Economics Working Papers
Publication Date
8-2019
Number
19022
Abstract
We develop the first spatially integrated economic-hydrological model of the western Lake Erie basin that explicitly links economic models of farmers' field-level Best Management Practice (BMP) adoption choices with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nutrient management policies. We quantify the tradeoffs between phosphorus reduction and policy costs and find that a hybrid policy that couples a fertilizer tax with cost-share payments for subsurface placement is the most cost-effective. We also find that economic adoption models can overstate the potential for nutrient reduction by ignoring biophysical complexities and thus demonstrate the importance of coupling economic and biophysical models for efficient policy design.
JEL Classification
H23, Q51, Q52, Q53
Version History
Original Release Date: August 2019
Departments
Department of Economics, Iowa State University
File Format
application/pdf
Length
54 pages
Recommended Citation
Liu, Hongxing; Zhang, Wendong; Irwin, Elena; Kast, Jeffrey; Aloysius, Noel; Martin, Jay; and Kalcic, Margaret, "Best Management Practices and Nutrient Reduction: An Integrated Economic-Hydrological Model of the Western Lake Erie Basin" (2019). Economics Working Papers: Department of Economics, Iowa State University. 19022.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/econ_workingpapers/91
Included in
Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons, Economic Policy Commons, Hydrology Commons, Natural Resource Economics Commons, Statistical Models Commons
