Readings Flashcards
What is McCauley’s thesis?
If we mean to make significant and long-lasting gains in conservation, we must strongly assert the primacy of ethics and aesthetics in conservation.
What are the 4 arguments that McCauley makes to support his thesis? Provide evidence for each one.
- Market-based conservation does not account for the protection of nature that is not beneficial to humans.
Evidence: wetlands environments can increase the risk of disease in humans. - Market-based conservation suggests that nature is only worth conserving when it is or can be made profitable.
Evidence: native bees in Costa Rica provided pollination services to coffee plants, but after a substantial drop in coffee prices, coffee plants were cleared for pineapple. because pollinators do not affect pineapple production, the monetary value of the bees dropped from 60,000 USD to 0. - Market-based conservation does not account for man-made, artificial substitutes for natural services.
Evidence: humans have been able to invest cost-effective manufactured alternatives to rubber and timber. - Market-based conservation prioritizes economic profit over the protection of nature.
Evidence: the introduction of the invasive Nile perch in Africa is considered to be an economic success due to local fisherman profiting from the trade of these fish despite the significant loss of local biodiversity that occurred.
How does Arrow et al. feel about BCA?
It is a useful tool in decision-making, but it should not be the sole basis.
What are the pros and cons that Arrow et al. provides for BCA?
BCA is useful in high-stakes decisions because it attempts to quantify the costs and benefits of an environmental economic decision. It also provides a common metric across which these costs and benefits can be compared.
However, quantitative data from BCA should not be prioritized over qualitative data, specifically when benefits are less than costs.
How does Arrow et. al propose we make up for the inaccuracy of BCA?
Create as many BCAs as possible and peer review them.
Does Coase agree with the use of Pigouvian taxes and subsidies?
No, he feels that bargaining between individuals without government intervention is more efficient.
What is the division between private and social costs as described by Coase?
When producers only focus on private costs and consumers only focus on private benefits, then private and social optimum is diverged.
Explain the reciprocal nature of resolving social cost as described by Coase.
Resolving the problem of social cost has a reciprocal nature because forcing one party to pay for the cost does not make it disappear, it just redirects who pays it.
Define leakage in Taylor’s article.
Leakage occurs when partial regulation directly results in increased consumption of these products in unregulated parts of the economy.
What is the purpose of Taylor’s article?
To quantify leakage from the regulation of plastic in consumer goods, specifically by comparing changes in disposable carryout bag sales to consumption of unregulated trash bags.
Define non-additional in Taylor’s article.
Non-additional refers to getting paid to what they would have done anyway.
Provide a brief explanation for why plastic bag pollution can be considered a market externality in Taylor’s article.
Plastic bag pollution causes significant environmental damage, hindering its ability to provide social benefits such as climate regulation.
What does Kling et al discuss in her article?
The validity of contingent valuation and, more generally, stated preference methods. Are they valid enough to use in policy analysis?
What were the results of Kling et al?
Respondents must be faced with an incentive compatible instrument and believe the survey to be consequential to be accurate.
How does Kling et al explain the divergence in WTP and WTA in SPM?
endowment effect - predicts that people require more compensation to part with something already in possession than they would give up to newly acquire it.
