Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Export Demand Estimation For U.S. Corn And Soybeans To Major Destinations, Sayed Y. Saghaian

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

The United States is the leading producer and exporter of corn and soybeans in the world. The United States exports 20% of the world’s corn and 30% of soybeans in a typical year (USDA, ERS). The U.S., being the top producer and exporter of these commodities, is also confronting major rivals such as Argentina, Brazil, and Ukraine, which are increasing their exports and causing the U.S. to lose some of its market share. In order to stop this decline in market share, the U.S. can adopt and implement different policies to manage resources and employ advanced technology more effectively.

In …

Three Essays On Food Safety Regulations And International Trade Of Agricultural Products, Jun Ho Seok

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation investigates food safety regulations and international trade of agricultural products dividing into three aspects: the signalling effect from U.S. strict food safety regulations on U.S. vegetable exports, political determinants of sanitary and photosanitary non-tariff barriers, and the impact of trade barriers on employment in developing countries. In chapter 2, we investigate the impact of high U.S. maximum residue limit (MRL) standards on U.S vegetable exports to 102 countries utilizing the hierarchical model. MRL, which is one of non-tariff barriers with respect to food safety, is applied to home and foreign countries at the same time. Thus, firms in …

The Role Of Snap And Habit Formation On Household Consumption Behavior, Shaheer Burney

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This collection of essays examines the impact of two antecedents of household food consumption: SNAP and habit formation to nutrients. Household food choice invariably plays a substantial role in health outcomes such as obesity. Low-income households may be especially vulnerable to obesity as they face a more restricted set of food choices due to income constraints and may have less information on healthy eating relative to high-income households. This dissertation unravels this dynamic by providing causal estimates of the effect of two major determinants of food choice.

Chapter 2 and chapter 3 test the impact of SNAP participation on consumption …

Environmental Values, Stated Preferences, And Hypothetical Bias, Jerrod M. Penn

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Contingent Valuation (CV) methods are a primary tool in environmental economics to ascertain non-use or other values not observable through existing market mechanisms. Because common CV approaches typically rely on hypothetical answers from surveys in order to generate welfare estimates, these are often labelled stated preferences. Results from stated preference methods often diverge from those obtained when actual preference or behavior are involved. This divergence is commonly known as Hypothetical Bias (HB). This dissertation addresses HB as it applies to environmental applications. To begin, a meta-analysis using a sample of studies many times larger than previous works was performed. Its …

Essays On Organic Food Marketing In The U.S., Bo Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation examines organic food marketing from three aspects: household demand for organic food, household choice of retail formats accounting for preference organic food preference, and farmers’ joint adoption of organic farming and direct marketing methods. In Chapter Two, given the fast growth of private label milk and organic milk in the U.S., we estimate a censored demand system to study the demand relations among types of milk differentiated by brand types and organic status, using recent Nielsen Homescan data. We find that sociodemographic factors still play important roles in a household choice of milk types, and fluid milk is …

Natural Resource, Regional Growth, And Human Capital Accumulation, Na Zuo

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

The dissertation research will comprise three essays on the topic of the resource curse hypothesis and its mechanisms. The phenomenon of low economic growth in resource-rich regions is recognized as the “resource curse”. These essays will contribute to an understanding of the regional resource-growth relation within a nation.

Essay one tests the resource curse hypothesis at the U.S. state level. With a system of equations model, I decompose the overall resource effect to account for the two leading explanations — crowding-out and institution effects, thus investigate whether the institutions mediate the crowding-out effects. I did not find evidence of an …

Agricultural Input Intensification, Productivity Growth, And The Transformation Of African Agriculture, Didier Y. Alia

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation studies agricultural input intensification, defined as the increased use of modern inputs such as hybrid seeds, mineral fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide in African agriculture. It also analyses the potential of this intensification to accelerate productivity growth and tests the effectiveness of two policies, input subsidies and land reforms, in promoting it and consequently in increasing crop yield. In the first essay, we argue that to create the conditions for the emergence of a green revolution in Africa, modern agricultural technologies have to be adopted as a package, not in a piecemeal fashion. This argument is consistent with a …

The Margin Protection Program For Dairy: A Forecast & Ad Hoc Regional Analysis, Jessica A. G. Richard

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This study examined The Margin Protection Program for Dairy’s impact on the “effective margins” or margins realized by dairy producers in various regions. Each selected margin and percentage of production history offered by the national policy was analyzed in a forecasting, national and regional manner. Couplet margins were simulated for fifteen regions from 2017 through 2020. Five scenarios were analyzed for the change in MPP’s effects under a 15%, 10%, and 5% drop in the price of milk as well as a 50% increase in the price of corn and a scenario where milk decreases 15% while corn prices simultaneously …

Coffee In China: Market Trend And Consumer Demand, Jesse W. Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Although it remains a tea consuming nation, both production and consumption of coffee in China has been increasing at double-digit rates and is not expected to slow down (International Coffee Organization (ICO), 2015). With investments and upward trends in production and rapid increases in consumption of coffee in China it is important for producers and retailers of the bean¹ in China to understand the new Chinese coffee consumer. Using survey data from Wuhan, China we help understand the Chinese coffee consumer by explaining their consumption using standard OLS regression. Results show that whether or not consumers make/brew their own …

Essays On Farmer Willingness To Participate In Best Management Practices In The Kentucky River Watershed, Hua Zhong

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation explores the adoption of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the Kentucky River watershed. Through a survey of farmers in the Kentucky River watershed, chapter two investigates farmers’ current BMP adoption and their willingness to engage in additional adoption incentivized through a proposed Water Quality Trading (WQT) program. This chapter includes two parts: the first part is to investigate the factors influencing farmers’ current usage of BMPs; the second part is to estimate farmers’ willingness to implement BMPs given different levels of compensation specified in the survey. Farmers’ experiences about BMPs are more likely to persuade them to adopt …

Farmed And Wild-Caught Shrimp In Kentucky And South Carolina: Consumer Preference For Homegrown By Heroes, Community Supported Fishery, And Other Quality Attributes, Graham T. Soley

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

As information regarding origin, production method, and environmental certifications characterize a progressing seafood market, scare analysis has been made to understand market responses. This study focuses on consumer preference for wild-caught and farm-raised shrimp with several attributes. These include the Homegrown By Heroes label and Best Aquaculture Practices certification, as well as other existing attributes including the Marine Stewardship Council and each state’s local label. Also considered are hypothetical labels including Community Supported Fishery (CSF) and National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This study surveys consumers in Kentucky and South Carolina while utilizing a choice experiment to elicit willingness-to-pay measures …

Essays On Agricultural Market And Policies: Imported Shrimp, Organic Coffee, And Cigarettes In The United States, Xiaojin Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation focuses on topics in areas of agricultural and food policy, international trade, agricultural markets and marketing. The dissertation is structured as three papers. The first paper, Chapter 1, evaluates the impact of agricultural trade policies. Imported shrimp, which comprises nearly ninety percent of all United States shrimp consumption, have become the subject of antidumping and countervailing duty investigations in the past decade. I estimate the import demand for shrimp in the United States from 1999-2014, using the Barten’s synthetic model. I test the hypothesis of possible structural breaks in the import demand introduced by various trade policies: antidumping/countervailing …

The Value Of Kentucky’S Equine Industry To Kentucky State Residents: A Contingent Valuation Study, Stephanie Waters

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This thesis examines whether the presence of the equine industry improves the quality of life for Kentucky residents; the contingent valuation method (CV) is used to estimate the value Kentucky residents place on the presence of the equine industry in Kentucky. The data comes from Phase II of the 2012 Kentucky Equine Survey of Kentucky residents. Seven thousand seven hundred fiftyseven surveys were distributed throughout the one hundred twenty counties in Kentucky. Four versions of the survey were distributed; the versions varied by the percentage decline in the equine industry. Surveys distributed to Bluegrass counties were distinguished by the color …

Water Quality Trading From The Point Source Perspective: Willingness To Pay For Abatement Credits And Preferences For Water Quality Trading Market Mechanism, Andrew Mclaughlin

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

As part of the EPA’s initiative to reduce the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico, a feasibility study for a potential water quality trading (WQT) program in the Kentucky River Watershed (KRW) was conducted. While theoretically, emission trading programs are among the most efficient means of reducing pollution, empirical evidence suggests low-trade volume as a primary concern for the long-term success of such programs. Some of the important reasons for the low volume of trade are due to lack of suitable market trading mechanism for point sources and lack of information on willingness to pay (WTP) for abatement credits. …

Economic Analysis And Willingness To Pay For Alternative Charcoal And Clean Cook Stoves In Haiti, Nicaise S. Sagbo

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Conventional charcoal and firewood are the main source of energy in Haiti. They provide up to 90% of the country’s energy for domestic and industrial use, resulting in severe environmental and health issues. The present study is initiated to better understand the reasons why two promising alternative technologies (improved cookstoves and alternative charcoal briquettes) have experienced low adoption in Haiti. The research was carried out in two districts in southern Haiti where the improved stoves and briquettes production units exist and where households benefited from a program distributing the improved stoves.

This project contributes to the literature by gauging interest …

Farmers’ Willingness To Pay For Breeding Sow Insurance: Evidence From China’S Hubei Province, Wei Wan

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

China is the world’s largest pork producer and consumer, and Hubei Province is one of the top pork production provinces in China. Since problems and risks have led to large-scale reduction of pork production and farmers’ income, Chinese government offers various policy measures to help farmers. Breeding sow insurance is considered as one of the most effective measures started in 2007. To better understand farmer’s need for breeding sow insurance and make proper policy insights, our research is the first empirical study in Hubei Province and one of the pioneer studies investigate farmer’s willingness to pay(WTP) for breeding sow insurance …

A Multivariate Analysis Of Consumers’ Beliefs, Attitudes, And Behaviors Associated With Locally Produced Food And Farmers’ Market Patronage, Sara Williamson

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

While farmers’ market vendors rely on loyal and frequent patrons to purchase their products, it is unclear how the intrinsic differences among farmers’ market shoppers serve as indicators of potential shopping frequency at farmers’ markets. The objectives of this thesis are to identify consumers’ intrinsic values associated with characteristics of local foods, examine how these values are reflected in consumption behaviors among farmers' market shoppers, and explore the relationship between consumption activities and shopping frequency at farmers' markets. Results suggest that the differences between frequent and infrequent farmers’ market shoppers could be explained by the individual’s levels of high and …

Pay-As-You-Go Electricity: The Impact Of Prepay Programs On Electricity Consumption, William M. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Prepay or pay-as-you-go programs are an increasingly popular type of rate plan offered by electric utilities. Under these plans, ratepayers must keep a positive balance at all times to avoid being automatically disconnected, they are charged daily for their usage, and they are provided with a means to monitor their consumption. One of the suggested benefits of these plans is that they allow electricity consumers to better manage their usage. Using household level monthly usage data from customers enrolled in prepay programs at two Kentucky rural electric cooperatives, we investigate whether there is a change in consumption after these customers …

Economic Analysis Of Carbon Sequestration Under Catastrophic Risk And Price Uncertainty In Kentucky, Lijiao Hu

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Internalizing carbon value for forest landowners has the potential to increase carbon supply in forest and mitigate CO₂ in the atmosphere. In this study, we developed a modified Hartman model to investigate how payments of carbon offsets impact the optimal management of hardwood forests in Kentucky under condition of catastrophic events. Different carbon markets were modeled and several sensitivity analyses were performed to examine varied management strategies to achieve maximized financial return or highest environmental benefits. Furthermore, another model was developed to incorporate the impact of risk aversion to price uncertainty using E-V model. We were able to identify …

The Effects Of Household Socio-Demographics On Restaurant Threshold Prices, Georgette Owusu-Amankwah

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This study examines the determinants of a household’s threshold price for a restaurant meal cost increase; the level of cost increase that would cause households to either eat in restaurants less frequently or change what they would typically purchase. The design of the study is formulated using a Tobit model to examine the threshold price by differing social, economic and demographic characteristics of households in Kentucky as well as their preferences for restaurant-specific characteristics.

The empirical estimates suggest that households that frequently have dinner at restaurants, households with higher incomes and households that strongly prefer full-service restaurants have a positive …

Essays On The Value Of A Firm’S Eco-Friendliness In The Financial Asset Market, Muhammad S. Ahmadin

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation presents three different closely related topics on the value of eco-friendliness in the financial market. The first essay attempts to estimate hedonic stock price model to find a contemporaneous relationship between stock return and firms’ environmental performance and recover the value of investor’s willingness to pay of eco-friendliness. This study follows stock and environmental performances of the 500 largest US firms from 2009 to 2012. The firms’ environmental data come from the Newsweek Green Ranking, both aggregate measures: green ranking (GR) and green score (GS), and disaggregate measures: environmental impact score (EIS), green policy and performance score (GPS), …

Valuation Of Recreational Beach Quality And Water Quality Management Strategies In Oahu, Jerrod M. Penn

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Hawaii’s pristine ocean and tropical environment is a keystone of Hawaii tourism and the state economy. Water pollution from stormwater and development threatens the beach quality to both residents and tourists. In order to understand the lost nonmarket value, we assess changes in quality of beach characteristics including water and sand quality, swimming safety conditions, and congestion using a Discrete Choice Experiment of recreational beach users. Further, we study willingness to pay (WTP) for water management strategies in Hawaii using another discrete choice experiment, including structural and nonstructural Best Management Practices, testing, monitoring, and educational efforts.

Using a mixed logit …

Improving Farm Management Decisions By Analyzing Production Expenditure Allocations And Farm Performance Standing, William A. Osborne

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This study examines the potential effects of categorical increases in production expenditures on farm income performance according to farm standing. The objective of this study is to expose differences in anticipated net farm income return from production expenditure investments and the optimal expense allocation strategy for each performance level. Studying farm performance through segregation by utilizing a two-tier analysis and quantile regression acknowledges the possibility that managerial strategy can differ based on managerial ability. Study outcomes are useful to farm managers because they offer more prescription style results and interpretations than found in other farm performance studies. Study findings show …

Effects Of Family Structure On Educational Attainment And Health Insurance Coverage Of Youth In The Lower Mississippi Delta Region, Chaquenta L. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

A large body of research, typically nationally focused, has examined the relationship between family structure, educational attainment, and healthcare access. Within this field of study, there is limited availability of regionally based studies, specifically the Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) region. This exploratory study examines the effects of family structure on high school graduation rates and health insurance coverage within the LMD region. The objective is to determine if family structure has a direct impact on the educational attainment and health outcomes of a child within the region using concepts from nationally focused literature. Through the use of an OLS regression, …

Economic Optimization And Precision Agriculture: A Carbon Footprint Story, Rachael M. Brown

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This thesis examines the economic and environmental impacts that precision agriculture technologies (PATs) can have on the carbon footprint of a grain farm. An analysis is offered using two manuscripts. The first examines the impacts of three PATs and compares the findings to a conventional farming method. It was found that all three PATs investigated showed a potential Pareto improvement over conventional farming. The second manuscript expanded the model used previously to in order to develop a process to construct a carbon efficient frontier (CEF). The model employed examined uniform and variable rate technologies. In addition to the CEF, a …

Direct Climate Markets: The Prospects For Trading Teleconnection Risk, Grant Cavanaugh

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation provides the analysis necessary to launch the first direct climate markets. Combining statistical modeling with qualitative interviews, I build off of an innovative insurance project to show why and how to start traded markets on indexes of El Niño/La Niña. I provide statistical models of El Niño/La Niña's worldwide economic impacts; a stochastic catalog used to price virtually any risk management contract on El Niño/La Niña, even as new forecasts change traders' expectations; a comprehensive statistical description of the lifecycle of new derivatives showing how the prospects for new derivatives changed fundamentally in the last decade (this work …

Nanotechnology In The Food System: Consumer Acceptance And Willingness To Pay, Guzhen Zhou

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Nanotechnology is one of the key innovative technologies in the present century. The food industry has applied this technology in each of its sectors. Nanotechnology has tremendous potential in food and agriculture, including advancing agricultural cultivation and food production, enhancing food nutrition and flavor, and improving food packaging and preservation. However, the novel properties of nanoscale materials that allow beneficial applications are also accompanied with uncertainties, even unknown risks. A number of studies have examined public understanding as well as acceptance of nanotechnology via surveys in both the US and Europe. However, most of these studies concentrated on public attitudes …

Implications Of Off-Farm Income For Farm Income Stabilization Policies, Simon Jette-Nantel

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation examines to what extent off-farm diversification may be an appropriate and accessible tool to mitigate the adverse effects from market failures and incompleteness in the crop and farm income insurance market. While the influence of the nonfarm sector has long been recognized as a primary force in shaping farm structure, off-farm income is rarely acknowledge as a risk management tool for operators and households of commercial farms. The dissertation develops a dynamic model that includes capital market imperfections, economies of scale in farm production, and the presence of adjustment costs in labor allocation decisions. The model provides a …

Financial Inclusion And Natural Disasters, Benjamin L. Collier

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation explores the implications of natural disaster risk for access to financial services, especially credit. Its results show that disasters can dramatically undermine the ability of financial intermediaries (FIs) to lend after an event, increasing the cost of the disaster and delaying recovery. Moreover, the risk of natural disasters discourages investment in vulnerable regions and economic sectors and so slows economic development. Financial risk transfer mechanisms such as insurance can help maintain lending following an event. While many international development projects have targeted disaster insurance markets to households, managing disaster-related credit risk may be done more effectively through insurance …

Financial Development And Economic Growth In Kentucky Counties, John D. Conley

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

There is a broad literature on the finance-growth nexus in the macroeconomics literature. Is there evidence for the finance-growth nexus at the sub-national region? If so, can macroeconomic finance and growth methods be extended to sub-national regions? Joseph Schumpeter argued that banks promote economic growth by choosing which projects to fund, by mobilizing underutilized capital, by managing risk and by monitoring managers.

This dissertation proposes a modified Martin and Ottaviano (2001) model that allows for borrowing to form new firms or to expand existing firms. The model shows that if borrowing across regional lines is costly, above and beyond the …