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The Impact Of Groundwater And Well Characteristics On Irrigator Energy Contract Choice, Taylor Hackbart

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The thesis uses cross sectional data from the year 2009 to analyze irrigator choice of electricity contract. The data includes irrigators from the Midwest Electric Cooperative Corporation (MECC), which covers portions of three of Nebraska’s Natural Resource Districts (the Middle Republican, Twin Platte, and Upper Republican NRDs). Each of these institutions tries to reduce the pressure its users place on limited natural resources.

To accomplish this the MECC has established interruptible contracts with irrigators. These contracts allow the MECC to control the electricity supply for an irrigator’s well for a pre-determined number of days, which allows it to better manage …

Econometric Estimation Of Groundwater Depth Change For The High Plains Aquifer, Jonathan R. Sims

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This article presents a new method for estimating changes in depth to groundwater at a yearly, county level and incorporates these estimates as the dependent variable of econometric models for the High Plains aquifer. The High Plains (Ogallala) aquifer underlies eight states in the central United States and is the primary source of irrigation water for this large food producing region. The stock of groundwater is a finite, non-renewable resource with minimal recharge in most areas. Many fields of study, including hydrology and agricultural economics, are interested in depth to groundwater changes because they serve as a proxy for estimating …

The Role Of Safety First Risk Preferences In Grain Marketing: A Laboratory Economic Experiment Using A Grain Marketing Simulation Game, Stamatina Kotsakou

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this study, the Marketing in a New Era (MINE) grain marketing simulation game is used to carry out a context-rich economic experiment to evaluate the role of risk preferences in grain marketing decisions. The model of risk preferences that we consider is an improved Safety First decision rule model proposed by Levy and Levy (2009). We experimentally test if Safety First decision rule describes individuals’ post-harvest marketing decisions. In our experiment, we incorporate real-world features which are usually omitted in marketing studies such as: multiple storage decisions, storage cost, actual price series and multiple contract frequency. MINE plays a …

An Economic Analysis Of A Total Allowable Catch-Individual Transferable Quota System In A Developing Country Heterogeneous Fishery: An Application To The Digha Fishery In West Bengal, India, Nadeeka Weerasekara

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis contributes to the literature of economics of small-scale fishery communities and fishery management in developing nations. In the first section we review literature on state of the fishery resource and the livelihoods in the globe and performance of fishery management systems in developing and developed countries. Second section discusses the results of an empirical study on the economics of subsistence fishers in Digha-Shankarpur in Eastern India. Results of the empirical study shows by-catch by the trawlers leads to the depletion of target fish stock of the subsistence fishers. Underutilization of the capacity by the subsistence fishers due to …

Consumer Perceptions Of Food Safety And Preferences For Food Safety Interventions, Kofi Britwum

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation consists of three essays that investigate consumers’ response to technologies that mitigate food safety risks: cattle vaccines against E. coli and direct-fed microbials.

The first essay examines the influence of information framing and issue involvement on perceptions of the two food safety technologies. This essay also examines the role of issue involvement on food safety perceptions. A hypothetical survey which includes six information treatments was developed, and targeted a representative, random sample of U.S consumers. Participants were exposed to general information about E. coli and the two food safety technologies, a gain-framed message, a loss-framed message, a media …

Has The Usage Of Precision Agriculture Technologies Actually Led To Increased Profits For Nebraska Producers?, Michael H. Castle

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An ever-increasing global demand for food, coupled with increasingly volatile commodity prices have charged producers with the task of becoming more efficient. As such, technologies aimed at producing more with less are continually being developed and marketed to producers. However, whether or not these expensive new technologies have resulted in improved profitability is still unknown, as the vast majority of studies showing their impact on profitability have been performed using hypothetical farms and simulations. These studies have shown the potential for increases in profitability from use, but their impact in the real world is still uncertain.

This project uses various …

U.S. Mushroom Import Demand Estimation With Source Differentiated Aids And Rotterdam Models, Jun Li

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While technically considered as fungi, mushrooms are often classified as vegetables because they provide many of the nutritional attributes of produce as well as meat, beans, and grains. The U.S. is the largest consumer of mushrooms and the share of imports in total consumption of mushrooms has been rising and will likely continue to rise as U.S. consumers increasingly adopt healthier diets. While most of U.S. fresh mushroom imports are from Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea, most of U.S. canned mushroom imports are from China, India, Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

The contribution of this thesis is to provide the …

The Association Of Southeast Asian Nations Agricultural Total Factor Productivity, 1961-2011, Lee Kottmeyer

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This article estimates agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) growth in eight Southeast Asian nations over the time period of 1961-2011, using panel data. This study is concerned with investigating whether the recent slowdown in agricultural productivity growth exhibited by affluent societies extends to this region. Three approaches for measuring agricultural total factor productivity growth are used. First, a non-parametric Simple TFP, output, and input index is calculated. Second, a non-parametric nonstochastic Malmquist index is calculated using data envelopment analysis techniques. Finally, an econometric true fixed effects stochastic frontier model is estimated using a maximum likelihood procedure. Aggregate measures of TFP …

The Potential Water Saved When Usa Households Pay A Water Bill, Wenfeng Li

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A continuing problem for both American agriculture and our society is the shortage of usage water. This problem has become more acute as our population grows and as global warming and the demands of agriculture pushes government agencies to look for ways to save water. More efficient devices are now required and households have been asked to voluntarily restrict water usage. Although less wasteful irrigation methods have been introduced, the problem of inadequate water for agriculture has continued to grow.

Interestingly, there is one area where millions of gallons of clean water are potentially wasted each year that has been …

The Impact Of The Timing Of The Intergenerational Farm Transfer Initiation On The Terminal Wealth In The Business: Simulation Model, Iuliia Protopop

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study presents a conceptual framework and empirical farm-level model of wealth creation and accumulation of the farm business and incorporates the changes in life-cycle patterns in farmer productivity and consumption of the older and younger generation. This method provides a vehicle to analyze the timing of farm transfer initiation and its impact on the terminal wealth in the business and the likelihood of the firm’s future continuity.

The results of a representative large grain farm (more than $250,000 in gross sales, and $4 million in real estate) in Iowa confirm that the timing of a transfer is determined by …

Does The Nebraska Livestock Friendly County Program Affect Livestock Expansion In The State?, Brian E. Mills

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Livestock production in Nebraska is a very essential part of the state’s economy with cash receipts from all livestock and products valued at $11.9 billion in 2013 (NDA 2015b). The Livestock Friendly County Program (LFCP) was instituted by the Nebraska Legislature in 2003 to further promote livestock development in the state. This thesis examines whether the program has had its intended impact for both cattle and hog farms. The analysis draws on the theory of long-run competitive equilibrium as a guide for the specification of the cattle and hog models. Three alternative specifications of the models using different sets of …

Three Essays On Biofuels, Drought, Livestock, And The Environment, Sunil P. Dhoubhadel

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines the impact of the 2012 drought and the biofuels mandate on the U.S. grain and livestock markets. A stochastic equilibrium displacement model is used to analyze the impact on eight commodity markets viz. beef, pork, poultry, corn, distillers’ grain (DG), soybean, soymeal, and ethanol. Among the eight markets, corn and beef are found to be the most vulnerable to drought. The use of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits as an instrument to mitigate the impact of drought has limited effectiveness. A mandate waiver of about 23% is required to fully …

Economic Impacts Of Increased Corporate Average Fuel Economy (Cafe) Standards, Ann K. Hunter-Pirtle

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates that U.S. transportation fuel producers blend specific volumes of ethanol and other biofuels with fossil fuels to spur U.S. biofuel production and to minimize foreign oil imports. Ethanol is more corrosive to auto engines than gasoline, and although vehicles manufactured since 2001 are approved to use up to a 15% ethanol blend (E15) (Naylor & Falcon, 2011), E10 is much more widely available. Ethanol producers therefore face a so-called blend wall at 10 percent—a maximum amount of ethanol that is usable domestically based on the demand for gasoline.

Meanwhile, gasoline demand in the U.S. …

Irrigation Demand In A Changing Climate: Using Disaggregate Data To Predict Future Groundwater Use, Calvin R. Shaneyfelt

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The paper estimates an irrigation water demand function using disaggregate climate and well data over a 33 year time period. Aggregating climate information over long periods, like a year, causes a loss of detail on temporal climatic variation, while aggregating climate information over space causes a loss of detail on spatial variation. This analysis uses disaggregate climate variation at a temporospatial level to determine the effects of climate on groundwater use. Results show that increased heat, measured in cooling degree-days, correlates with increased water use, while increased precipitation correlates with decreased water use. However, the effects are generally magnified for …

The Environmental And Health Costs Of Alternative Diets: A Comparative Study Of The U.S. Diet Relative To The French, Japanese, Mediterranean, And Nordic Diets, Sarah Rehkamp

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis contributes to the literature on sustainable consumption by using scenario analysis to evaluate the environmental and health costs of the U.S. diet relative to the French, Japanese, Mediterranean, and Nordic diets, identified in the literature as healthier diets. As a first step in estimating environmental costs, the energy efficiencies of each diet are calculated by decomposing each of the diets into their respective components. Then, the dietary efficiencies are translated into CO₂ emissions. As a first step in estimating health costs, a pooled cross-section time-series dataset is used to find the association between BMI and five countries, …

Agricultural Productivity In The Greater Middle East, Zahra Tayebi

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this research is to determine TFP growth in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey and Syria considering weather as well as economic and social factors that might be affecting it. A translog production function was used to estimate TFP over the period 1980-2010. Precipitation, temperature, drought and irrigation were included in the analysis. The results show increasing agricultural productivity at the average rate of 2.66% during the period. Temperature and precipitation play a significant role in agricultural production and most frequent extreme drought episodes and irrigation affect, substantially, agricultural productivity growth in the region. The results highlight that respect …

Agricultural Productivity In Mercosur, Preeti Bharati

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis applies econometric methods to investigate reported decline in productivity in the countries of Mercosur in Latin America. While non-parametric methods in general claimed thus, more recent studies using parametric approach exhibited mixed results. We show that the results are contingent to the estimation method employed, the dataset used and the degree of diversity in socio-political and economic environment prevailing in the countries analysed. Our results indicate that the region is experiencing 2.24% productivity growth dominated by technical growth (1.97%) and marred by low efficiency (0.24%), the latter being explained primarily by the quality of human capital in agriculture, …

The Impact Of The African Growth And Opportunity Act (Agoa): An Empirical Analysis Of Sub-Saharan African Agricultural Exports, Addisalem Zenebe

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) which was signed into law in 2000 as part of U.S. trade legislation has the objectives of increasing trade and investment between the U.S. and eligible Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, by reducing or eliminating tariffs applied to African exports of different products. This Act represents a promising approach to economic growth and development in SSA through international trade.

This thesis examines the impact of AGOA on African agricultural exports. The study uses the gravity trade model framework and panel data depicting annual agricultural trade from 35 eligible SSA countries to the United States …

Three Essays On Renewable Energy, Kepifri Alpha Lakoh

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation studies three main issues related to renewable energy in the United States and in Sub Sahara Africa.

The first chapter seeks to provide answers to a very fundamental question for second generation biofuels: “How much crop residue can farmers harvest from their fields for sale to cellulosic ethanol companies without affecting current levels of production?” The model developed is applied to 101 counties from four Midwestern states in the United States (Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming). Results show that soil organic matter significantly contributes to explaining changes in technical efficiency and total factor productivity. Furthermore, average crop …

Risk Management Strategies For Nebraska Grain And Oilseed Producers: A Stochastic Simulation And Analysis, Jim A. Jansen

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Uncertainty in revenue for grain and oilseed operations located across Nebraska exists due to commodity price volatility and yield variability. Several risk management tools enable producers to deal with financial losses from revenue declines including crop insurance, marketing strategies, and government farm programs. Producers may need to combine multiple tools for an effective risk management strategy, but research lacks on integrating these tools currently available to producers across the state. Actions amongst individuals actively engaged in the industry show their plans to deal with revenue declines may lead to less than optimal strategies.

Stochastic simulation utilizing eight representative farms across …

Agricultural Productivity Growth In Central America And The Caribbean, Ayako Ebata

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis estimates total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the agricultural sector of fourteen regions in Central America and the Caribbean. First, TFP is measured parametrically and non-parametrically, using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method and the Maximum Likelihood (ML) method to estimate a translog production function and the Malmquist index approach. Secondly, the thesis incorporates an environmental bad, CO₂ emissions from expansion of agricultural land by sacrificing forest area and estimates environmentally adjusted productivity (EAP) growth rates using an output distance function in order to assess how the growth of TFP rates changes when such a bad is …

Applying Data Mining Techniques To Evaluate Applications For Agricultural Loans, Emile J. Salame

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Financial lending institutions continuously look at improving their credit risk models. This study examines the performance of three estimation methods: logistic regression, decision tree, and neural networks, in terms of their misclassification rates of credit default. The study uses 17,328 loans of grain producers for the period of 2006 - 2010. Those loans belong to the category of “diversified loans / core standard” originating from a large financial lending institution. The data has been split into nine different sets to acknowledge three factors: the shift in price of grains to a higher plateau after 2006, the contamination effect on defaulting …

Replacement Alternatives For Beef Cow Herds: An Analysis Of Retaining Non-Pregnant Cows, Trenton T. Bohling

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A non-pregnant cow is a liability to a producer. Over the last four years, cow-calf producers have had an increased number of non-pregnant cows due to factors like environmental conditions and diseases like trichomoniasis. While most research has indicated that culling a non-pregnant female and replacing the cow with retained heifers, purchased heifers, or purchased cows are the only economic alternatives, recent trends in the cattle market have suggested that keeping a non-pregnant cow may also be an alternative.

Annual beef cow budgets were created based on typical Nebraska Sandhills conditions. Revenues and costs in these budgets vary according to …

Intraseasonal Management Strategies For Deficit Irrigation, Isaac I. N. Mortensen

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Reduced availability of irrigation water to producers has led to the need for intraseasonal management strategies that efficiently use the limited supply of irrigation water. Historical weather data was used to develop a range of conditions experienced at the location. Sound weather data improves the dependability of management strategies. Data from weather stations on the Automated Weather Data Network and the Colorado AgMet network were evaluated based upon net radiation and dew point temperature observations expected in an irrigated agricultural setting. This weather data was used to create a relationship between the Penman-Montieth evapotranspiration (ET) and Hargreaves ET and …

An Analysis Of Supply Contracts In The Livestock Markets Of The United States, Doussou Traore

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this report, we discuss market relations in the cattle and beef sector of the United States by setting up a sequence of optimization decisions taken by cattle feeders (producers, sellers) and meat packers (processors, buyers) to solve for the equilibrium supply and demand proportions in the contract market in a first stage given the respective degrees of risk aversion for the representative producer and processor. Subsequently we derive the impacts of contracts, namely impacts on the spot market price and the processors’ ability to exercise oligopsony power, in a second stage. Using a model for a fixed-price contract, the …

Essays On Equity-Efficiency Trade Offs In Energy And Climate Policies, Juan P. Sesmero

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Economic efficiency and societal equity are two important goals of public policy. Energy and climate policies have the potential to affect both. Efficiency is increased by substituting low-carbon energy for fossil energy (mitigating an externality) while equity is served if such substitution enhances consumption opportunities of unfavored groups (low income households or future generations). However policies that are effective in reducing pollution may not be so effective in redistributing consumption and vice-versa. This dissertation explores potential trade-offs between equity and efficiency arising in energy and climate policies.

Chapter 1 yields two important results. First, while effective in reducing pollution, energy …

Energy Restriction During Development In Breeding Gilts: An Economic Analysis, Justin Cech

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Swine production has become a low-margin business. As costs of production have increased, producers are continuing to increase efficiency in market pig production and gilt development. Restricting energy intake during gilt development could have a positive impact on a producer’s bottom line, but few studies have economically analyzed production differences caused by energy restriction.

This study utilized gilt development and market pig production data from biological studies that included a 2x2 factorial arrangement of half-sibling maternal lines (LWxLR and L45X) entering two gilt development programs. In one program, gilts were fed on an ad libitum basis. In the other, gilts …

Essays On Industrial Organization And Environmental Economics, Gibson Nene

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation studies environmental regulation issues in the hog production industry as well as forces behind the reorganization of the industry during the past two decades. Federal and State-level environmental regulations imposed on U.S. hog production during the year 2003 are examined in Chapter 1. Based on the number of regulations passed by the Federal government and states, the 2003 regulatory index is constructed. The regulatory stringency index suggests that state-level regulations vary across states and have increased over the years. In addition, state-level regulations are more stringent than federal regulations. Chapter 2 develops an empirically implementable theoretical model which …

The Use Of Economics Experiments To Understand Patent Licensing, Patent Challenging And Patent Litigation Behavior, Rita Abdelnour

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The existing patent literature suggests that the patent breadth is an important factor in determining the innovator’s patent licensing and litigation behavior and that licensing a patent to a competitor is driven by profit. The present study develops two economics experiment to investigate these assumptions.

First, a choice experiment is developed to investigate the patentee’s objective when licensing her innovation, by examining whether, when the decision to license is made, the patentee maximizes profits or her strategy is to maintain a dominant market position by controlling the largest market share. The results show that the assumptions of profit maximization and …

Farm Organization And Pasture Management Followed By Nebraska-Forage-Livestock Cooperators 1939-1940, Denver David Gray

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Following the extreme drought of 1934, the Nebraska Pasture Contest was organized to collect information, improve grasslands, and disseminate information on pasture management. Elvin Frolik and A. W. Peterson devised questionnaires administered by county agents. Data was entered on IBM punch cards, mechanically sorted, tabulated, and printed. This study deals with the farm management phase.