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Full-Text Articles in Agricultural and Resource Economics

The Use Of And Interest In Ancient Grains In Northeastern Institutional Kitchens, Jg Malacarne, Cheryl Bilinski, Bruce Wyatt, Kevin Leavitt Jan 2024

The Use Of And Interest In Ancient Grains In Northeastern Institutional Kitchens, Jg Malacarne, Cheryl Bilinski, Bruce Wyatt, Kevin Leavitt

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

We report on a survey of institutional kitchens in the Northeast, seeking to better understand the extent to which institutions currently use locally produced grain products and what barriers they face in increasing their use of local grain products. We focus additional attention on local, organic grains, and ask specifically about a set of “ancient” grains: barley, einkorn, farro, rye, and spelt. Results indicate that current use of these products is extremely low. Familiarity with the grains in question, both by kitchen staff and their customers, emerges as a first-order barrier to expanding use of ancient grains in institutional kitchens. …


Climate & Conflict: View Into A Warming World, Faelynn Carroll Jul 2023

Climate & Conflict: View Into A Warming World, Faelynn Carroll

Master's Theses

Unlike weather patterns, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a large-scale, cyclical climate system that is now predictable for up to a year and a half in advance. ENSO cycles occur every two to seven years for approximately two years at a time, affecting large swaths of the globe with plausibly random variation in the exact location and strength of local effects. However, its systemic nature allows for aggregate effects to be accounted for by its outcomes. This research uses novel 0.5 x 0.5 degree ENSO teleconnection analysis for precipitation and temperature to uncover environmental mechanisms that underly the …


Testing Ostrom: An Analysis Of Water User Committees In Uganda, Emily Mcpartlon May 2016

Testing Ostrom: An Analysis Of Water User Committees In Uganda, Emily Mcpartlon

Master's Theses

In 2009 Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Prize for her analysis of economic governance of the commons. Specifically, by challenging the conventional wisdom at the time, demonstrating how communities can successfully manage the common resources without any regulation by central authorities or privatization. Ostrom proposed eight design principles that identify the underlying criterion of institutions that have successfully maintained CPRs over time. I examine whether Ostrom’s Eight Design Principles affect the long-run functionality of borehole wells in Uganda using quantitative methods. I find that the one of the principles, clearly defined boundaries, is significant in all four estimations, and remains …


Harvesting A Knowledge Commons: Collective Action, Transparency, And Innovation At The Portland Fish Exchange, Jennifer F. Brewer Jan 2014

Harvesting A Knowledge Commons: Collective Action, Transparency, And Innovation At The Portland Fish Exchange, Jennifer F. Brewer

Geography

While localist visions of alternative food systems advocate for the expansion of local ecological knowledge through more proximate producerconsumer relationships, globalized seafood supply-demand chains persist. Moving beyond this dichotomy, commons scholars recognize that collective action among resource users at the local level can shape cross-scalar producer relations with government and more capitalized firms operating in regional and global markets. In the case of the New England groundfishery, a quasi-public fish auction not only transformed the scalar, logistical, and financial parameters of harvester-buyer relationships, it altered the production and use of local knowledge among some harvesters, and their technological choices. Resulting …


Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Sub-Saharan Africa, Lilyan E. Fulginiti, Richard K. Perrin, Yu Bingxin May 2012

Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Sub-Saharan Africa, Lilyan E. Fulginiti, Richard K. Perrin, Yu Bingxin

Richard K Perrin

Agricultural productivity in 41 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 1960 to 1999 is examined by estimating a semi-nonparametric Fourier production frontier. Over the four decades the estimated rate of productivity change was 0.83% per year, although the average rate from 1985-99 was a strong 1.90% per year. Former UK colonies exhibited significantly higher productivity gains than others, while Liberia and countries that had been colonies of Portugal or Belgium exhibited net reductions in productivity. We measure a significant reduction in productivity during political conflicts and wars, and a significant increase in productivity among those countries with higher levels of political …


Empowerment, Corruption And Economic Chaos In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed Jun 2011

Empowerment, Corruption And Economic Chaos In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

In a country on the eve of losing one third of its land, 80% of potential natural resources and 75% of external exports value, economic future seems gloomy. Many opinions were given for economic solutions after the Southern Sudan secession. However, that does not support a theoretical framework that those are the only reasons for the expected economic collapse. Our theory here is that such collapse already happened because of economic mismanagement, corruption and hoarding initiated by the calls for empowerment and carried out by the regime's members. Such acts extended to the banks, economic institutions and randomized privatization. The …


Pillars Of Demise: Empowerment And Corruption, Economic Chaos And Political Disintegration In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed Jun 2011

Pillars Of Demise: Empowerment And Corruption, Economic Chaos And Political Disintegration In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

In a country on the eve of losing one third of its land, 80% of potential natural resources and 75% of external exports value, economic future seems gloomy. Many opinions were given for economic solutions after the Southern Sudan secession. However, that does not support a theoretical framework that those are the only reasons for the expected economic collapse. Our theory here is that such collapse already happened because of economic mismanagement, corruption and hoarding initiated by the calls for empowerment and carried out by the regime's members. Such acts extended to the banks, economic institutions and randomized privatization. The …


Institutional Structure And Decision Making In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed Nov 2010

Institutional Structure And Decision Making In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

The study here presented reviews the institutional structure of the Sudanese government. Truly, though it is stigmatized as totalitarian, the structure is phenotypically perfect. Ministry of Ministries council is supposed to cater for analyzing data concerning ministries performance, drawing strategic planning, executing them through ministries and conduct the follow-ups. Department of decision-making was created and packages for data collection and analyses were improvised. However, all these structures seem skeletal as the final decisions structurally seem to be lost between the Presidency Institution and the executive institutions. An introduced flowing chart indicates that the cycle of all decisions end up at …


The Social Infrastructure And The Civil Institutions In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed Mar 2010

The Social Infrastructure And The Civil Institutions In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Contemporary Sudanese society endures many hardships which are manifested in economic retraction, inflation, recession and stagflation. However, social conflicts are also manifested in simple man's daily complaints to open rebellions. Most academicians agree on one point, that the society endures abnormal conditions. The current paper aims delves into a historical context of civil society as a concept in general which originated in the west. Next it displays differences between it and the Sudan supposing that there is unique experience appropriate to the Sudanese state of affairs. Therefore that possibility of creating an appropriate term that fully describes the social structures …


Politics, Hegemony And Survival In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed Feb 2010

Politics, Hegemony And Survival In Sudan, Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Professor Issam A.W. Mohamed

Since the beginning of the year 2010, the political crisis of Sudan expands everyday. The inevitable secession of Southern Sudan amplifies with the chronic crisis of Abyei pocket between the north and the south. However, most analysts vocalize their astonishment at irrational official behavior as the de facto state of war that currently prevails in the country and call it pure stupidity. In this paper we analyze what is behind the regime structure and the conception of the Hakimya that makes their regime fortified from accepting rationality, resilience and sense of truth to respond for solutions and help of the …


Are Credit Unions In Ecuador Achieving Economies Of Scale?, Nick A. Marchio Jul 2009

Are Credit Unions In Ecuador Achieving Economies Of Scale?, Nick A. Marchio

Economics Honors Projects

This study tests the assertion that membership growth in credit unions is constrained by their unique structural features, such as their non-profit mission and member-based ownership. Although these features enhance inclusiveness, existing theory suggest that they work against efficiency when membership grows too diffuse. To address this issue, this study uses a model that takes into account existing theory on constrained-optimization in credit unions and theory on the adverse effects of diffuse ownership. Using data on 36 public credit unions in Ecuador, the empirical analysis finds evidence that credit unions can achieve economies of scale despite their problematic structural features. …


Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Mercosur, Preeti Bharati, Lilyan Fulginiti Oct 2007

Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Mercosur, Preeti Bharati, Lilyan Fulginiti

Lilyan E. Fulginiti Publications

We revisit earlier estimates of agricultural productivity in original Mercosur member countries and later associates: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, for 1972-2002. We estimate a translog frontier production function and revise our earlier estimates as well as those of others that indicated declining agricultural productivity. We find that the average rate for the region was a strong 2.25 percent. All the member countries experienced positive agricultural productivity growth for the sample period with Brazil being the fastest gainer. Institutions such as investments in public health and in public agricultural R&D, as well as an …


Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Mercosur, Preeti Bharati, Lilyan Fulginiti Oct 2007

Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Mercosur, Preeti Bharati, Lilyan Fulginiti

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

We revisit earlier estimates of agricultural productivity in original Mercosur member countries and later associates: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, for 1972-2002. We estimate a translog frontier production function and revise our earlier estimates as well as those of others that indicated declining agricultural productivity. We find that the average rate for the region was a strong 2.25 percent. All the member countries experienced positive agricultural productivity growth for the sample period with Brazil being the fastest gainer. Institutions such as investments in public health and in public agricultural R&D, as well as an …


Regulation Of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: An Application Of Economic Theory To Firm Decision Making And Applications For Public Policy, Benjamin Gramig Jan 2004

Regulation Of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: An Application Of Economic Theory To Firm Decision Making And Applications For Public Policy, Benjamin Gramig

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The livestock industry in the United States has experienced significant concentration and vertical integration in recent years. This change has resulted in greater observed levels of pollution attributed to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) and society has attempted to use regulation to remedy these problems. Despite regulation at the federal and local level no documented improvement in water quality has been observed to date. This thesis is concerned with the response of profit-maximizing economic agents to the form of environmental regulation adopted at the federal level. A theoretical model of firm profit is proposed and analyzed using comparative statics to …


Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Sub-Saharan Africa, Lilyan E. Fulginiti, Richard K. Perrin, Yu Bingxin Jan 2004

Institutions And Agricultural Productivity In Sub-Saharan Africa, Lilyan E. Fulginiti, Richard K. Perrin, Yu Bingxin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Agricultural productivity in 41 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 1960 to 1999 is examined by estimating a semi-nonparametric Fourier production frontier. Over the four decades the estimated rate of productivity change was 0.83% per year, although the average rate from 1985-99 was a strong 1.90% per year. Former UK colonies exhibited significantly higher productivity gains than others, while Liberia and countries that had been colonies of Portugal or Belgium exhibited net reductions in productivity. We measure a significant reduction in productivity during political conflicts and wars, and a significant increase in productivity among those countries with higher levels of political …