ENV 350S / PUBPOL 280S Seminar in Marine Conservation Leadership
Abstract
Duke PhD student Stephanie Stefanski recently taught a class focused on the process
of designing, implementing, and analyzing the results from an economic valuation survey.
The class was given as a module to inform the broader class themes of policy design
and cost-benefit analysis in fisheries and marine resource management. The data file
contains 1,526 observations of U.S. households who responded to an online Qualtrics
survey in May 2012 about their familiarity with and willingness to pay to protect
marine biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico by paying additional taxes to fund an expansion
of a marine sanctuary in the northern Gulf. There are 92 variables, which include
socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, their answers to willingness to
pay questions, and their answers to debriefing questions. Stephanie gave a presentation
describing the context and motivation of the study and the main questions used in
the survey. She then demonstrated to students the different data analysis commands
and coding in Stata to visualize the data through histograms and frequency charts.
These data visualizations informed the different types of regression analyses Stephanie
taught the class. Finally, the students separated into small groups to discuss one
of four policy implication discussion questions. The purpose of the exercise is to
help students think critically about survey design and implementation, and how the
results of surveys can be used to inform a variety of policies and to better understanding
why people support environmental policy. The module successfully engaged students
in learning about a published study and the data collection and analysis process it
entailed. The class discussion fostered critical thinking about how to connect this
type of data analysis and survey design to their own research and to addressing environmental
challenges and policies beyond the scope of the study.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13262Citation
Stefanski, Stephanie; & Smith, Martin D. (2016). ENV 350S / PUBPOL 280S Seminar in Marine Conservation Leadership. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13262.Collections
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Martin D. Smith
George M. Woodwell Distinguished Professor of Environmental Economics
Smith studies the economics of the oceans, including fisheries, marine ecosystems,
seafood markets, and coastal climate adaptation. He has written on a range of policy-relevant
topics, including economics of marine reserves, seasonal closures in fisheries, ecosystem-based
management, catch shares, nutrient pollution, aquaculture, genetically modified foods,
the global seafood trade, organic agriculture, coastal property markets, and coastal
responses to climate change. He is best known for id
Stephanie Stefanski
Teaching Assistant
My research applies resource and development economics towards measuring trade-offs
in marine resource management. My current doctoral research assesses how configuration
of rights based management influence economic, social, and ecological outcomes, with
a focus on individual transferable quota (ITQ) programs in Argentine fisheries. In
general, my research aims to assess resource management design and implementation
to develop management strategies that support coastal community
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