Scientists predict that climate change will cause suitable habitat ranges to shift for many plant species. To the extent that proximity to particular vegetation types increases residents’ utility and/or these shifts affect services valued by all of society, such geographic shifts in ecosystems...

Perennial crop production is inherently dynamic due to several salient physical characteristics including an establishment period of several years with low or no yields, long lives in commercial production (40 years or more), and path-dependence of yields on input use and other exogenous...

We evaluate how land use change and the value ecosystem services affect the decision to invest in public land acquisitions. Our application is for the state of Minnesota, and we consider the acquisitions by Department of Natural Resources over the last two decades. We calculate a return on...

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing processes to extract shale gas have raised concerns among local residents over the safety of these new drilling techniques. To assess whether potential negative externalities associated with shale gas exploration are capitalized into surrounding...

The paper estimates the impacts of risk reducing government programs on the use of conservation practices in agriculture. Specifically, conservation tillage or no-till agriculture can be used to reduce risk from weather shocks while subsidized crop insurance and disaster payments also reduce...