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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Agricultural and Resource Economics'
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1
Swartz, Alexander Ogden. "SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS." UKnowledge, 2019. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/77.
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According to the USDA Economic Research service, farm-level prices are on the decline. This decline in prices particularly hurts smaller scale operators with many needing to rely on off-farm income in order to ensure they remain in operation. This thesis studies two problems of key interest to the Southeast region and the State of Kentucky by investigating dairy management practices and the environmental benefits of hemp production. As dairy prices have been on the decline and dairy co-ops have tightened their restrictions on somatic cell count (SCC) levels, dairy farmers and farm managers must decide the best course of action for maintaining milk quality in order to maintain their contract and profitability. Maintenance decisions as well as factors like sanitation and animal living conditions can all contribute to bulk tank SCC and depending on the type of incentives or penalties instituted by the co-op they can have an impact on net farm income. The objective of the dairy study is to determine which dairy management practices have the largest impact on SCC levels.
Industrial hemp is produced worldwide. Historically, the major producers of hemp have been China, Europe, and Russia. In 2014, the passage of the Farm Bill opened the door to the production of Industrial hemp through the development of state pilot programs. Then the 2018 Farm Bill removed industrial hemp from the Scheduled Drug list. This has further expanded the opportunities and excitement for this crop. The plant’s versatility and the variety of products that can be made from it are coming to light. Sustainability is one of the key attributes touted concerning industrial hemp. Specifically, in the state of Kentucky, it is expected to be a replacement for tobacco and other traditional crops. However, how does the crop compare to tobacco production in terms of sustainability? The objective of the hemp study is to develop a life cycle analysis on the planting and harvesting of hemp and compare its impacts to more traditional crops.
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Baye, Menjo Francis. "Coffee pricing and resource utilization in Cameroon." Thesis, University of Reading, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302986.
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Brady, Michael Patrick. "Three essays on decision-making in natural resource economics." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1190065935.
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Mohamed, Mohammed Abdel-Wahed. "Resource allocation on Egyptian state farms : a linear programming application." Thesis, Keele University, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.314639.
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Manning, Peter Robert. "Managing Namibia's marine fisheries : optimal resource use and national development objectives." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1998. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2639/.
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Prior to independence, Namibia's marine fisheries had suffered over-fishing, typical of open access exploitation of a common pool resource where there is excess demand. The Namibian Government's policy objectives seek optimal sustainable use of Namibia's fisheries resources and a substantial increase for Namibians of benefit from these resources. In assessing the appropriateness of Namibia's fisheries management system for meeting these objectives, state involvement in the management of the resource is considered, the biological and ecological constraints of the resource are examined and the degree to which national management of fisheries is nested in a global system of fisheries governance is defined. Empirical evidence establishes the critical importance of successfully managing these resources through environmental shocks and the importance for the industry of sufficient economic flexibility, often hindered by overcapacity, to cope with those shocks. Even at low, sub-optimal biomass levels, evidence suggests that substantial resource rent accrues to industry as abnormal profit, or finances overcapacity. Government attempts to redistribute benefit from the resource have been only partly successful. These findings establish the importance of state intervention to ensure that capacity is reduced as close as possible to a bio-economic optimal level, thus maximising resource rent. Collection by the state of a larger proportion of available resource rent would make it less possible for abnormal profits to be earned and make rent less available for financing over-capacity. The additional state finance, representing benefit from the resource, could be directed by the state towards more effective usage in the development process. The management of Namibia's marine fisheries will best be achieved by working towards a system of co-management between the state and industry, providing a framework for nested institutions tailored to the conditions of each fishery, in a joint endeavour to generate a socially optimal use of the resource.
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Mahumani, Brian Kudzai. "The rural and agricultural value of groundwater as an economic resource in the Limpopo region." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/3026.
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Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.This thesis constitutes a socio-economic study that centres on determining the economic value of groundwater in rural and agricultural uses. Limpopo Water Management Area (WMA1) and Luvuvhu/Letaba Water Management Area (WMA2) were studied in this thesis. In WMA1 table potato irrigation in the Polokwane agricultural area was studied, while Gaphago, Leokaneng, Kanana and Mohlajeng villages were studied for rural household groundwater use. In WMA2 tomato irrigation in the Mooketsi agricultural area was studied, while Lemondokop, Sereni and Hamashamba villages were studied for rural household groundwater use. Scoping field trips to the study area as well as secondary data revealed that groundwater was the dominant water source in all these selected study epicentres. In the Polokwane agricultural area, the farms typically relied on numerous boreholes. In the Mooketsi commercial farming area, groundwater was the dominant water source for most years, except when flush floods replenished farm dams. When flush floods occurred, farmers partially substituted surface water for groundwater because of economic reasons. This study determined the economic value of groundwater in two use sectors. First, determining the utility value of groundwater in selected rural households using the contingent valuation method. Utility value was defined by Dupuit (1844) and Marshall (1879) as the maximum sacrifice expressed in money terms which each consumer would be willing to make in order to acquire an object. Open-ended questions were used to determine willingness to pay during contingent household groundwater valuation. The overall mean willingness to pay for satisfactory household groundwater for the study area was R2.28 per kilolitre of groundwater.
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Tennity, Colleen. "A conjoint analysis study of perceived demand in central Ohio for specific agricultural natural resource conservation practices." The Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1413460775.
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Karuho, Onesphore. "Impact of the Zambian Agricultural Policy on Grain Trade." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4457.
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The agricultural sector in Zambia is supported through the government use of public expenditure programs to spur the production and subsidize the consumption of key grains to stabilize prices. Previous research has documented the effects of public spending on agriculture in terms of food prices and food security. The effects of government spending on the trade of key grains, however, is not well understood. As such, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the impact of agricultural policy on the agricultural trade. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Zambian agricultural policy on grain trade. A combination of 2 trust-based theories formed the theoretical foundation of this study. These theories included ecology of games theory and Kingdon's garbage-can model. Secondary data were acquired from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database and Michigan State University. A vector autoregression analysis of time-series data covering a 10-year period from 2003 to 2012 showed that grain quantities purchased by the Food Reserve Agency significantly impacted grain trade (p = 0.000), whereas the Farmer Input Subsidy Program did not significantly impact grain trade (p = 0.843). However, the combined effect of these 2 policy instruments was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.000). The key finding of this study is that for every 1 metric ton purchased by the Food Reserve Agency, grain trade increases by 0.342 metric tons; whereas for every 1 Kwacha spent on Farmer Input Subsidy Program, grain trade decreases by 0.187 metric tons. Positive social change may be achieved through recommendations to policy makers to increase appropriations to postharvest management and extension to increase tradable volumes and farmers' income.
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Dickson, M. Nyariki. "Resource availability and productivity, farmer efficiency and household food security in semi-arid Kenya." Thesis, University of Reading, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.363696.
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Conley, John D. "FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN KENTUCKY COUNTIES." UKnowledge, 2012. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/3.
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There is a broad literature on the finance-growth nexus in the macroeconomics literature. Is there evidence for the finance-growth nexus at the sub-national region? If so, can macroeconomic finance and growth methods be extended to sub-national regions? Joseph Schumpeter argued that banks promote economic growth by choosing which projects to fund, by mobilizing underutilized capital, by managing risk and by monitoring managers.
This dissertation proposes a modified Martin and Ottaviano (2001) model that allows for borrowing to form new firms or to expand existing firms. The model shows that if borrowing across regional lines is costly, above and beyond the normal interest rate, that new firm formation will tend to agglomerate in the more financially developed region.
With this theory in hand, the dissertation goes on to test the effects of bank deposits on earned income in Kentucky counties. Using equation-by-equation and simultaneous equations panel data methods, this dissertation shows that there is a strong correlation between the size of the bank deposits in a county and income growth. Since Kentucky counties are small and economically interconnected, spatial autocorrelation tests are applied with the result that there are pockets within Kentucky where incomes are spatially correlated. Spatial panel estimates are then conducted to correct for spatial autocorrelation. These results show a strong correlation between deposits and income growth.
This dissertation contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it proposes a model that ties endogenous growth, the New Economic Geography and the finance-growth nexus together in a Neo-Schumpeterian context. Second, it gives evidence for the finance-growth nexus in Kentucky counties under methods similar to those used in macroeconomics. Third, the dissertation suggests a way forward in performing future analysis of the finance-growth nexus in a sub-national context.
Overall, this dissertation finds evidence to support the hypothesis that the size of the banking industry in a given county positively influences earned income growth. There is also evidence that having a large banking industry in a neighboring county has a positive spillover effect on earned income. Further estimates to control for endogeneity find evidence that the effect of deposits on income growth is stronger than the effect of income growth on deposits.
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Chvosta, Jan. "The Economic Effects of Federal Peanut Policy: The 1996 FAIR Act, the 2001 Farm Security Act, and the Federal Crop Insurance Program." NCSU, 2002. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07222002-001808/.
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Government programs that restrict production and increase prices to particular groups of producers have a long history in the United States. The purpose of this research is to analyze the implications of such a program for peanuts in three independent essays. The first essay focuses on the development of a model of the effects of cross-county transfers on peanut quota after the 1996 farm bill. Using a spatial linear regression model, the hypothesis that the lifting of transfer restrictions tends to equilibrate lease rates across counties is tested. The results indicate that, after the 1996 bill, peanut quota moved out of counties that under produce their quota to overproducing counties, indirectly indicating a tendency for lease rates to equalize. The second essay studies the most recent changes to the peanut program, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2002, and reviews important events that led to these changes. Several models are developed that analyze the costs and benefits of the revised program in domestic and foreign markets. It is concluded that farmers in most peanut producing states will incur losses due to the peanut program changes, with the exception of Texas and Florida. The impact of the transformation on the world price of edible peanuts is analyzed and shown to be theoretically ambiguous-- the world price could either increase or decrease depending on demand and supply elasticities. The essay explores numerically the influence of the relevant elasticities. The third essay reviews the U.S. federal crop insurance program and investigates its interaction with the peanut program. A model of a risk neutral profit maximizing farmer is developed and comparative static results are derived. The results show that in equilibrium peanut quota lease rates do not represent the full difference between the support price and world price and are affected by the cost of crop insurance.
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Wu, Wenjun, and Wenjun Wu. "Intergenerational Co-residence and Gender Attitudes in East Asia." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621129.
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Gender equality had long been discussed and studied. Besides education and the influence from society, the family is the closest and most important place in which people form and change their views and values about the gender issue. Are old values more likely to be passed on in families in which several generations live together? We found interesting results here. East Asia has a relatively high level of economic growth; however, the gender equality status is still not satisfying. China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan share highly similar cultural backgrounds. Additionally, they all underwent rapid development after World War II. Most importantly, they share a tradition of several generations living together. By studying the impact of co-residence on gender attitudes in families in those four societies, the impact of co-residence is carefully examined.
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Boore, Danny L. "The Impact of Twelve-Mile Canyon Mudslides on Downstream Water Users in Sanpete County, Utah." DigitalCommons@USU, 1986. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4069.
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of major landslides during 1983-84 in Twelve-Mile Canyon, Sanpete County, Utah on agricultural water users in the Gunnison Irrigation System. Sediment content and stream flow data were gathered from Twelve-Mile Creek during the irrigation season of 1984. This information was used to estimate the sediment load of Twelve-Mile Creek and to compare historical averages . A survey of Gunnison Irrigation System Water Users was conducted to obtain information defining the damage and production losses caused by an increase in sediment carried by irrigation water. This information was tabulated and used as a basis for calculating the cost of mudslides . Alternatives for mitigating the impacts of the landslides were explored and evaluated. Recommendations were presented to lessen the economic loss suffered by Gunnison Valley farmers. Damages were estimated to be over three million dollars annually. Construction of sediment basins and alteration in specific management prac tices offered the potential to reduce damage and loss by nearly one third.
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Gong, Sheng. "Essays on conservation adoption and discrete choice modeling." Diss., Kansas State University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/32785.
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Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Agricultural Economics
Jason S. Bergtold
This dissertation examines advances in applied discrete choice econometrics in applied settings and conservation practice adoptions by Kansas farmers. The research contributes to the literature by examining the use of discrete choice models to more deeply examine adoption of conservation practices and the choice of crop rotations in Kansas. In addition, a method for examining the proper functional specification of logistic regression models is explored. The first essay aims to examine landscape, climatic, socio-economic and farm factors affecting choice of crop rotations by farm managers in dryland cropping systems. A particular emphasis is place on the role, insurance products (such as RA-CRC (Revenue Assurance/Crop Revenue Coverage) and ACRE (Average Crop Revenue Election)), as well as marketing options, and characteristics of farming operations. This paper models the joint adoption of crop rotations using a multinomial modeling framework which is used to estimate the probabilities of adopting different crop rotations. The data used for this paper was obtained from a mail survey in 2011 examining Kansas farmers’ land use decisions and consisted of an eight-page survey with 46 questions, leading to more than 400 distinct variables. The purpose of the second essay is to examine and analyze the adoption of conservation practices, no-till, cover crops and use of crediting of nutrients from manure, by Kansas farmers from both a joint and conditional perspective. This study develops a modeling framework that can analyze conditional adoption and examine farmers’ joint and conditional adoption decisions. Estimates calculated from the model will allow for an assessment of the linkages between the adoption of different conservation practices, as well as the socio-economic factors that affect the likelihood of adopting conservation practices given other conservation practices have already been adopted on-farm. The third essay aims to develop a robust test to examine the functional form of predictor/ index function in the logistic regression models as misspecified models can lead to biased and inconsistent estimates, and consequently inappropriate inferences. An Orthogonal Polynomial RESET test is developed to assess proper functional form for different functional form assumptions of the predictor/ index function, as well as provide guidance on the use of the test in applied logistic regression modeling. Monte Carlo Simulations are used to assess the viability of the test and compare it to similar tests found in the literature.
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Avery, Christopher S. "Weather Derivatives as Crop Insurance in Iowa." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613516.
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Crop insurance has been used by farmers to reduce yield loss risk. In this thesis we explore the plausibility of using weather derivative products to hedge against temperature induced corn yield losses. The ultimate goal is to explore relationships between weather and yield in order to hedge yield risk with exchange traded weather derivatives. This paper sets up the groundwork for these strategies by determining the weather relationships to annual yield and variability of yields using log-linear models. We find significant links among corn, soybeans, and hay yields in Iowa and weather variables such that using temperature based weather derivatives to hedge against yield loss is economically viable.
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Meindertsma, Jan Douwe. "Income diversity, technology and farming systems : modelling of resource poor farming households in Lombok, Indonesia." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.389358.
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Henfrey, Thomas B. "Ethnoecology, resource use, conservation and development in a Wapishana community in the South Rupununi, Guyana." Thesis, University of Kent, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.274369.
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Passewitz, Gregory R. "Social Exchange Theory and Volunteer Organizations: Patterns of Participation in Four Environmental/Natural Resource Organizations." The Ohio State University, 1991. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392653996.
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Bosley, Hugh Patrick. "Levels of Burnout and Job Satisfaction in Large-Scale Agribusiness." TopSCHOLAR®, 2004. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1106.
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LEVELS OF BURNOUT AND JOB SATISFACTION IN LARGE-SCALE AGRIBUSINESS Hugh Patrick Bosley August, 2004 39 pages Directed by: Richard Miller, Reagan Brown, and Steve Haggbloom Department of Psychology Western Kentucky University Abstract This research examined organizational sources and levels of Burnout and Job Satisfaction of a large scale agribusiness (n=300) by administering the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey, the Hoppock Job Satisfaction Blank, the Areas of Work Life Survey, and demographic questions. This study provided normative sample data for the agribusiness sector, found a good degree of fit between the agribusiness sample data and existing industry norms, and determined the relationships between burnout and job satisfaction for the agribusiness sector followed known patterns of other industries. Recommendations are made for future normative research to be conducted on a larger and more diverse sample size, in order to better draw conclusions for the industry as a whole.
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Naude, Stephanus David. "Application of spatial resource data to assist in farmland valuation." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/18118.
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Thesis (MScAgric) -- Stellenbosch University, 2011.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In South Africa more than 80 percent of the total land area is used for agriculture and subsistence livelihoods. A land transaction is generally not a recurring action for most buyers and sellers, their experience and knowledge are limited, for this reason the services of property agents and valuers are sometimes used, just to get more information available. The condition of insufficient information and the inability to observe differences in land productivity gives rise to the undervaluation of good land and overvaluation of poor land. The value of a property plays an important role in the acquisition of a bond, in this context farm valuations are essential and therefore commercial banks make more use of specialist businesses that have professional valuers available. The advent of the Internet made access to comprehensive information sources easier for property agents and valuers whose critical time and resources can now be effectively managed through Geographic Information System (GIS) integrated workflow processes. This study aims to develop the blueprint for a farm valuation support system (FVSS) that assists valuers in their application of the comparable sales method by enabling them to do the following: (1) Rapid identification of the location of the subject property and transaction properties on an electronic map. (2) Comparison of the subject property with the transaction properties in terms of value contributing attributes that can be expressed in a spatial format, mainly a) location and b) land resource quality factors not considered in existing valuation systems that primarily focus on residential property. Interpretation of soil characteristics to determine the suitability of a soil for annual or perennial crops requires specialized knowledge of soil scientists, knowledge not normally found among property valuers or estate agents. For this reason an algorithm, that generates an index value, was developed to allow easy comparison of the land of a subject property and that of transaction properties. Whether this index value reflects the soil suitability of different areas sufficiently accurate was confirmed by soil suitability data of the Breede and Berg River areas, which were obtained by soil scientists by means of a reconnaissance soil survey. This index value distinguishes the proposed FVSS from other existing property valuation systems and can therefore be used by valuers as a first approximation of a property’s soil suitability, before doing further field work. A nationwide survey was done among valuers and estate agents that provided information for the design of the proposed FVSS and proved that the need for such a system does exist and that it will be used by valuers.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Meer as 80 persent van die totale grondoppervlakte in Suid-Afrika word gebruik vir landbou en bestaansboerdery. 'n Grondtransaksie is oor die algemeen nie 'n herhalende aksie vir die meeste kopers en verkopers nie, hul ervaring en kennis is beperk, om hierdie rede word die dienste van eiendomsagente en waardeerders soms gebruik om meer inligting beskikbaar te kry. Die toestand van onvoldoende inligting en die onvermoë om verskille in grondproduktiwiteit te identifiseer gee aanleiding tot die onderwaardering van goeie grond en oorwaardering van swak grond. Die waarde van 'n eiendom speel 'n belangrike rol in die verkryging van 'n verband. In hierdie konteks is plaaswaardasies noodsaaklik en daarom maak kommersiële banke meer gebruik van gespesialiseerde maatskappye wat oor professionele waardeerders beskik. Die koms van die Internet het toegang tot omvattende inligtingsbronne makliker gemaak vir eiendomsagente en waardeerders wie se kritiese tyd en hulpbronne nou effektief bestuur kan word deur middel van Geografiese Inligtingstelsel (GIS) geïntegreerde werksprosesse. Hierdie studie poog om die bloudruk vir 'n plaaswaardasie ondersteuningstelsel te ontwikkel wat waardeerders sal help in hul toepassing van die vergelykbare verkope metode deur hul in staat te stel om die volgende te doen: (1) Vinnige identifisering van die ligging van die betrokke onderwerp eiendom en transaksie eiendomme op 'n elektroniese kaart. (2) Vergelyking van die onderwerp eiendom met transaksie eiendomme in terme van waardedraende eienskappe wat in 'n ruimtelike formaat uitgedruk word, hoofsaaklik a) ligging en b) bodem gehaltefaktore wat nie oorweeg word in bestaande residensieel georiënteerde waardasiestelsels nie. Interpretasie van grondeienskappe om die geskiktheid van grond vir eenjarige of meerjarige gewasse te bepaal vereis gespesialiseerde kennis van grondkundiges, kennis wat nie normaalweg gevind word onder eiendomswaardeerders of eiendomsagente nie. Om hierdie rede is 'n algoritme ontwikkel sodat die grond van ‘n onderwerp eiendom d.m.v. ‘n indekswaarde met transaksie eiendomme vergelyk kan word. Die indekswaarde is akkuraat genoeg bevestig toe dit vergelyk is met grond geskiktheidsdata wat deur grondkundiges in die Breede- en Bergrivier gebiede ingesamel is. Hierdie indekswaarde onderskei die voorgestelde plaaswaardasie ondersteuningstelsel van ander bestaande eiendom waardasiestelsels en kan dus deur waardeerders gebruik word as 'n eerste bepaling van 'n eiendom se grond geskiktheid, voordat verdere veldwerk gedoen word. 'n Landwye opname is gedoen onder waardeerders en eiendomsagente wat inligting voorsien het vir die ontwerp van die voorgestelde plaaswaardasie ondersteuningstelsel, asook bewys gelewer het dat daar ‘n behoefte aan so 'n stelsel bestaan en dat dit deur waardeerders gebruik sal word.
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Erickson, Jake. "Nutritional and Economic Analysis of Small-Scale Agriculture in Imbaburra, Ecuador." DigitalCommons@USU, 2013. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1468.
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Nutritional and Economic Analysis of Small-Scale Agriculture in Imbabura, Ecuador Intervention projects in the developing world normally aim to satisfy either the nutritional needs of a group, or advancing the economic stability, but not both. One of the many issues that may arise by narrowly focusing and creating an aid program is that although a group may be fed, they are not equipped to mitigate risks that will arise after project completion and thus continue or revert back to a malnourished state. A bridge is required to join the economic and nutritional programs to create aid interventions that are sustainable past the point of donor separation.
This paper proposes the creation of a linear program model to assess the effectiveness and sustainability of such intervention programs.
Investigating the effects of merging economic and nutrition interventions as pursued in this report required the first step to be the creation of economic information for a typical small-scale farm. The region of Cochas, Imbabura, Ecuador was selected as the study area in which data would be collected for a representative sample of production and living circumstances of a poor, rural, and small-scale farmer.
A comprehensive set of estimated cost and return (enterprise) budgets for small-scale agricultural crops that could be grown by the representative farm family used in this analysis was developed. This was accomplished via data collected in rural Ecuador by Jake Erickson, a Master's student in the department of Applied Economics at Utah State University. Of the supervisory committee, daily interaction occurred with Dr. DeeVon Bailey, project supervisor, and Dr. Ruby Ward, linear program specialist, whom were crucial in project completion. Various scenarios of the linear program were run with variations to the selection of nutritional requirements, off-farm income, and allowing food purchases off the family farm. Each of these scenarios was pursued as they mimic circumstances in which families may struggle to exist within the developing world. The results of each run are compared across the set of results to help understand what assumptions need to exist to validate an intervention's approach to improving the standard of living or nutrition of the world's poor, rural, small-scale farmers.
This model is a preliminary attempt at assessing the sustainability of merging common intervention approaches and it should be recognized that further development is needed to create a more encompassing model. Utilizing enterprise budgets, a linear programming model, and nutritional information, such as is done in this study, can help in planning rural development interventions as the income maximization and least-cost diet models are integrated into one within the resource and management constraints of the representative small-scale farm.
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Ouellette, Kayla. "Agriculture, Environmental Restoration and Ecosystem Services: Assessing the Costs of Water Storage on Agricultural Lands in South Florida." Scholar Commons, 2014. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5090.
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A large part of the environmental restoration required by the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan calls for more water-storage on lands south of Lake Okeechobee in order to restore the natural water flows of the Everglades watershed. The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) can be used for increased water storage in order to relieve coastal estuaries of excess water in the rainy season. This water storage can deliver additional ecosystem services of soil retention and reduced CO2 emissions that could compensate farmers for the cost of water storage by increasing long term farm profitability. The goals of this study were 1) to quantify the environmental and economic trade-offs of different water storage scenarios using water-tolerant sugarcane cultivars, and 2) to quantify the amount of water storage possible in the EAA under different water storage scenarios. A mathematical model was developed to calculate soil depth, soil subsidence, depth to the water table, sugarcane production, farm return, water storage and carbon loss for three different sugarcane cultivars with different water-tolerances. A GIS tool is also developed to estimate the amount of water storage possible in the EAA. The study found that even though water-tolerant sugarcane cultivars experience higher yields and net returns than non-water-tolerant cultivars the water storage costs with these water tolerant cultivars was greater. Raising water tables on farm lands did have the environmental benefits of reduced soil subsidence, extended farm life and increased years of water storage. However total CO2 emissions rise from 14 to 136%. Results of the GIS analysis revealed that water storage capacity for a DWT of 61 cm is 1,404,562 ac-ft, 1,417,400 ac-ft for DWT 45 cm and 1,474,692 ac-ft for DWT 20 cm. The GIS analysis was also able to identify flow ways that could possibly carry water south from Lake Okeechobee and ultimately to the WCAs south of the EAA. These results show that raising water tables in the EAA to deliver the ecosystem service of expanded water storage is overall more costly, but yearly costs are very low. Therefore water storage on farmlands is an affordable interim method of water storage.
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LaHorgue, Joseph. "Economics Impacts of Genetically Modified Organisms: An analysis of Bt Cotton in India." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2255.
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The emergence of genetically modified organisms has sparked a multi-faceted debate, covering issues related to human health, ethics, and the environment. Discussions of the economics of GMO adoption are highly politicized and are influenced by large corporations and non-governmental organizations. This study aims to provide insight into the economic impacts of genetically modified organisms on individual farmers of cotton in India. The first GMO to reach commercialization in India was Bt cotton in 2002, which led to significant increases in revenue and yield among smallholder farmers. Using survey data collected between 2003 and 2009, I examine the economic impacts of Bt cotton and explore macro level changes in the Indian economy.
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Meeusen, Karl M. "FORESTS, CARBON, AND BIOMASS ELECTRICITY GENERATION: TWO ESSAYS IN NATURAL RESOURCE ECONOMICS." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1316202710.
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Alia, Didier Y. "AGRICULTURAL INPUT INTENSIFICATION, PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF AFRICAN AGRICULTURE." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/59.
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This dissertation studies agricultural input intensification, defined as the increased use of modern inputs such as hybrid seeds, mineral fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide in African agriculture. It also analyses the potential of this intensification to accelerate productivity growth and tests the effectiveness of two policies, input subsidies and land reforms, in promoting it and consequently in increasing crop yield. In the first essay, we argue that to create the conditions for the emergence of a green revolution in Africa, modern agricultural technologies have to be adopted as a package, not in a piecemeal fashion. This argument is consistent with a conceptual framework that we develop to illustrate the importance of harnessing strategic complementarities among agricultural technologies by adopting them simultaneously rather than sequentially. Based on this framework, we propose a methodology to estimate an index to measure agricultural input intensification in its many dimensions. The index provides a simple and intuitive measure to quantify joint adoption of several inputs and compare it across plots, crops, farmers, and regions. Applying this methodology to maize producers in Burkina Faso and Tanzania, we show that our estimated index is a valid measure of joint input adoption and effectively captures the relative importance of each input as well as the number of different inputs adopted. Using the estimated index, we find that simultaneous adoption of modern inputs in Burkina Faso and Tanzania is limited but not rare. Most importantly, we find that the impact of the adoption of individual modern input on yield is increasing with the level of intensification for others.
In the subsequent two essays, we assess the effectiveness of government’s direct intervention through input subsidies and indirect intervention through land reforms in promoting agricultural input intensification and increasing productivity. Our empirical analyses focus on Burkina Faso, a country that has recently implemented a fertilizer subsidy program and is undertaking profound land reforms to improve land tenure security and land transferability among households. The second essay tests the hypothesis that subsidizing only one input might promote or discourage the use of other inputs. We find that fertilizer subsidy for maize farmers in Burkina Faso crowds in the use of hybrid seeds and crop protection chemicals, but discourages the use of manure. The last essay assesses whether the development of rural land rental markets can facilitate land transferability among farmers and increase input intensification and productivity. The findings suggest that land rental transfers land from less talented or committed farmers to the more able but have minimal impact on input intensification. However, our results show that land renters are more productive and better farm managers. These results suggest that the short-term gains from policies that foster the development of land rental markets in Burkina Faso, and more generally Africa, will likely be in term of efficiency rather than widespread adoption of modern agricultural technologies.
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Aljamal, Ali Darwish. "Institutional alternatives to resolve water and natural resource problems in Sierra Vista subwatershed." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288974.
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The San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area was designated by Congress in 1988 to preserve and enhance riparian resources of the perennial reach of the San Pedro River. The perennial flow is due to geological restrictions forcing groundwater to discharge to the stream. The Sierra Vista area lies above this perennial reach and fully depends on groundwater for its water needs. Consequent excessive pumping has resulted in a regional cone of depression and capture of streamflow water by groundwater wells. As a result, the streamflow has diminished by 50 to 66 percent, compared to pre-development conditions. In addition, the groundwater table within the floodplain alluvium has declined below the root zones of native species and is affecting the health of the riparian ecosystem. Studies have confirmed that continued groundwater overdraft in the area constitutes a long-term threat to the maintenance of the perennial flow and its riparian ecosystem. The effects now being felt by the river are the consequences of pumping years ago, because transit times in the regional aquifer are slow, averaging 23 feet per year. This study uses an institutional analysis and design framework to identify water and natural resources problems in the area, analyze the existing institutions and attribute problems to institutional deficiencies, and design three institutional alternatives to resolve these problems. The four problems identified in the area are depletion, externality, underinvestment, and maldistribution. The first alternative, which requires the least institutional change, is modeled after a newly-proposed Watershed Management Initiative and includes designating the area as Irrigation Non-expansion Area. The second alternative is a regulatory approach based upon establishing an Active Management Area similar to the Santa Cruz AMA. The third is a market approach based on sweeping statutory changes to recognize the hydraulic connection between ground and surface water to and enable the adoption of a conjunctive management strategy to protect the perennial flow and the sustained groundwater yield in the area. Only the conjunctive management strategy offers a long term solution to the area's problems. It is consistent with protecting public values in water and produces the maximum net benefits to all concerned.
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Brown, Rachael M. "Economic Optimization and Precision Agriculture: A Carbon Footprint Story." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/11.
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This thesis examines the economic and environmental impacts that precision agriculture technologies (PATs) can have on the carbon footprint of a grain farm. An analysis is offered using two manuscripts. The first examines the impacts of three PATs and compares the findings to a conventional farming method. It was found that all three PATs investigated showed a potential Pareto improvement over conventional farming. The second manuscript expanded the model used previously to in order to develop a process to construct a carbon efficient frontier (CEF). The model employed examined uniform and variable rate technologies. In addition to the CEF, a marginal abatement cost curve was constructed. Using these curves in a complementary fashion, more accurate information on the adaptive behavior of farmer technology adoption can be gleaned. the information gleaned for the two manuscripts can give both producers and policy makers the analytical tools needed to make more information decisions with regard to economic and environmental feasibility of PATs.
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Sheldon, Madeline C. "Agricultural Development in Nepal: Analyzing the Struggle to Modernize." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/303.
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Before leaving to study abroad in Kathmandu, I was excited to learn about Nepal’s agriculture industry. As one who focuses her studies on food politics, learning that Nepal is an agrarian country was very intriguing; Nepal is agrarian to such as extent that about 80% of its citizens gain their livelihood from farming, over 30% of the GDP derives from agriculture, and most people grow their own food. I expected to learn about the culture and strategy surrounding producing food in a different yet effective way.
For my final research project while in Nepal, I chose to investigate Nepal’s potato industry and how concurrent government agricultural policies play out in the field - literally. After months of gaining experience and research, my previous vision of sustainable agriculture and happy valleys was turned upside down.
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Geleta, Solomon. "Measuring Citizens' Preferences for Protecting Environmental Resources| Applications of Choice Experiment Surveys, Social Network Analysis and Deliberative Citizens' Juries." Thesis, Colorado State University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10262222.
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Many reasons have been suggested as explanation for observed differences in citizens' environmental conservation projects policy choices and willingness-to-pay (WTP) values. Some people attribute this distinctive decision behavior to contrasts in the overall policy outcome expectations (preference heterogeneity) and/or differences in reactions to the changes in the environmental attributes (response heterogeneity). Others attribute this to differences in individual choice rationales, personalities, encounters, and past and present experiences. In other words, regardless of the possibility that outcomes are the same, people do not have the same emotions, convictions, disposition, or motivations.
In three separate essays, I investigate the possible reasons for the observed differences in citizens' environmental conservation policy choices and examine how preference and response heterogeneity arise. In the first essay, I ask if a priori environmental damage perception is a source of heterogeneity affecting conservation option choice decisions. In the second, I investigate if social networks (interactions among decision-making agents) affect choice decisions. In the third, I investigate if preferences change when decision making agents are allowed to deliberate among peers.
For the first essay, I conducted an on-line choice experiment (CE) survey. The survey asked questions that help to measure citizen preference for protecting environmental public goods, ascertain the value local residents are willing-to-pay (WTP), and determine how preference heterogeneity arises. CE attributes included groundwater use (measured by share of total water use from groundwater), aquatic habitat (measured by count of spawning kokanee salmon return), natural habitat health (measured by the sensitive ecosystem area reclaimed), and rural character (measured by a decrease in urban sprawl and/or a decrease in population density in rural areas). I used a special property levy as the vehicle of payment. Random parameter logit (RP) and latent class (LC) models were estimated to capture response and preference heterogeneity. The results suggest that (1) both preference and response heterogeneities were found for the choices and all environmental attributes respectively (2) respondents who have a higher value for one environmental good will have a higher value for other environmental goods, and (3) a priori damage perception could be one of the sources of response and preference heterogeneity.
In the same survey, I included people's egocentric networks, interactions, environment related activities and perceptions to empirically evaluate whether social network effect (SNE) is a source of systematic differences in preference. I estimate consumer preferences for a hypothetical future environmental conservation management alternative described by its attributes within a Nested Logit Model: nesting broader and distinct conservation options within choices impacted by individual’s network structure. The results show that some network centrality measures capture preference heterogeneity, and consequently the differences in WTP values in a systematic way.
Third, I compare the value estimated based on the traditional choice experiment (CE) with the results obtained using the citizen jury (CJ) approach or a group-based approach or also called the "Market Stall" in some literature. I estimate the effect of deliberation on conservation choice outcomes by removing any significant differences between the people who participated in the CJ (people who volunteered to be contacted again after deliberation treatment) and those people who did the survey twice but did not volunteer for CJ (control group) in terms of their socioeconomic status and be able attribute the changes in preferences to deliberation treatment only. CJ approach involved two 90 minute deliberations held over two days to discuss and consider their preferences and WTP values with other household members. Results show that deliberation improves individuals' valuation process and there is observed difference in choice outcomes between the deliberation treatment and control groups. Both preference and response heterogeneity relatively vanish when people were allowed to deliberate among peers.
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Parvez, Md Rezwanul. "Essays on Land Conversion, Crop Acreage Response, and Land Conservation Benefits| Evidence from the Dakotas." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10641458.
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This research is composed of three essays. It highlights the driving factors of land conversion and crop acreage response focusing on North Dakota agriculture and estimates the benefits of conservation land measures at west central South Dakota watershed. The major questions that are addressed here are how and why agricultural producers decide among different land use choices, crop selection, and land conservation measures and how their decision vary over time? The first essay examines the long run land conversion trend interconnected with change in crop, oil, and ethanol prices, climate and renewable fuel policy mandates. Data are obtained from Cropland Data Layer from 1997 to 2015 period of National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) at the USDA. The first essay employs a Seemingly Unrelated Tobit Regression approach to better understand the connection between land conversion and crop prices, biofuel policies, biophysical environment. Key findings indicate land-use conversion from grassland to cropland is relatively higher across the ND counties.
The second essay is designed to investigate the relationship between crop acreage response and socio-economic and environmental drivers. We use prices for crude oil, planted acres of major crops (corn, wheat, soybean, hay) and prices from the period of 1990 to 2015. This essay focuses on corn acreage response due to crop prices, energy policies, climate and other socio-economic factors using a Fixed Effect parameter framework.
The final essay estimates environmental benefits due to adoption of conservation practices. In other words, it analyzes the economic and environmental benefits of implemented conservation practices at Bad River watershed in South Dakota using an integrated framework. For example, in an article in the Global Journal of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development (2016), a Benefit Cost Analysis model is utilized to assess soil conservation benefits and evaluate economic impacts of conservation measures at a watershed scale. The economic analysis includes estimation of benefit cost ratio, annual rate of return of conservation practices. Key findings suggest that benefit value of sediment reduction average $2.13 per ton expressed in constant (year = 2000) dollars and the ratio of benefits to costs is greater than 1.
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Shockley, Jordan Murphy. "WHOLE FARM MODELING OF PRECISION AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGIES." UKnowledge, 2010. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/105.
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This dissertation investigated farm management concerns faced by grain producers due to the acquisition of various precision agriculture technologies. The technologies evaluated in the three manuscripts included 1) auto-steer navigation, 2) automatic section control, and 3) autonomous machinery. Each manuscript utilized a multifaceted economic model in a whole-farm decision-making framework to determine the impact of precision agriculture technology on machinery management, production management, and risk management. This approach allowed for a thorough investigation into various precision agriculture technologies which helped address the relative dearth of economic studies of precision agriculture and farm management. Moreover, the research conducted on the above technologies provided a wide array of economic insight and information for researchers and developers to aid in the advancement of precision agriculture technologies. Such information included the risk management potential of auto-steer navigation and automatic section control, and the impact the technologies had on optimal production strategies. This dissertation was also able to provided information to guide engineers in the development of autonomous machinery by identifying critical characteristics and isolating the most influential operating machine. The inferences from this dissertation intend to be employed in an extension setting with the purpose of educating grain producers on the impacts of implementing such technologies.
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Lindquist, Cynthia Anne. "Dimensions of sustainability: The use of vara blanca as a natural resource in the tropical deciduous forest of Sonora, Mexico." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/284272.
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Croton fantzianus Seymour (Euphorbiaceae), is a structurally important tree in the tropical deciduous forest of the Municipality of Alamos in southern Sonora. It has become important as a non-timber forest product within the last thirty-five years, harvested for stakes (vara blanca ) for the agricultural fields in Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California. A study was carried out on ecology of the species, macroeconomics and household economics to determine sustainability of current patterns of use. During a study on the ecology of the tree the species was identified from specimens collected and found to be a disjunct population known previously from Nicaragua. It was determined that vegetative and reproductive phenologies are driven by water availability with responses along a water gradient varying among study sites. Rapid development of silver mining precipitated woodcutting for timber and fuel at unprecedented rates in the late 17th century. The original tropical deciduous forest was transformed to secondary forest by this extraction. Closure of the mines in the early 20th century began economic isolation of the Municipality that persists today. The economy of Alamos is depressed in response to national and state economy, people are under- or un-employed. Many cut vara blanca. Economic strategies in the Municipality include exploitation of non-timber forest products, the most important is vara blanca. There are three levels of organization for vara extraction: cutters, middlemen truckers, and large truckers. Income generated by each level is significantly larger than the daily minimum wage. Financial records indicate that nine of eleven respondents rely on the resource for all or part of their incomes. A study of the population ecology of the species indicates it is the most important component of the forest community at all study sites. Population structure and composition are variable and may be related to prior harvest history. Loss of reproductive capacity was recorded on a recently harvested area. The tree may be a successional species and does well in disturbed areas. Government records and informant interviews indicate intensification of extraction has depleted the population. It is questionable if extraction at recent rates can be sustained.
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Asgari, Mahdi. "THE IMPACT OF BIOFUEL POLICIES ON OVERSHOOTING OF AGRICULTURAL PRICES." UKnowledge, 2018. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/67.
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The Federal Reserve has increased nominal interest rates since early 2016. It is expected that commodity prices will drop in response to this monetary intervention. The overshooting hypothesis explains that commodity prices are more flexible than manufacturing prices and therefore are more volatile. In this situation, it is expected that agricultural commodities decline significantly (i.e., overshoot) and gradually return to their long-run equilibrium. This adjustment behavior has implications for income stability and financial viability of farmers.
This research contributes to the overshooting literature by including the energy sector in the overshooting model. The interlinks between energy and other sectors in the economy as well as the vast resource allocation to biofuel production in recent decades demand more attention to the impact of energy on the dynamic adjustment path of relative prices’ reaction to monetary shocks. We assume energy prices have independent adjustment path and include the links between the energy and agricultural sectors through biofuel production in our model. Our theoretical model shows that by including energy prices in the model, agricultural prices and the exchange rate overshoot less than the prediction of prior studies. This happens because we expect that flexible energy prices share the burden of the shock with other flexible prices in the model. We also describe how an increasing share of biofuels in the total fuel consumption will reduce the flexibility of energy prices.
In our empirical analysis, we use monthly data from January 1975 to December 2017 for three producer price indexes (i.e., agricultural commodities, energy, and industrial goods), exchange rates, and money supply to test the overshooting hypothesis. We found the series to be nonstationary and cointegrated of the order one, I(1). Thus, we estimated a vector error correction model to identify the short run adjustment parameters while maintaining the long-run relationships between the variables. We identify and control for three possible structural breaks in the data that coincide with two economic crises and the biofuel production era. We also estimated the empirical model using a sub-sample from January 1975 to March 1999 and compared the results with the findings in previous studies.
Our empirical results confirm the theoretical expectation that agricultural commodities adjust faster than manufacturing prices. The analysis of the impulse response functions shows that after a money supply shock, agricultural prices were the most responsive, followed by energy prices and exchange rates. In both full sample and the sub-sample, the volatility of prices and exchange rates happen during the first 5 to 10 months. The sluggish adjustment of manufacturing prices was evident from the corresponding impulse response functions.
The empirical evidence rejects the long-run money neutrality, consistent with the findings of previous empirical studies. Compared to previous models, our empirical model shows that including energy prices will reduce the extent to which agricultural commodities overshoot. Therefore we expect the disturbances to the farm income variability, in response to monetary policy, to be less than what prior model would have estimated. In this regard, energy prices are a stabilizing factor in this model. We find that increased share of biofuel from total fuel consumption would positively affect the overshooting of agricultural prices. So, higher biofuel mandates could reduce the flexibility of the energy prices and therefore have an adverse effect on the farm price stability.
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Bukechiem, Abrayyik Abdelaziz. "The management of resource use in semi-arid lands : a case study of agricultural development in Jebel El Akhdar region, North East Libya." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/499.
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This thesis is an in-depth case study in agricultural resource management for semi-arid regions based on primary data for 120 farms gathered in the three farming areas of the Jebel El Akhdar region of north-east Libya and on secondary data for the physical environment. The research analyses the impact of agricultural development on farm structure in the study area. Social and economic change is evaluated with a view to the resolution of long-standing regional problems of the physical and human limitations on the progress of agricultural development. This study provides an overview of resource management together with a geographical treatment of physical landscape and social resources. Thus it provides an integrated review of the rural resource system. It isolates potential and actual conflicts between resources in farming with the help of detailed case studies by comparing two types of farming systems according to development policy. Modern farms, either rainfed or irrigated, are developed with intermediate technology, and are very different from small traditional irrigated farms. The study also addresses a number of questions concerning the agricultural' policy bias towards new modern farming methods . It is shown that the use of capital intensive technology of government projects severely affects land potential in the long term. All in all, the state has played a dominant role in developing and changing the farm structure in Libya. Increasing oil revenues have made available massive funds for economic and social development programmes and facilitated certain changes in agricultural land use. Arable land has experienced and continues to experience rapid expansion and in many cases this growth has outpaced the planning process, reducing its effectiveness to control vertical expansion and creating serious problems of physical resource management and social adaptation. This study highlights the major problems facing Libyan agriculture in terms of farm and resources management conflict and development policies.
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Hassan, Refaat Abdel-Salam. "Economic efficiency of the use of agricultural resources." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.293315.
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Mann, Gregory. "California's Water Problems: How A Desert Region Gets Enough Water To Survive." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/543.
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The issue of gaining access to enough water in California has shaped how the state has developed and it has been one of the most important and divisive political issues for all of its residents. In a state where “75 percent of the demand for water originates south of Sacramento, although 75 percent of water supply in the state comes from north of the capital city,” the decision of who should get access to the limited supply of water is fiercely contested between opposing parties who all feel that they have a right to the water necessary to keep them alive. But with the amount of useable water slowly declining and an ever-growing population with greater demand for water, there is no easy compromise or solution that solves the problem of how water should be distributed.
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Seok, Jun Ho. "THREE ESSAYS ON FOOD SAFETY REGULATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS." UKnowledge, 2017. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/60.
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This dissertation investigates food safety regulations and international trade of agricultural products dividing into three aspects: the signalling effect from U.S. strict food safety regulations on U.S. vegetable exports, political determinants of sanitary and photosanitary non-tariff barriers, and the impact of trade barriers on employment in developing countries. In chapter 2, we investigate the impact of high U.S. maximum residue limit (MRL) standards on U.S vegetable exports to 102 countries utilizing the hierarchical model. MRL, which is one of non-tariff barriers with respect to food safety, is applied to home and foreign countries at the same time. Thus, firms in countries with higher food safety standards are expected to have a competitive advantage from the ‘signalling effect’. The results show that high MRL standards in the U.S. have a positive impact on U.S. vegetable exports, indicating the ‘signalling effect’ from the strict U.S. domestic MRL standards. The results provide policy makers with insights into how strict food safety regulations of the home country can be considered as a catalyst for increasing competitiveness in international markets.
In chapter 3, we examine the political determinants of SPS notifications using a nonlinear threshold model with possible threshold variables (GDP per capita and tariff rate). This article finds no threshold values in both variables of GDP per capita and tariff rate. Our results also show that GDP per capita has a positive relationship with SPS notifications that are one of proxy variables for food quality. That implies the importance of quality competition in agriculture and food sectors. Our finding also represents no significant effect of tariff on SPS notifications. This indicates that a law of constant protection, presenting an inverse relationship between tariff and non-tariff barriers, is not satisfied in the agricultural and food sectors.
In chapter 4, we investigate the impact of tariff and SPS barriers on food manufacturers’ skilled and unskilled employment in developing countries utilizing a structural equation model. Results show that both tariff and SPS barriers have a positive effect on unskilled labor employment in developing countries, while trade barriers are not associated with skilled labor employment. This implies that Hecksher-Ohlin theory, presenting labor abundant countries have a comparative advantage in labor-intensive industries such as food, explains well our results since developing countries are abundant in low-skilled labor. We also find that the age of food firm in developing countries is positively related to skilled employment; however, no relationship with unskilled employment. This implies that older food firms change their production process from labor intensive to capital or machine intensive.
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Schnier, Kurt E. "Economic analysis of spatially heterogeneous resources: The case of the fishery." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280326.
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This dissertation investigates the implication of combining economic and ecological models in an effort to expand our knowledge of the complex problems associated with resource management. The motivation for this research arises from the perceived need to develop a better understanding of how the flow dynamics within a resource affect the efficient management of that resource. Following the introduction, the second chapter experimentally tests the theoretical models of agent behavior in patchy resource environments under both sole-ownership and competitive extraction regimes. In each setting experimental results indicate that subjects over-allocate vessels to regions that possess the greatest rates of emigration within the bioeconomic system relative to the theoretical predictions. This introduces a "spatial externality" because over-harvesting in one region reduces the harvest in the surrounding regions. The third chapter proposes a potential solution to the problems associated with a spatial externality by analyzing the use of marine reserves in the presence of a heterogeneously distributed resource. This is conducted by introducing the presence of biological "hot spots" (areas within a fishery that possess a larger growth potential than the surrounding areas) with spatial rates of migration into the current economic theory. Simulation results indicate that the presence of biological hot spots within a fishery creates an environment within which it is optimal to establish a marine reserve that increases the value of the fishery. The fourth chapter makes use of my earlier experimental and simulation research, which indicate that locational choice and the spatial distribution of effort should affect the management of the fishery. Within this chapter a spatial Heckit model is developed to empirically investigate for the presence of herding behavior among yellowfin sole and Pacific cod fishermen in the Eastern Bering Sea. Econometric results provide support for herding behavior among fishermen within the yellowfin sole fishery. Moreover, fishermen respond to the lagged biomass and spatially weighted biomass signals as significant determinants of locational choice. This results in Lotka-Volterra oscillations in the Pacific cod fishery. In the final chapter of this dissertation, the general findings are concluded and some future avenues of research are discussed.
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Jordán, Vargas Kathia. "Feed conversion index in two populations and two lines of guinea pigs for meat production." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2005. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5381.
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The guinea pig (Cavia aperea porcellus) is an alternative to improve human nutrition because its meat is of excellent taste and quality. Thus, it is an important nutritional source. The feed conversion index was determined under the basic (forage) and mixed (forage and concentrate) diets during the growth phase. This was done with both sexes located in the Tamborada and MEJOCUY populations, using the AUQUI, and San Luis lines. This was done in order to quantify how many kilograms of feed an animal must eat to gain one kilogram of live weight. The animals were randomly distributed into individual pools based on population, line, and sex for the period from 14 to 56 days old. Depending on the feeding system used, they received alfalfa forage and/or concentrated feed. In addition, they were weighed before and after feeding so the difference between food eaten and food rejected could be calculated. At the end of the 42 days of investigation, the feed conversion indexes were 5, 5.1, 4.8, and 4.6 for the basic diet and 5, 5.5, 4.9, and 4.9 for the mixed diet for the guinea pigs of the Tamborada and MEJOCUY populations and the AUQUI and San Luis lines respectively. The male and female animals had indexes of 4.7 and 5.3 respectively. Generally speaking, the San Luis line has the best feed conversion index, followed by the AUQUI line, the Tamborada population, and lastly the MEJOCUY population.
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Saghaian, Sayed Y. "EXPORT DEMAND ESTIMATION FOR U.S. CORN AND SOYBEANS TO MAJOR DESTINATIONS." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/53.
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The United States is the leading producer and exporter of corn and soybeans in the world. The United States exports 20% of the world’s corn and 30% of soybeans in a typical year (USDA, ERS). The U.S., being the top producer and exporter of these commodities, is also confronting major rivals such as Argentina, Brazil, and Ukraine, which are increasing their exports and causing the U.S. to lose some of its market share. In order to stop this decline in market share, the U.S. can adopt and implement different policies to manage resources and employ advanced technology more effectively.
In this study, we empirically estimate the export demand function of U.S. corn and soybeans to the top four export destinations: China, Japan, European Union, and Mexico in the current context of energy and agriculture linkages and production of ethanol from corn. A log-linear, panel data equation is used to estimate the U.S. corn and soybeans export demand function. Own price, cross price, income and exchange rate elasticities are estimated econometrically. Data for the U.S. and its top four importer countries were gathered for the 1980-2012 period. A Hausman test implies that a random effects estimator is better for the estimations.
Elasticity analysis indicates that U.S. corn demand is elastic to own price, cross price, income and poultry inventory, while inelastic to real exchange rate and pig inventory. The positive cross price elasticity reveals that corn and soybeans are substitutes in these countries. Conversely elasticity analysis for the U.S. soybean demand shows elastic cross price, real exchange rate, and pig and poultry inventory effects, while inelastic own price and income effects. Consequently, for the U.S. to gain more international market share, U.S. corn and soybean producers need to take advantage of their advanced technology and high management skills to increase quality and have more competitive pricing compared to rivals. The U.S. can gain more market share by employing better regulation to increase the quality of products, and provide incentives to U.S. farmers and exporters that could help boost their advantages in a highly competitive international environment. Higher quality and more product differentiation could help in this regard. This could help U.S. farmers increase exports to currently existing foreign destinations and access new markets, to expand market shares.
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Thompson, Christopher L. "Treatment of Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.): Economics and Feasibility." DigitalCommons@USU, 2008. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/163.
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The invasive species Saltcedar is affecting water and land resources throughout the western states of America. Because of great water use capabilities and other ecosystem detriments, Saltcedar has been targeted for treatment. For successful management of Saltcedar, individual landowners need to be aware of the costs and benefits of treating Saltcedar. Eleven of the most commonly reported treatment methods were evaluated for firm level economic feasibility. Evaluated on the basis of treatment cost, treatment effectiveness, Saltcedar water-use, and re-vegetation water-use, a production plan of ten years was created for each treatment method. Some treatment methods required re-treatment and were evaluated with re-treatments most commonly found in the literature. Of the treatment methods evaluated, five treatment methods were determined to be most feasible. Landowner valuation of environmental changes in the ecosystem brought on by Saltcedar is very important in the decision of which treatment method to implement. Personal valuation, over a period of ten years, will often determine which treatment methods are most cost efficient.
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Hirschi, Matthew H. "Determining Profitability Strategies for Various Retained Ownership Enterprises in Utah." DigitalCommons@USU, 2011. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/891.
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With the price of corn now over $6 per bushel, and with feedlot total cost per pound of gain now approaching $1.00 per pound of gain there are new incentives to try and add weight to calves outside of feedlots. The question then arises of how to add weight to a calf in the most economical manner. There are many different feeding programs to consider. However, with few exceptions, the cheapest way to add weight outside of a feedlot usually involves the calf grazing for an extended period of time. Winter pasture grazing, wheat pasture grazing and corn stalk grazing followed by summer pasture grazing are examples of these programs.
However, with the exception of California, most of the area west of the Great Plains lacks the resources and climate for most of these winter grazing programs. For those states, cattle producers can background calves through the winter and then allow them to graze pastures in the summer. Backgrounding calves is essentially taking calves at weaning and feeding them to heavier weights without placing them directly in a feedlot on a finishing ration.
The overall objective of this research is to evaluate the level and variability of returns to several background feeding alternatives. The returns will be evaluated in an expected value-variance analysis and ranked using stochastic dominance procedures.
It appears that there are several different background alternatives that producers could utilize to increase returns with an acceptable level of risk and add additional value to their calves.
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Subramaniam, Vijayaratnam. "AGRICULTURAL INTERSECTORAL LINKAGES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT." UKnowledge, 2010. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/771.
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The transition from communism to capitalism at the end of the last century was one of the most significant events in the world economy since industrialization. During the latter part of the 1980s, people the Central and Eastern European countries and former Soviet Republics opted for a change from highly distorted command economic system to a market driven economic system. Privatization and liberalization policies led to major changes in the commodity mix and volume of agricultural production, consumption and trade. However, the changes and the impacts varied among countries as they followed different transition strategies.
This study investigated the impact of market liberalization on the agricultural sector, as well as how the inter-sectoral linkages among the agricultural, industrial and service sectors responded in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary using time-series analysis. The study estimated an econometric model that incorporates the linkages among the sectors using a Vector Error Correction Model. The procedure identified long-run and short-run relationships for each country. The results showed that a sector can have a negative linkage to other sectors in the short-run; however, that does not mean that the linkage will be negative in the long-run.
Impulse response functions were constructed to determine how a system reacts to a shock in one of the endogenous variable in a model. The study explored how a shock in the agricultural sector was absorbed by the other sectors in the economy, and how a shock in the other sectors was absorbed by the agricultural sector, in all four countries. The responses reflected how the variables are interrelated within a country, and how the shocks are transferred through different linkages over a long period of time. Such dynamic analysis was used to identify the total impacts of different policy alternatives.
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Childress, Ronald Jr. "Water Quality Trading Markets for the Kentucky River Basin: A Point Source Profile." UKnowledge, 2012. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/8.
Full textAbstract:
This study assessed the feasibility and suitability of a Water Quality Trading (WQT) program within the Kentucky River Basin (KRB). The study’s focal point was based on five success factors of a WQT program: environmental suitability, geospatial orientation, participant availability, regulatory incentive, and economic incentive. The study utilized these five success factors, geographical characteristics, and Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMR) to assess the feasibility of a WQT program.
The assessment divided the KRB into five eight digit Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC), North, Middle, and South Fork, Middle Basin, and Lower Basin, to determine regional impacts caused by the nutrient PSs. Individual nutrient profiles were generated to show the number of point sources (PS) operating in the KRB, their geospatial orientation to one another, and their permitted nutrient limits and nutrient discharges in form of total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and total nitrogen (as ammonia) (TA).
Findings suggest trading is highly unlikely for TP and TN PSs due to the lack of regulatory standards, limited number of TN and TP PSs, and an inadequate demand for offset credits. Trading is also unlikely in all the HUC 8 watersheds except for the Lower Basin due to the lack of nutrient impaired waters.
Key Words: Point Source, Non-Point Source, Water Quality Trading, TMDL, Impaired Waters
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Montalvo, Silva Egresado Ángel. "Diagnosis of livestock production in three communities (Tunshi San Javier, San Antonio and Maria Auxiliadora) using the Chambo irrigation system - Guano." BYU ScholarsArchive, 1997. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5403.
Full textAbstract:
During 43 weeks three communities belonging to the Chambo-Guano irrigation system (María Auxiliadora, San Antonio, and Tunshi San Javier) were studied. Each family had 0.662 ± 0.149 producing cows, 0.115 ± 0.048 dry cows, 0.381 ± 0.095 heifers, 0.252 ± 0.068 young bulls, 0.158 ± 0.052 bulls, and 0.568 ± 0.096 calves. The age at first mounting (21.696 ± 9.28 months) showed that the cows enter reproduction late. Of the cows, 71.94 ± 5.26% were of household varieties. To feed them, alfalfa was used at 79.86 ± 4.5%, undergrowth 56.83 ± 5.62%, corn stalks 48.2 ± 6.02%, kikuyu 19.42 ± 4.63%, crop aftermaths 18.71 ± 4.29%, zig-zig 17.27%, agave 9.35 ± 3.5%, ray grass (8.63 ± 2.98), banana waste 8.63 ± 3.28%, and oats 2.88 ± 1.96%. There were 280 ± 85.27 mother sheep, 64 ± 33.697 male reproducers, 174 ± 54.62 young sheep, and 198 ± 65.76 lambs. The age at first mounting was 18.45 ± 9.55 months and time between shearings was 12.62 ± 2.91 months with a production of 7.46 ± 3.99 pounds of wool. 53.24 ± 5.82% of the sheep were household breeds. As sources of food there were underbrush (46.04 ± 5.79%), pasturing (41.73 ± 5.77%), alfalfa (25.9 ± 5.25%), crop aftermaths (12.95 ± 3.99%), ray grass (5.76 ± 2.64%), and corn stalks (5.04 ± 2.65%). There were 672 ± 310.302 pigs. The age at first birthing was 18.108 ± 1.153 months with 8.237 ± 0.713 piglets per birthing, with only 5.536 ± 0.472 weaned at an age of 2.419 ± 0.156 months. As a food source, there was underbrush (56.12 ± 5.94%), banana waste (51.8 ± 5.85%), kitchen scraps (48.2 ± 5.95%), crop aftermaths (38.85 ± 5.26%), bran (28.06 ± 5.37%), alfalfa (26.62 ± 5.19%), and quiquyo (4.32 ± 2.33%). The guinea pig population was 3608 ± 683.653 with 2.52 ± 0.1 young per birthing. Outstanding food sources were alfalfa (79.86 ± 4.74%), chilca (34.53 ± 5.72%), underbrush (24.46 ± 5.18%), and kitchen scraps (11.51 ± 3.77%). The bird population was 1140 ± 226.856 animals. The majority are household chickens (47.48 ± 11.79%) used for egg production. Predominating foods were dried corn (72.66 ± 5.26%), barley (35.97 ± 5.62%), and wheat (1.44 ± 1.40%). The communities studied tend toward using bovine milk production. Even when the cows have low reproduction rates, they have important levels of milk production. The number of calves per birth could be adequate, but the levels of weaning are low. In guinea pigs and birds there were not any precarious forms of tenancy; possibly there are family property forms. It is recommended that the study be deepened in order to establish the influence of irrigation water, implement profitable programs of exploitation, and establish plans to help forward ecological tourism.
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Rapu, Samuel Chukwueyem. "Evaluating the Impact of Policies on Production Efficiency of Nigeria's Rice Economy." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2423.
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Nigeria, like all other rice consuming nations, has experienced a surge in domestic demand for rice since 1970. However, local rice production has not been sufficient to meet local demand, leading to this demand continually being filled by imports. The Federal Government of Nigeria has initiated subsidies programs intended to improve Nigerian rice farmers' technical and cost efficiency levels. This quantitative study evaluated the impact of these policies on the technical and cost efficiency levels of paddy rice farm households in Nigeria. Farrell's (1957) efficiency theory and production theory served as the theoretical frameworks. Data were collected from a cross-section of 300 paddy rice farmers drawn from 3 states in Nigeria. The study used 2 estimation techniques: parametric technique (SF) and the non-parametric technique (DEA). The results showed that paddy rice production in Nigeria was still profitable but low and the estimated average technical and cost efficiency levels from the DEA approach were 0.721 and 0.295, respectively. Evidence suggests that the formulation and implementation of subsidy programs on farm inputs were relevant in the variations of technical and cost efficiency levels across the rice farm households. The study findings support the continuity of the subsidy policies to encourage increased rice production; they also suggest that governments should address the issues of post-harvest losses, degrading irrigation facilities, and ineffective rural development policies. The positive social change implications of this research include providing information to inform government policy changes designed to more effectively address rice importation and pricing, positively impacting the standard of living for rural farmers and communities in Nigeria.
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Stark, Alyson N. "The Consequences of Increasing Ocean Acidification on Local and Global Fishing Industries." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2010. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/70.
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As human activities continue to generate accelerating levels of carbon dioxide emissions, the world’s oceanic resources are threatened by variability in seawater chemistry, known as ocean acidification. Recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have resulted in decreased carbonate ion concentrations and ocean pH levels, leading to increasingly acidic waters. The exact consequences of these chemical changes on ecosystems and individual species are difficult to predict; however, research has shown that economically valuable calcifying species will experience reduced reproductive fitness and population declines. Ocean acidification, therefore, poses an immediate risk to both fish stocks and fishery industries. From a local perspective, individual regions will need to implement dynamic management strategies to prepare for anticipated economic consequences. In a global context, international cooperation is required for further research and collaborative efforts must be made to reduce future acidification.
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Zuo, Na. "NATURAL RESOURCE, REGIONAL GROWTH, AND HUMAN CAPITAL ACCUMULATION." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_etds/58.
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The dissertation research will comprise three essays on the topic of the resource curse hypothesis and its mechanisms. The phenomenon of low economic growth in resource-rich regions is recognized as the “resource curse”. These essays will contribute to an understanding of the regional resource-growth relation within a nation.
Essay one tests the resource curse hypothesis at the U.S. state level. With a system of equations model, I decompose the overall resource effect to account for the two leading explanations — crowding-out and institution effects, thus investigate whether the institutions mediate the crowding-out effects. I did not find evidence of an overall negative effect on growth by resource wealth. Both the crowding-out and institution appear present, but they offset: the resource boom crowds out industrial investments, but good institutions mitigate the overall effect. Resources do reduce growth in states with low-quality institutions, including Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Essay two compares the effects of resource revenues on the economic growth and growth-related factors across Chinese provinces and American states, using panel data from 1990 to 2015. With the Instrumental Variable (IV) strategy, I show that regions with higher resource revenues grow faster than other regions in both China and the U.S. The positive resource effect is larger and more statistically significant in the U.S. Further testing impacts of three resource-related policies in China, e.g. the market price reform, the fiscal reform, and the Western Development Strategy, I show that the market price reform together with the privatization process on coal resources contribute the positive resource effect in China. Though strong and positive resource – growth relations appear in both countries, evidence also suggests consistent negative resource effects on certain growth-related factors in both countries, such as educational attainments and R&D activities.
Essay three explores the schooling response to the oil and gas boom, taking advantage of timing and spatial variation in oil and gas well drilling activities. Development of cost-reducing technologies at the time of higher crude oil and natural gas prices in the early 2000s has accelerated shale oil and gas extraction in the United States. I show that intensive drilling activities have decreased grade 11 and 12 enrollment over the 14 year study window − approximately 36 fewer students per county on average and overall, 41,760 fewer students across the 15 states enrolled considered in the analysis. On average, with one additional oil or gas well drilled per thousand initial laborers, grade 11 and 12 enrollment would decrease 0.24 percent at the county level, all else equal. I investigate heterogeneous effects and show that the implied effect of the boom is larger in states with a younger compulsory schooling age requirement (16 years of age instead of 17 or 18), lower state-level effective tax rate on oil and gas productions, traditional mining, non-metro, and persistent poverty counties.
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Winterroth, Seth D. "U.S. Energy Security: Reducing Dependence on Foreign Oil." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/481.
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U.S. energy security and the need for greater energy independence is one of the most important issues facing the United States today. Failure to address the U.S.’s energy dependence has undermined foreign policy, increased threats to national security, and created an inflexible hydrocarbon dependent economy. In 2010 the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S petroleum consumption had reached an average of 19.15 million barrels per day.[1] More importantly, 49 percent of daily consumption is imported and this creates an energy dependency that cannot be presently avoided. Dependence on foreign oil imports has resulted in America’s politics, economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and social culture being directly influenced by the countries that control our oil supply.
[1] "Petroleum Statistics," Energy Information Administration, Updated July 2011
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Algermissen, Gordon H. "California Water Management: Establishing a Framework for an Efficient Future." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/733.
Full textAbstract:
Water management in California is an extremely complex issue that requires collaboration from all levels of government. As the water supply shrinks and demand pressures increase over the next century, water management will become increasingly difficult. There is no single solution to the water issues facing California but there are many incremental steps than can be taken to secure an efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly economy.
Water conservation programs appear to be the most cost effective means of reducing water demand. This requires a combination of incentives to reduce consumption, education about the true cost of water for California, and regulatory reform to promote efficient use and distribution of water. The state needs to make investments in education about water in California for conservation measures to be successfully adopted and implemented by the general populace. From a policy perspective, higher levels of government in the state need to establish statewide performance standards for groundwater withdrawals, point and non-point pollution, flood risk, and watershed integration for local governments to enforce. In order for these changes in water policy to be implemented, strong leadership is necessary.