We merge inclusive wealth theory with ecosystem-based management (EBM) to address two challenges in the science of sustainable management of ecosystems. First, we generalize natural capital theory to approximate realized shadow prices for multiple interacting natural capital stocks (species) making up an ecosystem. These prices enable ecosystem components to be better included in wealth-based sustainability measures. We show that ecosystems are best envisioned as portfolios of assets, where the portfolio's performance depends on the performance of the underlying assets influenced by their interactions. Second, changes in ecosystem wealth provide an attractive headline index for EBM, regardless of whether ecosystem wealth is ultimately included in a broader wealth index. We apply our approach to the Baltic Sea ecosystem, focusing on the interacting community of three commercially important fish species: cod, herring, and sprat. Our results incorporate supporting services embodied in the shadow price of a species through its trophic interactions. Prey fish have greater shadow prices than expected based on market value, and predatory fish have lower shadow prices than expected based on market value. These results are because correctly measured shadow prices reflect interdependence and limits to substitution. We project that ecosystem wealth in the Baltic Sea fishery ecosystem generally increases conditional on the EBM-inspired multispecies maximum sustainable yield management beginning in 2017, whereas continuing the current single-species management generally results in declining wealth.

Agro-climatic data by county (ACDC) is designed to provide the major agro-climatic variables from publicly available spatial data sources to diverse end-users. ACDC provides USDA NASS annual (1981–2015) crop yields for corn, soybeans, upland cotton and winter wheat by county. Customizable growing degree days for 1 °C intervals between −60 °C and +60 °C, and total precipitation for two different crop growing seasons from the PRISM weather data are included. Soil characteristic data from USDA-NRCS gSSURGO are also provided for each county in the 48 contiguous US states. All weather and soil data are processed to include only data for land being used for non-forestry agricultural uses based on the USGS NLCD land cover/land use data. This paper explains the numerical and geo-computational methods and data generating processes employed to create ACDC from the original data sources. Essential considerations for data management and use are discussed, including the use of the agricultural mask, spatial aggregation and disaggregation, and the computational requirements for working with the raw data sources.

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Conservation tillage has been widely recommended for implementation in the U.S. for its environmental benefits. The effect of conservation tillage on crop yield is a subject of continued concern amongst farmers who have not adopted the practice. Previous empirical research on the yield performance of conservation tillage is largely limited to field trials, while observational studies remain scant. This article estimates the effects of conservation tillage on county average corn and soybean yields using remotely-sensed tillage practice adoption data in 646 counties across 12 Corn Belt states from 2005 to 2018. Exploiting deviations from county-specific means in the data, we find no evidence that conservation tillage negatively affects corn or soybean yields. We also find that it can mitigate the impact of drought on soybean yields. We explore how wider use of conservation tillage might offset the increase in drought-induced downside risk to soybean yields under climate change projections from five global climate models.

This paper focuses on labor market outcomes of young college graduates in the US, analyzing the nexus between migration, overeducation, and economic conditions. A series of overeducation probit models are estimated, using data from the March Supplements of the Current Population Survey, 2000-2014. We find that labor migrants are less prone to being overeducated as unemployment rates increase. For stayers, in contrast, we find a positive link between overeducation propensities and unemployment rates. As a result of this response divergence, overeducation probabilities of stayers exceed those of movers during times of medium to high unemployment rates. The results are robust to various definitions of overeducation and various sample restrictions.