Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Petrolia, Daniel R.

Committee Member

Yun, Seong

Committee Member

Harri, Ardian

Date of Degree

8-9-2019

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Agricultural Economics

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Department

Department of Agricultural Economics

Abstract

The State of Mississippi wants to manage its oyster resource to increase production, quality, ecological, and economic benefits. In this study, we employ modern portfolio theory (MPT) to test if there are potential gains to hold multiple oyster resources for multiple benefits to aid the state's effort in achieving its goal. Using a Delphi approach, we elicit complete sets of data on ecosystem services (on oxygen, nutrients, sedimentation, and salinity) across multiple oyster resources (traditional plantings, off-bottom farms, and restored reefs). A benefit transfer method is used later to assigned money-metric value to each service estimate. The multiple service values are then aggregated into net service value. We compute the means, standard deviations, and correlations of benefits across all resources using the net service values, and generate efficient frontiers from that information. Results indicate that Mississippi could benefit from holding multiple oyster resources while focusing more on off-bottom oyster farms.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/14522

Sponsorship

NOAA RESTORE Science Program

Comments

oyster resources||ecosystem services||modern portfolio theory (MPT)||portfolio design||efficient frontier

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