Department: Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics ![[clear]](close-x.png "Remove this limiter")
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2.
Barquero-Romero, Jose Pablo.
Motivations and Choice of Channel for Migrant Remittances: Evidence from Costa Rica-Nicaragua Flowws.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► This dissertation examines the remitting behavior of a profit-motivated international migrant, who…
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▼ This dissertation examines the remitting behavior of a profit-motivated international migrant, who allocates her wealth into consumption and investment in two locations, either in the host country or the country of origin, implemented on her behalf by the household of origin. Both migrant and household are exposed to adverse income shocks, not perfectly correlated. Given limited opportunities to cope with risk, spatial diversification matters. While the literature focuses on the diversification role of remittances for the household of origin, this dissertation looks at the diversification opportunities that remittances offer the migrant. Her absence from the location of origin creates, however, information and contract enforcement problems. The migrant has limited information about the productive opportunities available to the household, its level of diligence, and the incidence of adverse shocks. A theoretical framework shows the dynamic inter-temporal process that defines the allocation of resources across locations. The model allows for altruistic and profit-oriented transfers. Altruistic transfers are exogenous and not correlated with the idiosyncratic shocks. Investment at each location is defined by the migrant’s ability to exploit diversification opportunities. Remittances are affected by the migrant’s risk aversion, the technologies where these transfers are allocated, transaction and agency costs, the impatience of the migrant, and the volatility, correlation and size of the shocks. Numerical approximation techniques and simulations identify the effect of relevant variables on the optimal long-run allocation of investment. Econometric techniques identify behavior under special conditions, such as the presence of transaction costs, information asymmetries, and challenges to enforce contracts. The dissertation uses information from two surveys. One surveys Nicaraguan migrants living in Costa Rica and the other surveys Nicaraguan households with migrants in Costa Rica. Opportunities to monitor the household’s activities are central. The role of monitoring is explored for the case of Nicaraguan migrants who send remittances from Costa Rica. Monitoring is associated to the number of migrant visits back home. Plans to return to the country of origin improve the migrant’s ability to enforce the contract, while information asymmetries may be reduced by signaling by the household through uses of past remittances. Number of trips, the size of the network of relatives, the time spent in the host country by the migrant, the number of additional migrants, and uses of remittances are among key significant variables. The theoretical model is an application of spatial portfolio diversification analysis to the specific circumstances of migrants, which adds to traditional explanations about the determinants of remittances. The migrant’s destination matters, in terms of the opportunities for portfolio diversification. The empirical applications describe ways in which the information and contract enforcement challenges for the migrant may be resolved, leading to greater propensity to remit and larger remittances. While altruistic and insurance-related remittances are anti-cyclical, profit-oriented remittances are pro-cyclical. The resulting wealth allocations have implications for investment in both countries and other macroeconomic implications, beyond the consequences for the livelihood strategies of the household of origin. Determinants of the use of banks as channel for the remittances are also explored.
Advisors/Committee Members: Gonzalez, Claudio.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: Remittances, Migrant, Visits home, Numerical Approximation
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3.
Bashaasha, Bernard.
Public Policy and Rural Land Use in Uganda.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 1998, Ohio State University
► Uganda continues to experience a decline in its forest resources and a…
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▼ Uganda continues to experience a decline in its forest resources and a deterioration of other natural habitats. Agricultural expansion (extensification) and fuelwood (firewood and charcoal) needs have been identified as the primary causes of forest resource depletion. Due to the breakdown in public forest control, unofficial "open access" has caused serious forest resource encroachment both for agriculture and for fuelwood needs.This study uses a six-sector computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to examine the market level and land use impacts of agricultural yield increase and a fuelwood resource charge in Uganda. It is hypothesized that i) agricultural yield increase would diminish agricultural extensification by increasing productivity on existing agricultural land and that ii) a fuelwood resource charge would raise the price of wood resources high enough to encourage efficiency in production and consumption. The resource charge could also encourage substitution and provide revenues that could be invested in forestry.Agricultural yield increase levels of 3 percent, 10 percent and 30 percent are simulated in all agricultural sectors and in individual agricultural sectors. Simulations involving all agricultural sectors result in an increase in agricultural output and a fall in prices.Land use increases in forestry, manufacturing/services and cash crop production. Land use declines in all other agricultural sectors. Agricultural yield simulations confined to specific agricultural sectors have similar market level impacts. However, only yield increases in non-cash crop agricultural sectors cause an increase in land use in forestry.A fuelwood resource charge causes an increase in price and a decrease in the equilibrium quantity of fuelwood. The market level responses are similar in magnitude regardless of how the revenues generated from the charge are utilized. Land use increases in all sectors except forestry. This policy is expected to benefit the forest sector through efficiency gains in fuelwood production and consumption.Sensitivity analyses using a wide range of trade elasticities show that the market level and land use responses are fairly insensitive to the choice of trade elasticities. Market level responses appear to be the most stable.
Advisors/Committee Members: Southgate, Douglas D.
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4.
Bayoh, Isaac M.
Accounting for Endogeneity and Spatially Correlated Errors in Hedonic Analyses with an Application to the Effects of Livestock Operations on Residential Property Values.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2010, Ohio State University
► I isolate and identify the source of the bias created by the…
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▼ I isolate and identify the source of the bias created by the presence of a spatially distributed endogenous variable in a traditional reduced-form hedonic model. I demonstrate that the presence of a spatially distributed endogenous variable leads to biased results. The direction of the bias depends on the sign of the variable that measures the effect of surrounding property values on the location of the endogenous variable. Moreover, I show that the sign of the impact of the spatially distributed endogenous variable on property values affects the magnitude of the bias, but not the sign. While a simple endogenous variable leads to biased results, I show that the presence of a spatially distributed endogenous variable leads to biased and inefficient estimates. I also show that in the case of a spatially distributed endogenous variable, neither a correction for spatial error autocorrelation, nor a correction for spatial lag autocorrelation will solve the bias issue; rather, the correction must address both issues before consistent estimates emerge. Finally I study the effect of livestock operations on property values using a generalized spatial two-stage least-squares (GS2SLS) hedonic model in Mercer County, Ohio. Unlike previous studies, I account for a spatially distributed endogenous variable and spatially correlated error terms. I compare the results from a simple hedonic model, a spatial error autocorrelation model and a GS2SLS. While the OLS and the spatial error models produce counter-intuitive model, the GS2SLS and the 2SLS least square generate results that are in line with expectations. The results suggest that failure to correct for these problems leads to biased and inefficient estimates of livestock’s impact on property values.
Advisors/Committee Members: Irwin, Elena.
Subjects: Agricultural economics
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8.
Chen, Yong.
Three Essays On The Interactions Between Regional Development And Natural Amenities.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► The tension between economic development and ecological protection has become more intense…
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▼ The tension between economic development and ecological protection has become more intense in the United States in the past few decades as population is rapidly spreading into areas with high natural amenities. This dissertation addresses three different aspects related to the interactions between regional economic development and natural amenities. The first essay focuses on the question of how regional economic growth interacts with ecological processes and specifically, how the rate of economic growth relative to the rate of ecological change matters in terms the sustainability of the joint ecological-economic system. Within the theoretical framework of a coupled nonlinear ecological-economic system characterized by slow-varying migration and fast-varying ecological change, I find that fast regional economic growth can render the system more vulnerable to exogenous shocks that cause the system to collapse; however, faster economic growth can also increase the speed with which the system returns to a sustainable economic equilibrium whenever it survives a shock. We also find that economic and ecological interventions can enhance both social welfare and system resiliency, but to degrees that depend on the underlying rate of regional economic growth. The second essay focuses on the optimal management of ecological thresholds when impacts from human activities not only trigger an ecological threshold effect, but also respond to subsequent ecological changes. Such two-way interactions are typical of many ecological-economic interactions. As an example, we study the management of a eutrophication threshold of a lake ecosystem when the run-off from developed land is affecting and responding to the lake water quality. I show that a naive policy that seeks to reduce run-off and improve lake water quality only by regulating the polluting source may not work due to the two-way interactions. In fact, such a policy can actually lead to more serious pollution in the long run and destabilize the ecological system. This applies also to the safe minimum standard. To manage a dynamically interacting ecological-economic system, it is necessary to adopt an integrated modeling approach that accounts for the two-way interactions between human and ecological systems. The third essay explores the mechanism underlying the pattern formation of exurban land uses given assumptions about household preferences for natural amenities and land heterogeneity in both the agricultural productivity and conversion costs. In particular, I contribute to the literature on land development by the provision of a micro-foundation for the capitalization process of non-marketable amenities. With the assistance of geographical information system, I am able to simulate my theoretical spatial economic model using actual data on land heterogeneity and the location of urban and natural amenities. The simulation result is then used to assess the theoretical predictions of the model in terms of the evolution of exurban land development patterns over a thirty year period. The model is unable to reproduce the observed land use pattern. This suggests that the spatial heterogeneity in agricultural productivity, conversion cost and natural amenities, open space amenities in particular, are insufficient to fully capture the complex spatial pattern of land development. Further research is needed.
Advisors/Committee Members: Irwin, Elena.
Subjects: Agricultural economics
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10.
Ellis, Kathryn S.
An Economic Assessment of the Emerging Renewable Chemical and Polymer Cluster in Ohio With Estimated Economic Impact on the State's Economy.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► The economic impact of the chemical and polymer cluster in Ohio in…
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▼ The economic impact of the chemical and polymer cluster in Ohio in terms of output, gross state product, income and employment is analyzed in this research. The chemical and polymer cluster positively affects the state’s economy, representing 5.5 percent of Ohio’s gross state product, 9 percent of its output, over 6 percent of its income and 3 percent of the state’s employment. The chemical and polymer cluster represents 2,729 establishments in Ohio. This research employs the methods of input-output analysis to determine the chemical and polymer cluster state impact. The emerging renewable polymer industry, which provides benefits such as reducing environmental impacts and employing biomass as opposed to crude oil feedstock, is important to Ohio’s future. This industry has the potential to increase output, income, gross state product, and most importantly employment in Ohio. This research utilizes growth rates in three scenarios to determine renewable polymer industry’s affect in Ohio. The renewable polymer industry is estimated at representing over a 12 percent share of Ohio’s polymer sector in the year 2020 in terms of gross state product and employment.
Advisors/Committee Members: Sporleder, Thomas.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: Input-output modeling; industry cluster; renewable polymers; multipliers
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11.
Enver, Ayesha.
Three Essays on Location and Household Welfare.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► The underlying theme connecting my three chapters is the importance of location…
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▼ The underlying theme connecting my three chapters is the importance of location in influencing the dynamics of household welfare. I consider how economic forces associated with convergence in welfare across households and regions interplay with forces that spur divergence. If there exist increasing returns to community attributes in production, households in poorer communities may fall into a poverty trap. My first chapter, "Rural-Urban Migration and the Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth", explores the various channels by which rural-urban migration affects the intergenerational transmission of wealth in the rural region. I incorporate rural-urban migration, human capital externalities, and regional agglomeration effects into Galor and Zeira’s (1993) overlapping generations model. I formalize the conditions that may induce a rural brain-drain and explore the welfare impacts of various person-based and place-based policies under different goods and housing production technologies. Simulations of the model show that for less fluidity in substitution between capital and land in housing technology, well-intended person-based policies such as education subsidies directed towards poorer rural households may distort incentives to migrate to the more productive region. However, the person-based policy does reduce inequality in the rural region and prevents households from falling into a poverty trap. On the other hand, the person-based policy facilitates migration to the city when there is greater technical substitutability in housing production. In the case of place-based policies, where tax revenues are invested in enhancing rural firm productivity, the benefits of the policy may not trickle down to the poorest rural households in the absence of substantial gains in productivity. Average rural household welfare is higher when a place-based policy is implemented but some households may still fall into a poverty trap. My second chapter, "Mobility and Poverty: The Impact of Population Change and Assisted Migration on Household Consumption Growth in Indonesia", evaluates the impact of village population changes and the transmigration program on household productivity in Indonesia using the Indonesian Family Life Survey. I first address possible endogeneity arising from the selection of transmigration sites in a model of household consumption growth by instrumental variables estimation. The initial IV estimation suggests that growth in village population is positively and significantly associated with household consumption growth, while the level of population is negatively associated with consumption growth. I further address the possibility that population change may be endogenous if community demand shocks correlated with higher productivity attracted households to the community. When population change is instrumented for, in addition to transmigration, the estimates for population increase and population levels cease to be significant. In terms of policy recommendations, the results do not indicate any benefits from transmigration, but they neither provide any evidence to substantiate the claims made by opponents of the program. The third chapter, "Is It Harder for Rural American Families to move up the Intergenerational Economic Ladder", is a preliminary analysis of how location affects intergenerational mobility of children from rural American households. I use wealth data from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explore whether children of parents who lived in a rural county are more tied, as adults, to their parent’s wealth than children from suburban or urban families. OLS estimates show that economic status is significantly more persistent for families who lived in a rural county that was not adjacent to a metropolitan region. However, when parent's wealth is instrumented by education, the intergenerational wealth elasticity of rural families no longer remains significant.
Advisors/Committee Members: Partridge, Mark.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: Poverty, Regional Economics, Migration, Population
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12.
French, Dustin Douglas.
Three essays on benefit transfer.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2001, Ohio State University
► This collection of essays investigates conceptual issues related to benefit transfer methodology…
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▼ This collection of essays investigates conceptual issues related to benefit transfer methodology followed by two empirical applications of the methodology to common but distinct problems in environmental economics. In the first essay, "Codification of Benefit Transfer," various aspects of benefit transfer are examined, including definitions, classification of types, protocol, and empirical testing. Specifically, a distinction is drawn between benefit transfer and meta-analysis, which are two distinct practices with different yet complementary objectives. Previous classification of benefit transfer techniques suggests three major categories or types (e.g. expert judgement, calibration transfer, fixed coefficient) viewed independent of one another. However, there is a clear interdependence between these categories and thus a benefit transfer scheme may include a combination of techniques from two or more of the major categories.In the second essay, "Sedimentation and Recreational Boating: A Benefit Transfer Application to Inland Lakes and Reservoirs," an Ohio boater model is developed for benefit transfer within Ohio and then to Illinois Lakes. The boater model uses data on Ohio lakes and estimates boater visitation as a function of lake characteristics. This model can be calibrated with minimal data to predict changes in boater visitation with respect to observed changes in sediment inflow. Benefit transfer testing suggests that the Ohio function is insensitive to outliers with reasonably small errors. Therefore, extension of the Ohio function to Illinois can be done with a fair degree of confidence. In the final essay, "Benefit Transfer and Travel Cost Model: Application to Lake Erie Beaches," benefit transfer is applied to a random utility model. Two variants of the model were estimated and studied to determine the appropriate model for the transfer. The multinomial logit model is estimated with all 15 beaches whereas the nested version split beaches into two sets based on geographic and water quality differences. The multinomial logit model was chosen over the to the nested version for benefit transfer simulation. The simulation results suggest that the circumstances under which the random utility function provides valid, policy-relevant information may be limited by visitors perception of a beach.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hitzhusen, Frederick J.
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14.
Garcia-De la Cruz, Marisol.
Impact Of Access To Formal Deposit Facilities And Loans On Schooling: Evidence From Rural Households In Mexico.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2008, Ohio State University
► This thesis offers empirical answers to the mostly unexplored question of the…
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▼ This thesis offers empirical answers to the mostly unexplored question of the impact of access to formal deposit facilities on human capital formation, by looking at the schooling choices of two waves of a panel of rural households in Mexico. The results suggest that both financial instruments (deposits and loans) matter; however, access to deposit facilities may have a greater and less ambiguous impact on household schooling choices than loans. Access to deposits reduces the schooling gap 2.5 years when using a pooled sample, while access to both financial services in comparison to no access reduces the schooling gap 1.2 years. After adding an interaction of both probabilities (access to deposits and loans), access to credit increases rather than reducing the gap. Thus, the development and strengthening of financial institutions capable of offering safe and convenient deposit facilities, rather than simply loans, may induce beneficial impacts on human capital formation.
Advisors/Committee Members: Gonzalez-Vega, Claudio.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: Formal financial services, deposit facilities, credit, schooling, human capital, rural areas of Mexico
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15.
Gober, Jon M.
A Points Per Game Rating For NFL Quarterbacks.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► Fans, teams, and commentators frequently use the NFL quarterback rating to evaluate…
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▼ Fans, teams, and commentators frequently use the NFL quarterback rating to evaluate quarterback performance. Linear programming models, tiered logistic regressions, and ordinary least squares regressions have also been used to measure efficiency but the NFL rating is the most frequently used metric. One deficiency of the NFL rating is that it overvalues completion percentage and interception percentage relative to passing yards per attempt. This creates a bias in favor of modern quarterbacks in the rating. I use NFL teams’ season statistics from 1970 through 2006 to derive a rating estimating a quarterback’s contribution to points-per-game with an ordinary least squares regression. I find that the points-per-game rating has less historical bias than the NFL rating and predicts winning percentage equally well.
Advisors/Committee Members: Haab, Tim.
Subjects: Agricultural economics; Economics; Statistics
Keywords: quarterback rating, NFL
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16.
Hartman, Darcy Ann.
Equilibrium Location of Vertically Linked Industries under Free Trade: Case Studies of Orange Juice and Tomato Paste in the Western Hemisphere.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 1998, Ohio State University
► Analysis of agricultural trade has typically treated raw commodities in isolation from…
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▼ Analysis of agricultural trade has typically treated raw commodities in isolation from their processed products. As industrialization of agriculture continues, models that incorporate multiple-stage processing provide more realistic analyses of the trade liberalization effects. Frequently, tariff structures target value-added products with higher tariff rates than the raw good utilized in processing. With trade liberalization, trade flows might change substantially in a vertically inter-related production system.A model developed by Venables (1993) utilizes a two-stage system of production under varying levels of openness to trade. Using Venables' model, this dissertation analyzes effects of free trade in the Western Hemisphere for the case of the orange juice and tomato paste industries. Breaking production into two stages, the model assumes that both stages are imperfectly competitive and subject to increasing returns. The approach is location-oriented, and analyzes the final location of both raw and processed production given trade liberalization. Demand and supply linkages exist to incorporate the role of consumers and the connection between the two stages of production.Trade liberalization is represented as a reduction in transportation costs. High transportation costs encourage production in multiple locations. Lowering transportation costs creates an agglomerative effect. Under current conditions, orange juice and tomato paste production in the Western Hemisphere are exemplified by the first scenario, indicating trade costs could be high enough to prevent agglomeration.Using representative firm data, parameter values are established for the current scenario. With these parameter values, transportation costs are decreased to represent the elimination of trade barriers. A system of equations is then solved to yield information on firm and grower locations given free trade.Generally, the results indicate that for both industries production will be skewed toward the US locations - Florida for orange juice, California for tomato paste - as tariffs are reduced in the Western Hemisphere. While the results might seem counterintuitive given production cost comparisons, the results emphasize the importance of the consumer base in the model, as well as the desire for multiple varieties of the same good. Agglomeration benefits are maximized by locating in the country where the vast majority of consumption takes place.
Advisors/Committee Members: Tweeten, Luther.
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17.
Hermanson, Doug Matthew.
The Impact of Biofuel Production on Energy and Agricultural Price Relationships.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2008, Ohio State University
► The production of biofuels has increased significantly within the United States from…
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▼ The production of biofuels has increased significantly within the United States from 2005 to 2008. Soybean oil and corn have been the two major feedstocks in the production of biodiesel and ethanol in the United States. The use of soybean oil in the production of biodiesel and corn in the production of ethanol potentially transforms two independent relationships between both corn and gasoline and soybean oil and diesel into a substitute or complementary relationship. Through cointegration testing and the calculation of a confidence interval of correlation coefficients the hypothesis was tested that price relationships between corn and gasoline and also soybean oil and diesel have changed due to increased production of biofuels. The results of the cointegration tests were inconclusive in testing the hypothesis due to stationarity in several of the price series. The calculation of a bootstrap confidence interval of correlation coefficients from 1980 to 2008 showed that correlation between soybean oil and diesel prices and corn and gasoline prices from 2005 to 2008 was greater than the mean correlation over the entire 28 year period. The results provide evidence that increased biofuel production has led to a new economic relationship between agricultural and energy commodities. As a result food, agriculture and livestock industries are subject to a new type of price risk that is influenced by energy markets, not just agriculture markets.
Advisors/Committee Members: Roberts, Matthew.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: biofuel; ethanol; biodiesel; cointegration; correlation
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18.
Hernandez-Hernandez, Emilio.
The Impact of Access to Conditional Cash Transfers and Remittances on Credit Markets: Evidence from Nicaragua and Bangladesh.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► This dissertation explores how access to conditional cash transfers (CCTs) and/or migrant…
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▼ This dissertation explores how access to conditional cash transfers (CCTs) and/or migrant remittances affects the household’s decision to apply for a loan, through changes in the household’s demand for credit and the aggregate supply of loans it faces. The empirical evaluation uses panel survey data on poor households in Nicaragua and Bangladesh.A theoretical framework shows three channels through which CCTs and remittances may affect the household’s loan application. The transfers offer the household some protection against income fluctuations, as they are not correlated with adverse idiosyncratic shocks at the household level or systemic shocks at the community level. Protection from income risk leads to revisions of technology or product mix choices, which improve the household’s expected marginal returns from a loan, in addition to improving the household’s creditworthiness as perceived by lenders. Both effects favor a loan application. At the same time, as these transfers complement the household’s income, expected marginal returns decline, making the request of a loan less attractive. Therefore, the net impact of these transfers on the household’s decision to apply for a loan is theoretically ambiguous, and a determination of this impact is an empirical question. Impact estimates for Nicaragua show that access to CCTs had no significant effect on the decision to apply for a loan. However, access to remittances had a significant and positive effect. The limited flexibility of CCTs in adjusting to the severity and timing of adverse shocks may explain the weak effect of CCTs on this decision. For an effect to be determined, the shifts in the demand and supply of credit have to be sufficiently strong, for the household to cross the threshold where the marginal returns from the loan become lower than its marginal costs, as a function of loan size. In contrast to CCTs, remittances result from a household strategy to reduce income variability and overcome liquidity constraints and are, therefore, more flexible. Their significant positive effect on the decision to apply for a loan suggests that the potential reduction in income risk seems to increase the household’s expected marginal returns from a loan. In addition, access to remittances seems to improve the household’s creditworthiness as perceived by a set of new and incumbent lenders, increasing the likelihood of loan applications. This positive effect seems to dominate decreasing marginal returns by targeted extremely poor households. For the case of households in Bangladesh, a three-equation system is used to estimate the impact of remittances on both the likelihood of a loan application and the average interest rate on the household’s portfolio of debt and to control for self-selection. Remittances have a negative and significant effect on interest rates and, beyond this indirect effect on a loan application, they have a positive and significant direct effect on the likelihood that the household applies for a loan. These transfers may thus induce financial deepening and generate externalities beyond those used to justify the programs.
Advisors/Committee Members: Sam, Abdoul.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: Conditional cash transfers, migration, rural financial markets
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19.
Hopkins, Jeffrey W.
Three Essays on Information and Production Economics.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 1998, Ohio State University
► This collection of essays investigates producer use of information in decisionmaking, with…
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▼ This collection of essays investigates producer use of information in decisionmaking, with applications to optimal resource use and learning. In the first essay, "Optimal Soil Conservation on Farmland," the economic costs of future soil degradation on cropland are shown to drive privately-optimal protection of stocks of soil nutrients and soil depth. A dynamic, simultaneous model of reversible and irreversible degradation for a Marlette, Michigan soil is presented, along with a sensitivity analysis with respect to costs and efficiency of crop residue management, input and output prices, and discount rates. Simulations show forward-looking producers increasingly engage in crop residue management over time to maintain high income streams, although at levels less than advocated by many conservation programs. Privately-optimal residue management decisions greatly diminish the amount of new technology required to address food security concerns.In the second essay, "On-farm Experimentation and the Value of Information," a dynamicmodel of optimal firm learning is presented that studies the incentives to experiment in order to reduce payoff uncertainty. An application to precision nitrogen fertilization is presented which assumes the yield function holding for an individual plot is known only probabilistically. Bayesian updating allows for probability beliefs to change over time. Two learning strategies are compared. The dynamic optimization problem characterizes the active learning strategy, combining control and estimation. The static optimization problem characterizes the passive learning strategy, separating control and estimation. Active learning is a superior strategy for the producer, although it results in applying nitrogen fertilizer at higher rates than if a passive learning strategy is followed. Firm learning may explain seemingly-excessive fertilization rates on cropland.In the final essay, "The Benefits of Off-site Research Results in Site-Specific Agriculture", optimal firm learning is modified to allow for a one-time update of probability beliefs from off-site sources, such as land-grant colleges. The objective of university researchers, who are assumed to minimize Type 1 and Type 2 hypothesis-testing error, is contrast with the firm's optimal learning objective that maximizes ex-ante returns. Results show that off-site research is more valuable to producers following passive rather than active learning strategies.
Advisors/Committee Members: Tweeten, Luther G.
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20.
Interis, Matthew G.
Norms, Image, and Private Contributions to Public Goods: Implications for Public Goods Policy.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► This dissertation examines individual motivation to provide public goods and implications for…
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▼ This dissertation examines individual motivation to provide public goods and implications for public policy designed to influence private provision. It merges psychology and sociology with economics to develop a behavioral model in the context of an environmental issue. The model supposes that individuals have preference over their image of themselves as environmentally responsible people. This image is partially determined by norms they hold about how much to contribute to the public good. These norms, in turn, are influenced by policy-makers, for example through a mechanism such as environmental campaigns. The first chapter lays out the conceptualization of norms used in the subsequent chapters. The main points are that I distinguish between statistical norms, what “is” done, and injunctive norms, what “should” be done. Injunctive norms are sanctioned either by oneself, others, or both. This simple typology is contrasted with existing conceptualizations of norms in the literature. The second chapter is an empirical analysis which makes some conclusions about how norms affect self-sanctioning through a change in self-image. Survey data regarding hypothetical contributions to a carbon offsetting program show that (1) the higher is one’s contribution, the higher is his self-image, and that (2) the higher is one’s injunctive norm of how much he thinks one should contribute, the lower is his self-image. This indicates that, depending upon the context, the norm itself should enter individuals’ utility functions. It is also shown that self-image itself increases after a contribution has been made, as opposed to individuals making a contribution that is consistent with a given self-image. Chapter 3 combines everything together into a theoretical model in which policy-makers can allocate a given amount of tax revenue between direct provision of a public good and influencing norms to try to increase private provision. An analytical analysis of efficiency and a simulation analysis of welfare effects are conducted. Depending upon individual preferences over private good consumption, public good consumption, and image, a positive investment in norm manipulation can increase social welfare.
Advisors/Committee Members: Haab, Timothy.
Subjects: Economics
Keywords: norms, image, public goods, policy, public goods policy, sanctioning
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21.
Jones, Lauren Eden.
A Behavioral Approach to Saving: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► Saving money is often difficult, especially for people with limited means. Psychological,…
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▼ Saving money is often difficult, especially for people with limited means. Psychological, behavioral and institutional barriers keep low-income individuals from saving the optimal amount of money. However, if these barriers can be successfully identified and overcome, saving should become easier for the poor. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers to savings and to develop a series of strategies meant to overcome them. A set of three experimental savings features were developed to help low-income people make regular savings deposits: increased deposit frequency, reminder and accountability phone calls, and a lottery-based incentive scheme. The Individual Development Account program, a matched savings program for low-income Americans, was used as a testing ground for the features; a randomized evaluation was conducted to test their efficacy. Perhaps due to sample size limitations, the results of the study did not provide evidence to support the main hypothesis that accounting for behavioral barriers in savings interventions can improve savings outcomes. However, several important contributions were nonetheless produced. First, the design specifics of the experiment add to the growing body of literature on field experiments in economics. Second, the lottery incentive structure investigated herein has been widely employed in savings programs abroad, but has not been thoroughly evaluated; this study begins to address this deficiency. Finally, the results reported in this thesis shed light on how saving levels are determined: namely, that savings goals play a more important role than do incentives.
Advisors/Committee Members: Kraybill, David.
Subjects: Behaviorial sciences; Economics
Keywords: Saving; Low-income; Field Experiment
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23.
Kim, Meebok.
Essays On Food Safety Failures.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► Academic interest in food safety has grown rapidly in recent decades. However,…
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▼ Academic interest in food safety has grown rapidly in recent decades. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between consumers’ and firms’ burden of food safety failures. In the first essay, consumer burden from foodborne illness is approximated using a cost of illness (COI) approach. In this study, disaggregated COI estimates focusing on all community-acquired cases are used to compare such costs across selected states. Such evidence of food safety costs is critical in the assessment of regional or state-level policy. State-level data including reports of selected notifiable diseases and detailed hospitalization cost information from State Inpatient Databases (SID) in Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) are used to produce cost estimates from 2000 to 2005. The cost of foodborne illness is shown to vary by population characteristics, hospital costs, and location of the underlying food safety failures. State-level COI estimates ranged from $1,000 to $4,000 for cost per case and from $40 to $120 for cost per capita.To analyze the social cost of food safety failures, it is necessary to consider consumers’ and firms’ burden simultaneously in an effort to determine an efficient policy. Building on a social welfare function that includes impacts of defective products, two types of policy are presented. Recognizing that outbreaks and recalls are intimately linked, this paper explores their connection conceptually and empirically. Two data sets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1995 to 2006 for state and federal outbreaks attributed to meat and poultry products and state and federal recall quarterly data for meat and poultry products from Recall Notification Reports (RNR) are combined. Results from a 3SLS (Three Stage Least Squares) approach indicate that firm burdens appear to be related indirectly to consumer’s burden through the number of outbreaks. Therefore, an appropriate policy tool for food safety failures may be focused on creating a more rapid recall identification system employing more aggressive testing and risk communication practices. The third study expands the empirical approach of the second essay to investigate the history of food safety failures-outbreaks and recalls. Employing a Dynamic Panel Data model, results suggest the first lagged recalled amount is negatively related to current one and importantly that outbreak information affects the current recall only through the number of recalls.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hooker, Neal.
Subjects: Agricultural economics
Keywords: food safety, social cost, COI, outbreak, recall
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24.
Kim, Sam-Ryang.
Consumer Health Information and Changing Preferences for Fats and Oils in Japan: Cointegration and a Complete Demand System Approach.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 1998, Ohio State University
► This study investigates the major factors affecting the demand for fats and…
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▼ This study investigates the major factors affecting the demand for fats and oils under the possible influence of health information in Japan. A conceptual and empirical framework is developed to specify two demand models including a health information variable: a derived demand model for soybean oil and rapeseed oil, and a demand model for all fats and oils. Three distinct fat and cholesterol information indexes are constructed using the numbers of relevant medical articles and different weighting schemes. The index developed in this study exhibits strikingly different historical patterns of consumer health information than the time trend or an ad-hoc cumulative index. These indexes are incorporated into the two demand models to evaluate the impacts of health information on the demand for various fats and oils.The linear functional form is chosen to examine the factors affecting the declining market share of soybean oil since 1987, while the general nonlinear Lewbel model, nesting AIDS and Translog demand models as two special cases, is employed to examine the behavior patterns of Japanese consumers for various fats and oils. Specification tests strongly reject both the AIDS and Translog demand models. Tests for unit-root nonstationarity and cointegration are conducted for all variables and the two demand models, respectively. The estimation results indicate that the declining market share of soybean oil relative to rapeseed (canola) oil has been caused by the declining total meat production and increasing total meat imports. Both changes have been induced by meat trade liberalization since 1988, and not by concerns of the Japanese about fat and cholesterol. However, health concerns are shown to have significant impacts on the choices of fats and oils, particularly the substitution between animal fats and vegetable oils in Japan. The simulation results show that health risk concerns, as measured by the indexes considering the carryover and decaying effects of published medical articles, reduce the consumption of saturated fat as well as total fat. Also, the fat and cholesterol information index developed in this study appears to reflect the changing health information on fat and cholesterol much better than a simple ad-hoc cumulative index.
Advisors/Committee Members: Chern, Wen S.
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25.
Kirwin, Ryan Michael.
An Economic Analysis of New Product Introductions in the United States Food and Beverage Sector: 1996 - 2009.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► Innovation plays a key role in a firm’s behavior in the marketplace…
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▼ Innovation plays a key role in a firm’s behavior in the marketplace in terms of firm strategy. The United States food and beverage industries are marked by a wide range of differentiated products. There have been developments in the United States food and beverage sectors that have had an impact on the products introduced and the type of firm bringing these introductions to market. The traditional roles of the food manufacturer and the national brand are being challenged by innovative products from noon-food manufactures and private labels. This research addresses three specific hypotheses encompassing innovations of national brands and private labels and the level of innovation of food and non-food manufacturers. Additionally, the numbers of introductions between two time periods was compared. Statistical methods were applied to a number of different data sets to shed light on food and beverage innovations from the 1996 to 2009 time frame. The median of private label beverage introductions is significantly greater than the median of national brand introductions. This discrepancy does not exist in the food space, however. Food and non-food manufacturer median level of innovation as measured by the Degree of Innovation Scale are not significantly different for either food or beverage space. Specific product lines addressed in both food and beverage space show significantly different level of innovation as measured by their Degree of Innovation Scale.
Advisors/Committee Members: Sporleder, Thomas.
Subjects: Agricultural economics; Agriculture; Economics; Management; Statistics
Keywords: innovation; food and beverage industry; food and non-food manufacturers; GNPD; Economic analysis; agrifood; agribusiness; United States food and beverage industry; firm stragtegy
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26.
Lau, Jia Li.
An Investigation into the Derived Demand for Land in Palm Oil Production.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► Over the years, the world industry of oil palm has been rapidly…
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▼ Over the years, the world industry of oil palm has been rapidly increasing in the tropical areas of Asia, Africa and America. One of the major reasons behind this increase is the wider use of palm oil biodiesel as an alternative energy source. The demand for palm oil is further strengthened as more countries establish mandates on use of biofuels. The high prices for palm oil, driven partly by the introduction of palm oil biodiesel, spur even more investment in the palm oil sector. The expansion of oil palm plantation changes land use pattern. The rapid growth in the plantation area of oil palm poses several environmental challenges. The research problems of interest here are how do changes in palm oil demand determinants affect land use pattern, and to what extend the use of palm oil biodiesel contributes to demand for land in oil palm production. Dataset used in this study are from the six major producers in the world, namely Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Thailand. The least square dummy variable derived demand model in this study takes into account the price of palm oil, economic growth, price of other vegetable oils, crude oil price, export quantity and several fixed effects variables. Own price and price of other vegetable oils do not significantly affect demand for oil palm area harvested, whereas economic growth, export market and crude oil price have significant impact on the derived demand for oil palm area harvested. The pattern of oil palm area harvested differs between countries from South East Asia and the other remaining countries. Governmental intervention and political stability have a role behind the distinctive feature of oil palm plantation across the six countries.
Advisors/Committee Members: SOHNGEN, BRENT.
Subjects: Agricultural economics; Economics; Energy; Environmental science
Keywords: palm oil; land; derived demand; palm oil biofuel; palm oil biodiesel; oil palm; Colombia; Côte d'Ivoire; Indonesia; Malaysia; Nigeria; Thailand; crude oil
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28.
Li, Ji.
The Economics of Food Safety Communication.
Degree: PhD, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2009, Ohio State University
► This dissertation is composed of three essays about timely food safety issues…
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▼ This dissertation is composed of three essays about timely food safety issues in the food and agribusiness marketing. In Chapter 1, responding to increasing customer attention to food attributes agribusinesses are employing novel product differentiation strategies. As an example, the use of food safety claims on new packaged food products are investigated from the food manufacturers’ perspective. First, using two product innovation databases, we investigate claim use on labels in seven English speaking countries over the period 1980 to 2008. Then, based on manufacturer recommended selling prices and using US data (from 2002 to 2008) we apply parametric and nonparametric hedonic methods to identify supply-side (agribusiness) valuations of chemical and microbiological claims in two food categories. We identify a significant 5 cent premium per ounce for a preservative free claim in spoonable yogurts. We do not find a statistically significant impact for E. coli free messages on meat and poultry products but find a significant price premium ($0.193 and $0.257 per ounce in the two models) for antibiotic free claims in this category. Chapter 2 explores consumer reaction and attempt to personalized food recall notifications. Foodborne illness outbreaks can pose serious threats to consumers. To protect public health, when food companies discover that a food product has been implicated in an outbreak or is found to contain unacceptable levels of contaminants, they usually voluntarily issue a recall notice to recover any unconsumed products thought to pose a risk. While recovering unsold products from retailers is relatively straightforward, reaching consumers has proven more difficult. Through their shopper loyalty card programs, many retailers have the ability to identify and communicate recall information to customers who have purchased foods that become subject to a recall notice. An analysis of nationally representative survey data collected by telephone from 1,101 American adults in August and September 2008 suggests that most consumers (70%) are interested in such a service. Almost fourteen percent would be willing to pay for such a service. The results of an ordered logit model suggest that consumers who are younger, who are caregivers for children, have had experience with foodborne illness, share shopping responsibilities with someone else in their household and those who are unemployed appear most interested, and willing to pay, for such a personalized recall notification service. Chapter 3 is centered on pet food recalls. In 2007 the pet food industry encountered a series of recall shocks which attracted considerable attention from the public, media, regulatory bodies and most likely shareholders. Exploring a financial market perspective, this study investigates the influence of recall announcements on three publicly traded pet food companies: Procter & Gamble, Co., Del Monte Foods, Co., and Colgate-Palmolive, Co. An event study, Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and Seemingly Unrelated Regression system (SUR) estimations are conducted and compared using daily and intra-day stock prices to explore recall effects. Findings suggest that the announcement of recalls had a significant effect on Del Monte’s stock price but no influence on PG or Colgate. Firm’s response time and market share appear to be key factors influencing stock price reactions.
Advisors/Committee Members: Hooker, Neal.
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29.
Ly, Oumou Koulsoum.
A Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Indian Lake Watershed Project.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 1998, Ohio State University
► The Benefit Cost framework was used in this study to investigate the…
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▼ The Benefit Cost framework was used in this study to investigate the profitability of the Indian Lake Watershed Project (ILWP), in Central Ohio. The project's goal is to implement innovative actions and agricultural practices upstream to alleviate the sedimentation and other water quality issues in the Indian Lake. The ILWP has also a major emphasis on demonstration and education.The research analyzes the benefits derived from soil conservation measures on farm and along streams and the subsequent reduction in lake sediment inflow. Benefits accrue to four categories of individuals. Farmers benefit from increased returns above total costs in the crop budgets when they switch from conventional to soil conserving tillage practices. Taxpayers should experience savings as the need for waterway improvement including dredging is reduced. Finally, users of the lake for boating, swimming, fishing, and lake shore residence owners gain in boater and property rent values from a cleaner and deeper lake. All of them have a willingness to pay to abate the disamenity. Cost items are project and supporting agencies overhead costs, expenses on various realizations, subsidies, incentive payments to producers, farmers cost share.The Net Present Value (NPV) criterion measures the opportunity cost of the project using a discount rate of 6%. Two scenarios were examined with alternative time horizons from the base year, 1997. In both cases, all categories of benefits summed were short of the costs, $2 million and $1 1/2 million respectively. Benefits offset costs only when sustained 37 years from the base year. Farmers benefit the most from the project, $4.94 to $10.0 per cropland acre per year. Savings in waterway improvement costs are the second highest benefits, $5.60 per cropland acre, and $0.94 per reduced ton of sediment delivery annually.A particular set of assumptions led to these estimates. Further valuation of benefits should incorporate additional environmental improvements to test the current results, and assess the worthiness of the investment. Given the magnitude of benefits to farmers, including a measure of spillover effects of education and demonstration is of highest importance in the accurate determination of conservation tillage technologies rates of adoption to credit to the ILWP.
Advisors/Committee Members: Randall, Dr. Alan.
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30.
Marconi, Nicholas Genova.
The “Lemon Market” Phenomenon in Label-Dependent Niche Markets: An Examination of the Nature of Ethical Consumption.
Degree: MS, Agricultural, Environmental Development Economics, 2010, Ohio State University
► Using the Global New Markets Database to analyze trends from 1999-2009 demonstrates…
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▼ Using the Global New Markets Database to analyze trends from 1999-2009 demonstrates that the market for Fair Trade goods is not only growing rapidly, it is steadily merging with other markets for ethical goods into a single market for ethical consumption. Estimating hedonic models with this data indicates that the Willingness to Supply for Fair Trade goods is dependent entirely on region and product differentiation, however it is impossible to determine what the demand for Fair Trade goods is based only on availability. One such standard that has yet to become part of widespread certification is Living Wage, the reason for which being that there has been no method yet to universally evaluate it. This thesis then explores the theoretical groundwork for a universal method to evaluate Living Wage. The conclusion of this thesis is that it is possible for standards compliance to meet goals of the Fair Trade movement and other movements for ethical consumption, however if there is no demand for compliance then the market will devolve into a Lemon Market, where Fair Trade goods will not provide the implied value-added of improving the livelihood and dignity of workers in developing countries.
Advisors/Committee Members: Batte, Marv.
Subjects: Agricultural economics; Economics
Keywords: Fair Trade, Living Wage, Ethical Consumption, Lemon Market, Monopsony, Willingness to Sell
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