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The overall objective of the research reported here is to empirically measure the ability of farmers to mitigate the impact of rising electricity prices by substituting relatively inexpensive alternative inputs. A dual cost methodology is employed because it allows theoretically consistent derivation of own price and factor substitution elasticities, conditional upon exogenously determined environmental, economic and technological constraints. Furthermore, the framework allows for an assessment of the appropriateness of producer cost minimization behavior, which has been assumed but not explicitly tested in earlier studies. A secondary objective is to analyze possible implications of future irrigation electricity price changes on producer, regional economic and electric utility company welfare. The most notable finding is that the demand for irrigation electricity is quite price elastic. This indicates that, historically, when the price of electricity has been relatively high, producers have found ways to use less of this input. The derived price elasticity of demand for irrigation electricity (-1.45) confirms results of other researchers. Gardener and Young; Whittlesey; and Maddigan, Chern and Rizy all estimated price elasticity for irrigation in the range from -1 to -2. Tests of the conditions necessary to maintain the assumption of cost minimization, do not confirm that this assumption is strictly justified in the present study. / Graduation date: 1988

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This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-245). / xiv, 245 leaves, bound ill., col. map 29 cm

Irrigation is central to the functioning of the southern Alberta economy. Irrigation also uses a significant amount of what is expected to be an increasingly scarce resource: water. The Alberta government is embarking on a long-term water management strategy in which irrigation water management will be pivotal. The government is considering a range of economic instruments to assist in this management. One instrument already implemented is the ability of private irrigators and irrigators within irrigation districts to trade irrigation water rights on a temporary and permanent basis. This has established the foundation for water markets. The research presented in this thesis centers on establishing the characteristics of irrigation water markets in southern Alberta. The research also aims to determine whether the markets are behaving according to basic economic principles and whether they are supporting government's goals of increased water productivity, efficiency and conservation. The findings reveal that characteristics of irrigation water markets in southern Alberta. The research also aims to determine whether the markets are behaving according to basic economic principles and whether they are supporting government's goals of increased water productivity, efficiency and conservation. The findings reveal that characteristics of water markets in southern Alberta are very similar to markets elsewhere and the markets are behaving in a manner one would expect. However, markets are also creating activity that at one and the same time support and contradict government's water management goals. In addition, the small degree of market activity in general suggests that if government is relying on markets to contribute to these goals to any significant extent, it will need to create conditions that promote greater water market activity. / x, 184 leaves : ill., maps ; 29 cm.

The very concept of sustainable development calls for a holistic understanding of socio-economic and natural systems in order to help achieve greater sustainability. The complexity characterizing such systems, however, makes it likely impossible for quantified approaches of even isolated problems to account for all relevant factors in a single, robust and deterministic representation of reality – an inherent feature which largely motivates the use of statistical models applied to empirical data. On three independent examples with significant socio-economic and environmental importance, the present dissertation illustrates how econometrical models applied to real-life environmental data can be fruitfully deployed to facilitate the identification and motivation of innovative policies to achieve greater sustainability. Specifically, the first chapter explores the extent to which large-scale irrigation affects local climate by inducing cooler temperatures in areas located downwind from irrigated land, an externality with positive economic consequences quantified in terms of improved crop yields and reduced human mortality. The second chapter illustrates the benefits offered by a family of new differencing estimators (as theoretically derived from a generalization of existing techniques found in the literature) on the example of the nonparametric estimation of error variance in streamflow measurements - a step that is critical for the accurate prediction by hydrological models of extreme flood events. The third chapter investigates the joint effect of traffic speed and acceleration on urban air quality in order to help anticipate the consequences of innovative traffic regulation on the concentration of key air pollutants with detrimental consequences on human health and the economy.