title: Abatement costs of soil conservation in China's Loess Plateau: balancing income with conservation in an agricultural system.
abstract: This study proposes the use of marginal abatement cost curves to calculate environmental damages of agricultural systems in China's Loess Plateau. Total system costs and revenues, management characteristics and pollution attributes are imputed into a directional output distance function, which is then used to determine shadow prices and abatement cost curves for soil and nitrogen loss. Marginal abatement costs curves are an effective way to compare economic and conservation tradeoffs when field-specific data are scarce. The results show that sustainable agricultural practices can balance soil conservation and agricultural production; land need not be retired, as is current policy.
authors.affiliation: Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jia 11 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: llhou.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University, B330 Clark Bldg., Fort Collins, CO 80523-1172, USA. Electronic address: dana.hoag@colostate.edu.
authors.forename: Dana L K
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Hoag
authors.affiliation: Division of Social Sciences, Memorial University, Grenfell Campus, 20 University Drive, Corner Brook, NL A2H 5G4, Canada. Electronic address: ckeske@law.du.edu.
authors.forename: Catherine M H
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Keske
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis* / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D018803:Models, Economic; D017672:Nitrogen Compounds / Q000032:analysis*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D017672:Nitrogen Compounds; D012987:Soil
keywords: Abatement costs; Cropping systems; Directional output distance function; Loess Plateau; Soil degradation