Crop insurance has been used by farmers to reduce yield loss risk. In this thesis we explore the plausibility of using weather derivative products to hedge against temperature induced corn yield losses. The ultimate goal is to explore relationships between weather and yield in order to hedge yield risk with exchange traded weather derivatives. This paper sets up the groundwork for these strategies by determining the weather relationships to annual yield and variability of yields using log-linear models. We find significant links among corn, soybeans, and hay yields in Iowa and weather variables such that using temperature based weather derivatives to hedge against yield loss is economically viable.

Gender equality had long been discussed and studied. Besides education and the influence from society, the family is the closest and most important place in which people form and change their views and values about the gender issue. Are old values more likely to be passed on in families in which several generations live together? We found interesting results here. East Asia has a relatively high level of economic growth; however, the gender equality status is still not satisfying. China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan share highly similar cultural backgrounds. Additionally, they all underwent rapid development after World War II. Most importantly, they share a tradition of several generations living together. By studying the impact of co-residence on gender attitudes in families in those four societies, the impact of co-residence is carefully examined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of the spatial origin of capital or investment funds and its influence on local community incomes within the context of agricultural production and processing in a rural area in Utah. A careful identification of the sources of capital investment can be used to determine the spatial source and flow of returns from it, and, hence, provides some indication of the extent to which local community income could be expected to change with changes in the level and mix of factors employed locally.

Broiler production in the United States and in Utah has become increasingly important in the last few years. It has developed from virtual nonexistence in 1930 to the point where it now produces more than half of the total chicken meat production. Growth has been especially rapid since 1934, when separate statistics on broiler production became available. In 1951, production was about 6 times that of 1940 and for the first time the number of broilers raised exceeded the number of chickens raised from farm production.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of major landslides during 1983-84 in Twelve-Mile Canyon, Sanpete County, Utah on agricultural water users in the Gunnison Irrigation System. Sediment content and stream flow data were gathered from Twelve-Mile Creek during the irrigation season of 1984. This information was used to estimate the sediment load of Twelve-Mile Creek and to compare historical averages . A survey of Gunnison Irrigation System Water Users was conducted to obtain information defining the damage and production losses caused by an increase in sediment carried by irrigation water. This information was tabulated and used as a basis for calculating the cost of mudslides . Alternatives for mitigating the impacts of the landslides were explored and evaluated. Recommendations were presented to lessen the economic loss suffered by Gunnison Valley farmers. Damages were estimated to be over three million dollars annually. Construction of sediment basins and alteration in specific management prac tices offered the potential to reduce damage and loss by nearly one third.

No description available.

Government programs that restrict production and increase prices to particular groups of producers have a long history in the United States. The purpose of this research is to analyze the implications of such a program for peanuts in three independent essays. The first essay focuses on the development of a model of the effects of cross-county transfers on peanut quota after the 1996 farm bill. Using a spatial linear regression model, the hypothesis that the lifting of transfer restrictions tends to equilibrate lease rates across counties is tested. The results indicate that, after the 1996 bill, peanut quota moved out of counties that under produce their quota to overproducing counties, indirectly indicating a tendency for lease rates to equalize. The second essay studies the most recent changes to the peanut program, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 2002, and reviews important events that led to these changes. Several models are developed that analyze the costs and benefits of the revised program in domestic and foreign markets. It is concluded that farmers in most peanut producing states will incur losses due to the peanut program changes, with the exception of Texas and Florida. The impact of the transformation on the world price of edible peanuts is analyzed and shown to be theoretically ambiguous-- the world price could either increase or decrease depending on demand and supply elasticities. The essay explores numerically the influence of the relevant elasticities. The third essay reviews the U.S. federal crop insurance program and investigates its interaction with the peanut program. A model of a risk neutral profit maximizing farmer is developed and comparative static results are derived. The results show that in equilibrium peanut quota lease rates do not represent the full difference between the support price and world price and are affected by the cost of crop insurance.

Rural landscapes in the United States have changed substantially in recent years due to increased urbanization, and an ever-increasing demand for consumptive and nonconsumptive uses of natural resources. At the same time, we are facing new challenges regarding the socio-economic well-being of people and the ecological significance of resources in the landscape. Previous research in natural resources economics and management has failed to recognize the role of natural resources amenities in fostering economic growth, human values, and public welfare. Applying various non-market valuation techniques to real world observations, the findings from the essays in this dissertation add to the valuation aspects of natural resources economics literature, and reveal some policy implications for local, state, and federal governments. The first essay investigates the potential of promoting natural resource amenities as a rural economic growth engine. The second investigates how the variation, spatial distribution, and configuration of landuse features are valued in urban neighborhoods. The third essay estimates the demand for public lands in urban areas and analyzes the anticipated economic welfare gain of policies supplying such public lands. The fourth essay extends the existing model of the life expectancy production function to evaluate the role of environmental amenities in promoting public health. The final essay assesses the effects of the ongoing landuse changes and urban sprawl on the demand for wildlife hunting and related nature-based recreation in rural America. Since the recent approaches of conservation and development emphasize passive employment of natural resources for sustainable development; the essays in this iv dissertation present some insights into recognizing the value of natural resources in economic growth, human values, public health, and recreational prospects in the United States. In addition to providing policy implications, essays in this dissertation extend or improve some of the existing models and methodological frameworks of non-market valuation.

This thesis deals with two related topics under the theme of ―Analyzing Poverty in the Southern United States‖. The first part explores the role of government healthcare and education expenditure for poverty reduction, focusing particularly on how these relationships change over space and time in the Southern United States. It is found that healthcare expenditure is a significant contributor to poverty alleviation in both 1990 and 2000. The healthcare expenditure has a relatively high poverty-reducing effect in the Texas cluster and in the west part of the Mississippi Delta cluster in both years, while the poverty-reducing effect of healthcare expenditures disappears in 2000 in the Central Appalachia cluster. The effect of government expenditures on education decreased over time in the west part of the Mississippi Delta cluster but the education expenditure began to have a poverty-reducing effect in the Central Appalachia cluster in 2000. The second part focuses on disentangling the relationship between urban sprawl and poverty in the Southern United States. Results show that an increase in urban sprawl, as measured by wildland-urban interface (WUI), is associated with an increase in the urban poverty rate. The positive interrelationship between urban poverty and area of sprawl in metro counties supports the theoretical framework that urban poverty is both cause and effect of urban sprawl. With no other direct or indirect association between the poverty rate and urban sprawl, the positive interrelationship is explained by the movement of business centers to the suburban areas by sprawl development and immobility of the poor and the middle and upper class households‘ preference for the neighborhoods with lower poverty rates.

Precision farming entails production decisions that are made by obtaining data about soil and field traits. Information about yield and soil characteristics at different locations is collected and management strategies consistent with this information are designed. Information providers play a major role in helping farmers incorporate precision farming information into their decision-making processes. The main goal of this research is to add to the understanding of preferences of information sources in the context of precision farming. Data from cotton farmers in 11 Southeastern states were used to achieve this goal. Results from this study can be utilized by precision farming information providers to more effectively target their clientele. This thesis examines two related research topics. The first essay focuses on the use of Extension as a source of precision farming information and the factors that determine preferences for this information source. The second essay examines farm business attributes, farmer characteristics and regional factors affecting cotton farmers‘ use of various precision farming information sources. Farmers‘ preferences for precision farming education programming from Extension were described and analyzed using a basic statistical analysis. Results indicate that farmers tend to use various information sources simultaneously with Extension to make decisions about precision farming technology. An independent samples t-test showed that the means for age, education, income, farm size, and land tenure were statically significantly different between Extension users and non-users when other factors that may influence the use of precision farming information sources were not controlled. A multivariate probit model was used in the second essay to determine the farm business, farmer, and regional characteristics affecting the use of different precision farming information sources. The multivariate approach accounts for correlation among the different information sources. Results suggest that the decision to use a precision farming information source may be correlated with the decision to use other information sources. When controlling for other factors that may influence the use of precision farming information sources age, education, farm size, and income were found to significantly affect the decision to use information sources.