My dissertation research is composed of three essays to investigate the role of procurement contracting, market structural features, and market participants¡¦ behavior as determinants of the implications of contracting for spot price determination, market segments, and welfare effects. A key...

Motivated by the problem of deer overabundance in many areas of the United States, this thesis investigates innovative incentive-compatible policy options to address the problem. Economists view deer populations as a renewable resource, a composite asset that provides both benefits and costs to...

Motivated by several contemporary problems existing in U.S. agriculture, this thesis investigates three particular issues concerning different aspects of agricultural contracting between growers and processors. Specifically, the first essay investigates the relationship between the use of...

The static production efficiency model and the dynamic duality model of intertemporal decision making using a parametric approach have been continuously developed but in separate directions. The parametric approach takes statistical noise into account, which can provide accurate measures in a...