The Austrian agri-environment program (ÖPUL) from 2000-2006 introduced several measures to reduce nitrate concentration in groundwater. We apply spatial econometric methods on a country-wide panel dataset to assess the partial effects of ÖPUL and other determining factors on nitrate...

Experimental auctions have not been widely used in Africa. However, auctions are important tools for evaluating new products and technologies. To increase the quality of these experiments, we explore an alternative first-price bidding mechanism that is more similar to African market exchanges...

For quite a while, stated preferences have been a major tool to measure consumer preferences for new products and services. Revealed preference methods, in particular experimental economics, have gained popularity recently because they have been shown to be more incentive compatible, and...

More than half of the EU's population lives in rural areas. Regional GDP rates differ substantially between rural and urban areas as well between rural areas themselves. One of the main objectives of the EU regional funds is achieving cohesion between regions. In the current programme period,...

The study groups households in North Eastern Thailand according their income and grade of specialisation in crop production to derive representative household types. For these household types a linear optimization model is run to calculate net incomes under four scenarios. These are certified...

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved from an allocative towards a dis-tributive policy. Distributive policies aim at correcting market outcomes according to politi-cally determined objectives usually through transferring money from richer to poorer house-holds. We compare the...

The Water Framework Directive requires EU Member States to analyse economic impacts of the Directive's implementation. To reach a "good status", instruments have to be judged according to their cost-effectiveness. We evaluate costs and effects of measures to reduce nitrate emission of Austrian...

Austria was hit by a large-scale flood in 2002. The damage was estimated at € 2.9 billion and the EU Solidarity Fund classified the Austrian flood as a major event. It triggered a vast number of studies analysing the causes of the disaster, and efforts were made to evaluate the measures taken...