The study aims to reveal Australian households' perceptions of climate change and their pref... more The study aims to reveal Australian households' perceptions of climate change and their preferences for climate change mitigation actions. A web-based survey was conducted in November 2008 in which about 600 New South Wales households were asked for their willingness to bear extra household expenditure to support the 'Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS)'as proposed by the Australian government. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a widely used non-market valuation technique, was applied using the ...
ABSTRACT Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ec... more ABSTRACT Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ecosystem services in Australia and have been applied at the national, state and regional level. These tenders are designer markets or policy mechanisms in which the proactive participation of landholders is required for success. In this paper we develop a five step framework to identify barriers to participation and to support the design of conservation tenders. We consider participation in six case study tenders covering a variety of land management objectives using our framework. These case studies also provide further pragmatic lessons in managing participation in tenders. Participation supporting factors include alignment of management priorities, opportunity for payment/compensation, effective engagement via information workshops and site visits, and clear and uncomplicated bidding and contracting experiences. Post-contract support may require further attention. Attention to these design elements is likely to support adequate participation and achieve the competitive allocation of funds from which conservation tenders derive their economic efficiency outcomes.
Enrolment in university enabling programs has expanded dramatically in the last decade as univers... more Enrolment in university enabling programs has expanded dramatically in the last decade as universities strive to increase enrolments, particularly of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Offering enabling study by distance education has been part of this expansion with the benefit of providing access to a wider enrolment base. The purpose of this study was to compare enabling program completions and articulations to undergraduate study as well as student academic performance between those students who undertook enabling by internal mode and those who opted for distance education. Archival data from the host university student records system was extracted covering the time period from 2001 to 2011. Statistical analysis found significant differences existed in both course completion and articulation for students enrolled in online learning versus face-to-face teaching. Analysis also revealed academic achievement in the enabling programs, as measured by Grade point Average (GPA), to be higher among internal students compared to distance students.
... In recent years recreation analysts have begun supplementing standard TCM approaches with add... more ... In recent years recreation analysts have begun supplementing standard TCM approaches with additional information about how users might change their behaviour if certain contingent conditions existed [23], [30], [31] and [32]. ...
Substantial efforts are being made by industry and government in Australia to reduce adverse impa... more Substantial efforts are being made by industry and government in Australia to reduce adverse impacts of pastoral operations on water quality draining to the Great Barrier Reef. A key target is to achieve rapid adoption of better management practices by landholders, but current theoretical frameworks provide limited guidance about priorities for improving adoption. In this study information from direct surveys with landholders in the two largest catchments draining into the Great Barrier Reef has been collected and analysed. Study outcomes have important implications for policy settings, because they confirm that substantial variations in adoption drivers exist across landholders, enterprises and practices. The results confirm that the three broad barriers to adoption of information gaps, financial incentives and risk perceptions are relevant. This implies that different policy mechanisms, including extension and incentive programs, remain important, although financial incentives wer...
Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landhol... more Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landholders who are intertested in undertaking conservation activities in return for monetary rewards. These auctions have grown in popularity over the last decade. However, the services offered under these auctions can be complex and auction design and implementation features need to be carefully considered if these auctions are to perform well. Computational experiments are key to bed-testing auction design as the bulk of ...
This paper presents results from computational experiments evaluating the impact on performance o... more This paper presents results from computational experiments evaluating the impact on performance of different auction design features. The focus of the study is a conservation auction for water quality where auctions are used to allocate contracts for improved land management practices among landholders bidding to provide conservation services. An agent-based model of bidder agents that learn using a combination of direction and reinforcement learning algorithms is used to simulate performance. The auction design features studied include: mix of conservation activities in tendered projects (auction scope effects); auction budget levels relative to bidder population size (auction scale effects); auction pricing rules (uniform versus discriminatory pricing); and endogeneity of bidder participation. Both weak and strong bidder responses to tender failure are explored for the case of endogeneity in participation. The results highlight the importance of a careful consideration of scale an...
Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landhol... more Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landholders who are intertested in undertaking conservation activities in return for monetary rewards. These auctions have grown in popularity over the last decade. However, the services offered under these auctions can be complex and auction design and implementation features need to be carefully considered if these auctions are to perform well. Computational experiments are key to bed-testing auction design as the bulk of ...
Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ecosystem s... more Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ecosystem services in Australia and have been applied at the national, state and regional level. These tenders are designer markets or policy mechanisms in which the proactive participation of landholders is required for success. In this paper we develop a five step framework to identify barriers to participation and to support the design of conservation tenders. We consider participation in six case study tenders covering a variety of land management objectives using our framework. These case studies also provide further pragmatic lessons in managing participation in tenders. Participation supporting factors include alignment of management priorities, opportunity for payment/compensation, effective engagement via information workshops and site visits, and clear and uncomplicated bidding and contracting experiences. Post-contract support may require further attention. Attention to these design elem...
The study aims to reveal Australian households' perceptions of climate change and their pref... more The study aims to reveal Australian households' perceptions of climate change and their preferences for climate change mitigation actions. A web-based survey was conducted in November 2008 in which about 600 New South Wales households were asked for their willingness to bear extra household expenditure to support the 'Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS)'as proposed by the Australian government. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a widely used non-market valuation technique, was applied using the ...
ABSTRACT Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ec... more ABSTRACT Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ecosystem services in Australia and have been applied at the national, state and regional level. These tenders are designer markets or policy mechanisms in which the proactive participation of landholders is required for success. In this paper we develop a five step framework to identify barriers to participation and to support the design of conservation tenders. We consider participation in six case study tenders covering a variety of land management objectives using our framework. These case studies also provide further pragmatic lessons in managing participation in tenders. Participation supporting factors include alignment of management priorities, opportunity for payment/compensation, effective engagement via information workshops and site visits, and clear and uncomplicated bidding and contracting experiences. Post-contract support may require further attention. Attention to these design elements is likely to support adequate participation and achieve the competitive allocation of funds from which conservation tenders derive their economic efficiency outcomes.
Enrolment in university enabling programs has expanded dramatically in the last decade as univers... more Enrolment in university enabling programs has expanded dramatically in the last decade as universities strive to increase enrolments, particularly of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Offering enabling study by distance education has been part of this expansion with the benefit of providing access to a wider enrolment base. The purpose of this study was to compare enabling program completions and articulations to undergraduate study as well as student academic performance between those students who undertook enabling by internal mode and those who opted for distance education. Archival data from the host university student records system was extracted covering the time period from 2001 to 2011. Statistical analysis found significant differences existed in both course completion and articulation for students enrolled in online learning versus face-to-face teaching. Analysis also revealed academic achievement in the enabling programs, as measured by Grade point Average (GPA), to be higher among internal students compared to distance students.
... In recent years recreation analysts have begun supplementing standard TCM approaches with add... more ... In recent years recreation analysts have begun supplementing standard TCM approaches with additional information about how users might change their behaviour if certain contingent conditions existed [23], [30], [31] and [32]. ...
Substantial efforts are being made by industry and government in Australia to reduce adverse impa... more Substantial efforts are being made by industry and government in Australia to reduce adverse impacts of pastoral operations on water quality draining to the Great Barrier Reef. A key target is to achieve rapid adoption of better management practices by landholders, but current theoretical frameworks provide limited guidance about priorities for improving adoption. In this study information from direct surveys with landholders in the two largest catchments draining into the Great Barrier Reef has been collected and analysed. Study outcomes have important implications for policy settings, because they confirm that substantial variations in adoption drivers exist across landholders, enterprises and practices. The results confirm that the three broad barriers to adoption of information gaps, financial incentives and risk perceptions are relevant. This implies that different policy mechanisms, including extension and incentive programs, remain important, although financial incentives wer...
Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landhol... more Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landholders who are intertested in undertaking conservation activities in return for monetary rewards. These auctions have grown in popularity over the last decade. However, the services offered under these auctions can be complex and auction design and implementation features need to be carefully considered if these auctions are to perform well. Computational experiments are key to bed-testing auction design as the bulk of ...
This paper presents results from computational experiments evaluating the impact on performance o... more This paper presents results from computational experiments evaluating the impact on performance of different auction design features. The focus of the study is a conservation auction for water quality where auctions are used to allocate contracts for improved land management practices among landholders bidding to provide conservation services. An agent-based model of bidder agents that learn using a combination of direction and reinforcement learning algorithms is used to simulate performance. The auction design features studied include: mix of conservation activities in tendered projects (auction scope effects); auction budget levels relative to bidder population size (auction scale effects); auction pricing rules (uniform versus discriminatory pricing); and endogeneity of bidder participation. Both weak and strong bidder responses to tender failure are explored for the case of endogeneity in participation. The results highlight the importance of a careful consideration of scale an...
Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landhol... more Abstract Conservation auctions are tender-based mechanisms for allocating contracts among landholders who are intertested in undertaking conservation activities in return for monetary rewards. These auctions have grown in popularity over the last decade. However, the services offered under these auctions can be complex and auction design and implementation features need to be carefully considered if these auctions are to perform well. Computational experiments are key to bed-testing auction design as the bulk of ...
Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ecosystem s... more Conservation tenders are emerging as a critical mechanism for supporting payments for ecosystem services in Australia and have been applied at the national, state and regional level. These tenders are designer markets or policy mechanisms in which the proactive participation of landholders is required for success. In this paper we develop a five step framework to identify barriers to participation and to support the design of conservation tenders. We consider participation in six case study tenders covering a variety of land management objectives using our framework. These case studies also provide further pragmatic lessons in managing participation in tenders. Participation supporting factors include alignment of management priorities, opportunity for payment/compensation, effective engagement via information workshops and site visits, and clear and uncomplicated bidding and contracting experiences. Post-contract support may require further attention. Attention to these design elem...
Uploads
Papers by John Rolfe