Pests and diseases like citrus greening that threaten agricultural productivity also pose a risk to consumers. Reductions in food supply due to outbreaks and spread could increase food prices. We model U.S. household fruit demand using a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System and data from Circana’s 2020 and 2021 household panel. Price and income elasticity estimates reveal how household behavior might adjust with shocks to citrus and other fruit prices. Shocks to retail fruit prices can be from either citrus greening or other phenomena such as adverse weather. We also use compensating variation to estimate the impact that changes in fruit prices could have on consumer welfare.

Housing price comovements are an important issue in economics. This study focuses on monthly housing prices of 99 major cities in China for the years 2010–2019 by using correlation-based hierarchical analysis and synchronisation analysis, through which one could determine interactions and interdependence among the prices, heterogeneous patterns in price synchronisations and their changing paths over time. Empirical results show that the degree of comovements is slightly lower after March 2017 but no persistent drop is found. Several groups of cities are identified, each of which has its members showing relatively strong but volatile price synchronisations. Certain cities show potential of serving as price leaders within a group. Results here could be useful to policy analysis regarding housing price comovements.

Many pension reforms in OECD countries included pension statements with the objective of improving individuals' financial security in retirement. Our objective is to assess the effectiveness of the pension information policy implemented in France and to investigate whether the pension statement results in better informed workers, who then increase their retirement savings. Using regression discontinuity designs combined with quantile regressions, we assess whether the changes in retirement savings and holding of assets are due to the pension information system and then quantify the impact. We conclude that a pension estimate sent to workers encourages the wealthiest to increase their retirement savings while it does not influence the savings of individuals with a low level of wealth.

Agricultural production in Brazil has increased in recent decades. Despite this, the rural population continues to face income inequality. Policies targeting this issue, such as rural credit, have been implemented during this period. This study estimates the influence of credit on income inequality in Brazilian rural areas. Results suggest that the family farming credit program (PRONAF) is not associated with increase in inequality. However, access to rural credit from sources other than PRONAF has led to greater household income inequality. Results also indicate that greater levels of education and access to rural extension have boosted the effect of credit on income.

Our research investigates the effects of residential energy efficiency audit programs on subsequent household electricity consumption. Here there is a one-time interaction between households, which participate voluntarily, and the surveyors. Our research objective is to determine whether and to what extent the surveys lead to behavioral changes. We then examine how persistent the intervention is over time and whether the effects decay or intensify. The main evaluation problem here is survey participants’ self-selection, which we address econometrically via several non-parametric estimators involving kernel-based propensity-score matching. In the first method we use difference-in-differences (DID) estimation. Our second estimator is quantile DID, which produces estimates on distributions. The comparison group consists of households who were not yet participating in the survey but participated later. Our evidence is that the customers who participated in the survey reduced their electricity consumption by about 7%, on average compared to customers who had not yet participated in the survey. Considering the total number of high-usage households participating in the survey in 2009, we estimate that electricity consumption was reduced by an aggregate of 2 million kWh per year, which is approximately equal to the monthly consumption of 3500 typical households in California with an estimated 1527 metric tons less of carbon dioxide emissions. Because the energy audit program is inexpensive ($10–$20 per household) a key issue is that while the program is cost-effective, is it regressive? We find that as the quantiles of the outcome distribution increase, high-use households save proportionally less electricity than do low-use customers. Overall, our results imply that program designers can better target low-use and low-income households, because they are more likely to benefit from the programs through energy savings.

A two-stage multinomial logit selection model is used to model the relationship between demographic characteristics and housing density across Tennessee's six metropolitan statistical areas. The study finds that there is both spatial correlation and heterogeneity in the spatial distribution of housing both within and across the six areas. For example, Memphis, the most densely populated area, has the least amount of spatial correlation among housing density at the neighborhood level, while Johnson City, which has the lowest overall housing density, has the highest degree of spatial correlation.

This study examines the relationship between urban forests and household income and population density in the 149 cities with populations over 40,000 in nine southeastern states. Our empirical results show that urban forest percentage across the cities has characteristics of the environmental Kuznets curve. We find that household income around $39,000 is a threshold that changes the relationship between income and urban forest coverage from negative to positive, whereas the impact of population density on urban forests is just the opposite, from positive to negative when population density is around 180 persons per square kilometer.

The 2002 Farm Bill creates several opportunities for landowners to adopt management practices that protect and improve soil and water quality. Landowners considering enrollment in conservation programs must compare the monetary and nonmonetary costs and benefits from removing land from production agriculture. The overall purpose of this invited paper session was to improve the understanding of the factors affecting a landowner's decision to enroll in conservation programs. Papers addressed the environmental benefits of conservation programs and compared the returns to enrolling in conservation programs to the returns from production agriculture.

This study investigated the cost structure of the floriculture industry in the United States. Economies of scale and input elasticities were estimated with a normalized quadratic cost function. Results suggest that economies of scale exist in the floriculture industry. As producers become large and more automated, they have a cost advantage relative to smaller producers who are producing the same output product mix. The existence of economies of scale suggests that average grower size can increase in the future as growers increase in size to take advantage of cost efficiencies.

This paper examines the effect of the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The results suggest that U.S. agricultural imports from Mexico have been responsive to tariff rate reductions applied to Mexican products. A one percentage point decrease in tariff rates is associated with an increase in U.S. agricultural imports from Mexico by 5.31% in the first 6 years of NAFTA and by 2.62% in the last 6 years of NAFTA. U.S. imports from Mexico have also been attributable to the pre-NAFTA tariff rates. Overall, the results indicate that the U.S-Mexico trade agreement under NAFTA has been trade creating rather than trade diverting.

Over $1.7 billion has been spent on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) since 1985. The purpose of this study is to show that these expenditures have aided the environment. Rather than quantify changes in environmental variables, a spatial econometric model is used to test if CRP enrollments are greater in counties with poorer environmental quality. In seven of nine regions, CRP enrollments are higher in counties with an environmental concern. This positive finding justifies past expenditures by the CRP and supports continued funding as an environmental program. The CRP is targeting current environmental concerns that will lead to future improvement.

Breeders of purebred bulls have multiple avenues to market their bulls, including consignment at public auctions associated with performance tests. Purebred breeders often have the opportunity to withdraw bulls that are eligible to sell in these auctions. We examine sales data from a public auction held in conjunction with a performance bull test in Tucumcari, NM, to gain insights on breeder decisions to withdraw bulls prior to entering the sales ring. Specifically, we use a binary logit model to identify relevant characteristics that affect a breeder's decision to withdraw a sale eligible bull from the auction.

We develop measures of technical and allocative efficiency of producers in marketing certified organic products. A stochastic output distance frontier and the associated revenue share equations are estimated using comprehensive U.S. data on certified organic producers. Farm-level measures of technical efficiency are calculated and factors that enhance performance are identified. Factors that systematically influence allocative efficiency are assessed. The revenue mix of organic producers is systematically inefficient as both male and female producers rely too heavily on revenue from organic markets relative to conventional outlets.

This paper examines differences in inequality between regions and between sectors of the economy. The growth in overall inequality since the mid-1990s is found to have been driven primarily by that in London (with a smaller difference for the South East and East Anglia) and by that in the financial sector (with a smaller difference for the business activities sector). While these differences for London and the financial sector overlap to some extent, they also have significant separate influences once each other is controlled for. The changes in inequality in the rest of Britain and in the other sectors of the economy are numerically small and statistically insignificant.