Paper replaced with revised version 06/03/08

Given the current situation with the high price of oil (an average of $53 per barrel in 2005) and the risk of global warming, the European Union (EU) is reinforcing its objectives related to the production of biofuels: they should account for 5.75% of the overall fuel consumption by 2010 in...

With increasing interest in renewable energy from agriculture, including biopower and cellulose ethanol, several aspects of the industry must be understood. Study of the organization of the biopower industry represents an under researched area and a new application of transaction cost theory to...

A binary choice model was used to identify the attributes that influence irrigation district adoption of conservation rate structures. Using principles of rate design and irrigation district administration as a framework, measures of irrigation district rate structure objectives and physical and...

Rural decision makers use taxes and other resources to encourage growth. The session begins with an evaluation of rural employment patterns, then evaluates three economic development policy levers. Moderator: Daniel Rainey, Clemson University.Rural Employment Growth in the "New Economy:" A Test...

This paper describes the use of input-output modeling in estimating the economic impacts of the conservation reserve program (CRP) in North Dakota, discusses challenges faced in conducting the analysis, and examines lessons learned from the study. The study had two major phases: (1) a statewide...

This research seeks to produce more robust, less biased estimates from the two-constraint recreation demand model by applying globally flexible estimation techniques to travel cost data for California whale watching trips. While locally flexible functional forms do improve upon previously used...

For several decades, economists have been concerned with the problem of optimal resource use under uncertainty. In many studies, researchers assume that prices evolve according to an exogenous stochastic process and solve the corresponding dynamic optimization problem to yield an optimal...

The seasonal irrigation water demand under uncertainty, which lies at the core of this paper, is still very roughly known. We know, however, that irrigated agriculture accounts for a large proportion of water use, especially in many water-scarce areas. In this paper, we estimate the irrigation...

Wildfires in the United States result in total damages and costs that are likely to exceed billions of dollars annually. Land managers and policy makers propose higher rates of prescribed burning and other kinds of vegetation management to reduce amounts of wildfire and the risks of catastrophic...