The adoption of new technologies by farmers may impact the environment, and hence affect consumer welfare. This channel of impact is seldom assessed in the literature, especially when the production technologies adopted are not labeled on the consumption goods, and as a result are not directly...

This paper builds a model determining optimal capacities of diversion dams or water transfer projects. The model incorporates stochastic inflows to the dams and the role of the dam capacity in reducing overflows, and gives a closed-form expression of the marginal benefit of capacities....

Social networks play an important role in generating learning externalities that can drive the diffusion of innovative, and potentially poverty-reducing, technologies. This is particularly the case in developing countries where rural education, extension, and agricultural information services...

Efficient information exchanges between sellers and buyers are essential if prices are to act as a signal for resource allocation in an economy. In the case of seed and planting materials, information on quality traits are often difficult for consumers (farmers) to obtain prior to purchase,...

A Latent Class model is utilized to examine vegetable and livestock producers’ preferences for a number of different features offered by food exchange websites. The results indicate that growers are willing to pay on average $55.69 per month if an online marketplace is offered. Additionally,...

One prominent feature of the US biofuels sector is its reliance on mandates to enforce use. The performance of this policy tool has been mixed, with corn-based ethanol production successfully meeting targets but cellulosic ethanol falling well short of them. A crucial difference in this setting...

We investigate the role of risk and learning in biotechnology adoption, with an empirical focus on the adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) corn in the U.S. Corn Belt. Relying on the Kalman filter algorithm, a conceptual structural dynamic programming (DP) model is developed to capture the...

Risk is pervasive in developing country agriculture, and risk preferences are though to impact seed and technology choice. Empirical research on risk preferences and technology adoption typically only consider the risk preferences of a single household member. In this paper experimental...

In the United States, public universities may choose to license a plant variety to a limited number of producers (an exclusive license) or to an unlimited number of producers (an open license). This choice has implications for the quantity and distribution of total benefits from the variety....