A model for observing public service delivery choice in the presence of economic expansion is presented. Regression techniques were used to estimate the share of county population served by volunteer fire protection from variables measuring community demands for and relative costs of fire...

The effects on purchases of ice cream of increasing the value added tax (VAT) for less healthy foods and removing the VAT for healthy foods are estimated. The effects on high- and low-purchasing households are estimated by using quantile regressions. Many households did not purchase ice cream...

Income tax incentives directly affect the economic feasibility of proposals for tax-deferred risk management accounts. Data indicate that despite clear financial advantages from tax deferment and reduced income variability, income targeting may preclude many farmers from contributing enough...

We examine the extent to which economic development reduces both a country's disaster risk and its social vulnerability to climate-related disasters. Global climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, and various types...

A cereal yield response function is estimated conditional upon environmental and topographical features to detect the effects of spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence in explaining agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa. Controlling for direct and localized spillover effects,...

2010 AAEA Presidential Address; forthcoming in January 2011 AJAE in shortened version.

This paper systematically estimates the potential benefit of introducing improved irrigation schemes in Mt. Kilimanjaro to help rain dependent farmers cope with the risks of climate change. The study uses Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) to elicit farmers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for...

This paper examines and predicts the effects of climate change and climate extremes on China’s land use conversion and soil carbon sequestration under two alternative climate change scenarios. It intends to investigate the following three questions. 1) How did climate factors affect land-use...

We conduct an econometric analysis of the factors influencing U.S. crop yields and acres using U.S. county level data from 1977 to 2007 and evaluate the likely effects of future climate change on U.S. crop yields based on the projected climate changes by IPCC (2001) and our estimated parameters.