Hawaii’s pristine ocean and tropical environment is a keystone of Hawaii tourism and the state economy. Water pollution from stormwater and development threatens the beach quality to both residents and tourists. In order to understand the lost nonmarket value, we assess changes in quality of beach characteristics including water and sand quality, swimming safety conditions, and congestion using a Discrete Choice Experiment of recreational beach users. Further, we study willingness to pay (WTP) for water management strategies in Hawaii using another discrete choice experiment, including structural and nonstructural Best Management Practices, testing, monitoring, and educational efforts. Using a mixed logit model, beach quality results suggest similar preferences among resident and tourists. Both groups consistently have higher WTP to avoid poor quality levels versus obtaining excellent levels. Additionally, water quality is the single most important attribute. For the policy discrete choice experiment, both parties exhibit similar ranking of WTP to initiate water quality management strategies, with improved testing methods followed by education having the highest WTP. Lastly, we use Benefit-Cost analysis to find that all significant management strategies may be viable, since WTP is greater than the predicted cost of implementation based on expert opinion of Hawaiian policy leaders.

This study examines the potential effects of categorical increases in production expenditures on farm income performance according to farm standing. The objective of this study is to expose differences in anticipated net farm income return from production expenditure investments and the optimal expense allocation strategy for each performance level. Studying farm performance through segregation by utilizing a two-tier analysis and quantile regression acknowledges the possibility that managerial strategy can differ based on managerial ability. Study outcomes are useful to farm managers because they offer more prescription style results and interpretations than found in other farm performance studies. Study findings show that as managerial proficiency increases so does a manager’s ability to extract higher returns from additional expenditures in certain input categories. Additionally, better managers are able to produce higher returns from more investment sources than their lower performing peers. Overall, study results and interpretations point to the importance of farm management ability as the key input for improving farm performance.

This study analyzed the perceptions of Kentucky Homebased Processors and Microprocessors of the benefits of and barriers to developing and selling value-added products. The final sample consisted of 141 participants, 60.5% (n=72) of which were from Central KY, 26.9% (n=32) were from Western KY, and 12.6% (n=15) were from Eastern KY. Overall, participants seemed to feel that their value-added products were successful in many different benefit categories. The primary barriers to developing value-added products were lack of time, lack of funding, and lack of legal knowledge. The primary barriers to utilizing program resources for farmers were not having enough time, being unaware of the services offered, and programs being too far away. The information found by this study can be used to determine the addressable needs in different regions of Kentucky and assist programs in making their services more available and applicable to Kentucky farm entrepreneurs.

China is the world’s largest pork producer and consumer, and Hubei Province is one of the top pork production provinces in China. Since problems and risks have led to large-scale reduction of pork production and farmers’ income, Chinese government offers various policy measures to help farmers. Breeding sow insurance is considered as one of the most effective measures started in 2007. To better understand farmer’s need for breeding sow insurance and make proper policy insights, our research is the first empirical study in Hubei Province and one of the pioneer studies investigate farmer’s willingness to pay(WTP) for breeding sow insurance premium and preferred coverage level. Survey questionnaires were distributed to breeding sow farmers in 5 townships from Shayang County, Hubei Province. Based on random utility theory, we use tobit model to examine the factors that affect farmer’s WTP and preferred coverage level. The results showed that famers’ average WTP for premium was ¥14.4 and average preferred coverage level was ¥1191, both exceeded current values. Farmers’ trust towards insurance companies, household income, and knowledge about breeding sow insurance significantly affect their WTP and preferred coverage level.

Internalizing carbon value for forest landowners has the potential to increase carbon supply in forest and mitigate CO2 in the atmosphere. In this study, we developed a modified Hartman model to investigate how payments of carbon offsets impact the optimal management of hardwood forests in Kentucky under condition of catastrophic events. Different carbon markets were modeled and several sensitivity analyses were performed to examine varied management strategies to achieve maximized financial return or highest environmental benefits. Furthermore, another model was developed to incorporate the impact of risk aversion to price uncertainty using E-V model. We were able to identify the most favorable scenarios for landowners and society in the face of price variability and catastrophic risk.

Conventional charcoal and firewood are the main source of energy in Haiti. They provide up to 90% of the country’s energy for domestic and industrial use, resulting in severe environmental and health issues. The present study is initiated to better understand the reasons why two promising alternative technologies (improved cookstoves and alternative charcoal briquettes) have experienced low adoption in Haiti. The research was carried out in two districts in southern Haiti where the improved stoves and briquettes production units exist and where households benefited from a program distributing the improved stoves. This project contributes to the literature by gauging interest in the improved stove and briquettes, as well as their specific characteristics. It helps understand factors that affect the adoption and dis-adoption of the technologies. Additionally, the research measures tangible benefits for households that adopted the improved stoves. The study reveals that the use of the improved stoves lowers fuel expenditures by 14.6 cents/day to 23.6 cents/day. Haitian consumers are interested in both the stove and briquettes, but their willingness-to-pay depends on their personal characteristics such as location and income. The study has revealed two surprising results as well: Unnecessary dis-adoption of the stoves occurs because the two technologies were needlessly marketed together. Despite the target audience, which is poor and rural consumers, the improved stove is perceived as a rich, urban user’s technology.

Prepay or pay-as-you-go programs are an increasingly popular type of rate plan offered by electric utilities. Under these plans, ratepayers must keep a positive balance at all times to avoid being automatically disconnected, they are charged daily for their usage, and they are provided with a means to monitor their consumption. One of the suggested benefits of these plans is that they allow electricity consumers to better manage their usage. Using household level monthly usage data from customers enrolled in prepay programs at two Kentucky rural electric cooperatives, we investigate whether there is a change in consumption after these customers enrolled in the program. To address this question, we employ a fixed-effects model. The results of our model indicate that prepay customers reduce their consumption by an average of 11% after enrolling in the program. We also find that this response is larger during periods of high or low temperatures than during mild weather. Furthermore, we find evidence that the prepayment effect diminishes over the length of time that a customer is enrolled in the program.

This study examines the determinants of a household’s threshold price for a restaurant meal cost increase; the level of cost increase that would cause households to either eat in restaurants less frequently or change what they would typically purchase. The design of the study is formulated using a Tobit model to examine the threshold price by differing social, economic and demographic characteristics of households in Kentucky as well as their preferences for restaurant-specific characteristics. The empirical estimates suggest that households that frequently have dinner at restaurants, households with higher incomes and households that strongly prefer full-service restaurants have a positive threshold price-range; which suggests that such households are more willing to pay an additional cost increase in restaurant meals. Conversely, households that always notice taxes before paying their checks, households close to retirement-age, and households that do not strongly prefer local-food restaurants have negative threshold price-range and are consequently less willing to pay an additional cost increase in restaurant meals.

India has seen unrivaled economic growth since it embarked on its neoliberal reforms in 1990. However, accompanying this growth in income and wealth is an increase in social and economic inequalities among its population. This thesis will look at the impact of the neoliberal agenda on India’s population, particularly on its rural and marginalized poor, and show how this growth and development has been predatory in nature, benefitting a small minority at the expense of a large majority of the population who are experiencing poverty, unemployment and the loss of livelihoods as a result. This paper argues that Gandhian economic philosophy - in particular, the emphasis on localization and decentralization – has a central role to play in the development agenda of India, and is fundamental in correcting this imbalance. By drawing on Gandhi’s economic philosophy and present-day grassroots movements and initiatives that are echoing his core principles, this paper argues for the localization of power in the form of participatory governance to achieve rural revitalization, poverty eradication and radical empowerment. Fundamental for this to happen are appropriate forms and systems of governance at the local level; the creation of livelihoods through and within the local community; and incorporating local traditional and indigenous knowledge into development strategies.

This dissertation focuses on the economic and environmental benefits of planting switchgrass as a bioenergy feedstock. The first chapter presents a dynamic optimization model of fertilizer and land allocation between switchgrass and corn to estimate economic benefits. Subsequent chapters utilize Geographic Information System (GIS)-based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to be calibrated to evaluate the environmental (nutrient and sediment loading) effects of land use conversion to switchgrass production on water quality and analyze the Water Quality Trading (WQT) program with cost-effectiveness ratios ordered for abatements of nutrient loadings in an East Tennessee watershed.