago’s experience allows us to discuss the drawbacks and advantages of applying tradable permits in less developed countries.

It Is Better to Be the Head of a Chicken than the Tail of a Phoenix? A Study of Concern for Relative Standing in Rural China
EfD DP 08-33 | November 2008
Fredrik Carlsson and Ping Qin
The authors discuss a survey-experiment method, measuring to what extent poor Chinese farmers care about their relative income. They find that the respondents cared to a high degree. Compared to studies in developed countries, concern for relative standing seems to be equally strong among rural households in China. This should be seen in the light of the rapid change China has undergone over the past 30-plus years. Thus, the rural population, which is lagging behind, suffers not only from low absolute income but also from low relative income.

Estimating Returns to Soil and Water Conservation Investments: An Application to Crop Yeild in Kenya
EfD DP 08-32 | October 2008
Wilfred Nyangena and Gunnar Kohlin
The authors investigated the impact of soil and water conservation (SWC) investment on farm productivity in Kenya. They focused on plots with and without SWC, testing whether increased SWC is beneficial for yield and affects input levels, input returns, and crop characteristics. The mixed results showed that plots without SWC have higher yield values, although plots with SWC are significantly steeper and more eroded. A two-stage random effects switching regression estimation indicated that SWC increased returns from degraded plots and other inputs. A simulation exercise showed that adoption has been beneficial to plots with SWC and would be beneficial for plots without it. 

Does Relative Income Matter for the Very Poor?: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia
EfD DP 08-31 | October 2008
Alpaslan Akay and Peter Martinsson
Does relative income have an impact on subjective well-being among extremely poor people? Contrary to the findings in developed countries, where relative income has shown a significant and negative impact on subjective well-being, this study (based on different definitions of reference groups) suggests that relative income does not affect subjective well-being among the very poor people in northern Ethiopia.  

Fast Track Land Reform and Agricultural Productivity in Zimbabwe
EfD DP 08-30 | October 2008
Precious Zikhali
The author investigated the Zimbabwean Fast Track Land Reform Program’s (FTLRP) impact on the agricultural productivity of its beneficiaries. The data revealed significant differences between beneficiaries and a control group of communal farmers in household and parcel characteristics and input usage. The results suggest that FTLRP beneficiaries are more productive due to greater use of inputs. Results also confirmed the constraints imposed on agricultural productivity by poverty, suggesting that policies aimed at alleviating poverty will have a positive impact on agricultural productivity.

Is There a Link between Common Property Forest Management and Private Tree Growing? Evidence of Behavioral Effects from Highland Ethiopia
EfD DP 08-29 | October 2008
Alemu Mekonnen and Randall Bluffstone
This paper analyzes the correlates of aggregated and disaggregated indices of common property forest management (CPFM) and the relationship between CPFM and the decision to grow trees and the number of trees grown in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. There was considerable variation across households, but the average CPFM, institutional characteristics, and management tools indices suggested low levels of management. There also were significant differences in management of community forests across sites (driven by population size, population density, and forest size). A strong correlation between the different CPFM indices suggested that households perceived CPFM components as similar and thus indistinguishable.

Environmental Policy, Fuel Prices, and the Switch to Natural Gas in Santiago, Chile
EfD DP 08-28 | October 2008
Jessica Coria
The author analyzes the role of environmental policies and energy cost savings in the switch to natural gas by stationary sources in Chile. There is skepticism about using market-based policies (economic instruments) in the developing world—permit trading programs versus emissions fees. This paper produces new evidence of the role of environmental regulations and market forces in a successful air-quality improvement program in Chile, a less-developed country. According to the study’s data, most of the switching was induced by the lower cost of natural gas, although environmental policies played a small role and showed that sources were more sensitive to the cost of energy than to environmental regulation.

Does Disclosure Reduce Pollution? Evidence from India’s Green Rating Project
EfD DP 08-27 | October 2008
Nicholas Powers , Allen Blackman, Thomas P. Lyon, and Urvashi Narain
Public disclosure programs that collect and disseminate information about firms’ environmental performance are increasingly popular in both developed and developing countries. Yet little is known about whether they actually improve environmental performance, particularly in the latter setting. The authors use detailed plant-level survey data to evaluate the impact of India’s Green Rating Project (GRP) on the environmental performance of the country’s largest pulp and paper plants.

Taxes, Permits, and the Diffusions of a New Technology
EfD DP 08-26 | October 2008
Jessica Coria
The author looks at the effects of the choice between taxes and permits on the pattern of adoption of a new emissions abatement technology. The regulator determines the optimal ex-post amount of emissions before firms start to adopt the technology. Each firm decides when to adopt, considering benefits, costs, and advantage gained over their rivals, producing a sequence of adoption that is “diffused” into the industry over time. The study shows that when output demand is elastic, auctioned permits induce an earlier diffusion than taxes and thus provide the largest benefit to social welfare.

Land Cover Change in Mixed Agroforestry: Shade Coffee in El Salvador
EfD DP 08-25 | September 2008
Allen Blackman, Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio, and Jeffrey Chow
Little is known about land cover change in mixed agroforestry systems, which often supply valuable ecological services. The authors use a spatial regression model to analyze clearing in El Salvador’s shade coffee–growing regions during the 1990s. Their findings buttress previous research suggesting the relationship between proximity to cities and clearing in mixed agroforestry systems is the opposite of that in natural forests. But this result, and several others, depends critically on the characteristics of the growing area, particularly the dominant cleared land use. These findings imply that policies aimed at retaining mixed agroforestry need to be carefully targeted and tailored.

Deforestation Impacts of Environmental Services Payments: Costa Rica’s PSA Program 2000–2005
EfD DP 08-24 | August 2008
Juan Robalino, Alex Pfaff, Artur Sánchez-Azofeifa, Francisco Alpízar, Carlos León, and Carlos Rodríguez 
The authors estimated the deforestation impact of Costa Rica’s pioneering environmental services payments program (Pagos por Servicios Ambientales, or PSA) between 2000 and 2005. Despite finding that less than 1 in 100 of enrolled land parcels would have been deforested annually without payments, the program’s potential for impact was increased by explicitly targeting areas with deforestation pressure and increasing some payments to enroll land that would have been cleared.

Fast Track Land Reform, Tenure Security, and Investments in Zimbabwe
EfD DP 08-23 | June 2008
Precious Zikhali
There is evidence that the Fast Track Land Reform Program created insecurity among its beneficiaries and adversely impacted investments in soil conservation. However, households in the study that believed investing in land enhanced tenure security invested significantly more in soil conservation measures than other households.  

Soil Conservation and Small-Scale Food Production in Highland Ethiopia: A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach
EfD DP 08-22 | June 2008
Haileselassie A Medhin, Gunnar Kohlin
This study used the newly developed metafrontier approach to assess the technical efficiency of small-scale food production in the Ethiopian highlands at plot level, in order to investigate the role of soil conservation technology in enhancing agricultural productivity. Stochastic frontier estimations showed that plots with soil and water conservation technologies are relatively more efficient than plots without soil conservation. Studying the aspects in which a given soil and water conservation technology affects efficiency could shed light on why laboratory-effective conservation technologies underperform in the real world.  

Determinants of Soil Capital
EfD DP 08-21 | June 2008
Anders Ekbom
Explaining soil capital facilitates a better understanding of constraints and opportunities for increased agricultural production and reduced land degradation. The diversity in farmers’ soil capital, production strategies, and general farming systems (including conservation investments) points to the value of internalizing these aspects in the formulation of the government’s policies and extension advice on sustainable agriculture.

Production Function Analysis of Soil Properties and Soil Conservation Investments in Tropical Agriculture
EfD DP 08-20 | June 2008
Anders Ekbom and Thomas Sterner
This paper integrates traditional economic variables, soil properties, and variables on soil conservation technologies to estimate agricultural output among small-scale farmers in Kenya’s central highlands. The study finds that integrating traditional economics and soil science is invaluable, especially as omitting measures of soil capital can cause omitted-variable bias. The central policy implication is that while fertilizers are generally beneficial, their application is a complex art, and more is not necessarily better.

Trade, GMOs, and Environmental Risk: Are Policies Likely to Improve Welfare?
EfD DP 08-19 | August 2008
Hakan Eggert and Mads Greaker
Controversy over the EU import ban on food from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) forced the EU to change course and institute a mandatory labeling scheme. This study first examined how different policies for the production and use of GMOs might influence the market outcome in consumer food markets. Second, it evaluated the welfare effects of the policy measures, finding that mandatory labeling often increases both domestic welfare and global welfare, while trade bans more likely decrease global welfare.

Determinants of Household Fuel Choice in Major Cities in Ethiopia 
EfD DP 08-18 | August 2008
Alemu Mekonnen, Gunnar Kohlin
This paper examines the multiple fuel choices of urban households in major Ethiopian cities, using panel data collected in 2000 and 2004. The results suggest that as urban and rural households’ total expenditures rise, they use more types of fuels (including wood) and spend more on the fuels consumed. The results also support arguments that multiple fuel use better describes the fuel-choices of households in developing countries, as opposed to the idea that households switch to more expensive but cleaner fuels as incomes rise.

Biomass Fuel Consumption and Dung Use as Manure: Evidence from Rural Households in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia
EfD DP 08-17 | April 2008
Alemu Mekonnen, Gunnar Kohlin
Fertilizer use (including dung) in Ethiopia is low, particularly in the northern highlands, where dung is a significant source of household fuel. This study examined the determinants of (1) rural households’ decision to use dung as fuel and as manure, and (2) consumption of woody biomass and dung as household fuel sources. Using dung as fuel and manure was influenced by household assets and characteristics, type of stove, and distance to towns, suggesting the important role of asset, product, and labor market imperfections. The study found indications that woody biomass and dung were complements as household fuel, suggesting the need to focus on asset-poor households to increase use of manure, more efficient stoves, and other energy sources.

Wealth and Time Preference in Rural Ethiopia
EfD DP 08-16 | June 2008
Mahmud Yesuf and Randy Bluffstone
This study measured the discount rates of 262 farm households in the Ethiopian highlands, using a time preference experiment with real payoffs. In general, the median discount rate was very high and varied systematically with wealth and risk aversion. Our findings, however, warn that rates-of-time preferences (RTPs) and risk aversion reinforce each other and are easily confused. Because the RTPs were so high, what seem like profitable investments from the outside might not seem so from the farmers’ perspectives.

The Role of Production Risk in Sustainable Land-Management Technology Adoption in the Ethiopian Highlands
EfD DP 08-15 | June 2008
Menale Kassie, Mahmud Yesuf, and Gunnar Köhlin
The empirical analysis in this paper shows that production risk plays a significant role in sustainable land-management technology adoption in the Ethiopian highlands. The adoption and intensity decreased for farmers who experienced higher variance of return and downside risk exposure (skewness), and increased for farmers who experienced higher expected return. These findings could help decisionmakers design economic instruments that can hedge against variability of return (as measured by variance) and crop failure, and increase expected return to promote sustainable land-management technologies.

Regulatory Compliance in Lake Victoria Fisheries
EfD DP 08-14 | June 2008
Håkan Eggert, Razack B Lokina
This analysis of the fishers’ compliance with regulations in Lake Victoria, Tanzania, gives support to the traditional economics-of-crime model and shows that the extension of the basic deterrence model can lead to a richer model with substantially higher explanatory power. It focused on mesh-size regulation to explore potential reasons for following the rules (or not), such as being moral and doing the right thing; obeying the rules due to peer pressure from other fishers; perceiving the regulation as legitimate; and perceiving that they (the fishers) have been involved in the regulation process.  

Technical Efficiency and the Role of Skipper Skill in Artisanal Lake Victoria Fisheries
EfD DP 08-13 | April 2008
Razack B. Lokina
This paper studies technical efficiency and skipper skill (and explores potential proxies), using Tanzanian fishery data for the two major species, Nile perch and dagaa. The relative level of efficiency is high in both fisheries, and several observable variables linked to skipper skill significantly explain the efficiency level. However, given the rapidly depleting fish stocks in Lake Victoria, increased efficiency at the aggregate level is only possible if fishing effort is limited.

What Kinds of Firms Are More Sensitive to Public Disclosure Programs for Pollution Control?: The Case of Indonesia's PROPER Program
EfD DP 08-12 | March 2008
Jorge H. García, Shakeb Afsah, and Thomas Sterner
Analysis of the differences in firms' responsiveness to PROPER (Indonesia's successful public disclosure program for industrial pollution control) showed that foreign-owned firms and firms in densely populated areas were more likely to respond to public environmental ratings. Firms with bad environmental performances felt pressure to improve, but this incentive diminished after the initial abatement steps.

Economic Growth and the Natural Environment: The Example of China and Its Forests since 1978
EfD DP 08-11 | April 2008
William F. Hyde, Wei Jiegen, Jintao Xu
China’s rapid growth and forest data show interesting macroeconomic and population impacts on the forest. It makes a theoretical argument for separating forests into managed and natural forests, administered by state or private agents. The paper’s regressions suggest that declining rural populations accompany forest recovery and that natural forest is drawn down as incomes rise, and recovers when incomes rise. As incomes increase futher, the managed forest grows more rapidly, offseting any draw on the natural forest, with an aggregate net expansion for managed and natural forests combined. The question arises whether other forests across the globe would show these results if comparable forest data were available.  

Co-benefits of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Policies in China: An Integrated Top-Down and Bottom-Up Modeling Analysis
EfD DP 08-10 | May 2008
Jing Cao, Mun Ho, Dale W. Jorgenson
This paper describes an integrated modeling approach to combine a top-down, recursive CGE model with a bottom-up, electricity-sector model to simulate two categories of policies: 1) assessment of three national-level environmental tax policies (carbon tax, fuel tax, and output tax), and 2) analysis of several mixed national policies with sectoral-level non-price emission caps. The potential co-benefits for China are significant. In addition, the fuel tax or carbon tax, combined with a sector-specific carbon-emission cap policy would be the most effective in terms of the joint objectives on carbon abatement, health co-benefits, and induced technology change.

Economics of Soil Conservation Adoption in High-Rainfall Areas of the Ethiopian Highlands
EfD DP 08-09 | March 2008
Menale Kassie, Stein Holden, Gunnar Köhlin, and Randy Bluffstone
Measuring and analyzing the impact of of trench terraces, called fanya juu bunds, on the value of crop production in Ethiopian highlands with high rainfall had the surprising conclusion that this technology reduced soil erosion and off-site effects at the expense of lower value of crop production and, hence, poor Ethiopian farmers.

The Role of Soil Conservation on Mean Crop Yield and Variance of Yield: Evidence from the Ethiopian Highlands
EfD DP 08-08 | March 2008
Menale Kassie, John Pender, Mahmud Yesuf, Gunnar Köhlin, and Elias Mulugeta
Stone bunds in the Ethiopian highlands showed statistically significant and positive impact on yield in low-rainfall areas, but not in high-rainfall areas, and they did not have a statistically significant impact on production risk in either area. Stone bund performance varied by agro-ecology type, which implies the need for appropriate technologies that enhance productivity and are better adapted to local conditions.  

Rural Livelihoods, Poverty, and the Millennium Development Goals: Evidence from Ethiopian Survey Data
EfD DP 08-07 | June 2008
Randall Bluffstone, Mahmud Yesuf, Bilisuma Bushie, and Demessie Damite
This in-depth look at key development issues facing Ethiopian households in context of the Millenium Development Goals uses survey data from 2000, 2002, and 2005. Ethiopia is making progress, but household incomes are shockingly low and hugely varied. Assets could potentially help smooth consumption, but the current property rights structure (land is owned by the government) excessively limits households’ options and cannot serve as a true, functioning asset.

Do Discount Rates Change over Time?: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia
EfD DP 08-06 | March 2008
Heather Klemick and Mahmud Yesuf
This artefactual experiment in Ethiopia tested the hyperbolic discounting hypothesis by comparing time discounting over cash and consumption goods, using real payoffs. It found no difference in elicited time preferences between cash and consumption goods (tradable or final), which could be the result of missing markets in rural Ethiopia, and there was some evidence of time-inconsistent preferences.  

Lake Victoria Fish Stocks and the Effects of Water Hyacinths on the Catchability of Fish
EfD DP 08-05 | March 2008
Eseza Kateregga, Thomas Sterner
This study of the deleterious effect on fishing by the water hyacinth invasion of Lake Victoria found an unusual positive: the decline of fish catchability caused by the the abundance of water hyacinths has paradoxically stopped or at least postponed serious overfishing.  

Market Imperfections and Farm Technology Adoption Decisions A Case Study from the Highlands of Ethiopia
EfD DP 08-04 | March 2008
Mahmud Yesuf and Gunnar Köhlin
This examination of the impacts of market and institutional imperfections on technology adoption found that Ethiopian farmers' decisions to adopt fertilizer significantly and negatively depended on whether they also adopted soil conservation, but not vice versa. Market imperfections were significant factors in explaining variations in decisions to adopt farm technology, such that relieving market imperfections could increase adoption of farm technologies.

Anonymity, Reciprocity, and Conformity: Evidence from Voluntary Contributions to a National Park in Costa Rica
EfD DP 08-03 | March 2008
Francisco Alpizar, Fredrik Carlsson, and Olof Johansson-Stenman
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.  

Does Context Matter More for Hypothetical Than for Actual Contributions?: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment
EfD DP 08-02 | March 2008
Francisco Alpizar, Fredrik Carlsson, and Olof Johansson-Stenman
Just how important social context is for voluntary contributions is investigated in a natural field experiment, where subjects made either actual or hypothetical contributions to a national park in Costa Rica. This study found that both anonymity and information about others' donations influenced contributions, implying that validity testing of stated preference methods needs to include comparisons of hypothetical and actual behavior for given social context.

Social Capital and Institutions in Rural Kenya: Is Machakos Unique?
EfD DP 08-01 | March 2008
Wilfred Nyangena and Thomas Sterner
The revitalization of Machakos, Kenya, from overpopulation and resource degradation - seemingly by its population growth - has added another round to the Boserupian vs. Malthusian debate, and may make Machakos unique. This study investigated Machakos' improvement by looking at the role of social capital with principal component analysis and found significant differences between Machakos and two other Kenyan regions, particularly in the formation of associations.