Over the past thirty-five years, the U.S. adult obesity rate has more than doubled from roughly 15% to 35%, reflecting a general diffusion of obesity across all segments of the adult population (USDHHS). Obesity is a concern because it increases the risk for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes,...

This paper identifies the factors that affect farmers’ decisions to adopt soil and water conservation technology in Africa and how this technology impacts farm yields and net returns. This technology is important because it improves efficiency of water use from rainfall—a critical issue in...

Under the conservation-compliance program, most of the individual producers are forced to cut their soil erosion to 7 t per acre annually irrespective of the marginal cost of controlling soil erosion. In a system where coupons to a ton of soil loss were issued to producers and traded, the...

This paper formulates and estimates a structural intertemporal model of a woman’s household participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and her likelihood of being obese. We use an economic model of lifetime behavior in a finite life model to provide the structure of...

This paper investigates the impacts of climate change on US returns to research investments on agricultural productivity. We examine this using a historical data set in a panel time-series econometric model of state agricultural productivity. The fitted model allows derivation of the rate of...

Huffman, W.E. and O. Alfranca. ﾓPrivate R&D Investments in Agriculture: The Role of Incentives, Public Policies, and Institutions,ﾔ Econ. Dev. & Cult. Change forthcoming.

Hypotheses about state agricultural experiment stations are investigated. Formula funding is found more productive than competitive-grant funding, possibly owing to transactions costs of reviewing and misallocations of pork barrel funding. Heavier administrator involvement in problem choice is...

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This paper examines efficiency implications of national and local policies for fund allocation and management of agricultural research, which produce pure and impure public goods. The possibility is examined that competitive grants programs increase rent seeking activities by scientists relative...