Policies for mitigating the eutrophication of coastal waters typically focus on reducing land-based emissions. Fish and fisheries management have been suggested as a potentially efficient complementary measure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cost-effective achievement of targets for coastal water transparency with the help of adjusted harvesting strategies for predatory fish, biomanipulation of prey fish, and nutrient load mitigation, taking natural variations in water color into account. We develop an empirical steady-state bioeconomic model and apply it to two case areas along the Swedish Baltic Sea. Results show that prey fish stocks, which negatively affect water transparency, are reduced to a minimum in one study area, while an interior solution with a positive harvest is found in the other. Policies targeting fish management can be relevant for locally tailored strategies to mitigate eutrophication.

Climate change is expected to affect precipitation and temperature, with consequences for water availability and sanitation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how precipitation and temperature affect households’ decisions on sanitation facilities that vary in their dependence on water for operation. To this end, we use household-level panel data from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey in combination with location-matched, high-resolution weather data. Employing a panel fixed-effects regression model, the findings reveal that higher precipitation is significantly associated with an 18% lower (higher) likelihood of using improved (unimproved) sanitation facilities, respectively. Higher temperature has the opposite effect. Both precipitation and temperature have heterogeneous impacts: the effect of precipitation is significant only in male-headed households, while temperature affects the use of shared improved facilities in towns and urban areas. One potential explanation for the influence of precipitation is that heavy precipitation can disrupt access to piped water and sanitation networks by causing physical damage to infrastructure. Furthermore, higher temperature may accelerate the decomposition of solids in septic tanks, thereby reducing the need for water. These findings could help policymakers and practitioners implement evidence-based sanitation interventions to increase access to improved sanitation facilities.

Land use conversion entails trade-offs across multiple ecosystem services of wildlife. Wildlife is often characterized by spatiotemporal dynamics that affect this trade-off. The aim of this paper is to examine the net benefits from changes in the land use composition, given the consequences for the benefits provided by a harvested migratory prey species. The study is applied to land use and roe deer hunting in Sweden. We examine the spatial dynamics of land use, predator populations, prey, and prey hunting, by developing a bioeconomic model that is estimated using a dynamic spatial-lag model (dynamic SAR). The results show that a conversion of coniferous and broadleaf forests into grazing land increases game harvests and could offset the negative impact of large carnivores on hunting outcomes. Yet, such conversion is likely to be associated with a net social cost. In contrast, there are both increased game harvests and net economic gains from conversion of coniferous forests into broadleaves. Our findings are informative for policymaking on land use and wildlife management.

Climate change alters precipitation patterns and temperature. The impact thereof on agricultural yields varies across production seasons and crops. The purpose of this study is to examine the nonlinear effect of seasonal precipitation on the yields of winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, and spring barley using Swedish county-level data from 1979 to 2021. To this end, we use Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood regressions with high-dimensional fixed effects. Results show that increased precipitation during the early growing season enhances crop yields except for spring barley. Increased precipitation in the second, main growing season negatively affects all crops, but the magnitude of the impact is small compared to that in the early growing season. The impacts are generally more beneficial in the southern part of the country. Irrigation of winter wheat in the spring could be profitable for farms that own irrigation equipment, but for spring crops this would only be the case under extremely dry conditions. Results point to the need for well-tailored climate adaptation strategies.

Climate change suggests the use of carbon dioxide removal technologies, such as soil carbon sequestration in agriculture, to complement mitigation efforts. However, there could be challenges with implementing sequestration measures due to transaction costs, such as farm expenses for research, information, and planning. The purpose of this study is to investigate how transaction costs affect the cost-effective supply of carbon sequestration from cover crops in Denmark. We develop a model of the optimal adoption of cover crops, accounting for farm spatial heterogeneity and potentially nonlinear transaction costs to adoption. In the presence of transaction costs and at a carbon price of 220 <euro>/tCO2e (suggested as an appropriate level of a CO2e tax for Danish agriculture) increased cover crop cultivation will only offset 15.4 tCO2e per year, corresponding to 0.002% of the Danish agricultural emissions reduction target. Assuming zero transaction costs overestimates the annual sequestration supply at the given price by 13,030 tCO2e. Total abatement and transaction costs for cover cropping are on average 78 <euro> per ha and transaction costs can represent up to 90% of total costs for low carbon prices. Transaction costs also alter the cost-effective distribution of carbon sequestration across space and farm size groups.

Livestock productivity and profitability are threatened by livestock diseases. In this study, we examine farmers' revealed preferences for testing and treating gastrointestinal parasites in sheep in Sweden, taking into account the sequential structure of these decisions. We control for preventive measures, as well as the potential impact of wildlife–livestock disease transmission on farmers' decisions. A zero-inflated ordered probit model is used to estimate the determinants of farmers' decisions, and we cross-validate the robustness of the results to alternative model assumptions. Results from the regressions are used to calculate the consequences of these choices for farmers' profits. The results show that treatment decisions are informed by faecal testing, while both testing and treatment are influenced by the grazing practices, the size of the operation and access to information. Contrary to expectations from the conceptual framework, preventive management practices are positively correlated with treatment. Farmers take multiple risk factors into account when deciding on testing, but we do not find that the same factors affect the outcome of treatment. The economic impacts are small and suggest that treatment without prior testing is more profitable for the farmer than informed treatment. If widespread treatment increases drug resistance, this could motivate policies that encourage testing.

Climate change is expected to induce climate variability. This paper aims to investigate how climate variability affects households’ decisions on sanitation facilities that differ in how much they rely on water to function. We use household-level panel data from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey and location-matched, high-resolution weather data to construct climate variability variables. Using a panel fixed effects regression model, we find that increased precipitation variability is associated with a significant shift away from using improved sanitation facilities, in shared ones, toward unimproved sanitation facilities. Temperature variability, however, has the opposite impact. Both precipitation variability and temperature variability have heterogeneous impacts: the effect of precipitation variability is significant only in maleheaded households, while temperature variability particularly encourages the use of shared improved facilities in towns and urban areas. One explanation for the impact of precipitation variability is that heavy rain reduces access to piped water and sanitation networks due to physical damage. Moreover, climate variability reduces incentives to purchase water and water-related infrastructure. This occurs because precipitation variability restricts access to inputs post-flooding, while temperature variability aids the breakdown of solids in septic tanks, which would otherwise require a larger volume of water. These findings could help policymakers and practitioners implement evidence-based sanitation interventions to increase access to improved sanitation facilities. 

Greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector can be reduced by decreasing fuel use by different means, and by blending biofuels into fossil fuels. A cost-effective combination of these measures is determined by spatially specific characteristics such as fuel demand, feedstock production costs, and greenhouse gas emissions from the feedstock production. We developed a spatially explicit model to explore the role of reduced transport fuel use and increased use of domestically produced biofuel, respectively, in a cost-effective policy for greenhouse gas abatement. The model is applied to domestic lignocellulosic biofuel from agricultural land, gasoline, and diesel for road transport in Sweden. The results show that the use of biofuel is particularly cost-effective under low and modestly stringent abatement targets. For more stringent targets, decreased fuel end use dominates the abatement portfolio. Replacing the emissions target by a biofuel production target increases the marginal cost of reducing emissions by up to 250%. With the current vehicle fleet, technical constraints on blendin possibilities limit the role of biofuels at higher target levels.

Several countries have imposed either a ban or a tax on single-use plastic packaging, motivated by their contribution to marine plastic pollution. This may lead consumers to opt for similar unregulated substitutes, potentially undermining or even counteracting the intended effect of the policy instrument. The purpose of this study is to theoretically and empirically compare the environmental and welfare effects of the first-best Pigouvian taxes on both plastic bags and a substitute (paper bags), with two alternative second-best policy instruments: a tax on plastic products alone, and a common uniform tax on all packaging materials. The empirical analysis accounts for two different types of environmental externalities from the use of both bag types: marine pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. It also compares results for two countries, Denmark and the USA, which differ in the demand for plastic and paper bags. The theoretical analysis shows that a unilateral tax on plastic bags should equal the marginal environmental damage of plastic bags minus a fraction of the marginal environmental cost of paper bags, hence being lower than the Pigouvian tax. The optimal common tax should equal a weighted average of the marginal environmental damage of the two bag types and would be lower than the Pigouvian tax on plastics if the marginal external cost of plastic bags exceeds that for paper bags. The empirical analysis shows that for default parameters, the variation in tax level across the studied scenarios is small. It also shows that if Pigouvian taxes cannot be implemented, a common uniform tax on both bag types would result in a higher welfare gain than a tax on plastic bags alone. Sensitivity analysis reveals that the level of the second-best taxes and their associated environmental and welfare impacts are sensitive to assumptions regarding the littering rate and decay rate of plastic bags in the marine environment.