Modelling Rural Land Use Decisions in New Zealand

Private land use decisions may have far-reaching (and often unintended) effects on their environment. Sometimes these are positive, such as the carbon sequestration performed by forestry. However, many typical effects of agricultural land uses in New Zealand are negative. Agricultural land uses are often criticised for their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and water pollution. With the agricultural sector - responsible for nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions - poised to enter the Emissions Trading Scheme in 2015, there exists a pressing need to empirically understand rural land use decisions in New Zealand. A forthcoming Motu Working Paper builds on microeconomic foundations to model land use decisions in a discrete choice framework.

Citation

Timar, Levente. 2011. "Modelling Rural Land Use Decisions in New Zealand," Asymmetric Information: Newsletter of the New Zealand Association of Economists, Issue 41, August 2011.