As public land management agencies pursue region-specific resource management plans, with meaningful consideration of public attitudes and values, there is a need to characterize the complex mix of environmental attitudes in a diverse population. The contribution of this investigation is to make use of a unique household, mail/internet survey data set collected in 2007 in the Southwestern United States (Region 3 of the U.S. Forest Service). With over 5,800 survey responses to a set of 25 Public Land Value statements, canonical correlation analysis is able to identify 7 statistically distinct environmental attitudinal groups. We also examine the effect of expected changes in regional demographics on overall environmental attitudes, which may help guide in the development of socially acceptable long-term forest management policies. Results show significant support for conservationist management policies and passive environmental values, as well as a greater role for stakeholder groups in generating consensus for current and future forest management policies.

Irrigation water is a scarce common-pool resource in Uzbekistan, which leads to an increasing competition over its allocation among farmers. We examine how the management of this resource affects individual strategic behavior and how its availability (vis-a-vis scarcity vs. non-scarcity) impacts cooperation. We conduct a field experiment in Uzbekistan where two policies are analyzed: penalty and bonus. Our findings suggest that both penalty and bonus mechanisms are effective in reducing individual water appropriation compared to the case in which these policies are absent. However, in terms of reducing overall water appropriation, the bonus mechanism is the most effective in preserving the resource stock. Therefore, policymakers should have a degree of flexibility regarding the selection of a mechanism to reduce water consumption. We also find that subjects exhibit different appropriation behaviors depending on their location within the irrigation system, with upstream users being more sensitive to water reduction than downstream users.

We use stochastic frontier analysis to study the effects of political instability events and economic integration on technical efficiency. A set of industries in Central America are analyzed during a period of perceived lack of regional economic integration (1980s) and a period of renewed economic integration (early 1990s). Results show that economic integration has had a negative effect on technical efficiency during this period. The effect from political instability depends on the type of event, both at the industry and national level.RESUMEN. Para estudiar el efecto que los eventos resultantes de la inestabilidad polı´tica e integracio´n econo´mica ejercen sobre la eficiencia te´cnica, empleamos el me´todo del ana´lisis de frontera estocástica. Con ese propo´sito, analizamos un conjunto de industrias en Ame´rica Central durante el perı´odo en que se observo´falta de integracio´n econo´mica en la regio´n (1980), y otro perı´odo de renovada integracio´n econo´mica (comienzo de los años 1990). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que, a lo largo de este periodo, la integracio´n econo´mica ha tenido un efecto negativo sobre la eficiencia te´cnica. Por otro lado, el efecto proveniente de la inestabilidad polı´tica depende del tipo de evento en cuestio´n, tanto al nivel industrial como nacional. RESUMO.A análise de fronteira estocástica foi usada para estudar o efeito dos eventos decorrentes da instabilidade polı´tica e da integração econômica na eficieˆncia te´cnica. Foi realizada a aná-lise de um conjunto de indústrias da Ame´rica Central durante um perı´odo em que foi observada a falta de integração econômica regional (os anos 1980) e durante um perı´odo de integração econômica renovada (inı´cio dos anos 1990). Os resultados mostram que a integração econômica teve efeito negativo na eficieˆncia te´c-nica durante esse perı´odo. O efeito da instabilidade polı´tica depende do tipo de evento, tanto no nı´vel industrial quanto no nacional.