California Economy Research Articles

The application of aeration and ozonation for E. coli inactivation in dairy manure slurry

Dairy industry is important for milk production and has substantial contribution to the California's economy. Dairy manure contains carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, which are beneficial to soil, however, dairy farms also produce manure, which impacts environment negatively, and manure-borne pathogens poses risks to public and animal health. In this research, a lab scale experiment was designed and a series of experiments were conducted to determine the impact of ozone and air injection on E. coli inactivation in liquid manure. Liquid manure was exposed to ozone and air for multiple durations (0 min, 60 min, 120 min, and 240 min) and E. coli levels were determined. Further, manure samples were analyzed for pH, salt content, potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), nitrate (NO3−), calcium (Ca2+), and electrical conductivity (EC, mS/cm). Results showed that Ozonation can be an effective treatment method to reduce E. coli levels in liquid manure. Further nitrate ions were reduced substantially by Ozonation. The analysis of variance (one way and two way) revealed significance difference in E. coli and nitrate reductions in liquid slurry among ozone and air treatments (p < 0.05). The study's results carry significance importance in terms of developing a simple field-scale method for reducing microbial and nutrient pollutions from dairy lagoon manure.

Voluntary Insurance for Speedy Growth-Trends of Digital-Financial Transactions in Bank-Led Digital-Banking Service-Market: Seeking Attentions for Policy-Design in California Economy

Voluntary Insurance for Speedy Growth-Trends of Digital-Financial Transactions in Bank-Led Digital-Banking Service-Market: Seeking Attentions for Policy-Design in California Economy

Cover crop and mulch practices reduce agricultural pollutant loads in stormwater runoff from plastic tunnels

Macrotunnel production systems contribute over $1 billion to California's economy, but despite increased use, guidance to help macrotunnel growers limit agricultural pollutant loads in rainfall-induced runoff is sparse. Using raspberry as a model crop, we evaluated four runoff management practices during two rainy seasons of the normal 3-year raspberry production cycle: barley cover crop seeded at 500 pounds per acre, weed barrier fabric, yard waste mulch spread 2 to 3 inches thick, and polyacrylamide (PAM). Treatments were applied to 300-foot-by-6-foot-wide post rows. Barley cover crop and mulch reduced combined nitrate and nitrite nitrogen in runoff by 21% to 48% at some runoff events and reduced nitrate nitrogen in soil and leachate to groundwater by 52% to 90%. All treatments reduced turbidity and phosphorus levels in runoff and had 75% to 97% less sediment accumulation compared with bare soil. Additionally, all treatments except PAM reduced weed densities by 48% to 87% compared with bare ground, which reduced the costs of weed management. Barley cover crop had the lowest estimated costs (~$60.00 per tunnel period), while PAM and mulch were highest (~$193.00 per tunnel period).

Comparative Efficiency of California State University System by DEA

This study evaluates the performance of 23 campuses of California State University (CSU) system, the largest public university system in the USA from a benchmarking perspective. Despite of shared vision and management control under one system, a substantial variability in performance outcomes across campuses has been observed. Using data envelopment analysis, this study appraises the relative efficiency of the 23 campuses by focusing on outcomes such as graduation rates and impacts of graduates on the California economy. The result shows the CSU system was roughly 79% efficient compared to the performances of the best practice campuses. It also indicates a significant difference in efficiencies among campuses at different geographical regions. Cross-efficiency analysis confirmed the findings on the overall performance ratings. After identifying benchmarking targets for each inefficient campus, the direction and amount of potential improvement are presented.

Women on Boards of Public Companies Headquartered in California - 2018

Studies have shown that companies with higher levels of gender diversity have stronger financial performance, stronger governance practices and a more engaged workforce. Investors of all types have been putting pressure on corporate boards to increase the number of women on their boards through numerous avenues, including letter-writing campaigns, direct conversations with board members, and the submission of shareholder proposals. California made history in 2018 by addressing this issue head on and becoming the first state in the U.S. to require that public companies headquartered in the state have women on their boards. This bold move has elevated the conversation regarding gender diversity on corporate boards across the country. Board Governance Research’s second annual report on Women on Boards of Companies Headquartered in California examines the current state of board gender diversity and the impact the new law will have on those companies subject to its requirements. It presents the findings of an in-depth analysis of the board gender diversity of 632 companies headquartered in California (“California companies”) which are traded on the NYSE or Nasdaq stock exchanges. Importantly, this year’s report includes nearly 200 additional companies, 146 of which have less than $300 million in market capitalization and were not included in the Russell 3000 index as of June 30, 2018 (referred to as “microcap companies” throughout this report). Companies this small are not typically included in board composition and governance analyses. However, these companies play an important role in the California economy, and they too are subject to the new law requiring female directors. Therefore, the inclusion of microcap companies provides a uniquely comprehensive view of board gender diversity in California.

Estimating criteria pollutant emissions using the California Regional Multisector Air Quality Emissions (CA-REMARQUE) model v1.0

Abstract. The California Regional Multisector Air Quality Emissions (CA-REMARQUE) model is developed to predict changes to criteria pollutant emissions inventories in California in response to sophisticated emissions control programs implemented to achieve deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. Two scenarios for the year 2050 act as the starting point for calculations: a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and an 80 % GHG reduction (GHG-Step) scenario. Each of these scenarios was developed with an energy economic model to optimize costs across the entire California economy and so they include changes in activity, fuels, and technology across economic sectors. Separate algorithms are developed to estimate emissions of criteria pollutants (or their precursors) that are consistent with the future GHG scenarios for the following economic sectors: (i) on-road, (ii) rail and off-road, (iii) marine and aviation, (iv) residential and commercial, (v) electricity generation, and (vi) biorefineries. Properly accounting for new technologies involving electrification, biofuels, and hydrogen plays a central role in these calculations. Critically, criteria pollutant emissions do not decrease uniformly across all sectors of the economy. Emissions of certain criteria pollutants (or their precursors) increase in some sectors as part of the overall optimization within each of the scenarios. This produces nonuniform changes to criteria pollutant emissions in close proximity to heavily populated regions when viewed at 4 km spatial resolution with implications for exposure to air pollution for those populations. As a further complication, changing fuels and technology also modify the composition of reactive organic gas emissions and the size and composition of particulate matter emissions. This is most notably apparent through a comparison of emissions reductions for different size fractions of primary particulate matter. Primary PM2.5 emissions decrease by 4 % in the GHG-Step scenario vs. the BAU scenario while corresponding primary PM0.1 emissions decrease by 36 %. Ultrafine particles (PM0.1) are an emerging pollutant of concern expected to impact public health in future scenarios. The complexity of this situation illustrates the need for realistic treatment of criteria pollutant emissions inventories linked to GHG emissions policies designed for fully developed countries and states with strict existing environmental regulations.

Freshwater flow to the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary over nine decades (Part 1): Trend evaluation

AbstractThe San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary and its upstream watershed have been highly modified since exploration and settlement by Europeans in the mid‐18th century. Although these hydrologic alterations supported the growth of California's economy to the eighth largest in the world, they have been accompanied by significant declines in native aquatic species and subsequent efforts to reverse these declines through flow management. To inform ongoing deliberations on management of freshwater flows to the estuary, we examined a recent nine‐decade hydrologic record to evaluate seasonal and annual trends in reported Delta outflow. Statistically significant trends were observed in seasonal outflows, with decreasing trends observed in 4 months (February, April, May, and November) and increasing trends observed in 2 months (July and August). Trend significance in early‐to‐mid autumn (September and October) is ambiguous due to uncertainty associated with in‐Delta agricultural water use. In spite of increasing water use over the period examined, we found no statistically significant annual trend in Delta outflow, a result likely due to large inter‐annual variability. Linkages between outflow trends and changes in upstream flows and coincident developments such as reservoir construction and operation, out‐of‐basin imports and exports, and expansion of irrigated agriculture are discussed. To eliminate inter‐annual variability as a factor, change attribution is explored using modelled flows and fixed climatology in a companion paper.

Internship Program Contributes to Southern California's Economy

For more than two years, Southern California's Cucamonga Valley Water District (CVWD) has partnered with San Bernardino Valley College (SBVC) on an innovative student internship program. The program was developed as an applied field training course to enhance SBVC's Water Supply Technology Certificate program, where interns rotate through CVWD departments, including Water Maintenance, Wastewater Maintenance, Field Service, Engineering, Production, and Treatment.

Encadenamientos intersectoriales de la industria maquiladora de exportación en Baja California

Este artículo investiga la estructura de encadenamientos hacia atrás en la economía de Baja California, mediante un conjunto de técnicas para identificar sectores clave en un modelo de insumo-producto abierto y cerrado. En particular, el estudio se centra en el análisis de la relación tanto entre la incorporación de insumos nacionales y la promoción de la industria maquiladora de exportación, como entre el crecimiento económico regional y encadenamientos hacia atrás.

Economic Consequence Analysis of the ARkStorm Scenario

AbstractThe business interruption (BI) impacts of ARkStorm, a severe winter storm scenario developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners, is estimated. BI stems from losses of building function, productivity of agricultural land, and lifeline services. A dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the California economy is developed to perform this economic consequence analysis. Economic resilience in the form of input and import substitution is inherent in the model’s equilibrium solution, and the model parameterization is adjusted to reflect other forms of resilience such as production recapture. Varying assumptions about the timing and source of funds for reconstruction results in a range of recovery paths. Five years after the storm, flood-induced building damage is the overwhelming source of gross domestic product (GDP) losses, timely and partially externally funded reconstruction mitigates impacts by approximately 50%, and the economy is not guaranteed to return to its baseline GDP trajec...

Evaluation of the Effect of Rural Road Condition on Agricultural Produce Transportation

Road condition affects the operations and costs of vehicles that use the infrastructure. Various models of vehicle operating cost provide an indication of the effects of road roughness on fuel consumption, additional damage to a vehicle, and tire wear. These models do not include the effect of road conditions on the condition of and potential damage to transported freight. Such potential damages are mitigated through the use of improved vehicle technologies or packaging. In agricultural transportation, packaging often is not a solution because the use of older vehicle technology on mostly rural roads with lower levels of riding quality is a main contributor to the problem. This paper evaluates quantified effects of the riding quality on low-volume roads on the level of damage to tomatoes in California. The paper is partly based on a study that focused on vehicle–pavement interaction and its effects on the broader California economy. Vehicle responses to road conditions were measured during operations on a range of rural routes. Laboratory experiments were developed to replicate the dominant vibrations of the trucks and to measure the stresses that tomatoes typically undergo at these vibration levels. The damage and failure levels for the tomatoes during transportation were determined, and these damage levels were used to calculate typical costs to agricultural suppliers that are due to road conditions. The problem thus could be quantified and input data provided for a cost–benefit evaluation of the potential maintenance and improvement of various routes used to transport tomatoes.

Material flow analysis of lubricating oil use in California

Petroleum lubricating oils, used throughout the economy, are distinct among petroleum products in their capacity to be recovered and recycled at the end of their useful life. Used lubricating oil is regulated at the state and federal level because of concerns about environmental impacts arising from improper disposal, although rates of recovery are not known. We present a material flow analysis of lubricants through California's economy in the years 2007–2012. We introduce a novel technique for computing aggregate waste generation from a collection of hazardous waste manifest records, and apply it in order to determine a recovery rate for used oil and to estimate the quantity of oil managed informally in the state. The records also offer a detailed view of the fate of used oils after they are recovered. We find that around 62% of lubricants are recoverable at end of life, of which 70–80% is being recovered. This rate shows a slight downward trend. If the trend is accurate, measures should be taken to improve the performance of the used oil management system. Policy opportunities exist to reduce the quantity of oil managed informally through improving access to responsible used oil management methods. These include increasing the collection of used oil from industrial sources as well as “do it yourself” oil changes, expanding in-state reprocessing capacity, and promoting increased out-of-state reprocessing of used oil. Our methods introduce new possibilities to make use of direct observation in material flow analysis, potentially improving data availability and quality and increasing the relevance of material flow methods in policy applications.

Diagnostics in animal health: How UC helps exclude and minimize impact of livestock pathogens

UC has a wide reach in the agriculture sector of the California economy and is well recognized for research expertise in plant diseases. Less well known is the role UC plays in animal agriculture. In 2012, the California Animal Health and Food Safety lab at UC Davis performed nearly 980,000 tests on samples from sick livestock, including cattle, horses, pigs, chickens and turkeys. The lab is prepared to respond rapidly to any disease outbreak or identification of a foreign disease. Researchers at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis are testing novel subunit vaccines to prevent pinkeye in cattle; UC ANR specialists and advisors and the staff at the Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center were key to the development of best management practices that landowners and resource managers are using to protect their herds and public water sources against the parasite Cryptosporidium parvum; and UC veterinary scientists are part of a large team of experts, including state and federal agencies, determined to combat the endemic bluetongue virus, which can affect the state's exports.

Macroeconomic Impacts of the California Global Warming Solutions Act on the Southern California Economy

We evaluate the potential regional macroeconomic impacts of a set of ten greenhouse gas mitigation policy options intended to enable the Southern California Association of Governments to comply with the State's greenhouse gas reduction targets. The Regional Economic Models, Inc. Policy Insight Plus Model, was applied in the analysis by carefully linking technical and microeconomic aspects of each mitigation option to the workings of the regional economy. We took into account key considerations, such as how investment in mitigation options would displace ordinary private business investment and the time-phasing of renewable electricity generation. Our results indicate that the combined ten mitigation policy options could create an annual average employment gain of 21 thousand jobs over the entire planning period from now to 2035, but could also have a negative net present value impact of $17 billion in regional GDP. In the paper, we explain this and other anomalies. Sensitivity analyses of key assumptions and parameters for the Renewable Portfolio Standard indicate that the results are robust. They also provide policy-makers with insights into how to improve the macroeconomic impact of this major policy option.

Crisis, migración y estructura de empleo en Baja California

En este documento se revisa la dinámica económica y demográfica en Baja California que se ha caracterizado por ser distinta a la del resto del país, debido a los constantes flujos poblacionales que llegan a la región. Mediante un análisis deductivo se muestra que debido a sus fuertes vínculos con el exterior, durante la crisis de 2009 la economía de la entidad se vio afectada principalmente en el sector manufacturero y en la construcción. Sin embargo, y contrario a lo ocurrido en las demás entidades de la región, se dieron importantes efectos compensatorios en los sectores comercial y primario. Estos mismos vínculos están impulsando una prudente recuperación del empleo, principalmente en las Mipymes (Micro, Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas), con sus respectivos impactos en el resto de la economía.

Balancing Fiscal, Energy, and Environmental Concerns: Analyzing the Policy Options for California’s Energy and Economic Future

This study estimates the fiscal, energy, and environmental tradeoffs involved in supplying California’s future energy needs. An integrated framework is developed whereby an econometric forecasting system of California energy demand is coupled with engineering-economic models of energy supply, and economic impacts are estimated using input-output models of the California economy. A baseline scenario in which California relies on imported electricity to meet future demand is then compared against various energy supply development scenarios over the forecast horizon (2012–2035). The results indicate that if California implements its renewable portfolio standard (RPS), there will be a substantial net cost in terms of value added, employment, and state tax revenues because the economic benefits of building capacity are outweighed by higher energy prices. Although carbon emissions fall, the cost per ton of avoided emissions is well above market prices. Building out natural gas fired generation capacity also leads to losses compared to the baseline, although the impacts are relatively minor. Meanwhile, a strategy of replacing imported crude oil and natural gas with domestic production using indigenous resources increases gross state product, employment, and tax revenues, with minimal impact on carbon emissions. This option could, therefore, help mitigate the costs of California meeting its RPS commitment.

California’s New Gold: A Primer on the Use of Allowance Value Created Under the CO2 Cap-and-Trade Program

California will enact an economy wide cap-and-trade program on CO2. Estimates of the value of tradable emissions allowances in the first year range from roughly $2.6 to $7.8 billion, when electricity and industry are covered under the program. Those sectors receive most of their allowances for free; electricity sector allowance value is directed to the benefit of ratepayers. In the first year a fraction of allowances, mostly with future year vintage, will be sold through an auction with a value of roughly $0.6 to $1.8 billion. That revenue will be returned to the California economy through appropriation by the legislature. Allowance auction revenue will grow five-fold in 2015 when transportation and natural gas are included. To whom does this revenue belong? This is the key unresolved issue in the design of the California program.

California and the American Human Development Index

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2012-0002 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2012; 4(2): 25–48 Research Article Sarah Burd-Sharps, Kristen Lewis California and the American Human Development Index Abstract: Roughly one in every eight Americans calls California home. The state is a vital source of America’s food, leads the nation in innovation, and ranks first among the states in terms of economic activity. Viewing California strictly through the lens of money and economics tells only one story. The American Human Development Index tells what is happening in the lives of ordinary people. Keywords: California economy; California ethnicity; California population Sarah Burd-Sharps, Social Science Research Council, e-mail: sarah@measureofamerica.org Kristen Lewis, Social Science Research Council, e-mail: kristen@measureofamerica.org Roughly one in eight Americans calls California home. The state leads the nation in innovation, as measured by the number of patent application filings, and ranks first in terms of economic activity, as measured by gross state product (nearly $1.9 trillion).1 A vital provider of America’s food, California produces nearly half of all US- grown fruits and vegetables. If California were a country, it would have the world’s eighth-largest economy. Yet viewing California strictly through the lens of money and economics tells only one story. The American Human Development Index aims to tell another story: what is happening in the lives of California’s people. California is a state of contrasts, being home to people with vastly differing levels of well-being. In The Measure of America 2010–2011: Mapping Risks and Resilience, the latest iteration of the national human development report series, California as a whole ranked 12th of the 50 states and Washington, DC, on the American Human Development Index. This series applies a widely accepted inter- national approach for assessing the well-being of different population groups: the human development approach. The centerpiece of this work is the American Human Development Index, a composite measure made up of health, education and income indicators and expressed as a single number from 0 to 10. While Californians are already aware that disparities exist within their state, the American Human Development Index provides an easily understood 1 Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Economic Downturn Widespread among States in 2009.”

Deconstructing Mare Island

This is a photographic essay centered on the Carquinez Straits, particularly Mare Island. Once the Carquinez Strait was a center of the California economy. In the nineteenth century it was the center of the wheat trade. In the twentieth century, it was the center of the military industrial economy. Now Vallejo is Broke Town, USA, as the New York Times put it, and Mare Island has become a place were much of the old California is turned to scrap and shipped elsewhere. It is an industrial Pompeii, but it is also an instructive and hardly hopeless place. It is in many ways diagnostic of modern California, but the diagnosis is hardly hopeless.

Economic impacts of climate-related changes to California agriculture

California agriculture is driven by the interactions between technology, resources, and market demands. Future production is a balance between the rates of change in these variables and environmental factors including climate change. With tight statewide water supplies and agriculture being an important part of the California economy, quantifying the economic consequences of changes in these variables is important for addressing related policy questions. We estimate the economic effects of climate change on California crop farming by year 2050 using the Statewide Agricultural Production Model (SWAP). With climate warming, crop yields are expected to decline, production costs to increase, and water supplies to fall. These negative effects may be partially offset by higher crop prices and technological improvements. Results indicate that gross agricultural revenues across all regions are reduced under climate change, as is water usage. However, given the climate-induced reductions in water supply and crop yields, reductions in revenue are proportionally less due to shifting crop demands, technological change, and a shift to higher value less water intensive crops. Given the long time horizon required in this study, the results should not be considered a projection or forecast, but as a probable outcome of the interaction of several uncertain driving forces.