Policy makers should consider price volatility effects when determining appropriate spending levels for alternative fuel programs.

The method of principal components is used to construct attractiveness indexes for existing and proposed wilderness areas in California. Rankings of areas based on this procedure are compared with those based on size and the subjective attractiveness index developed by the Forest Service. The...

Future agricultural water demands are determined by employing forecasts from irrigated crop acreage models. Forecasts of prices and yields, and variances and covariances of crop returns are employed for forecasting crop acreage. Results provide insights into the value of rational expectations in...

Dramatic increases in levels and volatility of gasoline prices observed in recent years may create market incentives for adoption of alternative fuels characterized by lower price volatility. This hypothesis is investigated by applying the real-options pricing approach to develop optimal...

This study identifies the presence of slippage and the pitfalls associated with not considering economic substitution and expansion effects in measuring changes in water demand. Based on estimates from the Georgia Flint River Basin, the analysis indicates a 13% slippage caused by disregarding...

The objective of the research presented in this paper is the development of a stochastic adoption threshold. The option pricing approach for modeling investment under uncertainty is extended for the case of comparing two stochastic input prices associated with inputs that are perfect substitutes...

Biodiesel has recently drawn attention because of its potential to make an important contribution to national energy security and the environment. However, the rapid growth of biodiesel has raised concerns about biodiesel’s impact on the price level and volatility of agricultural commodities....

The U.S. ethanol fuel industry has experienced preferential treatment from federal and state governments ever since the Energy Tax Act of 1978 exempted 10% ethanol/gasoline blend (gasohol) from the federal excise tax. Combined with a 54¢/gal ethanol import tariff, this exemption was designed to...