Occupational health, well researched in developed countries, remains neglected in developing countries. One issue of particular importance is the use of pesticides on farms, which can have both chronic and acute impacts on human health. This paper focuses on acute health impacts associated with...

The Diyawanna Oya wetland ecosystem has proven to be an important recreational site in the greater Colombo area in the face of the growing demand for urban recreational amenities. It provides a wide spectrum of use- and non-use benefits, including production, hydrological, and ecological values....

Climate change impact studies on agriculture can be broadly divided into those that employ agro-economic approaches and those that employ the Ricardian approach. This study uses the Ricardian approach to examine the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture. Using panel data over a twenty...

This study examines the contribution of tourism towards improving the livelihoods of local people in a remote island village of the Indian Sundarbans. The Sundarban Tiger Reserve is a major tourism destination and a small number of local people participate in the tourism sector as vendors,...

Burning agriculture residues has multiple negative effects including local air pollution, increase in black carbon and contributions to regional and global climate change. This study seeks to understand why farmers burn rice residue by analyzing the residue adoption choices of farmers in the...

This study estimates the transaction costs entailed in maintaining Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems (FMIS) in Nepal based on a case study of 60 irrigation systems in the Kathmandu valley. It analyzes the factors influencing transaction costs and compares these costs with the production cost in...

In this paper I offer a fairly complete account of the idea of social discount rates as applied to public policy analysis. I show that those rates are neither ethical primitives nor observables as market rates of return on investment, but that they ought instead to be derived from economic...

In this study, we examine two types of aid transfers - boats and houses - that were made to rehabilitate tsunami-affected fishery households in Sri Lanka. Our goal is to investigate the distributional impacts of these transfers and the effectiveness of targeting. The study also attempts to...

Suspended particulate matter (SPM), dust, fumes and gases from cement production can result in a range of health effects to households living around factories. This study estimates the health costs associated with air pollution from a cement factory in the district of Puttalam in Sri Lanka. The...

This study investigates the role of common property resources as a source of sustainable income in the context of opportunities created by economic development. Commercialization of the common can increase rural incomes and create incentives for conservation. However, income opportunities can...