<p> Results from previous studies testing for under-reaction and overreaction in the commodity futures market are mixed and inconclusive. Using a data of more than 20 categories of future contacts ranging from agricultural, metal and energy, we have found significant evidence of under-reaction in food and agricultural commodities but not in the energy and metal sector. It is also found that those relatively inactive commodity future contracts tend to have a stronger tendency to under-react than commodity future contracts are very actively traded. The result also agrees with the behavioral hypothesis that under-reaction is caused by gradual incorporation of information among investors.</p>

<p> Institutional characteristics of the food assistance component of the California Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants, and Children (California WIC Program) incentivizes food retailers serving the Program to compete in ways potentially beneficial to consumers and Program operations, including enhancing the quality of available food brands and improving food access. First, I model a WIC retailer who does not compete in price for WIC consumers who are perfectly price inelastic due to the nature of food benefits. A theoretical model of non-price competition hypothesizes that pure non-price competition in brands mimics price competition, whereby these retailers carry a higher variety and quality level of brands under intense spatial competition; and that retailers will either minimally or maximally differentiate in horizontal (e.g., physical) space. Second, I develop the concept of vendor attrition, committed by participants, as a behavioral measure of retailers' contribution to food access in the WIC Program. An empirical approach using a unique dataset on retailers' locations and brand offerings, as well as participants' food benefit redemption patterns, confirms that retailers compete in brands. Namely, retailers carry more and better brands in salient product categories when facing more competitors, which, in turn, reduces attrition and increases market share. The results also suggest that maximal horizontal differentiation prevails, allowing the retailers to minimize costly brand competition. </p><p> Third, the nature of competition promotes food access within the California WIC Program for the following reasons: maximal horizontal differentiation serves to increase the geographic coverage of WIC retailers; and observed entry prior to a moratorium on new authorized retailers appeared to positively benefit Program access in the Greater Los Angeles region. In particular, entrant vendors experience lower vendor attrition, coincide with localized growth in participation, and may have induced new participation, evidenced by higher ratios of de novo participants. These effects on access systematically vary according to retailer characteristics and the food access status of retailers' locations. Policy aiming to reduce costs in state WIC Programs by restricting the behavior of retailers can be improved by considering the heterogeneity of retailers' impact on Program costs and access.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri - Columbia, 2005. / (UMI)AAI3253197. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0664. Adviser: Michael Cook.

This dissertation studies the problem of managing local commons or common-pool resources from the micro foundations of a collective action dilemma. The approach is mostly empirical, and combines field work, experimental economics and conjoint analysis techniques in three rural villages in Colombia where communities face the local commons dilemma being modeled. The conceptual framework is inspired by several approaches on the economics of institutional analysis. The specific questions focus on the problems of regulating the use of local commons, the rationality of humans in the decision to extract a local commons, and the effects that wealth, inequality and poverty may have on the behavior of the local commons users and the social outcomes. Through a set of field experiments, it is shown that when individuals were confronted with an imperfect external regulation, they began to exhibit less other-regarding behavior and, instead, made choices that were more consistent with pure self interest; that is, the regulation itself appeared to crowd out other-regarding behavior. Meanwhile the experiments confirm the wide evidence that simple and non-binding face-to-face communication among group members increases social efficiency by reducing free-riding. Further, the conjoint survey suggests that these communities would prefer a community-based form of governance of the local commons. Also using the field experiments, we found that wealth and inequality affect negatively cooperation rates in ways that contradict some of the conventional propositions that the poor should be less likely to cooperate in these dilemmas, or that unequal groups would be more likely to achieve cooperation through the contributions of the wealthier. The experimental results and the conjoint analysis show that these villagers are willing to cooperate in the management of the local commons by sacrificing short-term material income to provide conservation (public good) benefits to neighbors and others outside the community. In general the results suggest that there is potential for conservation of local commons by the rural poor, but that institutional factors such as externally-imposed regulations and group inequality may diminish the capacity of communities to solve the tragedy of the commons in a self-governed way.

Amidst widespread feelings that capitalism is a deeply problematic yet necessary approach to economy, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as both an alternative model for farming and as an increasingly visible and viable model for alternative economy. Using qualitative methods, this doctoral research explores and documents how CSA has become a productive space for economic innovation and practice that emphasizes interdependence, camaraderie and community well-being rather than hierarchical control and private gain. This study also examines how the many participants of CSA have built an identity for CSA--branding it via autonomous and collective efforts. This has resulted in CSA being branded as an ethical and ecological farm/food system and has also resulted in CSA being celebrated as a grassroots anti-brand owned and controlled by no-one. As CSA has built its identity, it has engaged a number of narratives and myths. Many of these myths such as the ability for CSA to educate about and build enthusiasm for small scale organic farming have been solidly validated over CSA's history. Other myths, such as the idea that CSA inherently provides financial security for CSA farmers are more troubling and yet to be fully realized. Finally, this study also makes an overview of CSA offshoots, a variety of Community Supported Enterprises (CSE) that have grown out of and been inspired by CSA. These enterprises represent a new wave of opportunities and challenges to building economic alternatives based on the ethical principles expressed by CSA.

This research examines groundwater protection programs as a case study of investments to address long-term environmental health risks. The value individuals place on reducing their risk of exposure to chemical contaminants is estimated using stated preference methodology, accounting for the discounting of benefits that occur in future years. A combined contingent valuation/conjoint analysis survey was mailed to Western Massachusetts residents who use a private well for their drinking water. A modified form of the contingent valuation format was included to obtain a conservative, lower-bound estimate of willingness-to-pay. The individual's rate of time preference is elicited in two contexts: preferences for programs that save lives from an unspecified threat now and in the future, and groundwater protection programs that offer risk reductions this year and in ten years. The results have favorable implications for the benefit-cost analysis of programs that address long-term environmental health risks. The individual's rate of discount for general life-saving programs falls as the time horizon increases. The estimated mean implicit discount rates for the ten, twenty-five and fifty year time horizons are 10.35%, 2.9%, and 3.82%, respectively. The estimated mean rates for the ten and twenty-five year time horizons are significantly different from each other, allowing rejection of constant exponential discounting. However, the individual's rate of discount may be context-specific. In the context of groundwater protection benefits, individuals appear to place equal weight on risk reductions this year and risk reduction ten years from now. These findings suggest that the individual's rate of discount for certain types of health risks may be very low or zero; individuals may not be as myopic as previously thought when faced with intertemporal choice decisions involving health benefits. Estimates of willingness-to-pay for groundwater protection are highly sensitive to the stated preference technique used; median willingness-to-pay estimates range from a one-time cost per household of −$1951.48 to $2063.62. The results of this study suggest that traditional conjoint models may overestimate willingness-to-pay. Finally, this study also finds evidence of significant non-use value for groundwater protection; individuals are willing to pay a premium to reduce the risk of all Massachusetts residents.

<p> This dissertation presents a three-part study in modern empirical environmental economics. In these three studies, I focus on five core economic issues&mdash;equity, incentives, environmental quality, consumer behavior, and causality&mdash;and ask what environmental economics can teach us about three common topics: energy consumption, cannabis legalization, and pesticide application. </p><p> The first chapter examines how residential natural gas consumers respond to changes in the price of natural gas. With 70 million consumers, residential natural gas has grown to a first-order policy issue. This first chapter provides the first causally identified, microdata-based estimates of residential natural-gas demand elasticities using a panel of 300 million bills in California. To overcome multiple sources of endogeneity, we employ a two-pronged strategy: we interact (1) a spatial discontinuity along the service areas of two major natural-gas utilities with (2) an instrumental-variables strategy using the utilities' differing rules/behaviors for internalizing upstream spot-market prices. We then demonstrate substantial seasonal and income-based heterogeneities underly this elasticity. These heterogeneities suggest unexplored policies that are potentially efficiency-enhancing and pro-poor. </p><p> The second chapter explores what may be unintended&mdash;or unconsidered&mdash;results of cannabis legalization. Cannabis legalization advocates often argue that cannabis legalization offers the potential to reduce the private and social costs related to criminalization and incarceration&mdash;particularly for marginalized populations. While this assertion is theoretically plausible, it boils down to an empirically testable hypothesis that remains untested: does legalizing a previously illegal substance (cannabis) reduce arrests, citations, and general law-enforcement contact? The second chapter of this dissertation provides the first causal evidence that cannabis legalization need not necessarily reduce criminalization&mdash;and under the right circumstances, may in fact increase police incidents/arrests for both cannabis products and non-cannabis drugs. First, I present a theoretical model of police effort and drug consumption that demonstrates the importance of substitution and incentives for this hypothesis. I then empirically show that before legalization, drug-incident trends in Denver, Colorado matched trends in many other US cities. However, following cannabis legalization in Colorado, drug incidents spike sharply in Denver, while trends in comparison cities (unaffected by Colorado's legalization) remain stable. This spike in drug-related police incidents occurs both for cannabis and non-cannabis drugs. Synthetic-control and difference-in-differences empirical designs corroborate the size and significance of this empirical observation, estimating that Colorado's legalization of recreational cannabis nearly doubled police-involved drug incidents in Denver. This chapter's results present important lessons for evaluating the effects and equity of policies ranging legalization to criminal prosecution to policing. </p><p> Finally, the third chapter investigates the roles pesticides play in local air quality. Many policymakers, public-health advocates, and citizen groups question whether current pesticide regulations properly equate the marginal social costs of pesticide applications to their marginal social benefits&mdash;with particular concern for negative health effects stemming from pesticide exposure. Additionally, recent research and policies in public health, epidemiology, and economics emphasize how fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations harm humans through increased mortality, morbidity, mental health issues, and a host of socioeconomic outcomes. This chapter presents the first empirical evidence that aerially applied pesticides increase local PM2.5 concentrations. To causally estimate this effect, I combine the universe of aerial pesticide applications in the five southern counties of California's San Joaquin Valley (1.8M reports) with the U.S. EPA's PM2.5 monitoring network&mdash;exploiting spatiotemporal variation in aerial pesticide applications and variation in local wind patterns. I find significant evidence that (upwind) aerial pesticide applications within 1.5km increase local PM2.5 concentrations. The magnitudes of the point estimates suggest that the top decile of aerial applications may sufficiently increase local PM2.5 to warrant concern for human health. </p><p> Jointly, the three parts of this dissertation aim to carefully administer causally minded econometrics, in conjunction with environmental economic theory, to answer unresolved, policy-relevant questions.</p><p>

My dissertation consists of three empirical essays where I analyze animal products consumption and marketing. First using cross-sectional household data, I investigate the importance of consumption from home produce (self-provisioning) and conclude that studying food consumption decisions in isolation from production is not warranted for Turkey. I develop a testing procedure incorporated into linear approximation of the almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) model to formally test the relevance of food self-provisioning. Studying consumption in isolation from production leads significant overestimation of rural households’ responsiveness to price and income signals especially for the dairy and egg products. Second I investigate the contribution of consumption from home produce to alleviate vulnerability to undernutrition in rural areas. I find that the level, depth and severity of food poverty to be least among rural households who engage in food self-provisioning and food self-provisioning reduce vulnerability to undernutrition. Moreover, food self-provisioning is concentrated in expensive calories from vegetables and dairy so self-provisioning rural households also have a more balanced diet. Finally I investigate whether milk processing firms abuse their oligopsony power to excessively profit themselves to the expense of milk farmers and final consumers. I look for evidence whether the speed of adjustment of processed milk price is same when farm-gate milk prices increase and decrease. I find no evidence that will point out any price gauging on the part of milk processors to benefit themselves. Actually I detect a long-term downward trend in processed milk prices coinciding with new major entries to milk processing industry.

In this dissertation I develop a Marxian class analysis of corn-producing family farms in the Midwestern United States during the early twentieth century. I theorize the family farm as a complex hybrid of mostly feudal and ancient class structures that has survived through a contradictory combination of strategies that includes the feudal exploitation of farm family members, the cannibalization of neighboring ancient farmers in a vicious hunt for superprofits, and the intervention of state welfare programs. The class-based definition of the family farm yields unique insights into three broad aspects of U.S. agricultural history. First, my analysis highlights the crucial, yet under-recognized role of farm women and children’s unpaid labor in subsidizing the family farm. Second I offer a new, class-based perspective on the roots of the twentieth century “miracle of productivity” in U.S. agriculture, the rise of the agribusiness giants that depended on the perpetual, technology-induced crisis of that agriculture, and the implications of government farm programs. Third, this dissertation demonstrates how the unique set of contradictions and circumstances facing family farmers during the early twentieth century, including class exploitation, were connected to concern for their ability to serve the needs of U.S. industrial capitalist development. The argument presented here highlights the significant costs associated with the intensification of exploitation in the transition to industrial agriculture in the U.S. The family farm is implicated in this social theft. Ironically, the same family farm is often held up as the bedrock of American life. Its exalted status as an example of democracy, independence, self-sufficiency, and morality is enabled among other things by the absence of class awareness in U.S. society. When viewed through the lens of class, the hallowed family farm becomes example of one of the most exploitative institutions in the U.S. economy. The myth of its superiority takes on a new significance as one of the important non-economic processes helping to overdetermine the family farm’s long survival, while participating in foreclosing truly radical transformations of these institutions to non-exploitative alternatives.

This dissertation investigates the impact of organic farming for achieving the environmental and social objectives of sustainability in Europe over the past 20 years. Organic farming is considered the poster child of rural development in Europe, often seen as a model of the integration of small-scale production with environmental considerations. Since this model runs counter to the logic of developing capitalist structures in agriculture, I revisit the Marxian predictions regarding the "agrarian question". Furthermore, I trace the discursive changes in support of small-scale production in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and assess whether small farms have improved their situation under the revised CAP. Subsequently, I use statistical analysis in order to assess the socio-economic and the environmental consequences of the rise in organic farming. Contrary to what is often assumed, organic farms in Europe display larger average sizes and lower rates of labor intensity than their conventional counterparts, casting doubts on the efficacy of organic farms to allow family farmers to remain in the countryside as high-value producers. I argue that this development should be viewed as further evidence of the "conventionalization" of organic farming. In order to explain the process which led to such an outcome, I proceed to explain the different ways through which organic farms could overcome traditional problems which impeded the capitalist development of agriculture. Regarding the environmental implications, I evaluate the rise of organic farming by assessing its impact for different countries' overall pesticide and fertilizer intensity. My results are mixed, with higher organic shares being correlated with decreased application of fertilizer, but less significant results for pesticide intensity. Finally, I present evidence from qualitative work conducted in 2010 in rural Greece which points to the absence of well-established networks among organic producers, and between them and other actors in the chain of distribution. Small producers who switch to organic methods appear unable to reap the benefits from the higher prices and the institutional support for organic farming. Hence, it is larger enterprises which dominate the organic sector. I also examine the role of certification agencies, as a prime recipient of surplus transfers, and question the safeguards of organic enterprises against recent developments in agricultural labor relations, which are highly exploitative of immigrant labor.