Depleting water resources is a widespread problem across the Kansas High Plains aquifer. The value of irrigation is accentuated due to lack of surface water and low precipitation in western Kansas. Accelerated groundwater withdrawals for irrigation caused a further decline in the saturated...

Recent literature has combined Revealed (RP) and Stated Preference (SP) data in the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL) to estimate the value of environmental goods. However, emerging research has identified that a limitation of the MNL is the assumption of Independently and Identically Distributed...

A pollution reduction program is designed where information about both technology and risk preferences is asymmetric. Program costs and the distribution of payments depend on the amount of information known to the policy maker. Empirically testable conditions for self-selection are derived; the...

Over the past several decades, market-based approaches to natural resource management have received increased attention as a means to cost-effectively achieve environmental quality goals. Following on what has been hailed a success for reducing air pollution, water quality trading (WQT) has more...

This research analyzes two groundwater conservation policies in the Kansas High Plains located within the Ogallala aquifer: 1) cost-share assistance to increase irrigation efficiency; and 2) incentive payments to convert irrigated crop production to dryland crop production. To compare the...

Irrigation water demand is estimated using field-level panel data from Kansas over 16 years. The cost of pumping varies over time due to changes in energy prices and across space due to differences in the depth to water. Exploiting this variation allows us to estimate the demand elasticity while...

While there is substantial evidence that nonpoint sources have lower nutrient reduction costs than point sources, experience with water quality trading (WQT) reveals a common theme: little or no trading activity. The success of WQT seems, in part, to depend on the structure of the market created...

This paper develops a general equilibrium framework to determine the optimal set of internalizing policies under multifunctionality and relates these policies to trade. When agriculture generates both amenity benefits and pollution, a welfare maximum can be achieved through a combination of a...