Economics

Reports from Florida State University Describe Recent Advances in Ecology and Economics

  2012 APR 27 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to the authors of a study from Tallahassee, Florida, "This paper presents the results of a modified dictator game where donors are tourists in the island of Majorca, Spain, and the recipient is an environmental foundation. In this experiment we explore if the level of voluntary donations varies under different treatments that include taxes (high and low levels) and voting treatments on choosing and obligatory imposition of taxes (high vs. low and low vs. no tax)."

  "Our results show that participants only self-impose mandatory contributions when they must choose between a high or low tax, and rarely passing the high tax. In addition, we find that those individuals who voted for a high tax and are in a group where the majority votes for the low tax conform to their earlier vote by contributing more. Further, our data supports an incomplete crowding-out of voluntary donations by the application of tourism taxes earmarked for environmental purposes," wrote E. Blanco and colleagues, Florida State University.

  The researchers concluded: "From a policy perspective, this result supports the potential for a complementary use of taxes and voluntary donations for fundraising environmental projects in tourism destinations."

  Blanco and colleagues published their study in Ecological Economics (Voting for environmental donations: Experimental evidence from Majorca, Spain. Ecological Economics, 2012;75():52-60).

  For more information, contact E. Blanco, Florida State University, Dept. of Polit Sci, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States.

  Publisher contact information for the journal Ecological Economics is: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  Keywords: City:Tallahassee, State:Florida, Country:United States, Region:North and Central America, Travel, Ecology and Economics

  This article was prepared by VerticalNews Economics editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2012, VerticalNews Economics via VerticalNews.com.