This paper estimates the effect of environmental remediation on housing prices in the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern (AOC) using a hedonic analysis of individual arms-length sales before and after a major remediation action between 2011 and 2015. Our design leverages this before-after comparison as well as the proximity of homes to remediation and the AOC boundary. Measuring the effect of AOCs in the housing market has always been a difficult task, given that water in AOCs can provide a mix of amenities and disamenities. Indeed, we find little evidence of a negative proximity effect when applying hedonic analysis to cross-section data. However, when we apply the analysis to a repeated cross section in a quasi-experimental framework, we find statistically significant evidence that living near the affected part of the AOC became more desirable after cleanup.

The investment potential of warm-season grasses is compared with that of cool-season grasses, with special emphasis on hill-land beef production. In addition to evaluating relative costs and returns for various grazing systems, a sensitivity analysis is conducted. The results are then illustrated for a representative hill-land farm in West Virginia, and both an optimal and a set of quasi-optimal solutions are generated within the linear programming framework. In general, warm-season grasses are found to be a superior investment alternative for hill-land beef producers.

While the use of gear restrictions to regulate fishing activity seldom has the objective of improving economic efficiency, it is capable of achieving that result under some conditions. It can also reduce economic efficiency. This paper explores the way several factors affect the sign and magnitude of welfare gains from fishing gear restrictions. These factors include, among others: the fixity or variability of the price of fish and the presence or absence of diminishing short-run average product of effort. Some generalizations are offered regarding the characteristics of fisheries in which gear restrictions are most likely to produce welfare gains.

The literature on the concept of economies of size in waste water management is extensive. However, only a limited amount of research has been completed which focuses on the extent of these economies associated with the regionalization of waste water management systems.

The paper develops an adaptive model of perishable commodity dissipation based on the individual's price expectations and risk perception. A two-step, state-space procedure for modeling nonstationary time series is presented. The method combines an impulse response model for estimating deterministic components with an innovations model for the remaining stationary stochastic noise. Combined parameters are used to generate forecasts and to derive a measure of risk in a nonstationary price environment. Defined as the variance (covariance) of out-of-sample forecast error, the measure of risk is the difference between the historical estimate of the stationary noise auto-covariance and the variance (covariance) of out-of-sample forecasts. The optimal marketing strategy for a hypothetical salmon processor who sells to Japanese wholesalers is developed to illustrate the model. The solution is obtained using quadratic programming algorithm.

Milk supply response by dairy farmers in Delaware was analyzed employing distributed lag price structures for number of milk cows and milk production per cow. A polynominal distributed lag model is fitted to quarterly data with deflated prices for the period 1966 to 1978. The variations in the number of milk cows is explained by about 98 percent. Farmers react positively to milk prices after 1–2 years, while wages and feed prices have a negative impact on cow numbers. Milk production per cow shows positive adjustments to milk prices after 6 to 15 months. Technology and feed prices influence also milk production While the short-run price elasticity of milk production is only .2, the long-run aggregate elasticity grows to 2.8 percent. Intermediate-run projections of milk supply were also performed with the model.

Rural community development finally has come of age. After the not very productive rural development program of the 1950's with its emphasis on the small farm, and the equally tepid rural areas development effort of the 1960's, Congress and the Executive finally seem committed to improving the lot of rural America.

This study constructs a simulation model to evaluate the potential for conflict among residential and agricultural users of water in southern Rhode Island. The model estimates the profitability of irrigation of turf farms and projects the total use and the economic value of irrigation water. The results indicate that the economic value of irrigation water compares favorably with current residential water prices in the area. In addition, substantial demand for irrigation water is projected. Given current rates of growth in turf acreage and residential water use, there appears to be a significant potential for conflict, particularly given the absence of well developed institutions for allocating water among users.

Policy issues surrounding Federal programs for land retirement as a means of curtailing soil erosion are discussed in this paper. The analysis is structured around productivity differentials observed for New York cropland rated as highly erosive, moderately erosive, or nonerosive.

One potentially serious problem in evaluating the effectiveness of extension programs is that participants are not picked at random. Self-selection can be a problem, and it can be compounded if extension officials concentrate on the most progressive farms. This study explores the relationships between adoption of maize high-yielding varieties (HYVs) and participation in field trials intended to foster HYV usage, drawing on data from Swaziland. Results indicate that it is impossible to say if field trials had any effect on adoption. Participating farms used more HYVs, but this could have been due to self-selection or the government's selection process.

Prior tests of Hicks’ Induced Innovation Hypothesis (IIH) have been greatly hampered because the lack of supply-side data implicitly requires the untenable assumption that the marginal research cost is the same for different inputs. We document that, with appropriate model specification and panel data, a two-way fixed-effects estimator can account for much of the non-neutrality of the innovation function. Using a test procedure that is robust to a time-variant and non-neutral innovation function, we test the IIH in U.S. agriculture for the period 1960–2004. We use only readily available data for innovation demand and total public research expenditures.

In any society a loss of confidence in the capacity of contemporary institutions and leadership to deal with current problems creates anxieties and feelings of loss of control. A classical reaction to such stress is efforts to return to earlier, presumably simpler, institutional forms and lifestyles, thereby regaining control and the lost sense of purpose and direction. Today in the Northeast, as in much of the nation, many people are alarmed by the recent disturbances and shocks to the American way of life: the energy shortage, the threat of nuclear disaster, high unemployment and prices, faltering state and local finances, and a recurring credibility gap at all levels of government. The perceived inability of institutional forms to deal with these concerns has fostered a re-examination of individual, local and regional goals and a rediscovery of more traditional values based on self-reliance. One manifestation of this phenomenon is the promotion in the region by some professionals and laymen alike of a policy of self-sufficiency in agricultural production.

This study empirically compares the retirement values of dairy farm investments to tax-deferred retirement investments that are funded with bank certificates of deposit or common stock. For a successful dairy farm, the results indicate that tax-deferred retirement plans that generate rates of return similar to certificates of deposit or common stock mutual funds are probably not as good an investment as reinvesting farm earnings back into the farm business.

The dairy industry is of much interest worldwide because it has been subject to heavy government intervention. Central to the analysis of any dairy policy is a quantitative empirical understanding of the economic relationships in the industry. This paper models and measures the input demand relationships—especially, derived demand for farm milk as a processing input—and the rate and biases of technical change in the U.S. dairy manufacturing industry. Our estimates indicate that the Marshallian own-price elasticity of demand for farm milk is between −0.43 and −1.20. Estimates also indicate that technical change has been capital using and labor saving.

In this study, moving average price stabilization schemes were analyzed under the assumption of rational expectations. It was shown that moving average price schemes may induce cyclical behaviour into market prices where no cyclical pattern previously existed. Moving average price stabilization schemes are important to Canadian agricultural policy analysis because they are a characteristic of stabilization programs in Canada. Indeed, the Agricultural Stabilization Act, introduced in 1975, and the Gross Revenue Insurance Program, introduced in 1991, use moving average prices to calculate returns to producers.

As the most densely populated area of the nation, New Jersey and the Northeast stand as a laboratory in which concepts and institutions might be developed and tested to preserve valuable nonrenewable farmland for multiple social uses including an ability to provide open space and life-sustaining food and fiber. In this context, there is a need to carefully consider the idea that actions by government and society generate or destroy economic values in property through the creation or modification of institutions and social organization. It is also true that the lack of action by government may result in the wasteful destruction of amenities which may be held in high regard by many individuals in society.

Following Weitzman (1974), there is ample theoretical literature indicating that choice of pollution control instruments under conditions of uncertainty will affect the expected net benefits that can be realized from environmental protection. However, there is little empirical research on the ex ante efficiency of alternative instruments for controlling water, or other types of pollution, under uncertainty about costs and benefits. Using a simulation model that incorporates various sources of uncertainty, the ex ante efficiency of price and quantity controls applied to two alternative policy targets, fertilizer application rates and estimated excess nitrogen applications, are examined under varying assumptions about agricultural income support policies. Results indicate price instruments outperform quantity instruments. A tax on excess nitrogen substantially outperforms a fertilizer tax in the scenario with support programs, while the ranking is reversed in the scenario without support programs.

Facing increasing nonrenewable and environmental concerns with fossil power generation, renewable energy is being supported by government mechanisms. With the power generation cost of renewables generally higher than fossil fuels, determining the optimal level of these mechanisms requires an understanding of households’ prosocial behavior toward renewables. The issue is determining the magnitude households are willing to pay (WTP) for alternative renewables. Our hypothesis is this behavior varies by the type of renewable energy. As a test of this hypothesis, we apply a discrete choice experiment to measure households’ WTP. Results support our hypothesis with a positive WTP for solar energy, leading to a 62% reduction in solar subsidy, and a negative WTP for biomass and wind sources.

In this article, we present a model of the electricity sector where generation technologies are intermittent. The economic value of an electricity generation technology is given by integrating its production profile with the market price of electricity. We use estimates of the consumer's intertemporal elasticity of substitution for electricity consumption while parameterizing the model empirically to numerically calculate the elasticity between renewables and fossil energy. We find that there is a non-constant elasticity of substitution between renewable and fossil energy that depends on prices and intermittency. This suggests that the efficacy and welfare effects of carbon taxes and renewable subsidies vary geographically. Subsidizing research into battery technology and tailoring policy for local energy markets can mitigate these distributional side effects while complementing traditional policies used to promote renewable energy.