Participation in the 1984–85 Milk Diversion Program (MDP) is examined through the analysis of aggregate state level data for the U.S. and county level data from New York. Linear probability, logit and probit models of participation are estimated. The empirical results are highly similar across models and identify the important determinants of farmer participation in the MDP. Models explaining contracted diversion levels are also estimated but do not have the explanatory power of the participation models. The implications of the results for the analysis of U.S. dairy policy alternatives are discussed.

A survey of more than 1200 Pennsylvania dairy farm managers showed that almost 20% of those managers do not have health insurance. Of those farm managers with health insurance, 67% had insurance acquired through the farm business. Farm characteristics and demographic information were used to determine indicators of health insurance coverage. Age, education, net farm income, off-farm income, milk marketing cooperative membership, and intensity of hired labor use all had significant effects on the likelihood of having health insurance and on whether such insurance was provided by the farm business.

As traditional methods of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) become increasingly expensive due to increased regulation, many local governments are considering cooperation as a waste management strategy. A theoretical model is used to specify a partial observability probability model to analyze the decision Tennessee counties made to form either a single-county solid waste region or a multi-county region. We find that, while economies of scale may be a factor in the consolidation decision, similarities and differences between counties in current individual provision levels of solid waste services, ability to pay for services, and expectations for future solid waste service demands are statistically more important.

This paper develops an economic model of the New England groundfish market. A multi-sector, multi-level econometric model is estimated using data from 1970 to 1982. The parameters of the estimated model are used to characterize consumer demand for groundfish and related products. Retail and exvessel demands for fresh and frozen groundfish fillets are found to be highly elastic. Fresh fillets especially show high income elasticity of demand, reflecting their status as a luxury good. Only a very small and statistically weak relationship was found between the prices of imported groundfish and domestic ex vessel prices indicating that proposals to assist the domestic industry via tariffs may be ineffectual.

The recent reversal in the intraregional migration into non-metropolitan areas has generated a great deal of interest in the problems of local government finance. Of specific concern are the changes in local government expenditures and revenues that have accompanied population growth and decline and related shifts in population composition in nonmetropolitan areas of the Northeast. Using a supply and demand framework, it is argued that the approach used in previous studies of examining the relationship between growth rates and various fiscal variables leads to biased inferences regarding the impact of growth. By analyzing the impacts of changes in the socioeconomic make-up of the population which often accompany growth and decline, the study increases the understanding of fiscal strains on local governments resulting from population shifts.

Land values have tended to increase at a substantially more rapid rate than the general level of prices in recent years. There is a growing body of evidence that this is occurring due, in part, to factors other than agricultural opportunity costs, size of parcel, improvements and other factors historically related to land values (Bishop, Bryant, Pasour). Some other factors influencing rural land values seem to include urbanization, investment or speculation, and increasing wealth or incomes. Additional information on the determinants of land values is needed if these phenomena are to be more completely understood. This paper reports on a study of the relationships of socio-economic characteristic of land owners (buyers and sellers) and rural land values.

The National Research Council report entitled Colleges of Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities: Public Service and Public Policy was released in spring 1996. Several of the study recommendations may be particularly pertinent and interesting to the land grant colleges of the Northeast. This article reviews the study background, process, and general conclusions. It highlights several specific recommendations of potential interest in the Northeast, including those relating to federal support through formula funds and competitive grants, regionalization of programs, and integrating and balancing teaching, research, and extension.

This study examines the effectiveness of growth management policies on influencing future patterns of exurban and suburban development. We initially estimate a spatially explicit model of residential development with parcel data in Sonoma County, California. This estimated model is then used to simulate the effect of urban growth boundaries (UGBs) versus allowing municipal sewer service expansion. The UGB policy decreases the amount of suburban development but is less effective in managing exurban development. The downzoning policy in agricultural and resource areas reduces the amount of exurban development, but only partially due to the prevalence of grandfathered lots in rural areas.

A pilot tree fruit pest management program in Wayne County, New York was evaluated. Thirty-three blocks of fruit were matched for 26 participants in the pilot program and for 23 nonparticipants. Participants reduced pesticide costs and total pest management costs in comparison to nonparticipants. Factors which will affect the adoption of Integrated Pest Management in other locations include the attitudes of growers, farm size, and the density of fruit production. Integrated Pest Management programs are economically feasible for several other areas of high tree fruit density in the Northeast.

The nonparametric approach to consumer-demand analysis—based on revealed-preference axioms—is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to questions of size and power of tests for consistency of data with the existence of a stable, well-behaved utility function that could have generated the data. An application to Australian meat demand is used to show how these notions can be quantified and how prior information about elasticities, following Sakong and Hayes, may be used to increase the power of the approach.

The authors present an analytical model of a first-price sealed-bid cattle auction in which a spot and coordinated markets are interconnected. The model reveals that the conventional wisdom that market coordination negatively affects the bid price in the spot market is an oversimplification. The relationships between key market variables impact bids and bid shading in complex ways. While captive supplies can lead to lower spot prices, the price reductions do not necessarily stem from an increase in market power due to contracting. The model emphasizes the importance of several variables for future empirical studies.

Data on costs and benefits of the major environmental laws passed during the 1970s are reviewed. The winners in terms of benefit-cost analysis include: getting lead out of gasoline, controlling particulate air pollution, reducing the concentration of lead in drinking water, and the cleanup of hazardous waste sites with the lowest cost per cancer case avoided under Superfund. The losers include: mobile source air pollution control, water pollution control, and many of the regulations and cleanup decisions taken under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and Superfund.

An analysis of all valid single family house sales over a four-year period before the March, 1979, TMI accident and over the 9 months following the accident, and within a 25-mile radius of the plant and in two control areas, disclosed no evidence that the accident had measurable lasting effects on residential property values. Shortly following the accident there was a sharp decline in the volume of residential sales within 10 miles of the plant, but the real estate market returned to normal within a month, considering the financial market conditions at that time.

We estimate an error correction model representing demand for leafy green vegetables but generalize the structure to allow for adjustment to one conspicuous shock. We investigate whether the adjustment rate to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) 2006 warning that fresh spinach was contaminated with deadly bacteria was distinct from the overall adjustment rate. Our model allows consumers to correct both for past errors and for any errors in their reaction to the shock. This method yields an estimate of the adjustment rate to the policy shock and points to an improved estimate of the duration of policy impacts.

We illustrate the experimental method by examining bidding behavior for controversial goods, i.e., goods in which bidders have positive and negative values. Our results suggest that bidding behavior differs across auction type. Bidders with positive induced values bid sincerely in a WTP auction. Bidders bid conservatively, however, in the WTA auction, foregoing profitable opportunities. Informing bidders of their optimal strategy serves to attenuate bidding discrepancies but does not eliminate them. Treating the WTP and WTA auctions as equivalent given positive and negative values could lead one to overstate the costs relative to the benefits of the controversial good.

This study analyses the value of a switching option in a flexible biorefinery plant that produces ethanol and sugar juice in a single plant using energy beets. A real-options approach is used to compute threshold prices and optimal switching decision rules for switching between sugar and ethanol production modes. The analysis shows that it is economically optimal to keep producing ethanol then switching to sugar juice, given the stochastic price parameters of the two products.

We discuss the process of estimating the ecosystem service value (ESV) for provisioning of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) to market, with a focus on the United States. NTFPs are harvested throughout the U.S. for numerous purposes, and those sold in market contribute significantly to household and local economies. While estimates of ESV can aid decision-making related to conservation and management, NTFPs have been generally neglected. We discuss challenges and approaches for prioritizing valuation, quantifying production, measuring costs and benefits, and finding data sources. Many NTFP markets are informal, and market players may have an interest in withholding information. Data about geographic and temporal distribution, production cost, quantity harvested, and price may therefore be limited. In two case studies, we explore the nuances of estimating ESV of forests for medicinal products.

Nigeria has experienced bouts of violent conflict in different regions since its independence leading to significant loss of life. In this article, we explore the average effect of exposure to violent conflict generally on labor supply in agriculture. Using a nationally representative panel dataset for Nigeria from 2010 to 2015, in combination with armed conflict data, we estimate the average effect of exposure to violent conflict on a household's farm labor supply. Our findings suggest that on average, exposure to violent conflict significantly reduces total family labor supply hours in agriculture. We also find that the decline in family labor supply is driven by a significant decline in the household head's total number of hours on the farm.

A regulatory liability-based approach to reducing foodborne illnesses is widely used in the U.S. But how effective is it? We exploit regulatory regime variation across states and over time to examine the relationship between product liability laws and reported foodborne illnesses. We find a positive and statistically significant relationship between strict liability with punitive damages and the number of reported foodborne illnesses. We find, however, no statistically significant relationship between strict liability with punitive damages and the number of foodborne illness-related hospitalizations and deaths.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed and adopted a new set of meal pattern requirements for the National School Lunch Program that will allow schools to claim 6 cents more in lunch reimbursement rates. This study analyzes the food costs of school menus in 2005 that met many of the proposed requirements. Overall, schools that served more, and more diverse, non-starchy vegetables had higher average food costs, and schools that served menus with lower calories had lower food costs. The food costs of school lunch menus that met the combined standards for dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, other vegetables, lowfat/fat-free milk, and fruit averaged 9 cents more per meal in 2005 dollars when other major factors that could affect food choices are taken into account. The main sources of higher costs appear to be related to the provisions for more vegetables.