/ Ecological resources are natural resources that provide certain necessary but overlooked system maintenance functions within ecosystems. Environmental economics is in search of an appropriate analysis framework to determine economic values of such resources. This paper presents a framework that estimates and compiles the components of value for a natural ecosystem. The framework begins with the ecological processes involved, which provide functions within the ecosystem and services valued by humans. We discuss the additive or competive nature of these values, and estimate these values through conventional and unconventional techniques. We apply the framework to ecological resources in a shrub-steppe dryland habitat being displaced by development. We first determine which functions and services are mutually exclusive (e.g., farming vs soil stabilization) and which are complementary or products of joint production (e.g., soil stabilization and maintenance of species). We then apply benefit transfer principles with contingent valuation methodology (CVM), travel cost methodology (TCM), and hedonic damage pricing (HDP). Finally, we derive upper-limit values for more difficult-to-value functions through the use of human analogs, which we argue are the most appropriate method of valuation under some circumstances. The highest values of natural shrub-steppe habitat appear to be derived from soil stabilization.KEY WORDS: Natural resource economics; Ecological economics; Ecological resources; Shrub-steppe; Environmental valuation; Cost; Benefit; Value

Electric utility rate deregulation can have disproportionate impacts on water-intensive crops, which have historically relied upon pressurized irrigation technologies and surface water resources. Based on a case study of agricultural growers in southern California, the paper models the impacts of utility rates considered in the Western Area Power Administration's Sierra Nevada Customer Service Region. The study was performed as part of the 2004 Power Marketing Program Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The empirical results reflect linear-programming estimates of the income transfers from growers to energy providers based on county-wide coverage of 13 junior and senior irrigation districts and short-run production possibilities of 11 irrigated crops. Transfers of income from growers to energy suppliers occur through their losses in producer surplus.

No abstract

No abstract

The analysis of price-volume relationships between day-and-night futures markets contributes to the broad array of price-volume studies in other market contexts, as seen in Grunbichler, Longstaff,