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...

Economists frequently focus on correlations between wealth and risk preferences but rarely observe the probabilities needed to test this relationship empirically. These unobserved probabilities are typically estimated via profit or production functions conditioned on wealth correlates, which may...

Measuring food waste is essential to determine the impact of school interventions on what children eat. There are multiple methods used for measuring food waste, yet it is unclear which method is most appropriate in large-scale interventions with restricted resources. This study examines which...

Objectives: In this study, we evaluate if moving recess before lunch has an effect on the amount of fruits and vegetables elementary school students eat as part of their school-provided lunch. Methods: Participants were 1st-6th grade students from three schools that switched recess from after to...

Background: Concession stands at high school events are exempt from the US Department of Agriculture regulations for school foods. Concessions are generally stocked with unhealthy foods since healthy foods are believed to have lower sales and profit margins. Methods: Concession stand sales for...

Nearly 1/3 of children between ages 6 and 19 are considered obese and their choosing of less healthy foods in school lunchrooms may contribute. To encourage students to select healthier foods, recent research has focused on how environmental changes and behavioral economics can guide children to...

Currently, 68.3% of the milk available in schools is flavored, with chocolate being the most popular (61.6% of all milk). If chocolate milk is removed from a school cafeteria, what will happen to overall milk selection and consumption? Methods: In a before-after study in 11 Oregon elementary...

Background: Concession stands at high school events are exempt from USDA regulations. They generally sell unhealthy foods and fear change will affect profits. Methods: Concession stand sales for two seasons of high school football games in Muscatine, Iowa were compared. In between seasons, two...

Approximately 31 million children enroll in the National School Lunch Program and nearly 1/3 of children between the ages of 6 and 19 are considered obese. What if the school food environment made healthy food choices easier for children? One overlooked scalable alternative involves students...

We develop a model of decision makers' demand for agricultural economic information services. This model treats choice of external decision-support services as a function of actors' assessment of how alternative investments in information complement their internal competencies. Data from a...