Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays on food consumption patterns of Japanese household using individual household level data. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate how the Japanese household food consumption patterns have changed, and how the changes are related to the social demographic status (the individual household's characteristics) and the economic status of individual households. First essay focuses on the overall tendencies of food-at-home consumption patterns. A complete demand system of eleven major aggregated food categories with 24 demographic variables is estimated. Westernization and externalization, two major trends observed in time series data, are also confirmed in the cross sectional data. The estimation results show 1) the food consumption patterns of younger households are more westernized than those of older households, and 2) food consumption patterns of the Japanese households are more externalized when the households face the higher cooking cost. Second essay analyzes the demand for food away from home and prepared foods with emphasizes on the frequency of purchases and the per unit expenditure. The main results are 1) the frequency and the expenditure of food away from home are correlated, which supports the validity of the polychotomous sample selection model, and 2) demand for food away from home and prepared foods have quite different characteristics; food away from home is a luxury good and prepared foods are necessity used as substitute/complements for at home food consumption. Third essay specifically focuses on the demand for non-glutinous rice. Rice demand is estimated considering the zero consumption problem. The infrequency of purchase model is proposed and is verified that the approach is suitable. The main estimation results are, 1) contrary to the past literature using long time-series data, rice is a normal (necessity) good, and the own price elasticity is smaller than those estimated in previous studi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ian Sheldon (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This dissertation examines the influence of exogenous shocks (weather and earthquakes) and differential access to financial services and risk-coping tools (remittances and precautionary wealth) on the production performance (technical efficiency) of rural households. The research uses nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate output-based measures of efficiency for agricultural households. The analysis is conducted at the household (not just the farm) level, accounting for the role of off-farm activities. The data come from a four-observation survey panel data set (1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001) for rural households in El Salvador, which provides information on household characteristics and agricultural and non-agricultural activities. The period was marked by major exogenous shocks, creating a natural experiment, which allows examination of outcomes for treatment (affected) and control (not affected) households and eliminates reverse causation. The probability of being affected by the earthquake or weather shock was not related to pre-shock household characteristics. Tobit regressions are used to identify determinants of the computed efficiency scores, by separating the sample into those affected or not affected by the shocks and according to type of shock. Finally, to control for unobserved heterogeneity, difference-in-differences regression techniques are used to identify factors affecting efficiency and its changes over time. The results reveal that, on average, many households operate way below the frontier and that efficiency experiences much volatility over time. Nevertheless, there have been net improvements over the years, particularly for households with initially low levels of efficiency. Exogenous systemic shocks have temporarily reversed this process of improvement, which is associated with the structural transformation experienced by subsistence farmers that are in transition toward becoming more diversified and better integrated to markets (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Claudio Gonzalez-Vega (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

In response to growing concerns on global warming and efforts to create a sustainable energy future, biomass energy may become a viable source of clean and renewable energy resource. Biomass resources are carbon neutral and hence play a pivotal role in reducing emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). The use of biomass resources for energy production is even more relevant in Ohio, as its power industry is heavily based on coal, making it one of the top polluting states in the nation. This dissertation evaluates the prospects of biomass cofiring in Ohio to generate commercial electricity. Specifically, the study develops a dynamic linear programming model (OH-MARKAL) to analyze key economic, environmental, and policy issues related to energy needs for Ohio's future. The OH-MARKAL is a comprehensive power sector model which is based on the MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation) framework. This study addresses two key issues for Ohio: first, the importance of diversifying fuel resource base for the power industry; and second, the need to increase the use of biomass or renewable resources in Ohio. The model can serve as an effective tool for Ohio's energy planning, since it evaluates economic and environmental consequences of any policy changes. The results of this study indicate that policy interventions are necessary to make biomass co-firing competitive with coal and about 7 percent of renewable electricity can be generated by using biomass in Ohio. The study suggests that an optimal level of renewable portfolio standard (RPS) can be mandated to increase the renewable electricity generation in Ohio. To achieve a higher RPS than 7 percent level, Ohio needs to include other renewable sources into its electricity generation portfolio. The results also indicate that the marginal price of electricity must increase by four fold to mitigate CO2 emissions 15 percent below the 2002 level. Hence, Ohio will need to consider and invest on clean coal technologies and examine the option of carbon (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Fredrick Hitzhusen (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

In this dissertation, I examine three issues related to agricultural and catastrophic risk management. In the first essay, I develop and estimate mixture distribution models of Texas dryland upland cotton yields in which the distribution of yield is conditioned on an observable drought index. The results indicate that the mixture distribution provides a better fit to cotton yield data than conventional parametric distributions and, for more than two-thirds of the Texas counties examined, implies Group Risk Plan premium rates that are greater than those currently published by the U.S. Department of Agricultural Risk Management Agency. In the second essay, I attempt to uncover evidence of moral hazard in the U.S. crop insurance program, departing from the established empirical literature in two significant respects. First, I focus on the effects of crop insurance on post-planting crop abandonment decisions. Second, I expand the scope of existing empirical studies by including regions and crops that have historically experienced high loss ratios under the Federal crop insurance program. The results provide strong evidence that crop insurance program participation encourages corn producers in the Great Plains and upland cotton producers in the South to abandon their crops during the growing season. In the third essay, I develop and estimate alternative time-series models of El Nino dynamics in order to support the actuarial analysis of a proposed weather derivative contract for Peru. In particular, I apply a series of tests proposed by Bai and Perron to formally test whether the sea-surface temperature anomalies that characterize El Nino events have exhibited structural change during the 20th century. The tests identify several structural breaks over the past century and indicate that El Ninos have become more frequent and severe since 1976. I then examine the ability of three alternative time-series models to predict El Nino severity with a 6-month lead time and conclu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mario Miranda (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This study investigates the effects of decentralization on economic growth in U.S. counties. Decentralization has given counties the added responsibility of economic growth and welfare administration. Counties use various strategies to attract and retain businesses so they can provide income and jobs for residents. Localization of economic development and decentralization of welfare programs may have an effect on economic growth of county governments. County governments in the U.S. may act strategically by setting lower welfare benefit levels, and offering business incentives to new and existing firms, thus resulting in the possible under-provision of local public services and a decrease in economic growth. Key objectives of this study are to construct a measure of decentralization and investigate whether decentralization leads to differences in economic growth in U.S. counties. A simultaneous equation framework is used to explore the relationship between decentralization and economic growth. Economic growth is measured by population and employment growth. An interaction term is constructed between decentralization and rural status to verify whether decentralization's effects differ by rural status of counties. County level data from forty-six states in the U.S. are used in the analyses. The hypothesis that the effect of decentralization on rural counties is different from that of urban counties is tested. The hypothesis that decentralization has a negative effect on economic growth of U.S. counties is also tested. Other hypotheses that are tested are that population growth and employment growth each has a positive effect on the other. The results reveal that population and employment growth both positively affect each other. Decentralization has a significant effect on population growth but no effect on employment growth. Both rural and urban counties show a negative relation with population growth so the hypothesis that decentralization results in lower economic g (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Kraybill (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

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

The first essay of this dissertation is an attempt to incorporate uncertainty into double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation. The double bounded approach, which entails asking respondents a follow-up question after they have answered a first question, has emerged as a means to increase efficiency in willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. However, several studies have found inconsistency between WTP estimates generated by the first and second questions. In this study, it is posited that this inconsistency is due to uncertainty facing the respondents when the second question is introduced. The author seeks to understand whether using a follow-up question in a stochastic format, which allows respondents to express uncertainty, would alleviate the inconsistency problem. In a contingent valuation survey to estimate non-market economic benefits of using more biodiesel vs. petroleum diesel fuel in an airshed encompassing South Eastern and Central Ohio, it is found that the gap between WTP estimates produced by the first and the second questions reduces when respondents are allowed to express uncertainty. The proposed stochastic follow-up approach yields more efficient WTP estimates than the conventional follow-up approach while maintaining efficiency gain over the single bounded model. In the second essay, instrumental variable panel data techniques are applied to estimate the effects of civil wars and violent conflicts on food security in a sample of 73 developing countries from 1970 to 2002. The study aims to provide empirical evidence as to whether the manifest increase in the number of hungry can be ascribed to civil unrest. From a statistical standpoint, the results convincingly pinpoint the danger of using conventional panel data estimators when endogeneity is of the conventional simultaneous equation type, i.e. with respect to the idiosyncratic error term. From a policy viewpoint, it is found that, in general, civil wars and conflicts are detrimental to fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Fred Hitzhusen (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

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

This dissertation examines whether US exporters of agricultural commodities, including wheat, beef, pork, corn, soybean and lettuce, price to market in both a monopolistic and an oligopolistic framework. In a static monopolistic framework, considering the seasonality characteristics of prices and costs of agricultural products, a seasonal error correction model (SECM) is estimated. This study is the first one to apply the concepts of seasonal cointegration and seasonal common trends. In cases where seasonal cointegration is rejected by the hypothesis test, a vector error correction model (VECM) is used. The results from the cointegration method confirm strong imperfect competition and destination-specific characteristics of PTM behavior. Different price responses imply that under depreciations of the US dollar, exports to Japan, Canada, and the Philippines will increase but have a smaller effect on improving the US trade balance than in the case of perfect competition, while exports to South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and Hong Kong will increase by a relatively small percentage, which results in an ambiguous impact on the US trade balance. In an oligopolistic framework, this study distinguishes different roles of the two exchange rates in export pricing strategies. The results show that imperfect competition exists in US wheat, beef, pork, and corn export markets. For beef, pork, and corn exports, the objective of US exporters is to keep local currency prices stable, which to some extent mitigates the export-enhancing effect of depreciations of the US dollar. The exceptional case is US wheat exports. Taking into account the huge export subsidies that US wheat exporters receive from the US Export Enhancement Program (EEP), US agricultural exporters tend to keep price-stabilizing strategies unless strong financial support from the government is available. Therefore, the depreciation of the US dollar is not sufficient for improving the US agricultural trade balance with (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ian Sheldon (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

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

Using a geocoded version of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), my findings suggest that the persistently poor receive less than 65% of their total income as wages, accumulate fewer assets, and rely heavily on government social transfers. Although their incomes fall below the poverty line occasionally, the transitorily poor stay above the poverty line most of the time. I confirm the presence of poverty clusters as well as the presence of spatial interaction across locations. This calls for cooperation among counties or states in the fight against poverty. I use a generalized mixed linear model that incorporates both fixed and random effects while controlling for individual characteristics and spatial attributes. I find that the persistently poor and the transitorily poor experience very different poverty paths. Years of education, labor market participation, and access to the benefit of economic growth are among the major factors explaining the difference in wellbeing between the two groups of poor households. Spatial attributes such as level of employment and population share of college graduates yield different returns in terms of wellbeing with respect to metro or nonmetro locations. In metro areas, the effect of job-training, economic growth and human capital on household living standards decreases with respect to the population size. In nonmetro areas, the effect of an increase in the share of college graduates increases with the rurality of the location. The more rural the location, the greater is the effect of human capital on living standards. Overall, my findings support arguments in favor of policies that differentiate persistent poverty from transitory poverty. They also highlight the importance of spatial attributes in the fight against poverty.

Committee: David Kraybill (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

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

In the first and second essays, I use economic models of relational contracting to assess the potential economic impact of proposed legislation that would require processors to pay termination damages to growers when contractual relationships are prematurely terminated. Asset specificity, ex post bargaining power on the part of processors, and an exogenous shock that undermines gains from trade are introduced into the models. In the first essay, I assume that processors and growers can initiate relational contracts based on some observable, but non-verifiable, performance measure. I conclude that under symmetric information about an exogenous shock, termination damages would not be distortionary and would not undermine processors' ability to design effective incentives. Therefore, termination damages do not affect growers' expected payoffs in optimal relational contracts. However, under asymmetric information about an exogenous shock, termination damages can either increase or reduce growers' expected payoffs. In the second essay, I assume that performance measures are subjective in the sense that the processor and grower may not necessarily agree on measured performance outcomes. I show that while contract termination is used as an incentive device, pay for performance is no longer used. Under symmetric information about an exogenous shock, government imposed termination damages would not be distortionary and would induce only a restructuring of the compensation plan. In the third essay, I present results from an experiment that investigates the existence and causes of self-serving bias and the effect of this bias on subjects' strategic behavior in a multi-period incomplete contracting game. The data shows that self-serving bias exists in the aggregate and is caused by substantial heterogeneity in subjects' responses to unenforceable contract terms. Self-serving bias has no significant direct effect on subjects' contract rejection decisions, but it does have a sign (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steven Wu (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

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

There are growing needs and interest in obtaining generalized non-market value estimates in today's research world. Meta-analysis techniques have been explored by economists as a potential basis of policy analysis conducted by various government agencies in the area of natural resources. This research originated as an attempt to contribute to a broader estimation of benefits from USDA conservation programs and used meta-analysis to generalize empirical value estimates of three major groups of environmental services: wetlands, improvements in surface water quality and terrestrial habitat. The valuation context for welfare estimates of the effects from government agricultural conservation programs is complex. Programs create various effects that change the flow of services which can be valued in terms of welfare estimates and virtual prices. For example, wetland restoration programs can result in improved floodwater control which provides reduced flood damage. It creates environmental benefit of avoided flood damage which is valuable to people. This study reports a meta-analysis of more than 30 US valuation studies estimating wetland value per acre, a meta-analysis of more than 40 US valuation studies estimating willingness to pay per household per year for improvements in surface water quality, and a meta-analysis of 11 US valuation studies estimating benefit per acre for terrestrial habitat services. Results indicate that mean value per acre of wetland services is $262.43 (in 2003 US dollars). American household's annual mean willingness to pay associated with surface water quality change is $102.51. Benefit per acre of terrestrial habitat is estimated to average $130.32. One of our main criticisms of meta-analysis is that it can obscure important information when it includes only averaged numerical representations from primary valuation studies, estimated means are treated as deterministic, and no distinction is made between study means based on smaller and larger (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Randall (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

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

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

This study explores the effects of local economic development policies and environmental policies on county population and employment growth in the US. Local environmental policies are policies adopted by counties to control unplanned growth. Using a monocentric city model, growth control is shown to have a negative effect on population growth. The model suggests that optimal growth control policies depend on the policies of neighboring counties, on the strength of agglomeration economies, and on the degree of congestion resulting from population concentration. Aspatial and spatial analysis are conducted to explore the relationship between population and employment growth. Environmental policies and economic development policies are found to be endogenous, and instrumental variables are used to address this problem. An extended weight matrix is constructed to overcome the problem of spatial discontinuity of the sample data due to nonresponse. Estimates from the spatial models using the contiguity weight matrix and the inverse distance weight matrix are consistent with expectations. The main findings are: (1) local environmental policies have negative effects on population growth of both metro and nonmetro counties and positive effects on employment growth of metro counties but negative effects on employment growth of nonmetro counties; (2) local economic development policies stimulate employment growth but have no effects on population growth; (3) initial population level has a positive effect on population growth, while initial employment level has nonpositive effects on employment growth; (4) manufacturing industry concentration is negatively associated with employment growth while retailing industry concentration is positively associated with employment growth; (5) population density is negatively associated with population growth but has no effect on employment growth; (6) and people follow jobs and jobs follow people.

Committee: David Kraybill (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This study conducts a multi-country survey on consumer acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods in the United States and Taiwan and an experimental auction in Japan to estimate consumers' willingness to pay a premium for non-GM foods and/or their willingness to accept a discount on GM foods. The first essay reports results from a U.S. national telephone survey. The survey questionnaire involves stated preference (SP) questions of vegetable oil, cornflakes, and salmon. American consumers are generally accepting of GM foods. Among the determinants of choice, subjective variables such as perception of benefits and risks and level of knowledge are important. The estimated mean non-GM premiums are, respectively, 44.5%, 35.7%, 38.1%, and 56.9% of the base price to avoid GM vegetable oil, GM cornflakes, GM-fed salmon, and GM salmon. The SP question takes account of indifferent respondents. The second essay is based on the Taiwanese telephone survey. Taiwanese consumers indicate positive attitudes toward GM foods as compared to American consumers. The mean non-GM premium and the mean GM discount are estimated, and the equality between the two mean values is tested. We find no evidence against the equality, which indicates that Taiwanese consumers consider non-GM and GM foods to be substitutable. We also examine the effect of initial non-GM/GM choice on the propensity to switch alternatives given the price increase or discount. We find that the willingness to switch is different between the non-GM and GM choosers because the two groups have different choice criteria. The third essay studies Japanese consumers' willingness to pay a premium for non-GM foods based on the experimental auctions. We find that Japanese consumers are not too opposed to GM foods, and the estimated GM discounts are 37% for canola oil and 44% for natto (a soy product), which indicates that Japanese consumers are willing to accept GM foods if they are sufficiently discounted. We test the equality b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wen Chern (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

As smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe face inevitable drought, the need to develop drought-mitigation strategies and risk transfer mechanisms becomes an important and challenging task for policy makers. Rather than treating drought as a natural disaster that warrants emergency declarations whenever it strikes, countries in Southern Africa could alter their policy to embrace drought as an integral part of their national policy framework. Although drought cannot be eliminated, its impact can be reduced through implementation of pro-active and pro-poor risk management policy programs. This study explored two potential policy programs. One program proposes wide-scale adoption of improved seasonal forecasts by smallholder farmers as a drought mitigation strategy, and the second program proposes implementation of area-yield drought-indexed insurance as a risk-transfer and risk-protection mechanism for the smallholder farmers. To investigate whether adoption of seasonal forecasts and drought insurance is possible in Zimbabwe this dissertation explored three hypotheses: First, do seasonal forecasts really matter to smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe? Second, given the prevalence of food-aid in Zimbabwe, does drought insurance really matter for smallholder farmers? Third, given drought is a catastrophic risk, will a drought-index insurance scheme intended for smallholder farmers be viable and/or feasible? The first two questions were empirically investigated via surveys based on the contingency valuation method (CVM). More than 1,000 smallholder farmers were surveyed throughout Zimbabwe's agro-ecological regions II-V where willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the proposed programs was elicited. With respect to the first hypothesis, results showed that for the improved seasonal forecasts program, estimated WTP (Z$) based on a single-bound model ranged from Z$2,427 to Z$4,676. For a double-bound model, WTP ranged from Z$2,532 to Z$4,225. A distinct differential pattern in WTP was observed a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brent Sohngen (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

The three essays of this thesis research several theoretical and empirical issues of the commodity futures markets, specifically, the metals markets at the London Metal Exchange (LME) and the U.S. soybean and corn markets at the Chicago Board of Trade. Chapter two examines the cost of carry theory for five metals at the London Metal Exchange (LME). A quad-variate cointegration model is constructed and empirical results show that a long run relationship exists for cash and 3-month metals futures prices, 3-month interest rates and physical storage costs. The finding reconciles previously inconsistent findings regarding the cointegration of temporal prices in the presence of non-stationary interest rates. Chapter three updates the measurement of the supply of storage model and develops a two-equation system model which consists of the supply of storage equation and the price spread-convenience yield equation. Three stage least squares (3SLS) estimation method and bootstrapping 3SLS are applied to the CBOT soybeans data and results reveal that convenience yield and variability of new crop futures might play key roles in making storage decisions during the crop year. Chapter four develops a new measurement of the stock (inventory)-price relationship for commodity markets by constructing an equally weighted ending stocks-use ratio. A fully specified polynomial function is developed with consideration of three policy regimes due to the 1985 and 1996 US farm policy reforms. Model selection is conducted from both the fitting perspective and the forecast perspective. Results show that grain market analysts may benefit from using the proposed new measurement for forecasting prices. In summary, this study contributes to the understanding of the theoretical and empirical issues of the commodity futures markets, including the cost of carry theory, the supply of storage theory and the convenience yield theory.

Committee: Matthew Roberts (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

Contingent valuation (CV) is a commonly used method for estimating the value of non-market goods. This study attempted to create a more interdisciplinary framework for economic valuation, specifically for estimating the economic benefits of dam removal, and is part of an on-going research program at the Ohio State University on the economics of river restoration (Hitzhusen, 2004). The case study for this dissertation was the Ballville Dam located in Sandusky County, in northwest Ohio. A CV survey and several variants were developed to test several methodological considerations. The first methodological issue considered was that of incentive compatibility, as it relates to both the dichotomous-choice (DC) and open-ended (OE) elicitation formats used in contingent valuation. Two versions of the CV survey were mailed to Sandusky County residents; one with a DC willingness-to-pay question (WTP) and the other with an OE willingness-to-pay question. Mean WTP for the DC survey was $50.86 and for the OE survey was $48.42. The second part of the study examined the topic of stable versus constructive preferences. A new elicitation format, structured elicitation groups (SEG), was developed and a lab experiment using both a “mail survey” and SEG was run in order to test (1) whether preferences are being constructed during the contingent valuation elicitation process and (2) if that is the case, whether the SEG methodology accounts for such preferences. Results confirmed that the knowledge and awareness levels of SEG participants were significantly different pre-and post-survey and also suggested that SEG participants may have less difficulty with the OE WTP format. Finally, the study estimated mean WTP as $50.86 per household in Sandusky County and $50.91 per household within a 30-mile radius of the dam. The aggregated low-bound estimates of total social benefits based on these estimates were $863,000 and $12.3 million respectively, while the estimated cost of removal was $10.2 (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Fredrick Hitzhusen (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

Functional foods have received increasing attention from consumers and food producers and manufacturers over the past years, yet few studies have examined economic and marketing issues that are related to foods with additional health benefits beyond basic nutrients. This dissertation consists of three papers that employ different techniques to understand consumer behavior in this domain. The first essay applies a choice experiment to examine consumer valuation of various attributes of functional foods, using a statewide mail survey. Results indicate that consumers place positive value on health benefits and ingredient naturalness. Moreover, they are willing to pay higher prices for products having these attributes. The data also reveal that taste preferences tend to vary across consumers. Individual characteristics that tend to affect preferences include age, education, and income level. Past purchase behavior for functional foods, organic foods, and natural foods also has significant influence on preferences. The second essay uses the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical framework to understand the role of health claims in consumer assessment of products. Previous research and theory related to the role of health claims in persuasive messages has portrayed health claims as having little effect on consumers' attitudes. The present research, however, suggests this conclusion may be premature. A new conceptualization of the role of health claims in persuasion is proposed. Practical significance of the laboratory studies is discussed in light of recent changes in product design as well as changes in FDA rules regarding label claims. The third essay focuses on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s recently amended policy on food labeling. This policy allows different qualified levels of health claims on product labels, based on the strength of scientific evidence supporting the claims. This essay examines whether consumers understand and can differentiate be (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Neal Hooker (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This dissertation aims to provide answers to some of issues in dichotomous choice contingent valuation: the temporal structure of willingness to pay, practical guideline for survey design and generalized estimation method. The first essay proposes the temporal willingness to pay (TWTP) as an alternative definition of the present value of willingness to pay. In the survey of contingent valuation, a respondent compares TWTP with the present value of randomly assigned cost. TWTP enables the test for consistency of respondent's valuation with respect to payment schemes. Using a sequential test, the insensitivity of TWTP is tested on the data of oyster reef restoration programs in the Chesapeake Bay. The test result shows that TWTP is insensitive to the offered payment schedule or on the length of the stream of benefits of the project, which implies consistent willingness to pay for the environmental project. However, discount rates estimated from the data vary significantly across project lengths and time span between offered payment schedules. The second essay suggests a practical alternative design named a uniform design, to existing optimal or robust bid designs in contingent valuation. The uniform design draws cost assigned to respondent from a predetermined uniform distribution. Analytics and simulations show that the uniform design has lower bound of efficiency at 84 percent of D-optimum. Simulations demonstrate that the uniform design outperforms optimal designs when initial information is poor and outperforms robust designs when true values of parameters are known. The third essay challenges the theoretical and technical background of the simple logit model. Standard logit model in contingent valuation assumes i.i.d error distribution between initial and proposed states. Relaxing the restrictive assumption in the simple logit model requires a generalized estimation technique that utilizes a Gumbel mixed model. Estimation results show that correlation between two (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Haab (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

After the creation of the Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), in the beginning of the 1990s, new free trade agreements began to be debated between Mercosur and other countries. Traditional trade theory predicts that trade liberalization reallocates resources according to comparative advantage, reduces waste, and lowers the price of imported goods in a more transparent economic regime, with less lobbying activities, and exports not only grow rapidly, but also become more diversified. Most economists also share that open countries fare better in the long run than do closed ones, but the short run impacts from trade liberalization can harm the poor. Since Brazil is one of the countries with larger inequality in the distribution of income, with high levels of poverty and regional differences, this study takes these concerns seriously by assessing the economic impacts of a reduction in import tariffs on poverty and distribution of income, identifying a combined policy that can reduce possible negative impacts from trade reform on the poor, through a single-country multi-regional computable general equilibrium model (CGE) applied to Brazil. The main findings show that poverty and regional income inequality can be reduced through combined trade and tax policies. In recent years, countries like Argentina and Brazil have experienced many different economic crises due to their own domestic instabilities, which have contributed to delayed market opening in these countries, and have threatened the evolution of new trade agreements. This study also emphasizes the lack of macroeconomic policy coordination between Mercosur and the Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA) countries, notably the exchange rate policy through the impact of real bilateral exchange rate volatility on trade. Therefore, a sectoral gravity model is estimated to evaluate not only the role played by the lack of macroeconomic policy coordination, but also to better evaluate the patterns of trade in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donald Larson (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

This study investigates the cost and potential of carbon sequestration in agricultural soil in the Midwest U.S. Previous economic studies ignored several important features such as the range of residue management intensity, dynamic soil carbon properties, cyclical crop rotation patterns, alternatives on the baseline scenarios, and spatial pattern of carbon gains. Developing the empirical dynamic model that maximizes the net present value of market welfare on corn and soybean, two different carbon programs are applied: carbon renting program and fixed payment per hectare with minimum residue intensity. Several empirical estimations are employed to obtain parameters for the dynamic model, in particular, residue management impacts on crop yield and carbon dynamics. The crop yield loss by conservation practice is greater in high quality soil than the low quality class. Sensitivity analysis on different baseline scenario suggests that carbon sequestration path could be altered by different assumptions. It suggests that the estimates of the carbon gains from any carbon policy would be sensitive by how baseline scenario is assumed. In general, the adoption rate of conservation practice is higher in soybean and low quality soil classes than in corn and high quality soil classes. Carbon renting analysis shows that corn price could rise and soybean price could decrease, but the magnitude is not immense. Overall, the average cost of carbon sequestration is the lowest with carbon renting policy and the highest with fixed payment per hectare with low minimum residue management requirement. The average cost rages from $0.06 to $4.50 per ton with carbon renting scenario. With fixed payment scenario, the average cost rises to $40-$613 per ton with 35 % residue management and $18-$304 per ton with 75% requirement. The area with high yield potential does not necessarily provide the carbon gains because the residue management intensity is minimal at 35 %. The source of carbon gains in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brent Sohngen (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural