Through a geographically weighted panel regression analysis, we demonstrate the spatially varying relationship between weather and corn yields. A balanced panel data of 958 U.S. corn production counties for the period 2002-2006 is used. The results indicate that the relationship between weather...

The use of N fertilizer in agriculture is a major source of Nitrous Oxide, an important greenhouse gases. Market-based instruments, such as incentives or taxes, may help reduce Nitrous Oxide emission by changing Nitrogen application rate. Using a dynamic programming approach, we found that...

Future climate change will likely to increase the frequency and severity of droughts in many regions of the U.S., especially in the southwestern states, thus further will reduce the water supply in those states. On the water demand side, the population of the U.S. also moves to the southwestern...

Complexity of environmental programs is most apparent with information asymmetries, making the design of efficient mechanisms particularly challenging. As developed theoretically in this paper, a new regulatory capitalism paradigm mating voluntary agreements with environmental education can...

The hypothesis underlying this analysis is that in the presence of volatile gasoline prices competitive market forces will yield alternative, less volatile fuels as substitutes. A real-option pricing approach was employed for this analysis by modeling investment under uncertainty for the case of...

This study identifies the presence of slippage and the pitfalls associated with not considering economic substitution and expansion effects in measuring changes in water demand. Based on estimates from the Georgia Flint River Basin, the analysis indicates a 13% slippage caused by disregarding...

Policy makers should consider price volatility effects when determining appropriate spending levels for alternative fuel programs.

Since the beginning of this century, China’s annual GDP growth is over 9%. This growth is fueled by large increases in energy consumption, led by a coal-dominated energy structure, and associated with higher sulfur dioxide emissions and industry dust. In 2008, China accounted for over 17% of...

This study examines the interaction between insurance, credit and liquidity constraints using a stochastic dynamic model. A risk averse farmer whose objective is to manage both production and market risk is assumed to maximize the expected utility of life-time consumption by using both area...

Stochastic frontier analysis is used to determine the relative efficiency of firms in the food industry in industrialized countries. Using panel data analysis, the firm-specific factors, firm-size, the corporate tax rate and number of years of operation and country-specific effects as potential...