APEC 100 Exam 2 Study Guide Flashcards

These flashcards provide vocabulary and key concepts for APEC 100 Exam 2, covering Lectures 10 through 18, including conservation strategy, evidence-based policy, behavioral economics, ecosystem valuation, and food labeling.

Cost-effective conservation

Protecting the most environmental value possible with limited money, acknowledging that funds are scarce.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next-best thing you give up when making a choice; money spent on one conservation project cannot be spent on another.

Benefit targeting

Choosing the highest-benefit projects first until the budget runs out; it is only efficient if all projects cost approximately the same amount.

Cost targeting

Choosing the cheapest projects first; this can fail because the cheapest land may not have much environmental value.

Optimization

Choosing the combination of projects that provides the greatest total benefit under the budget constraint by considering benefits and costs together.

Market-based conservation

Using markets, prices, and decentralized mechanisms, such as Delaware's agricultural preservation program, to improve environmental outcomes.

REPI

The Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative; a Department of Defense program that protects land around military installations for both environmental protection and military readiness.

Benefit-cost analysis (BCA)

An economic tool used to compare the desirable and undesirable impacts of a policy in monetary terms.

Willingness to pay

The measure of benefits based on how much people would be willing to pay to receive a benefit or avoid a harm.

Benefit-cost ratio

A ratio where a value above $1.0$ suggests that benefits exceed costs, though maximum net present value is usually a better indicator.

Randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Testing a policy or intervention by randomly assigning units into treatment and control groups to determine if the program caused the observed outcome.

Time-varying external factors

Outside changes such as weather, economic conditions, or market shifts that affect outcomes over time but are not caused by the policy being studied.

Selection bias

Occurs when people who participate in a program are systematically different from those who do not participate, such as farmers who already value conservation.

Counterfactual

What would have happened to the treated group if they had not received the treatment; estimated using a control group.

Simple randomization

A type of RCT where eligible participants are randomly assigned to either the treatment group or a control/comparison group.

Randomized phase-in

A type of RCT where randomization determines the order in which participants receive a program, ensuring everyone eventually gets it.

Randomized encouragement

Instead of randomly assigning the treatment itself, the program randomly encourages some people to participate through information or subsidies.

Hawthorne effect

A limitation of RCTs where participants change their behavior because they know they are being studied.

John Henry effect

A limitation of RCTs where control group members try harder or change behavior because they know they are not receiving the treatment.

Framing

The way a choice is presented which affects how people respond, even when the actual outcome is mathematically identical.

Prospect theory

A theory explaining that people evaluate gains and losses unequally, often being risk-averse for gains and risk-seeking for losses.

Fishing derby

When fishers race against each other to catch as much as possible before the season or quota closes, leading to intense competition and inefficiency.

Capital stuffing

Investing excessive money into equipment to gain an advantage in a competitive resource race, even when the total catch does not increase.

Ecosystem services

Benefits humans receive from natural systems, such as water filtration, flood control, air purification, and recreation.

Use value

Value derived from directly using nature, such as hiking, hunting, clean water, or living near open space.

Future use value

The value of preserving the option to use a natural resource or ecosystem service at a later time.

Non-use value

Value people place on nature even if they never personally use it, including existence, bequest, and intrinsic value.

Existence value

The willingness to pay to know something exists, even if the individual never sees or uses it.

Bequest value

The value of protecting something so that future generations can benefit from it.

Gray infrastructure

Artificial treatment systems, such as a water treatment plant, which are often more expensive than protecting natural 'green' systems.

Stigmatization

When a product, place, or technology is mentally associated with disgust, danger, or contamination, reducing public acceptance.

Recycled black water

Treated wastewater from washing, bathing, toilets, and urinals; it typically results in the largest decrease in willingness to pay (approx. $51 \%$).

Recycled gray water

Treated wastewater from washing, laundering, bathing, and showering; it results in the smallest WTP decrease among recycled sources (approx. $28 \%$).

Scientific error

When scientists or institutions are wrong, incomplete, or reverse advice, which can weaken public trust in science.

Perceptual cues

Visible, sensory, or symbolic signals people use to judge risk, such as odors, heavy truck traffic, or workers in protective clothing.

Contagion

The social spread of risk beliefs concerns where concern ripples through a community via social interaction.

Asymmetric information

A market situation where one side (producers) knows more about the product than the other side (consumers), creating demand for labels.

Process labels

Labels that tell consumers how food was produced (e.g., organic, cage-free, GMO-free) rather than its nutrient content.

Neophobia

An aversion to new foods or fear of unfamiliar food technologies.