Browsing by Author "Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    A Business Case for Marine Protected Areas: Economic Valuation of the Reef Attributes of Cozumel Island
    (2021) Alberto Lara-Pulido, Jose; Mojica, Angela; Bruner, Aaron; Guevara-Sangines, Alejandro; Simon, Cecilia; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Gonzalez-Baca, Cristopher; Jose Infanzon, Maria
    Tourism to Cozumel Island generates USD 762 million annually in local economic activity, and 111 visitors stay in local hotels for each inhabitant. The island's coast is its principal attraction, yet water quality and reef health are threatened. This paper studies the link between the local economy and management of Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, using a choice experiment to assess the economic value visitors assign to underwater visibility, biodiversity, and visitor congestion in reef areas. We found that, on average, tourists are willing to pay USD 190 per visit to avoid a projected decrease in biodiversity, USD 120 per visit to prevent a projected decline in visibility, and USD 98 to avoid high congestion during reef visits. We find high heterogeneity in willingness to pay estimates, which may be useful for targeting both conservation and marketing efforts. On the other hand, increasing the reef access fee from USD 2 to USD 6 could fully fund effective protected area management, with no substantial effect on visitors' consumer surplus. Results suggest that a conservation surcharge could be added to all tours, with little impact on visitation, and that significantly increasing private sector collaboration and government spending on conservation would be good economic choices.
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    A comparison of mixed logit and latent class models to estimate market segments for seafood faced with ocean acidification
    (2023) Campos-Requena, Nelyda; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Fernandez, Francisco; Barrientos, Manuel; Gelcich, Stefan; Ponce Oliva, Roberto D.
    This study uses a choice experiment to characterize market segments (consumer preferences heterogeneity) based on three attributes of seafood (mussels) that are affected by ocean acidification: shell appearance, meat color, and nutritional composition. Using a sample of 1,257 individuals from two main cities in Chile, we estimate both the Mixed Logit model and the Latent Class model. We use the individual-specific posterior (ISP) parameters' distribution to categorize consumers' heterogeneity based on the signs and intensity (i.e., like or dislike dimension) of these ISPs. We compare the pattern of preferences and whether people are classified within the same preference pattern in both models. In general, we observed that the models identify a different number of segments with various patterns of preferences. Moreover, the models classify the same people into different groups. Since the segmentation is sensitive to the chosen model, we discuss strengths, inconsistencies, biases, and best practices regarding methodological approaches to establishing market segments in choice experiments and future ocean acidification conditions.
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    Diversifying Chile's climate action away from industrial plantations
    (2021) Hoyos-Santillan, Jorge; Miranda, Alejandro; Lara, Antonio; Sepulveda-Jauregui, Armando; Zamorano-Elgueta, Carlos; Gomez-Gonzalez, Susana; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Garreaud, Rene D.; Rojas, Maisa
    As president of the Climate Change Conference of the Parties, Chile has advocated for developing ambitious commitments to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050. However, Chile's motivations and ambitious push to reach carbon-neutrality are complicated by a backdrop of severe drought, climate change impacts (i.e., wildfires, tree mortality), and the use of industrial plantations as a mitigation strategy. This has become more evident as widespread and severe wildfires have impacted large areas of industrial plantations, transforming the land-use, land-use change, and forestry sector from a carbon sink to a net carbon source. Consequently, Chile must diversify its climate actions to achieve carbon-neutrality. Nature-based solutions, including wetlands-peatlands and oceans, represent alternative climate actions that can be implemented to tackle greenhouse gas emissions at a national level. Diversification, however, must guarantee Chile's long-term carbon sequestration capacity without compromising the ecological functionality of biodiverse treeless habitats and native forest ecosystems.
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    Firms adaptation to climate change through product innovation
    (2022) Ponce Oliva, Roberto D.; Huaman, Joana; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Barrientos, Manuel; Gelcich, Stefan
    Climate change will impose high costs on different societal actors, including firms and organizations, forcing them to adapt to this new situation. Although the relevance of implementing adaptation strategies is widely recognized, studies on firms' adaptation to climate change are still in their infancy, especially regarding small and medium enterprises. Following a multi-stage approach, we analyze how small and medium enterprises in the marine food industry could adapt to climate-induced ocean acidification through product innovation. First, we use a co-production process with the firms' representatives to gain insights into the industry's adaptation opportunities, in which product innovation arises as the preferred strategy. Second, using a Discrete Choice Experiment, we test if consumers value both the mussels' attributes likely affected by ocean acidification (sensory and nutritional) and the proposed new products developed to adapt to it. We also analyze preferences' heterogeneity through a latent class model. Our results show that consumers value the attributes potentially affected by ocean acidification. We found high heterogeneity in consumer preferences regarding product types, disentangled into two classes (non-innovative consumers and consumers willing to innovate). We suggest that the industry could base its adaptation strategy on two pillars: 1) maintain the traditional format, thus satisfying 21% of the market (non-innovative consumers); 2) direct the innovation efforts towards the canned format, thus satisfying those consumers willing to innovate (79% of the market). Although consumers willing to innovate are prone to try new formats, the preferred alternatives are not radical innovations.
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    Ocean Acidification, Consumers' Preferences, and Market Adaptation Strategies in the Mussel Aquaculture Industry
    (2019) Ponce, Roberto D.; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; San Martin, Valeska A.; Ignacio Hernandez, Jose; Vargas, Cristian A.; Gonzalez, Pablo S.; Gelcich, Stefan
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    Out of sight, not out of mind: The effect of access to conservation sites on the willingness to pay for protecting endangered species
    (2024) Henriquez, Makarena; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Barrientos, Manuel; Oliva, Roberto D. Ponce; Lara, Antonio; Flores-Benner, Gabriela; Riquelme, Carlos
    According to the latest global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, nature and biodiversity have experienced a global decline, making the development of conservation policies urgent. Herein, we used a contingent valuation survey to estimate the economic value of a reintroduction program for the huemul ( Hip- pocamelus bisulcus ), an endangered charismatic species in Chile. Our novel approach exploits changes in the access to the site to disentangle nonuse value from use value. We use parametric and nonparametric models to estimate the willingness to pay for the program. Our findings consistently indicate that the conservation of the huemul is valued more when tourist access is restricted, as opposed to allowing visitors access to reintroduction areas. We also analyze the sensitivity of this main finding to different cut-off points of a certainty scale, showing that the results are robust. We hypothesize that people are willing to pay a "premium" to keep the conservation site "out of sight" from tourist activities. This could also be related to the belief that a reintroduction program would be more effective if access was not allowed. A cost -benefit analysis using the most conservative assumptions suggests that social benefit significantly outperforms cost.
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    Water demand in the Chilean manufacturing industry: Analysis of the economic value of water and demand elasticities
    (2020) Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Vargas O, Leonardo; Hernandez, Jose, I; Ponce Oliva, Roberto D.
    In this article, we estimate both the economic value of water and own-price and cross-price elasticities of water for the Chilean manufacturing industry using the production function approach. Estimating the production function allows us to estimate the marginal productivity of water which corresponds to its economic value. Our estimations are based on panel data obtained from the National Industrial Survey for the period 1995-2014, accounting for more than 10,000 industrial plants. We use a translog specification for the production function, considering water, capital, labor, energy, and intermediate material as explanatory variables. We find substitution patterns among most inputs, except for energy and water, which are found to be complements. Our results suggest that the manufacturing sector is characterized by an elastic water demand, with an average economic value of water of 8.071 [USD/m(3)]. Based on our findings, there is room to increase water prices in most sectors without affecting the competitiveness of firms. Knowing the economic value of water and its price elasticity could help policymakers to design water policies that promote more efficient use of this scarce resource.
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    Water Use and Climate Stressors in a Multiuser River Basin Setting: Who Benefits from Adaptation?
    (2021) Ponce Oliva, Roberto D.; Arias Montevechio, Esteban; Fernandez Jorquera, Francisco; Vasquez-Lavin, Felipe; Stehr, Alejandra
    Adapting to new climate conditions will require an intricate mix of knowledge, planning, coordination, and foresight. There is increasing sectoral evidence on the implementation of successful adaptation actions. However, the success of these actions when we consider the interdependencies among sectors remains debatable. This paper aims to assess who benefits from implementing adaptation options in a multiuser river basin to both climate-induced and demographic stress on water use. Our analysis relies on a hydro-economic model that considers two sets of water users: agriculture and urban households. We innovate in our modelling approach by analyzing and explicitly integrating the household-level economic behavior through its water demand. We assess the cross-user consequences of autonomous and planned adaptation actions. We provide insights into the different trade-offs at the basin level, demonstrating the compatibilities and divergences between agriculture and household-level water demand. We found different consequences of implementing either autonomous or planned adaptation measures. For instance, a decentralized scheme would drive negative implications for the entire basin, although the less water-intensive sector will be better off. On the other hand, different policy interventions would drive positive consequences for the entire basin, with the most water-intensive sector benefiting the most. These results highlight the distributional consequences across users of different adaptation measures.