Models of agricultural economics typically operate at an annual basis or in a static equilibriumframework where inputs, outputs and their prices may change considerably. Production dynamics,however, imply that models relying on spatial and temporal aggregation do not capture the effects...

Introduction of foot and mouth disease (FMD) into country typically initiates eradication procedures which remove animals from the market, and halts the export of livestock products from the infected country. The magnitude of these effects can be highly uncertain. This paper presents a...

In the first chapter, I consider the institutional structures as well as the doctrines typically encountered in the surface water sector. To investigate the sources and methods of government support in the water sector, I categorize different sorts of government support according to the location...

Although take-it-or-leave-it pricing is the main mode of operation for many retailers, a number of retailers discreetly allow price negotiation when some haggle-prone customers ask for a bargain. At these retailers, the posted price, which itself is subject to dynamic adjustments in response to...

By using a broker, the owner of a house can speed up his search for buyers but must pay a percentage of the sale price as a commission. Nonstationarities inherent in the housing market may make it optimal to market a house “by-owner” at the outset and to retain a broker only if the house...

Traditional approaches to estimating the potential benefits of water reform, including the introduction of water markets, have relied on short-run models which assume irrigation capital is either fixed or not a constraint on decision making. Other studies have incorporated a long-run decision...

As networks improve and new services emerge, questions arise that affect service deployments and network choices. The Internet is arguably a successful example of a network shared by many services. However, combining heterogeneous services on the same network need not always be the right answer,...

This dissertation contains three essays that can be read independently. The first chapter examines how a debt crisis can occur and persist as a result of unanticipated, transitory, real interest rate and commodity price shocks. Using an optimal stopping framework, the debtor country's optimal...