We investigate effects of corn-based ethanol plants on local land uses using county-level panel data for Iowa for 1997 through 2009 and an Arellano-Bond difference-generalized method-of-moments estimator. Our results show that ethanol plants have statistically significant effects on the proportion of acres planted to corn in the plants’ host counties. Furthermore, ceteris paribus, the land-use-change effect of locally owned plants (owned by local farmers or cooperatives) is about twice as large as the effect of plants with nonlocal owners. We also explore implications for the environment of ethanol plants and the changes in land use that they induce.

Two benefit-transfer approaches are used to estimate welfare losses from closure of Lake Erie beaches. We identify conditions for which the function transfer, which is more time-consuming and data-intensive, is worth the effort relative to a simple value transfer. The function transfer was essential for estimating beach demand (trips) and demand elasticity (change in trips); when evaluating individual beach closures with known trip demand, the two methods yielded similar results. Results produced by the two transfer methods deviated (up to 106 percent) when multiple beaches were closed simultaneously because value transfer did not account for the loss of beach substitutes.

Contingent valuation is used to measure the benefits of a proposed public program to control black flies. Respondents’ reported values are analyzed from three perspectives: data outliers, consistency between respondents’ reported values and their perceptions of black flies, and the temporal reliability of the values expressed by respondents. The results suggest that the estimated contingent values are plausible even though a majority of respondents expressed a value of zero dollars for the black fly control program.

The relationship between complete-feed prices and ingredient prices is estimated in order to analyze the effect of higher commodity prices on feed costs, with particular attention paid to the substitutability of corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Using the historical price correlation between corn and DDGS, each $1 per ton increase in the price of corn increases feed costs between $0.45 and $0.59 per ton across livestock sectors. Marginal feed costs based on lower forecasted price correlations are reduced between $0.05 to $0.12 per ton across livestock sectors, but only for the dairy ration is the reduction statistically significant. Overall, DDGS cost savings are relatively limited and insufficient to offset the impact of other higher-priced feedstocks.

Experimental markets can be a useful tool to guide and evaluate environmental policy. This paper reviews four experiments to illustrate. Two institutional experiments are considered—Coasian bargaining with positive transaction costs, and a gaming experiment of dynamic choice in a conflict. Two valuation experiments are also discussed—the impact of sequential reduction mechanisms on the value of risk, and experimental auction markets to elicit the value of safer food.

Recent studies examine the impact of the built environment on health outcomes such as obesity. Several studies find for certain populations that access to unhealthy food has a positive effect on obesity, whereas access to healthy choices has a negative effect. Given the growth and popularity of locally grown food, we examine how individual weight outcomes are affected by access to direct-to-consumer local food. After controlling for potential endogeneity, we find that greater access to local food has a negative association with individual weight outcomes. We also find a negative association with greater weight loss over a one-year period. These results provide evidence that local food access can have potential indirect benefits.

This study uses field experiments to investigate consumer preferences for oysters. In total, 486 adult participants completed a series of revealed-preference dichotomous-choice tasks and a demographic survey. Using a random effects logit model, we investigate factors that influence participants’ decisions to purchase oysters. As expected, price had a significant negative effect, while income had a positive effect. Older individuals and those who were relatively selective regarding shell color or smell are less likely to buy oysters, but consumers who valued size, oyster species, and harvest location were willing to pay more.

Consumers in today's marketplace have seemingly endless choices with regards to produce. Peach growers and retailers in Ontario, Canada, have begun taking steps to increase demand for their products. This study investigates the impact of those strategies on the market. Using conjoint analysis and market simulations, we evaluate the peach market to identify key drivers of peach purchasing. The results indicate that the market is heterogeneous and that price, origin, and quality indicators are the most important drivers of purchases. Our simulations indicate that adoption of new plastic packaging by the industry is a viable strategy for increasing demand for local peaches.

This study spatially quantifies hydrological ecosystem services and the production of ecosystem services at the watershed scale. We also investigate the effects of stressors such as land use change, climate change, and choices in land management practices on production of ecosystem services and their values. We demonstrate the approach in the Beaver River watershed in Rhode Island. Our key finding is that choices in land use and land management practices create tradeoffs across multiple ecosystem services and the extent of these tradeoffs depends considerably on the scenarios and ecosystem services being compared.

This study models the effects of variability in farm income and off-farm wages on farm operators' labor allocation decisions. A simple theoretical model is employed to develop hypotheses, which are then tested empirically. Variability in farm income and off-farm wages is predicted to have a positive and negative effect, respectively, on off-farm hours worked. The empirical results confirm these predictions.

The focus of the current study was on the market potential for grass-fed beef in the Appalachian region, given that these products embody observed, experiential, nutritional, and process attributes that may appeal to a large consumer base. An in-store variant of the Becker-DeGroot-Marschack experimental auction mechanism was employed in the region to determine consumer preferences and willingness to pay. A majority of respondents preferred the grass-fed product over conventional grain-fed samples and were willing to pay a price premium to obtain it. Preferences for grass-fed were rooted largely in the associated superior nutritional content and core observed attributes.

This paper uses the concept of the Gini Coefficient and data from the 1991 Farm Costs and Returns Survey (FCRS) to measure the role of off-farm income and that of other income sources in the size distribution of farm operator households' total personal income. Disaggregated FCRS data by region and by level of participation in off-farm employment show that nonparticipating farm operator households have, as a group, higher income inequality than participating households. The results also indicate that, irrespective of the off-farm work status of the farm operator household, the distribution of income among households in the North Central region is least unequal and that in the West is most unequal.

Seafood futures contracts are a novelty in the derivative markets, having shrimp as their only exponent. Unfortunately, shrimp futures contracts have suffered a disappointing start. The analyses focus on testing whether premiums/discounts for non-par deliverable shrimp size categories can eliminate cash price differentials, and whether the shrimp futures market can predict cash prices without bias. Results indicate ineffective premiums/discounts and predictive bias. These results and the momentous changes taking place in the seafood industry are contrasted to discuss the viability of seafood futures contracts.

Auction experiments are commonly used to determine consumers’ willingness to pay for various food items. While their non-hypothetical nature is a positive, market substitutes create a probable confounding of bids by field prices. This study examines the influence of field prices on bids for four foods in two versions by conducting auctions before and after large price increases in 2007. Results show that bids were capped at given field prices and were significantly higher in sessions conducted after store prices increased. Percentage premiums, however, were not significantly different across sessions, suggesting that effects of field prices could be reduced. Overall, researchers must be conscious of how field prices affect bids.

While many studies have estimated the impacts of air pollution on crop yields on experimental plots, few have estimated these impacts under actual farm production conditions. This study econometrically estimates the impact of air pollution on corn and soybean yields, controlling for weather, soil quality and management practices, using farm-level data for the eastern United States. Ozone pollution was found to reduce yields for both crops. The mean elasticity of yield with respect to ozone exposure was − 0.19 for corn and − 0.54 for soybeans. The benefits of ozone standards to protect crops, measured in terms of crop revenues, range from $17 to $82 million depending on the stringency of the standard. Over 85 percent of the revenue gains are captured by three states: Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia.

This study analyzes quantity impacts of imported crawfish tailmeat on Louisiana crawfish tailmeat prices, and demonstrates the statistical validity and proper interpretation of cross substitution within inverse demand systems. Among five inverse demand systems, the Differential Inverse National Bureau of Research (DINBR) model shows no violation of econometric assumptions for the data analyzed. By using Allais coefficients proposed by Barten and Bettendorf (1989), we show substitutability among the five fish species.

A combination of conceptual analysis and empirical analysis—partial regression and residuals analysis—was used to derive an appropriate functional form hedonic price model. These procedures are illustrated in the derivation of a functional form hedonic model for an automated, econometric daily cotton price reporting system for the Texas-Oklahoma cotton market. Following conceptualization to deduce the general shapes of relationships, the appropriate specific functional form was found by testing particular attribute transformations identified from partial regression analysis. Minimizing structural errors across attribute levels and estimation accuracy were used in determining when an appropriate functional form for both implicit and explicit prices was found.

We investigate nutrient trading for point and non-point sources for the Bay Restoration Fund in Maryland. We demonstrate how to use the proceeds from the tax revenue to mimic a market by trading high-cost upgrades of sewage treatment plants for low-cost winter cover crops. Under an optimistic assumption about costs for non-point sources and naïve assumptions about the lag from planting cover crops to changes in nitrogen load, we calculate that 100 percent of abatement could be achieved at 56 percent of total costs, while in a pessimistic scenario, 100 percent of abatement could be could be achieved at 83 percent of total costs.

When using a willingness-to-pay (WTP) format in contingent valuation (CV) to value watershed restoration, respondents may protest by questioning why they should pay to clean up a pollution problem that someone else created. Using a sample selection interval data model based on Bhat (1994) and Brox, Kumar, and Stollery (2003), we found that the decision to protest and WTP values were correlated. Protest sample selection bias resulted in a 300 percent overestimate of mean WTP per respondent. Using different ad hoc treatments of protesters, protest bias resulted in moderate effects (−10 percent to +14 percent) after controlling for sample selection bias.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) agricultural sales doubled in the United States between 1992 and 2007 and then plateaued between 2007 and 2012. It is not clear whether the plateau in sales was attributable to the recession, market saturation, an aging population, or other factors. We estimate the influence of socioeconomic factors in metropolitan areas on DTC agricultural sales between 1992 and 2012 in thirteen Northeast states using county-level panel data. We find that the income elasticity of DTC agricultural purchases ranged from 2.2 to 2.7 and that counties in metropolitan areas did not have higher DTC agricultural sales than other counties, ceteris paribus.