Essays on Resource and Environmental Economics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment, Laboratory Experiment, and Scenario Forecasting

This dissertation examines impacts of product information and environmental events on individual behavior and the economy. This is done using a causal inference econometric approach, an eye-tracking laboratory experiment, and scenario forecasting. The first essay evaluates the effects of unit-based pricing (UBP) of municipal solid waste and a mandatory recycling (MR) policy on waste reduction, recycling, and illegal waste dumping in Taiwan. The results suggest that the UBP policy curbed the quantity of unsorted waste and increased disposal of biodegradable waste but did not significantly increase the quantity of recycling. In contrast, the MR policy boosted biodegradable waste and recycling but did not necessarily decrease the amount of unsorted waste. The UBP policy also stimulated a temporary increase in illegal dumping. The second essay applies an eye-tracking experiment to investigate how consumers react to honey product origin, adulteration, and review information. The experimental results suggest that the certified local honey seal and honey adulteration information independently raise WTP for local honey but do not interact to jointly raise WTP. The results also show that negative honey product reviews cause a much larger reduction in WTP than the increase produced by positive reviews. The third essay reports on an investigation of how rice yield increases over time are influenced by climate, CO2 fertilization, and research investment. To allow identification of CO2 effects, the study integrates FAO reported yield data with data from the free air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiments. The result suggests that an increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration has made a significant contribution to rice yield increases, amounting to about 52% of the observed rice yield growth. The result also shows that increasing precipitation and temperature cause reductions in rice yields, implying that CO2 mitigation and climate change are yield growth depressing factors. On the other hand, the result indicates that research investments increase yields, and this finding raises a potential need for more investment in agricultural research and development if society is to offset CO2 mitigation and climate change effects