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Li, Yuanhao & Hochard, Jacob
(2019).
Anticipating Mother Nature: Uncertain Hurricane Forecasts Impair Birth Outcomes.
Show summary
Early forecasts give people in a storm’s path time to prepare. Less is known about the cost to society when forecasts are incorrect. We examine births in the months around Hurricane Irene. Birth weights and gestation lengths are reduced and the likelihood of preterm births increased in populations grazed by hurricane weather. We discover this effect is caused by time spent in the hurricane’s “Cone of Uncertainty” where disaster anticipation is a major stressor to pregnant women. While correct forecasts (avoiding a type II error) improve a birth’s outcomes more than incorrect forecasts (incurring a type I error) impair a birth’s outcomes, total birth impairments outweigh improvements from additional advisories because impacted individuals are a small portion of those who anticipate impact. Recognizing storm damages depend on predicted storm paths is critical to supporting the next generation’s developmental potential with judicious forecasting that ensures institutions mitigate, not exacerbate, climate damages.
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Li, Yuanhao; Hochard, Jacob; Etheridge, Randall; Gomez, Maria; Paralta, Ariane & Sims, Charles
[Show all 7 contributors for this article]
(2019).
Casing out Contaminants: Avoidance Behavior Along the Hydrogeologic Gradient.
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If deeper aquifers have cleaner water, we would expect homeowners near water pollution sources to invest in deeper wells. This adaptive behavior remains undocumented but highlights that the social cost of water pollution includes direct exposure and private defensive investments to avoid exposure. We focus on private well drilling in four rural North Carolina counties that are among the nation’s leaders in pork and poultry production with over $2.5 billion in annual sales. Private contractor drilling logs are used to map well depths nearby concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The average homeowner in our sample lives approximately 3 kilometers from its nearest CAFO. For each one-kilometer increase in CAFO proximity, homeowners extend their well casing depth by 30 feet. We show that this avoidance-of-risk effect is isolated on wells known to be drinking water sources and is robust to a variety of specifications including controlling for soil profiles. We estimate that our study area contains approximately 70,000 wells based on dasymmetric population mapping, census data, known public water supply boundaries and the spatial distribution of drilling activity. To the extent that our sample is representative of all study area wells, we estimate the total private drilling cost of CAFO avoidance approaches $88 million but is as little as $406,000 per annum. We examine but do not find increases in well yield as a potential co-benefit from sourcing deeper groundwater. Given the lifespan of wells, the distributional burden of private adaptation and the size of the local animal agriculture industry, targeted and agriculture-funded subsidies for well construction and public water supply expansion may generate tremendous social benefits.
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Nøstbakken, Linda & Morency-Lavoie, Felix
(2019).
Spatial externalities, economies of scale, and consolidation in the Norwegian fish farming industry.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix
(2018).
A small parasite making big waves?
Industry Consolidation under Spatial-Dynamic Externalities.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Abbott, Joshua & Nøstbakken, Linda
(2018).
Consequences of industry consolidation on the control of spatial externalities: The case of Norwegian salmon aquaculture
.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Nøstbakken, Linda & Abbott, Joshua
(2018).
Industry consolidation under spatial-dynamic externalities.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Abbott, Joshua & Nøstbakken, Linda
(2018).
Consequences of industry consolidation on the control of spatial externalities:
The case of Norwegian salmon aquaculture
.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix
(2018).
Norwegian Salmon Aquaculture: Property Rights and Spatial Externalities.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Abbott, Joshua & Nøstbakken, Linda
(2018).
Consequences of industry consolidation on the control of spatial externalities: The case of
Norwegian salmon aquaculture.
Show summary
Transmissible parasites and diseases constitute major challenges in intensive aquaculture. In the
Norwegian salmon farming industry, costs associated with treatment of sea lice are surging, and
reached 5bn NOK or 10% of the industry’s total export value in 2015. The Norwegian salmon
farming industry experiences a high degree of ownership fragmentation compared to other countries.
The large number of players at the national and regional level can create a challenge for coordination
in sea lice mitigation, leading to a “Tragedy of the Commons.”
This paper investigates how industrial organization and spatial configuration of firms influence
behaviors associated with prevention and treatment of parasites. We use a unique farm-level dataset
on Norwegian salmon aquaculture, that provides high-frequency data on production, treatments, and
environmental quality. We quantify the strength of the farm-to-farm externality based on historical
biomass levels of salmon, count data on sea lice, and the connection between farms through oceanographic currents. We analyze factors that influence treatment type, frequency, and synchrony. Particularly, we examine the degree of consolidation and the spatial configuration of
firms within distinct zones of influence with respect to the lice externality.Preliminary results suggest treatment behaviors differ according to firm characteristics such as sizeand spatial connectivity of farms. Regional concentration induces firms to alter their behavior to
partially ‘internalize’ the parasite externality. Our findings highlight interactions between industrial
and environmental policies in the context of aquaculture – interactions that will become even more
important as regulators wrestle with both consolidation and spatial intensification in aquaculture
systems.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Nøstbakken, Linda & Abbott, Joshua
(2018).
A small sea parasite making big waves: industry consolidation under spatial-dynamic externalities.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Abbott, Joshua & Nøstbakken, Linda
(2018).
Les conséquences de la consolidation
industrielle sur le contrôle des externalités
spatiales : Le cas de l’aquaculture du saumon en Norvège.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix
(2018).
A small parasite making big waves?
Industry Consolidation under Spatial-Dynamic Externalities.
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Nøstbakken, Linda
(2018).
Framtidas kvotesystem.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix; Nøstbakken, Linda & Abbott, Joshua
(2018).
Industry consolidation under spatial-dynamic externalities - The case of Norwegian salmon aquaculture.
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Stoeven, Max; Diekert, Florian Klaus & Quaas, Martin
(2018).
Deregulating fishing gear choice: A comparison of number and biomass quotas.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Li, Yuanhao; Nøstbakken, Linda & Richter, Andries Peter
(2018).
Non-compliance behavior and use of extraction rights for natural resources.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Stoeven, Max & Quaas, Martin
(2018).
Deregulating fishing gear choice: A comparison of number and biomass quotas.
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Morency-Lavoie, Felix
(2017).
A Small parasite making big waves?
Industry Consolidation and Collaboration Under Spatial-Dynamic Externalities.
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Nøstbakken, Linda
(2017).
Distribution and Sustainable Fisheries Management.
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Nøstbakken, Linda
(2017).
Fordeling og bærekraftig forvalting - Noreg i eit internasjonalt perspektiv.
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Close, Brett; Grainger, Corbett & Nøstbakken, Linda
(2017).
Asymmetric Information and Distributional Impacts in New Environmental Markets.
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Close, Brett; Grainger, Corbett & Nøstbakken, Linda
(2017).
Asymmetric Information and Distributional Impacts in New Environmental Markets.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Nøstbakken, Linda; Richter, Andries Peter & Li, Yuanhao
(2017).
Behavioural determinants of compliance decisions in Norwegian fisheries.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Nøstbakken, Linda; Richter, Andries Peter & Li, Yuanhao
(2017).
Behavioural determinants of investment and compliance decisions in Norwegian fisheries.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Eikeset, Anne Maria; Romagnoni, Giovanni & Lindroos, Marko
(2017).
Population specific vs undifferentiated management of North Sea cod: A bioeconomic analysis of population specific vs undifferentiated management in a changing climate: North Sea cod as a case study.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Nøstbakken, Linda & Richter, Andries Peter
(2017).
Why do fishermen comply with regulations?
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Li, Yuanhao; Nøstbakken, Linda; Diekert, Florian Klaus & Richter, Andries Peter
(2017).
Behavioral drivers of investments in catch-share managed fisheries.
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Richter, Andries Peter; Diekert, Florian Klaus; Nøstbakken, Linda & Li, Yuanhao
(2017).
Why do fishermen comply with regulations? The role of preferences .
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Langangen, Øystein; Färber, Leonie Anette; Stige, Leif Christian & Durant, Joel Marcel
(2016).
Ticket to Spawn – Using economic data to shed light on biological hypothesis.
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Li, Yuanhao; van 't Veld, Klaas & Thunström, Linda
(2016).
Willingness-to-pay for Resolution of Uncertainty.
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Li, Yuanhao; Nøstbakken, Linda; Richter, Andries Peter & Diekert, Florian Klaus
(2016).
Behavioral drivers of investments in catch-share managed fisheries.
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Li, Yuanhao; Nøstbakken, Linda; Diekert, Florian Klaus & Richter, Andries Peter
(2016).
Behavioral drivers of investments in catch-share managed fisheries.
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Richter, Andries Peter; Nøstbakken, Linda & Diekert, Florian Klaus
(2016).
Using behavioral experiments to understand preferences with regard to risk, patience, and cooperation in Norwegian fisheries.
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Gokhale, Sanmitra; Richter, Andries Peter; Nøstbakken, Linda & Diekert, Florian Klaus
(2016).
Understanding financial risk for fishers and the role of diversification.
Show summary
Fishers’ risk management strategies are so far poorly understood. They face high income variability due to fluctuations in market price and catches of fish. One of the ways to mitigate this risk, has been to construct portfolios of quota whose revenues are either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with each other. This has made taking a portfolio approach to fisheries more popular. This research will empirically analyse the diversity of revenues of fishers’ using Norwegian fisheries data. Using a diversity index, we will look at whether there are any longer term trends in diversification and differences in diversification between pelagic and demersal fishers. Further, we analyse whether diversification differs between vessel groups (which is based on vessel length) and depends on the home port of a vessel. This research speaks to the current financial risk management behaviour of fishers as well as their risk profile, and can provide insights into better risk management methods for fishers going forward. It also has policy implications, as some quota systems encourage specialization (such as, regulations limiting who can participate in a fishery), which can be harmful for the long term financial well-being of the fishers’ as well as the local economy at large.
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Li, Yuanhao; Nøstbakken, Linda; Diekert, Florian Klaus & Richter, Andries Peter
(2016).
The impact of risk, time, and social preferences on individual investment decisions in a fishery.
Show summary
Excess and over capacity are key management issues in global fisheries. These issues have also received widespread attention in the literature. Previous work on firm-level investment behavior in fisheries, both theoretical and empirical, typically assumes risk neutral and profit maximizing agents. While this work has led to a much better understanding of the dynamics of investments and capacity both at the firm and the industry level, there is firm-level variation in observed behavior that has yet to be fully explained (see e.g. Nøstbakken, 2012). In this paper, we analyze individual investment behavior in the fishing industry. We use data from a combined web-based experiment and survey of Norwegian fishers conducted in the spring of 2014 to analyze this empirically. In the economic experiment, the participants won real money in a set of lotteries based on their answers and lottery outcomes. Based on their lottery choices, we derive measures of various individual preferences, including time, risk, and social preferences. We combine these preference measures with the fishers’ survey responses related to investment decisions made in the last six years, to conduct our empirical analysis. Differences in preferences across owners of fishing firms, which are typically unobservable, can potentially explain a large share of the observed variation in investment behavior found in previous studies. Extending the investment model also has important policy implications as it enables us to predict better the implications of various policies, and to take a step beyond what we can derive from the standard theoretical economic models.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Nøstbakken, Linda; Richter, Andries Peter & Skjeret, Frode Andre
(2016).
Risk and Risk Exposure in Norwegian Fisheries.
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Li, Yuanhao
(2016).
Willingness to pay for resolution of uncertainty.
Show summary
Anecdotal evidence suggests consumers do not understand green/ethical/philanthropical attributes (environmental friendliness, free-range eggs, charity donations), even as they pay a premium for goods that feature them. Consumers’ ignorance allows companies to greenwash -- to make all kinds of fake or exaggerated claims about the environmental friendliness of their products. However, consumers would actively seek information when paying for private attributes (e.g., quality). We design an economic experiment to test whether people strictly prefer ignorance about green attributes. Subjects bid on exchanging a bottle of conventional dishwashing liquid for bottles of dishwashing liquid with varying percentages of “biobased” content. The control group never learnt the true percentage; treatment group I learnt the true percentage after bidding; treatment group II could choose to reveal the true percentage before bidding. Our results show that ex post information has no effects on the willingness-to-pay (WTP) between subjects, but has positive effect on the WTP within subjects. In treatment group II, twenty-five percent of subjects chose to avoid information. Even though there were no differences in WTP and the likelihood to avoid information between genders, females who chose to avoid information were willing to pay strikingly less than the control group, whereas males who chose to avoid information paid more.
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Diekert, Florian Klaus; Nøstbakken, Linda; Richter, Andries Peter & Skjeret, Frode Andre
(2015).
Risk and Risk Exposure in Norwegian Fisheries.
Samfunns- og næringslivsforskning.
ISSN 1503-2140.