Many goods and services are subject to random changes in quality during the time between sale and delivery, resulting in markets characterized by lemons-market equilibria. We examine two forms of costly verification, ex post inspection and ex ante certification. In equilibrium, ex post...

The quality of many goods and services may change randomly between the time of shipment and delivery, creating disputes over quality that can result in lemons-market equilibria. We investigate the potential of third-party inspections for such inefficiencies. We consider two types of inspection,...

Policy discussions of agricultural pollution problems characterize prevention as more cost effective and precautionary than ex post treatment. We derive conditions under which treatment alone is more cost effective in situations involving multiple sources of emissions, multiple sites affected,...

This paper investigates the economic incentives for urban spatial expansion in China by estimating the value of urban land using an econometric model applied to data from the 220 largest Chinese cities for the period 1996-2003. The results are consistent with the proposition that the rapid rate...

Scouting is the most widely used integrated pest management (IPM) technique. It has been argued that only independent crop consultants provide unbiased scouting information. In contrast, chemical dealers inflate scouting reports and/or reduce economic thresholds in order to increase pesticide...

We use FDA's seafood inspection records to examine: (i) how FDA has targeted its inspections under HACCP regulation; (ii) the effects of FDA inspections on compliance with both HACCP and plant sanitation standards; and (iii) the relationship between HACCP regulations and pre-existing sanitation...

The existing empirical literature on farmers' use of soil-conserving, runoff-reducing farming practices, while sizable, contains relatively little information on the influence of cost on adoption decisions and on how farmers combine multiple practices into an overall conservation package. Such...

The distinctive nature of environmental quality problems in agriculturean industry based on the extraction of highly variable natural resources under stochastic conditionshas important implications for policy design. First, we examine the source of environmental quality problems and the strength...

Latent demand models can be used to overcome computational difficulties that frequently hamper empirical evaluation of relatedness in the adoption of multiple technologies. This paper develops and applies such an approach to a case involving agricultural soil and water conservation. The results...