Alan Randall - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Alan Randall

Sustainability, 2025

Weak sustainability (WS) requires that the inclusive wealth (IW) of a place (e.g., the world, a n... more Weak sustainability (WS) requires that the inclusive wealth (IW) of a place (e.g., the world, a nation, or a sub-national region) be non-decreasing over a long time. The WS framework provides a more complete account of the sustainability of a place than do sustainability indicators or conventional economic measures, such as gross domestic product. However, while many decisions that affect sustainability are made at regional and local levels, the abstract theory of WS was developed without explicit recognition of the porosity of geographic boundaries and the interdependencies of regions. In this paper, we make three contributions: a carefully reasoned defense of IW per capita as the WS criterion, an improved understanding of the relationship between mobility, labor productivity, and regional economic growth, and an empirical application to US counties that demonstrates the feasibility of empirical regional WS assessment by summarizing Jones' research. This analysis, extending the framework developed by Arrow and co-authors, accounts for more region-specific factors related to population, most notably the labor productivity component of health capital, and assesses IW per capita for all 50 states and 3108 counties in the US from 2010 to 2017. These improved methods revealed substantially more states and counties that were not WS relative to results using the Arrow et al. framework. The not-WS counties exhibited a distinct rural bias, as regional scientists have suspected but, nevertheless, the majority of rural counties were WS. Our work demonstrated that regional WS assessment is feasible, produces results that are consistent with prior expectations based on reasoning and empirical research, and has the potential to provide fresh insights into longstanding questions of regional development.

Use Value under Uncertainty: Is There a "Correct" Measure?

Land Economics, Nov 1, 1991

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about

Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, Dec 11, 2008

Cooperative provision of erosion protection: An empirical analysis of the Lake Erie shore

Coastal Management, 1994

Officials involved in coastal erosion management have a wide set of policy options at their dispo... more Officials involved in coastal erosion management have a wide set of policy options at their disposal. A subjective evaluation of each management option would estimate the benefits received by different groups of coastal users, establish the cost of the policy option, and formulate an optimal method to finance the policy. This article presents an example of this management approach via

Using Surveys to Value Public Goods: The Contingent Valuation Method

Land Economics, Feb 1, 1990

Using Surveys to Value Public Goods: The Contingent Valuation Method Robert Cameron Mitchell and ... more Using Surveys to Value Public Goods: The Contingent Valuation Method Robert Cameron Mitchell and Richard I Carson Economists and others have long believed that by balancing the costs of such public goods as air quality and wilderness areas against their benefits, informed ...

Contingent valuation: an introduction

Landscape Research, Mar 1, 1994

Thinking about the value of biodiversity

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 26, 1994

... Page 294. 278 Alan Randall are rational? Norton (1989) conducts a Rawlsian thought experiment... more ... Page 294. 278 Alan Randall are rational? Norton (1989) conducts a Rawlsian thought experiment where all potentially living things are represented behind the veil of ignorance, although it is recognized that all but those born humans will lose rationality at birth. ...

International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, Aug 13, 2009

The precautionary principle (PP) is fundamentally a claim that acting to avoid and/or mitigate th... more The precautionary principle (PP) is fundamentally a claim that acting to avoid and/or mitigate threats of serious harm should be accorded high priority in public policy. Over the last three decades, governments and international bodies have endorsed it in principle, and some of them have incorporated it into some areas of policy practice. Yet, PP is controversial in policy circles, public discussion and scholarly discourse. Here the PP literature is reviewed from the perspective of economics, where the tendency is to see theory and methods for rational decision-making under risk and uncertainty as well-established and risk management tools as well developed, and to view the PP with some circumspection. Following a brief introduction to PP concepts, history, applications, and controversies, I review and critique the standard economic approach to decision-making and risk management (here labeled ordinary risk management, ORM), identifying areas of incompleteness especially in the treatment of disproportionate and asymmetric threats. After reviewing some of the more prominent PP controversies in the scholarly literature, I suggest a conceptual framework for a PP that may withstand the major criticisms levied against the PP and make a unique and valid contribution to a decision and risk management arsenal that includes ORM. The framework relates the nature of the threat, the evidence, and the remedy indicated; and each of these elements is discussed in some detail. The scope of this PP is identified in general terms and distinguished from the quantity restrictions and regulatory safety margins that often serve as practical heuristics when ORM-based policies are implemented. Because the PP is clearly identified as a principle, I discuss the role of principles in policy design and implementation, and conclude with some suggestions as to how this PP could guide policy and management.

Making the Environment Count: Selected Essays of Alan Randall

... series include: Designing Effective Environmental Regimes The Key Conditions J0rgen Wettestad... more ... series include: Designing Effective Environmental Regimes The Key Conditions J0rgen Wettestad Environmental Networks A Framework for Economic Decision-Making and Policy Analysis Kanwalroop Kathy Dhanda, Anna Nagurney and Padma Ramanujam The International ...

Food, Energy, and Water: Resilience and the Governance in Multi-Scale, Multi-Region, Multi-Actor Settings

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2019

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Feb 1, 2016

The University of Sydney MOTIVATION • Decision making on sustainable forestry needs to consider v... more The University of Sydney MOTIVATION • Decision making on sustainable forestry needs to consider values of forest ecosystem services. • Land use land cover (LULC) is an essential determinant of forest ecosystem services. • Forest governance regime has a defining effect on changes in LULC. • Therefore, studying the linkage between forest governance and provision of forest ecosystem services is necessary.

Making the Environment Count

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 1999

Making the Environment Count brings together, in one accessible volume, an outstanding selection ... more Making the Environment Count brings together, in one accessible volume, an outstanding selection of Alan Randall’s essays published over the past 30 years. It explores ideas on making the environment count from a conceptual perspective and addresses a range of topics pertinent to the study of environmental economics including:

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Feb 1, 2015

2. Chance, because we do not understand the system that generates outcomesambiguity … perhaps som... more 2. Chance, because we do not understand the system that generates outcomesambiguity … perhaps some of the uncertain6es that influence the system have not been iden6fiedunknown unknowns 3. Chance, because the system that generates outcomes is itself changing The system may be characterized by o Unknown unknowns o Gross ignorance -the outcome set is unbounded o The possibility of really big surprises • It is not easy to dis:nguish chance types 2 and 3 in real :me • We oSen are tempted to analyze types 2 and 3 with type--1 apparatus Learning before we let the genie out of the boUle Tes6ng protocols Adap6ve learning Passive -learning as ac6ng on best available info, and wai6ng for nature to reveal itself Ac6ve -probing the system purposefully

Methods for Economic Valuation of Environmental Goods and Services

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Jun 1, 2009

Land resources and land markets

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 1985

Publisher Summary Land is a central concept not only in the technical sciences and in professions... more Publisher Summary Land is a central concept not only in the technical sciences and in professions such as engineering, geology, agriculture, and forestry but also in law and in the social sciences. This chapter discusses the economics of land. There exists an ancient and persistent suspicion that land is not just any commodity or factor of production. Land has played a prominent role in the development of general economic theory, and it retains a special position in some current renditions thereof. There is recurrent debate whether any economic theory that treats land as nothing special can be valid. In the most general versions of the mainstream economic theory, land is treated as a factor of production, and the debate revolves around whether it is useful to reserve a special place for land in formulating the aggregate production function. Land and natural resource concepts remain important for many special purposes in economics. The Ricardian concept of economic rent remains durable and finds application in areas as diverse as land economics, location theory, and welfare change measurement. Agricultural economics, natural resource economics, urban economics, and regional economics are important areas of specialization within economics, and the classic concept of land, which is appropriately updated, plays an important role in each.

Property Institutions and Economic Behavior

Journal of Economic Issues, Mar 1, 1978

It is the purpose of this essay to identify and evaluate the contributions of neoinstitutionalist... more It is the purpose of this essay to identify and evaluate the contributions of neoinstitutionalist-heterodox economists to the elucidation of the complex interrelationships between property institutions and economic performance. As the term neoinstitutionalist-heterodox suggests, this is a somewhat ill-defined group, the product of diverse intellectual influences. In order to place these economists and their contributions in perspective, it is necessary, first, to consider how concepts of property have been handled by earlier schools of economic thought and by contemporary noninstitutional economists. John Locke, Adam Smith, and the classical economists, the neoclassical economists, and the Chicagoans developed and sharpened an economic theory which found social virtue in the outcome of myriad independent decisions, each based on individual self-interest.' While self-interest was the motivating force behind individual decisions, individual ownership and control of resources were essential in order to permit the decentralization of allocative decisions. The competitive, laissez-faire, free enterprise system, which has served generations of mainstream economists as both a subject for study and a utopian ideal, requires the existence and wide distribution of private property. Not only does the laissez-faire system guarantee all manner of desirable

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Dec 1, 1985

appropriate analytical and prescriptive response to particular constellations *of policy issues, ... more appropriate analytical and prescriptive response to particular constellations *of policy issues, but also about the uses and limitations of economics as a thought system in the policy arena) This must be disquieting and disappointing to many among us, who would regard the emergence of an integrated and cohesive (as opposed to diverse and fractious) resource economics as evidence of its maturation. It is my purpose here to argue that the disagreements among us go deeper than mere disputes about priorities and tactics for doing resource economics, where all participants share a common vision of what resource economics is and should be. Rather, these disagreements extend beyond alternative conceptions of resource economics to fundamentally opposing methodologies, i.e., conceptions of knowledge and how to get it. While the proximate foci of disagreement will shift over time, there is literally no good reason to expect an ultimate resolution of intradisciplinary conflict and convergence of viewpoints. Finally, I

Agricultural Economics Library There is some tendency in the literature to treat benefit cost ana... more Agricultural Economics Library There is some tendency in the literature to treat benefit cost analysis (BCA) as an extension to the public sector of the economic feasibility studies long used in the private sector. In the folk language, this idea has its counterpart in the notion that it would be desirable to run government like a business.

The IUP Journal of Applied Economics, 2005

The Chinese grain policy reforms were implemented in 1994. The grain price subsidies were elimina... more The Chinese grain policy reforms were implemented in 1994. The grain price subsidies were eliminated which led to a substantial grain price increase. This paper examines the welfare changes associated with the grain policy reforms. All welfare measures unambiguously show that the consumers became worse off after the implementation of the grain policy reforms. More interesting, however, is the comparison between the rich and poor consumers. Evidence suggests that the rich lost more than the poor in monetary terms. Finally, the analysis shows that income inequality in China went down after the grain policy reforms.

Sustainability, 2025

Use Value under Uncertainty: Is There a "Correct" Measure?

Land Economics, Nov 1, 1991

Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, Dec 11, 2008

Cooperative provision of erosion protection: An empirical analysis of the Lake Erie shore

Coastal Management, 1994

Using Surveys to Value Public Goods: The Contingent Valuation Method

Land Economics, Feb 1, 1990

Contingent valuation: an introduction

Landscape Research, Mar 1, 1994

Thinking about the value of biodiversity

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Aug 26, 1994

International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, Aug 13, 2009

Making the Environment Count: Selected Essays of Alan Randall

Food, Energy, and Water: Resilience and the Governance in Multi-Scale, Multi-Region, Multi-Actor Settings

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Dec 1, 2019

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Feb 1, 2016

Making the Environment Count

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 1999

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Feb 1, 2015

Methods for Economic Valuation of Environmental Goods and Services

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Jun 1, 2009

Land resources and land markets

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 1985

Property Institutions and Economic Behavior

Journal of Economic Issues, Mar 1, 1978

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Dec 1, 1985

The IUP Journal of Applied Economics, 2005

Risk and Precaution, 2011

The precautionary principle is distinct in important ways from risk aversion as characterized in ... more The precautionary principle is distinct in important ways from risk aversion as characterized in utilitarian models.

Recent research challenges the foundations of regulatory policy for pharmaceutical drugs and medi... more Recent research challenges the foundations of regulatory policy for pharmaceutical drugs and medical treatments in a novel way: rather than a single risky treatment, the regulator should prefer a menu of treatments with ambiguous risks (Viscusi and Zeckhauser 2015). Then, patients would have opportunity to try treatments, eventually settling on the one that works best for them. I examine this argument and offer three conclusions. (1) Patient heterogeneity – i.e. patients respond differently to a given treatment – creates the matching problem that motivates trial-and-switch strategies, and provides the ambiguity that drives the potential gains therefrom. However, trial and switch is not an unmixed blessing. (2) Ambiguity-seeking policy, over and above that provided by patient heterogeneity, would be accomplished by reducing sample sizes and/or replications in pre-approval testing. The mean level of acceptable risk could be maintained, but confidence limits would expand, increasing the risk to individual patients. In effect, this is just another proposal for less regulatory caution regarding treatment risks and more attention to risk-risk trade-offs, as suggested by the quality-adjusted life-years, QALY, framework. (3) The case for risk-neutral regulation of treatment safety should be taken seriously in cases of devastating and life-threatening afflictions. Otherwise it fails, most obviously in the case of treatments for relatively minor ailments, which treatments dominate shelf space at drug stores and advertising in the media.

Environmental economics has been an increasingly significant focus for AARES and its members. Sig... more Environmental economics has been an increasingly significant focus for AARES and its members. Significant contributions began in the 1960's and 70's with conceptual insights into the causes for market failure and the design of appropriate policy responses. The practical orientation of the profession led to the development and application of analytical tools in a wide array of contexts. Prominent amongst these have been non-market valuation, market based policy instruments and the private sector provision of environmental protection. Interaction with natural and social scientists has been a feature. Cross fertilization has resulted to define emergent fields such as behavioural economics and ecological economics. Multidisciplinary endeavours have also grown in areas such as ecosystem service provision and integrated assessment modelling. These areas are likely to expand further with the ongoing contribution of core elements of the economics discipline.

AgEconSearch, 2011

Because original high-quality non-market valuation studies can be expensive, perhaps prohibitivel... more Because original high-quality non-market valuation studies can be expensive, perhaps prohibitively so, benefits transfer (BT) approaches are often used for valuing, e.g., the outputs of multifunctional agriculture. Here we focus on the use of BT functions, a preferred method, and address an under-appreciated problem-variable selection uncertainty-and demonstrate a conceptually superior method of resolving it. We show that the standard method of value-function BT, using the full estimated model, may generate BT values that are too sensitive to insignificant variables, whereas models reduced by backward elimination of insignificant variables pay no attention to insignificant variables that may in fact have some influence on values. Rather than searching for the best single model for BT, Bayesian model averaging (BMA) is attentive to all of the variables that are a priori relevant, but uses posterior model probabilities to give systematically lower weight to less significant variables. We estimate a full value model for wetlands in the US, and then calculate BT values from the full model, a reduced model, and by BMA. Variable selection uncertainty is exemplified by regional variables for wetland location. Predicted values from the full model are quite sensitive to region; reduced models pay no attention to regional variables; and the BMA predictions are attentive to region but give it relatively low weight. However, the suite of insignificant RHS variables, taken together, have non-trivial influence on BT values. BMA predicted values, like values from reduced models, have much narrower confidence intervals than values calculated from the full model.

Engineering and Ecosystems - Seeking Synergies Toward a Nature-Positive World, 2023

Ecosystems services (ES) and the natural assets that produce them are valued by people. Not all o... more Ecosystems services (ES) and the natural assets that produce them are valued by people. Not all of these values are reflected in markets, but all of them contribute in some ways to human wellbeing. Economic values of ES and natural assets relate in rigorous ways to the economic concept of welfare, which has been shaped by market logic. The advantage of this approach is that efficiency is defined consistently in the public sector, where it is reflected in cost benefit analysis (CBA) and in the private sector given efficient markets. The benefits and costs of many environmental initiatives have market and nonmarket dimensions, and methods of nonmarket valuation are introduced and discussed. None of this is free of controversy: market actors are often skeptical of nonmarket values, and CBA has critics protesting that market logic dismisses values arising from nonutilitarian ethical stances while paying too much attention to the preferences of the well-off. Price and value can be harnessed in payment programs and markets that incentivize enhanced provision of ecosystem services. Two such programs, the US sulfur oxides cap-and-trade program and the Australian experiments with conservation auctions, are discussed in some detail. These kinds of markets are intended to serve the public interest in providing ecosystem services efficiently, but they can succeed only if they also provide opportunities for cost-savings and/or business expansion for private operators large and small. Keywords • Environmental services • Cost benefit analysis • Nonmarket valuation • Environmental markets Access provided by Ohio State University Libraries Download chapter PDF