The efficacy of alternative biofuel policies in achieving energy, environmental and agricultural policy goals is assessed using economic cost-benefit analysis. Government mandates are superior to consumption subsidies, especially with suboptimal fuel taxes and the higher costs involved with...

This paper analyzes the impact of an ethanol import tariff in conjunction with a consumption mandate and tax credit. A tax credit alone acts as a subsidy to ethanol producers, equally benefiting exporters like Brazil. If an import tariff is imposed to offset the tax credit, world prices of...

With a mandate, U.S. policy of ethanol tax credits designed to reduce oil consumption does the exact opposite. A tax credit is a direct gasoline consumption subsidy with no effect on the ethanol price and therefore does not help either corn or ethanol producers. To understand this, consider...

This revised version replaces a previous one titled: "Optimal Ethanol Policies for the U.S. in a General Equilibrium Framework"

This paper formalizes the production and export consequences of direct farm payments. Taxpayer financed direct payments distort exit and production incentives, while consumer financed subsidies also imply that the risks of domestic and export production differ. Welfare decompostion and empirical...

The effectiveness of limits and reductions in both export volumes subsidized and value of export subsidies in agriculture is evaluated. A perspective on consumer versus producer financed export subsidies is given. We analyze factors affecting the effectiveness of volume versus value commitments....

The import regime resulting from the tariffication under the Agreement on Agriculture of the minimum import price scheme protecting fruit & vegetables in the European Union, gives rise to discontinuities in the excess demand, creates competition for rents, and does not allow the full effect of...

We use a generalized Bayesian updating model to estimate the impact of health information appearing in the popular media on the consumption of eggs. Our model allows media publications with differing circulation numbers to have differing effects. Further, we explore the possible effects of...

Although the effect of climate change on agricultural pests has been studied by biologists, thus far, large-scale assessments of climate change and agriculture have not included the impact of pests. We develop a simple theoretical model of farmer-pest interaction under climate change and explore...

An experiment was conducted to investigate the interaction between consumers’ past eating behaviors, risk perceptions and future information processing procedure. In the study, participants were required to choose whether or not to eat chicken that was potentially be tainted with Avian...