James Roumasset

Information Spillovers Among Resource Extractors ∗ (2007)

John Lynham, James Roumasset

Whilst the study of resource extraction under uncertainty has a long history in resource economics, there has been less attention paid to endogenous efforts to reduce uncertainty through learning and...

FOOD Insecurity and Stochastic Aspects of Poverty (1996)

Anderson, Jock, Roumasset , James

Most works on food security have a macroeconomic orientation, whereas most discussions of famine are rather microeconomic. The intention here is to seek a more unified approach to the economic issues...

INVESTING in Agriculturally-Led Growth: The Philippine Case (1992)

Roumasset, James

Much of the debate on the role of agriculture in economic development centers on whether agriculture should be taxed or subsidized. The classical prescription for economic development is investment...

HOW to Facilitate or Stifle Economic Development: The Role of Agriculture in Indonesia and the Philippines (1992)

James, William, Roumasset , James

Strikingly different patterns of agricultural growth and widely divergent results in terlnsof rural income. poverty. and employment have cmcrged in Southeast Asia. In the Philippiies, with...

Decentralization and local public goods: getting the incentives right (1989)

Roumasset , James

The paper addresses the nature and locus of appropriate government control in the provision of collective services. It suggests some useful principles for determining organizational structures with...

MARKETS, institutions and family size in rural Philippine households (1986)

Evenson, Robert, Roumasset , James

In poorly developed market economies, high transactions and related costs, produce a pattern of market organizations with heavy relianceon traditional institutions for handling transactions.The...

Discontinuous Extraction of a Nonrenewable Resource

Eric Iksoon Im, Ujjayant Chakravorty, James Roumasset

This paper examines the sequence of optimal extraction of nonrenewable resources in the presence of multiple demands. We provide conditions under which extraction of a nonrenewable resource may be...

Optimal Allocation of Ground and Surface Water in O'ahu: Water Wars in Paradise

James Moncur, James Roumasset, Rodney Smith

Despite abundant rainfall and groundwater resources, the State of Hawai'i has managed to erect so many barriers to efficient use that serious conflicts have erupted over use rights to water. In what...

Specialization and Nonrenewable Resources: Ricardo meets Ricardo

Ujjayant Chakravorty, Darrell Krulce, James Roumasset

The one demand Hotelling model fails to explain the observed specialization of nonrenewable resources in specific end-uses. We develop a model with multiple demands and multiple resources and grades....

Discontinuous Extraction of a Nonrenewable Resource

Eric Iksoon Im, Ujjayant Chakravorty, James Roumasset

This paper examines the optimal extraction sequence of nonrenewable resources in the presence of multiple demands. We provide conditions under which extraction of a nonrenewable resource may be...

Valuing indirect ecosystem services: the case of tropical watersheds

Kaiser, Brooks, Roumasset, James

Mitigating the harmful effects of development projects and industries (negative environmentalism) is inadequate, especially in resource-dependent economies whose resources are at risk from other...

Population and Agricultural Development

James Roumasset

Thinking about population as a driver of agricultural development provides insights into induced technical and institutional change, whether it be Esther Boserup's declining fallow period, modern...

From Rites to Rights: the Co-evolution of Political, Economic and Social Structures

Brooks Kaiser, James Roumasset

It is the charge of economic history not only to explain the economic past, but to use it to enrich and develop economic theory (North, 1994). In paleoeconomics, theory plays the additional role of...

Optimal Conjunctive Use of Surface and Groundwater with Recharge and Return Flows: Dynamic and Spatial Patterns

Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin, James Roumasset

This paper derives the efficiency price patterns for a comprehensive spatial and dynamic model of conjunctive water use incorporating conveyance losses, canal return flows, and groundwater recharge....

Confuser Cost

Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin, James Roumasset

The terms “royalty”, “marginal user cost”, and “scarcity rent” are often used interchangeably in resource economics, resulting in considerable confusion. We suggest distinct and...

Coastal Groundwater Management with Nearshore Resource Interactions

Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin, James Roumasset, Thomas Kae’o Duarte

This paper develops a regional hydrologic-ecologic-economic model of groundwater use and a nearshore ecosystem. Particularly, we model coastal groundwater management and its effects on discharge,...

Beyond the Lamppost: Optimal Prevention and Control of the Brown Treesnake in Hawaii

Kimberly Burnett, Sean D’Evelyn, Brooks Kaiser, Porntawee Nantamanasikarn, James Roumasset

In this paper, an integrated model for the prevention and control of an invasive species is developed. The generality of the model allows it to be used for both existing and potential threats to the...

Delaying the Catastrophic Arrival of the Brown Tree Snake to Hawaii

Kimberly Burnett, James Roumasset, Yacov Tsur

This paper develops a two-stage model for the optimal management of a potential invasive species. The arrival of an invasive species is modeled as an irreversible event with an uncertain arrival...

Is China’s Growth Sustainable?

James Roumasset, Kimberly Burnett, Hua Wang

A central pillar of the sustainability movement is the call to include environmental accounting in standard measures of economic performance. This increased transparency would, in principle, mitigate...

Prevention, Eradication, and Containment of Invasive Species: Illustrations from Hawaii

Kimberly Burnett, Brooks Kaiser, Basharat A. Pitafi, James Roumasset

Invasive species change ecosystems and the economic services such ecosystems provide. Optimal policy will minimize the expected damages and costs of prevention and control. We seek to explain policy...

Labor: Decisions, Contracts and Organization

Roumasset, James, Lee, Sang-Hyop, Robert Evenson, Prabhu Pingali

We assess the development economics of on-farm employment with an eye toward policy implications. What do we know and what additional research is needed? The older tradition of labor market dualism...

Risk aversion as effort incentive: A correction and prima facie test of the moral hazard theory of share tenancy

Mark DeWeaver, James Roumasset

We show that Stiglitz's (1974) principal-agency theory of share tenancy does not imply, as alleged, that the optimal tenant share is less than one for risk-averse tenants nor that the share decreases...

A Correction and Prima Facie Test of the Canonical Theory of Share Tenancy

James Roumasset, Mark DeWeaver

We show that Stiglitz’s (1974) classic principal-agency theory of share tenancy does not imply, as commonly supposed, that the incidence of share tenancy increases with the tenant’s degree of...

Specialization and Nonrenewable Resources: Ricardo Meets Ricardo

Ujjayant Chakravorty, Darrell Krulce, James Roumasset

The one-demand Hotelling model fails to explain the observed specialization of nonrenewable resources. We develop a model with multiple demands and resources to show that specialization of resources...

Coasean Economics and the Evolution of Marine Property in Hawaii

Brooks Kaiser, James Roumasset

The standard view that the absence of property rights is inefficient contradicts the Coasean proposition that the relative efficiency of different institutions depends on their ability to economize...

Control of Invasive Species: Lessons from Miconia in Hawaii

Brooks Kaiser, Kimberly Burnett, James Roumasset

Once established, invasive species can rapidly and irreversibly alter ecosystems and degrade the value of ecosystem services. Optimal control of an exotic pest solves for a trajectory of removals...

Coasean economics and the evolution of marine property in Hawaii

Brooks Kaiser, James Roumasset

The standard view that the absence of property rights is inefficient contradicts the Coasean proposition that the relative efficiency of different institutions depends on their ability to economize...

The Economics of Agricultural Development: What Have We Learned? Processes

James Roumasset

Agricultural development thinking has gone through several stages of fad and fancy, often without an understanding of previous fallacies. Its current doldrums are unfortunate given the unrivaled...

Endogenous Substitution among Energy Resources and Global Warming.

Chakravorty, Ujjayant, Roumasset, James, Tse, Kinping

A model of global warming with endogenous substitution of energy resources and multiple energy demands is developed. It suggests that, if historical rates of cost reduction in the production of solar...

Optimal Green Taxation with Both Emission and Commodity Taxes

Pitafi, Basharat A.K., Roumasset, James

Several authors have argued that the second-best environmental tax on a "dirty good" is less than the marginal emission damage associated with its consumption. These studies limit their analysis to...

Resource management for Sustainable Development of Island Economies

Majah-Leah Ravago, James Roumasset, Kimberly Burnett

What is the role of resource management in sustaining competitiveness for island economies such as the Republic of the Philippines and Hawaii? We review the history of thought on sustainable resource...

The Political Economy of Corruption: A Philippine Illustrationa

James Roumasset

This essay explores the nature, causes, and consequences of corruption as it pertains to entire regimes. Grand corruption is modeled as a type of unproductive rent-seeking at the highest levels of...

Control of Invasive Species: Lessons from Miconia in Hawaii

Kaiser, Brooks, Burnett, Kimberly, Roumasset, James

Once established, invasive species can rapidly and irreversibly alter ecosystems and degrade the value of ecosystem services. Optimal control of an exotic pest solves for a trajectory of removals...

PARETO-IMPROVING WATER MANAGEMENT OVER SPACE AND TIME

Pitafi, Basharat, Roumasset, James

Proposals for marginal cost water pricing have often been found to be politically infeasible because current users will have to pay a higher price even though future users will be better off. We show...

Renewable Resource Management with Stock Externalities: Coastal Aquifers and Submarine Groundwater Discharge

Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin, James Roumasset, Thomas Kaeo Duarte, Kimberly Burnett

This paper develops a hydrologic-ecologic-economic model of groundwater use. Particularly, we model coastal groundwater management and its effects on submarine groundwater discharge, nearshore marine...

The Economics of Agricultural Development: What Have We Learned?

Roumasset, James

The history of thought in the field of Economic Development and corresponding development programs have gone through a series of identifiable phases. Phases of theory and praxis in Agricultural...

Environmental Policy Issues for Sustainable Economic Development in China

Burnett, Kimberly, Roumasset, James

A central pillar of the sustainability movement is the call to include environmental accounting in standard measures of economic performance. This increased transparency would, in principle, mitigate...

EXPLAINING VARIATIONS IN SHARE CONTRACTS: LAND QUALITY, POPULATION PRESSURE AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

James, William, Roumasset, James

Substantial variations in landowner's share under sharecropping arrangements are documented. Partial relationships between landowner's share and land quality and between landowner's share and...

A new institutional approach to pro-poor agricultural development: Lessons from Asia

Roumasset, James

Dr. Naya has been one of only two instructors of a course unique to the University of Hawaii called, "The Economics of Cooperation." He was an early observer of deliberation councils and other...

ESTIMATING THE RISK OF ALTERNATE TECHNIQUES: NITROGENOUS FERTILIZATION OF RICE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Roumasset, James

The problem investigated is how to estimate expected profits and the risk of using nitrogenous fertilizer for purposes of making fertilizer recommendations and explaining farmer decisions. Three...

Prevention, Eradication, and Containment of Invasive Species: Illustrations from Hawaii

Burnett, Kimberly, Kaiser, Brooks, Pitafi, Basharat A., Roumasset, James

Invasive species change ecosystems and the economic services such ecosystems provide. Optimal policy will minimize the expected damages and costs of prevention and control. We seek to explain policy...

MARKETS, institutions and family size in rural Philippine households

Evenson, Robert, Roumasset , James

In poorly developed market economies, high transactions and related costs, produce a pattern of market organizations with heavy relianceon traditional institutions for handling transactions.The...

The Evolution of Private Property in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii

Croix, Sumner J. La, Roumasset, James

Population pressure has been identified as a major force behind the transition from traditional property rights in land to exclusive, transferable property rights. This article examines the case of...

Integrated Management of the South Oahu Aquifer System: A Spatial and Temporal Approach

James Roumasset, Christopher Wada

Although the economics of groundwater management is typically modelled as a single aquifer serving a single group of consumers, resource managers must often decide how to manage multiple aquifers...

INVESTING in Agriculturally-Led Growth: The Philippine Case

Roumasset, James

Much of the debate on the role of agriculture in economic development centers on whether agriculture should be taxed or subsidized. The classical prescription for economic development is investment...

HOW to Facilitate or Stifle Economic Development: The Role of Agriculture in Indonesia and the Philippines

James, William, Roumasset , James

Strikingly different patterns of agricultural growth and widely divergent results in terlnsof rural income. poverty. and employment have cmcrged in Southeast Asia. In the Philippiies, with...

FOOD Insecurity and Stochastic Aspects of Poverty

Anderson, Jock, Roumasset , James

Most works on food security have a macroeconomic orientation, whereas most discussions of famine are rather microeconomic. The intention here is to seek a more unified approach to the economic issues...

Impatience and Intergenerational Equity in a Model of Sustainable Growth

Lee Endress, Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin, James Roumasset, Basharat Pitafi

We argue that intergenerational neutrality has been prematurely excluded from the dialogue on sustainable growth. By incorporating Burton’s distinction between intragenerational and...

Economic Policy for Sustainable Growth and Development vs. Greedy Growth and Preservationism

Majah-Leah Ravago, James Roumasset

Sustainability science emerged from the felt need to employ appropriate science and technology in the pursuit of sustainable development. Despite its inertia and avowed purpose of being practical and...

Decentralization and local public goods: getting the incentives right

Roumasset , James

The paper addresses the nature and locus of appropriate government control in the provision of collective services. It suggests some useful principles for determining organizational structures with...

Renewable Resource Management with Alternative Sources: the Case of Multiple Aquifers and a "Backstop" Resource

James Roumasset, Christopher Wada

While renewable resource economics is typically confined to one source and one aggregate demand, resource managers must often decide how to manage multiple sources of a resource simultaneously. In...