m. mehrara

This study aimed at evaluating the economic valuation of agricultural ecosystem services of paddy fields in Qaimshahr County of Iran using the conditional logit model. For this purpose, the required information was collected through the questionnaires completed by 252 rice farmers and users of the rice field ecosystem in urban and rural areas within interviews and face-to-face visits in 1400. The study results showed that in order to improve the functioning of the rice paddy ecosystem, the respondents were willing to participate in the related projects, so that the willingness to pay to improve the production and recreational functions, respectively, were equal to 2,843,855 and 5,118,800 IRI rials for each household per year; in addition, the economic value of production and resort functions, respectively, were estimated as 292,775 and 526,980.5 million IRI rials per year, and the total economic value of the functions of the rice paddy ecosystem of Qaimshahri households was calculated as 819,755 million IRI rials per year. Since among the studied functions, the resort function had the highest willingness to pay, based on the findings of the research, it is suggested that the authorities of this area should create the necessary recreational facilities in prone areas, including the creation of artificial lakes and shade, creating the gazebos as well as improvement of the road condition with the cooperation of charity donors, farmers and the people of the region to carry out the necessary policies and measures.

This article investigated trade-off between human and natural resources emphasizing on education. Some studies have argued that resource-rich countries are exposed to relying on natural resources and neglecting human resources. So that emphasizing on education as a tool of investing in human resources was declined. Ratio of the share of resources rent to the share of taxes was introduced as representative of political economy of natural resources. This variable controlled effects of changing the natural resources rent management. International tests scores (TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA) were considered as education quality measure. A panel data model with fixed effects approach was applied as econometric method at the estimating of education production function‘s parameters. The findings revealed that effects of political economy of natural resources were significant and then education quality diminished while share of natural resources rent at the government revenues increased. In most cases estimated coefficients for the variable of the share of resources rent to the share of taxes’ ratio were robust and negative effect of reducing the dependence of the economy on resources rent on the quality of education was confirmed.