The recent rise in world oil prices, coupled with heightened interest in the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, has led to a sharp increase in domestic biofuels production around the world. Previous authors have devoted considerable attention to the impacts of these policies on a...

Using the DM model is not complex: the user changes input values of interest (plant size,conversion rates, etc.) and examines the effect of these changes on output values (annual profits,feed stock requirements, etc.). There are nine worksheets in four modules in the excel workbook: assumptions,...

The federal government currently subsidizes ethanol with a fixed payment of $.51/gallon of ethanol blended with gasoline. Ethanol profitability is closely linked to the prices of corn and ethanol. The purpose of this paper was to develop a variable subsidy based on corn and ethanol prices and...

Previous work in experimental economics reveals specific differences in economic behavior, especially reciprocity and free-riding behavior, across cultures. We expand the possible pallet of cross-cultural behavioral differences that may exist. We hypothesize that different kinds of strategic...

Water scarcity is a growing problem world wide. Economists uniformly suggest water pricing to improve water use efficiency; however, governments tend to reject that advice due to political risk, and economic and cultural concerns. This dissertation addresses questions of what policy alternatives...

Economists are challenged to account for the influence of cultural norms and expectations on economic behavior. Recent experimental economic evidence suggests culture significantly affects certain economic behavior. It is not clear, however, how pervasive culture's influence is on multiple...

This dissertation consists of three essays. They examine diverse economic phenomena, but they are bound by a need to treat randomness effectively and practically. Each essay seeks to demonstrate enhanced capacity to effectively and practically treat randomness in specific problems of data...

This study analyzes the relationship between dollar exchange rate and crude oil price. Unlike previous literature which established a bilateral causal relationship between the two prices, this paper proposes that gold price is likely to be a common driver of the two prices and therefore, the...

During recent decades the number of obese adult Americans increased from 15% to 31%. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the effects of food price and income changes on body weight in an effort to determine how a high-calorie food tax, a low-calorie food subsidy, and/or income...

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) will soon start to be introduced into the transportation sector, thereby raising a host of issues related to their use, adoption and effects on the electricity sector. Their introduction has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions from the...