This was a study on the Utah cattle industry which compared five different feeding enterprises. These feeding enterprises included feeding cull cows, finishing beef yearling steers, finishing Holstein yearling steers, backgrounding beef steer calves, and backgrounding Holstein steer calves. The main purpose of this study was to determine which feeding enterprise was the most profitable for Utah cattle producers. Another objective of the study was to determine if LRP insurance lowered the volatility in the returns to these feeding enterprises. In order to answer these two questions of interest, a historical analysis of Utah cattle and feed prices was conducted from 1990 through 2009. Weekly sales data were used, and seasonality and price trends were determined. Next, enterprise budgets were created for each feeding enterprise to establish historical returns. Then, using the historical data as a foundation, a simulation analysis was run to forecast future returns and determine the risk associated with each feeding enterprise. LRP insurance was also added to the model to simulate the effects it had on lowering risk. After completing a simulation analysis and comparing means and standard deviations of the expected returns, portfolio theory was used to put the feeding enterprises into different portfolios to attempt to lower risk. Then stochastic dominance was used to conclude which feeding enterprise was the most preferred for Utah cattle producers. The results of the study depend upon the producer's level of risk. The majority of producers have an ARAC value between -0.0002 and 0.0012. With that knowledge, the results suggested that the majority of Utah cattle producers should finish Holstein yearling steers. If a producer was highly risk seeking, then he or she was better off to feed cull cows. If the producer was highly risk averse, then he or she preferred a portfolio of cull cows and backgrounding both Holstein and beef steers with LRP insurance. The results of the study also indicated that LRP insurance was an effective tool for lowering the variability in expected returns. However, the results suggested that the most preferred option for Utah cattle producers was to feed either cull cows or Holstein yearling steers without LRP insurance.

Economists are still searching for methods to reduce/eliminate Hypothetical Bias (HB). Different methods have been previously applied some with success and others without. In this study, we aimed to further test the cognitive dissonance approach (CD) through a learning design method to estimate the WTP for five beef attributes: Non-quality, Kentucky Proud, Appalachian, Grass Fed and a mix of 25% Non-quality and 75% Kentucky Proud, using a one and one half bounded model. To test the CD, 881 participants from the University of Kentucky, were randomly assigned to a real/hypothetical market for a battery recycling project at first and afterwards to a hypothetical market for beef. For the battery recycling, participants were asked to donate $1, $2 or $3. For the beef market, participants were randomly assigned to a $4 or $6 for the non-quality attribute patty. Participants assigned to a $4 were afterwards randomly assigned to a $4.5, $5, $5.5 or $6 and the ones assigned to a $6 were afterwards assigned to a $6.5, $7, $7.5 and $8 for the other attribute patties. From this study, we found that the learning design was effective in reducing the cognitive dissonance or conflicts between what consumers say and their actions.

In the 1980s, the American meat industry began restructuring both its domestic production methods and the distribution of its processing facilities. Many meat and poultry processing facilities have since been relocated into small rural communities. The red meat industry was once highly-paid and unionized, but now work in both meat and poultry processing is a dangerous, low-paid manufacturing job, heavily reliant on immigrant workers who must turn to local social services to supplement their wages and benefits. In an attempt to discover the manner in which the social relations of a specific locale may be enmeshed with global production, this research explored perceptions of social power and alliances after a rural community became host to a foreign workforce employed by the local poultry processing plant. On-site semi-structured interviews were conducted with sixteen local residents, and a content analysis of the community newspaper was undertaken. The research found that as new production relations were inserted into the community, the society continued to reproduce and social relations remained relatively unchanged. The community's cultural standards and social infrastructure dictate that residents are respectful of authority, extend Christian charity to those less fortunate, and are generally accepting of a community known for low wages, low taxation, and low standards of education. Hegemonic ideologies seem to dictate the goals and beneficiaries of social power, and residents are unable to name any power vectors even in the face of sustained community support of, for example, the company that introduced the immigrant labor into the community. While there are indications of displeasure with the influx of immigrants appearing in the newspaper and the interviews, there are tangible examples that the community was proactive in welcoming the immigrants into their community. Thus, given that the last time elements of the community united around an issue was in the mid-1970s and no other issue has evoked any type of tangible struggle since then, there is no indication that any social alliances will be formed in reaction to changes in the community wrought by the globalization of its economy.

The Family Forest Research Center recently conducted a mail survey of about 1,400 Massachusetts landowners. Respondents were given questions about themselves and their land and were then asked to rate three carbon sequestration programs in terms of their likelihood to participate. An ordered logit model is used to estimate probabilities that landowners would participate in various improved forest management programs. There are several estimation issues to consider with the ordered logit model. The relative merits of alternative models, including the multinomial and binomial logit, rank-ordered logit, binary logit and mixed ordered logit are discussed. Results of the ordered logit indicate that older males with less education and who own less than 100 acres are less likely to participate in an improved forest management program. All landowners are less likely to participate in a program that requires a management plan and that has a lengthy time commitment, low revenue stream and early withdrawal penalty. Policy implications and direction for future research are discussed.

In 1990, the U.S. Congress approved an increase in the federal excise tax on beer from $9 to $18 per barrel. This tax was required to be paid by all brewers and importers, on all produced units as of January 1991. The hike, which was equivalent to an additional 65 cents in federal taxes per 288 ounces (a 24 pack), represented the largest federal tax increase for beer in U.S history. Interestingly, retail prices increased by an average of $1.40 per pack; that is, the tax pass-through was “over-shifted” by approximately 115% (i.e. 75 cents above the 65 cent increase). Economic theory raises questions about the standard assumption that the pass-through rate of alcohol taxes to consumer prices is equal to 100%, but does not provide exact predictions. This study analyzes the determinants of tax over-shifting observed as a result of the 1991 federal tax increase on U.S. beer production. This thesis reports cross-sectional OLS regressions where several variables at the market, firm and brand level are used to explain the change in the nominal price of beer between the last quarter of 1990 and the first quarter of 1991. After controlling for as many factors as the available dataset permits, a robust result across specifications is that non–price vertical restraints (exclusive territory and exclusive dealing contract between beer manufacturers and beer distributors), advertising expenditures (a proxy for product differentiation) and the number of brands are important determinants of pass-through rate. While the three determinants appear to be statistically significant, it is the first two that seem to be of greater economic importance. The fact that vertical restraints are associated with a smaller pass-through rate is consistent with the idea that vertical restraints can serve to mitigate the double marginalization problem; the reason for this interpretation is that theoretical work suggests that a more severe double-marginalization problem can magnify the pass-through rate. Conversely, the effect of advertising is consistent with the theoretical notion that less price-elastic (i.e. more heavily advertised) products will experience a higher pass-through rate. Together, advertising expenditures (evaluated at the mean of the data) and the absence of vertical restraints, can account for $1.075 out of the $1.40 price increase (i.e. 76.8% of the pass-through rate).

Financial illiteracy broadly affects people’s financial and economic well-being. The purpose of this thesis is to identify how the magnitudes of financial literacy determinants change under different residency settings. A county-level calculation of financial literacy is created, and logit and negative binomial regressions are employed to compare the relationship between demographic variables and financial literacy in metro/non-metro and urban/rural counties. Data on individual’s financial knowledge and personal characteristics is obtained from the FINRA National Financial Capability Study. Urban and rural residency is determined using USDA ERS Rural-Urban Continuum Codes and the Index of Relative Rurality. These results provide an improved understanding of who is more likely to experience higher and lower financial literacy and may be useful for policymakers and educators wanting to provide targeted resources for improving financial literacy in their area.

Precision agriculture continues to be prevalent within row-crop production. The purpose of this study was to investigate the adoption status of precision agricultural practices among selected row-crop (soybean, wheat, corn, cotton, peanuts, and rice) producers in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Seventy-four percent of row-crop producers surveyed in this study had adopted precision agricultural practices in their farming operations. Eighty-three percent of respondents indicated they were using automated GPS technology such as autosteer, 66% were using manual guidance such as lightbar, 63% variable-rate prescription map, and 34% auto-sprayer boom section or nozzle control. The primary source for receiving information relating to precision agriculture were agricultural dealerships, extension, and crop consultants, respectively. In addition, the amount of acreage a producer farmed was a statistically significant predictor of how many precision agricultural technologies a producer adopted.

The objective of this study is to estimate the willingness to pay of U.S. Gulf Coast residents to support oyster reef restoration. The Gulf Coast is the leading commercial oyster- producing region in the United States, accounting for approximately 46% of the total commercial oyster harvest in 2021. My benefit estimates were based on data obtained from a contingent valuation survey of 6,475 Gulf Coast respondents. I estimated the willingness to pay (WTP) for oyster reef restoration using interval regression and Turnbull lower-bound methods. The estimated mean WTP value is in the range of $142 and $436 per household. The results show respondents who eat oysters and those that hold saltwater fishing licenses have significantly higher WTP.

This paper reports on efforts to improve socioeconomic conditions and natural resource use in the El Pina lito community, department of Chiquimula, Guatemala. Students participating in supervised practical training at Centro Universitario de Oriente/Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (CUNORI) developed projects to address these issues. A general diagnostic instrument was created for this community to assist in the development of specific work projects. Students prepared community first-aid kits, agricultural activities with school children, and instructional sessions with farmers on how to prepare a family garden and efficiently manage domestic animals. Other activities included ornamental tree preparation for female participants and a yucca demonstration plot for the Maraxco village.

In developing countries such as Guatemala, firewood is increasingly being used for cooking in most rural areas. Consequently, there is a shortage of firewood in these areas beca use trees do not grow at the same rate as they are consumed. Some authors report that 90% of the heat from firewood is lost during combustion. Several alternatives to open pit fires exist to reduce the amount of firewood used. However, these alternatives need to be evaluated to determine their efficiency. This project compared the time efficiency and volume of firewood used in the Finlandia style improved stoves, Josefina stoves, and open pit fires used by the majority of people in the Salitrón community of San Juan Ermita, Chiquimula.