The paper examines the influence of factor price risk on factor-use efficiency through the adoption of conservation technology. The effect of a mean-preserving increase in factor price risk on optimal input-use efficiency is shown to be conditional on the own-price elasticity of factor use...

We address the impacts of regulations designed to reduce pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm laborers. Attention is concentrated on pre-harvest interval regulations that impose a time interval between pesticide application and harvest. The incidence of poisoning is determined by aggregate...

In settings with environmentally hazardous production, firms often operate in oligopoly or natural monopoly markets subject to both liability and negligence rules. We examine optimal deterrence under imperfect competition in settings with ex ante safety standards and ex post liability and...

The chapter reviews the generation and adoption of new technologies in the agricultural sector. The first section describes models of induced innovation and experimentation, considers the political economy of public investments in agricultural research, and addresses institutions and public...