Modern macroeconomic theory utilises optimal control techniques to model the maximisation of individual well-being using a lifetime utility function. Agents face choices over current and future consumption (with resultant implied savings decisions) seeking to maximise the present value of...

Payments for ecosystem service outputs have become a popular policy prescription for a range of agri-environmental schemes. The focus of this paper is on the choice of sets of instruments in an ecosystem service principal-agent model that addresses adverse selection and moral-hazard. Results...

Energy costs are partly driven by environmental policy choices. In this paper, the effects of variations in energy costs – as measured by end-user electricity prices – on firm relocation decisions are investigated. Using a discrete choice model a nd a data base which has not previously been...

Genuine Savings has emerged as the leading economic indicator of sustainable economic development at the country level. It derives from the literatures on weak sustainability, wealth accounting and national income accounting. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 introduces the basic...

Gains from the incorporation of monetary values for changes in environmental goods and services within cost-benefit analysis depend on how well researchers can estimate these values. One key problem in both stated and revealed preference approaches is how best to model preference heterogeneity....

This paper looks at the growing concern over Greenhouse Gas emissions and the resulting human induced climate change. The background to a cost-benefit approach is sketched in terms of the scientific understanding and expected impacts. Then the theory behind a cost-benefit approach is explained...

This paper seeks to disentangle the effect of knowledge on processing strategies using data from a discrete choice experiment on cold-water corals in Norway. Cold-water corals are a deep-sea ecosystem for which we have limited scientific knowledge and for which public awareness is low, and...

The impact of the approach used to describe preference heterogeneity on welfare measures has been widely studied by the academic community. However, the question as to the degree of error in welfare estimation from an inappropriate choice of empirical approach has not been addressed yet. In this...

The world's largest concentration of cold-water coral (CWC) is found off the Norwegian coast. Most CWC discoveries are recent, posing new challenges for Norwegian coastal and fishery authorities regarding the management of deep-sea resources. Scientific knowledge of CWC is limited, and many...

This paper tests whether changes in “incidental emotions” lead to changes in economic choices. Incidental emotions are experienced at the time of an economic decision but are not part of the payoff from a particular choice. As such, the standard economic model predicts that incidental...