147: Ngaio Hotte on Resource Economics, Externalities and Elinor Ostrom

Ngaio Hotte is co-founder of the consultancy firm Resource Economics Group, which is based in British Columbia in Canada. Resource Economics Group specializes in natural resources policy, planning and management. They do research and support decision-making related to the many values of natural resources and trade-offs associated with managing these values for the benefit of people and the planet.

Ngaio is a Ph.D candidate at the University of British Columbia. Her research title is ‘How can trust be built among parties engaged in collaborative natural resource governance?’ and she draws influence from the work of the only female Nobel laureate in economics, Elinor Ostrom.

Ngaio’s Research Interests include trust, government-to-government relations, Indigenous communities, collaboration and natural resources and we touch on some of these topics in out conversation in this episode.

You can find out more about Ngaio’s work at www.resource-economics.ca.

Economics:

In this episode, Ngaio mentions and/or discusses: Elasticity of demand, externalities, substitutes, meat tax, carbon tax, resource extraction, resource management, tanker spills, New Institutional Economics, game theory, private ownership, the Tragedy of the Commons, the Broken Window Fallacy, reciprocity, trust and self-interest. 

Economists:

This episode mentions and/or discusses: Elinor Ostrom, Garrett Harden (Tragedy of the Commons), Donald J. Boudreaux, Cameron Murray, Jason Shogren and Herbert Gintis.

• What is an externality and examples of negative and positive externalities.
• The market value for the pollination that is created by the honey bees – people will pay bee keepers to bring their hives to certain areas so that they can pollinate the plants.
• Addressing the negative externality of oil spillages using a carbon tax.
• The Broken Window Fallacy.
• Is it better for the environment and for the minimisation of pollution to have the private ownership rather than the public ownership of lands and waters?
• Collective action by Elinor Ostrom.
• Crack Gardens in Tokyo and Guerrilla Gardening in parkways between sidewalks and parking spots.
• Ron Finley: Gangsta Gardener for the Urban Community– all in search for organic apples nearby and failed.
• How tax breaks in Vancouver can beautify the landscape and generate positive externalities.
• Writing advice.

Papers:

• Hotte, N. and U. Rashid Sumaila, (2014). How much could a tanker spill cost British Columbians? Environment, Development and Sustainability, February 2014, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp 159–180.
• Garrett Harden (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, New Series, Vol. 162, No. 3859 (Dec. 13, 1968), pp. 1243-1248 

Organisations:

• Resource Economics Group: Check out the list of projects, op-eds and articles written by Ngaio Hotte here.
• Shifting Growth

Other Links:

• Hotte, N. (November 2, 2015). Urban forestry and the greening of Canadian cities. Spacing.

• Nobel Speech by Elinor Ostrom: Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems

• Ostrom’s the Movie: Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons and the Cooperative Enterprise Movement by Barbara Allen

• Ron Finley: Gangsta Gardener for the Urban Community: www.ronfinley.com
• TED: Ron Finley A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

Books:

• Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action by Elinor Ostrom

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