This paper estimates the effects of media coverage of organic food production on food purchases. Information from several data sources links national and local newspaper coverage to fluid milk purchases. An analysis of weekly store-level scanner data in a differences-in-differences approach...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reimburses schools for meals provided to students participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Reimbursement amounts are based on national average estimated costs of meal production. Food prices, however, vary across the United...

This paper introduces an alternative non-market value elicitation method—the “quasi-doublereferendum†(QDR)—applied to barrier island restoration in Mississippi. It is appropriate for surveys that elicit willingness-to-pay responses to multiple projects differing in scale...

The endogeneity of retail markups arises due to the correlation between the markups and unobserved costs in the retail pricing equation. This correlations may be a result unobserved product quality affecting both price and markups. Despite inconsistency resulting from markup endogeneity, it has...

This study examines the optimal allocation of funds between national and urban parks. Since travel costs to national parks are significantly higher than to urban parks, poor households tend to visit the latter more frequently, whereas rich households favor the former. Therefore, allocating...

When welfare reforms were enacted in 1996, a higher than average percentage of residents in the agricultural heartland of California, the San Joaquin Valley, received cash assistance. Average annual unemployment rates during the 1990s ranged from 12% to 20%, and 15% to 20% of residents in major...

Agroenvironmental problems (e.g., contamination of ground- and surface water, feed lot odors, endangered species) often involve goods and activities with public goods attributes. Grass roots collective action- in contrast to top-down governmental collective actions of taxing, subsidizing, and...

Sources of growth in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) are analyzed in a general equilibrium, open economy framework using time-series data. Contributions from labor and capital account for 75% of the economyÂ’'s average growth, with total factor productivity (TFP) accounting for the...

Evidence suggests that economists and agricultural economists have an unusual ability to create anxiety for university administration. Interviewers with university provosts and deans revealed support for faculty conducting relevant policy analysis, and discomfort with economists' participation...

When market transactions generate negative externalities, the injured party may initiate court action to prevent harm or to obtain compensation. The political response, in some cases, has been to broaden the set of agents who can intervene through the court, often by admitting entirely new...