Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This dissertation consists of 3 essays involving economics and risk perception. In the first essay, U.S. consumers' ratings of concern toward eight food production and processing technologies are analyzed using a representative sample of U.S. consumers. Concern is highest for pesticides and hormones, followed by concern toward antibiotics, genetic modification and irradiation. Standard relationships between demographic, economic and attitude variables and the average concern level are documented. The essay identifies three clusters of technologies that engender similar patterns of concern ratings among respondents and estimates models that correlate key personal and household characteristics to these underlying technology concern factors. It is found that several individual characteristics that yield little explanatory power for average ratings have discriminatory power for explaining concern across different technology clusters. The second essay analyzes consumers' use of price as a quality signal by testing for non-monotonicity of consumer demand in the price for genetically modified food using data collected from a nationally representative mail survey featuring several hypothetical choice scenarios. Mixed evidence was found across three products for non-monotonicity of demand in price. It is argued that survey respondents may use price as a signal of the quality of genetically modified products for at least one of the three products investigated. The third essay estimates individual poker players' utility functions and tests for the stability of this utility function across different phases of the game and across different strategic positions within the game using the data obtained from the World Poker Tour Series. A nonlinear probit model is used to estimate players' utility functions under CARA and CRRA utility specifications. The estimation results suggest that risk attitudes are not constant across strategic positions but are constant across phases of the ga (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Roe (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Allied Health Sciences : Genetic Counseling

While reported interest in genetic testing for cancer risk is high in the general population, many high risk patients referred for genetic services never follow through to schedule an appointment. This study was designed to explore the impact of the terminology used and amount of information provided in a hypothetical referral for genetic counseling services on consumer interest and predicted likelihood to schedule an appointment. Participants (n=344) completed a self-administered questionnaire indicating the predicted likelihood that they would schedule and attend a genetics appointment, following a hypothetical scenario and referral. The terminology used in the referral for genetic services (“counseling” vs. “risk assessment”) (p=0.7) and receiving an explanation of the genetic counseling process (p=0.17) did not affect intent to schedule. The word “counseling” and lack of an explanation of the process do not appear to negatively impact interest in genetic services.

Committee: Jessica Everett (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health