Carter Cosgray, Shourish Chakravarty, T. Wade, Zhifeng Gao
{"title":"Citrus growers’ willingness to pay and perceptions of cover crops","authors":"Carter Cosgray, Shourish Chakravarty, T. Wade, Zhifeng Gao","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.15","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study develops and uses a survey to gather information on demographics, production and management practices, and perceptions on using cover crops as a conservation practice from citrus growers and utilizes the double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method to measure their willingness to pay (WTP) for adopting cover crops in citrus production. The survey is conducted for citrus producers in Florida and Texas. The study finds that, on average, growers from Florida are willing to pay $509.48/acre per year for adopting cover crops. This is substantially less than the WTP for growers in Texas, who are willing to pay more than $1,000/acre per year for cover crops. The study analyzes the factors that have significant impacts on growers’ WTP for cover crops and discusses the heterogeneity in the grower perceptions on the benefits and drawbacks of using this conservation practice by state. Although using cover crops has not been a popular conservation practice in perennial fruit production systems, its potential to improve soil quality is particularly important for citrus production in Florida where soils are sandy and have low organic matter.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47740900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Agricultural credit association efficiencies over time and with mergers","authors":"Yurou He, L. Tauer","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.9","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Efficiencies of Agricultural Credit Associations of the US Farm Credit System are measured quarterly from 2005 through 2020. A slacks-based measure based on the directional distance function is used with non-performing loans included as an undesirable output. This permitted efficiency scores to be measured by type of defined input or output. Generally, most Associations were highly efficient, but there was deterioration in mean efficiency over the years 2008–2018, a period of financial difficulties in the US agriculture. Efficiencies of Associations that merged or consolidated were tracked before and after these activities. Mergers and consolidations often led to increased efficiencies.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48466350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Earnings differentials between H-2A and unauthorized citrus harvesters in Florida","authors":"S. Simnitt, Gulcan Onel","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.14","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The H-2A temporary agricultural workers visa program is a federal program allowing agricultural employers to bring in foreign workers on a seasonal basis. The extent to which H-2A workers earn more compared to their domestic unauthorized counterparts is of interest for both producers and workers. Using novel data on citrus harvest workers in the state of Florida, we estimate hourly earnings differentials by legal status using Classical and Bayesian inference. Findings suggest that participation in the H-2A program is associated with 18–23% higher hourly earnings for migrant harvesters in Florida after controlling for observable demographic and work-related variables.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43410746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. O’Donnell, L. Nogueira, C. Walters, E. Peterson, S. Irmak
{"title":"Economics of deficit irrigation utilizing soil moisture probes in the western corn belt","authors":"E. O’Donnell, L. Nogueira, C. Walters, E. Peterson, S. Irmak","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.16","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Effective irrigation management is critical for future food supplies and the prosperity of producers engaged in irrigation production. Through a deficit irrigation field experiment, we determine the financial impact on producers caused by changing irrigation costs, corn prices, extreme weather events, and restricting irrigation levels. Results suggest that the optimal economic strategy within our constrained optimization model is to fully irrigate, with the economic impact highly dependent on commodity prices, restriction level, and irrigation costs. The greatest economic losses caused by irrigation restrictions come from decreases in yield. Some simulations resulted in negative profits, indicating that a switch to alternative crops requiring less irrigation may be warranted.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49180961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Incentivizing the production of ecosystem services on working lands: The opportunities and challenges of funding “nature’s contributions to people” in the U.S. Northeast","authors":"M. Machado, Alicia F. Coleman","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the coming decades, promoting the production of ecosystem service provisioning will become increasingly important in the U.S. Northeast, which is expected to experience a number of impacts as a result of climate change, including rising temperatures, changes in precipitation and seasonality, and sea-level rise, among others (U.S. Global Change Research Program 2020). Incentives have been shown to motivate the adoption of sustainable production practices that provision ecosystem services across different types of working landscapes. Using data from a recent landscape assessment in the Northeast, this paper finds an incredible breadth of programs available to producers across a variety of working landscapes (e.g., agricultural lands and working forests) and for different production practices. These data also point to critical gaps in current programming and also highlight important opportunities for programmatic synergy and more holistic program design going forward. This paper concludes by discussing the results in the context of four main themes of particular relevance to the U.S. Northeast which include (1) working landbase and infrastructure, (2) livelihood provisioning, (3) scale, and (4) resilience.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42088338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Haseeb Ahmed, U. Emanuelson, K. Alvåsen, Charlotte Berg, J. Hultgren, H. Rocklinsberg, H. Hansson
{"title":"Animal welfare efforts and farm economic outcomes: Evidence from Swedish beef production","authors":"Haseeb Ahmed, U. Emanuelson, K. Alvåsen, Charlotte Berg, J. Hultgren, H. Rocklinsberg, H. Hansson","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.8","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We estimate the relationship between farm animal welfare (FAW) efforts taken by beef farmers and the economic performance of beef farms by using farm accounting data from the Swedish Farm Economic Survey matched with survey data on farm management practices. To this end, we perform a two-step analysis. First, an item response theory (IRT) model estimates the latent FAW effort on farms. FAW effort likely depends on a host of complementary FAW-improving strategies, and the IRT model combines the considered strategies into a unidimensional scale. We take this to represent on-farm FAW effort. Second, we use instrumental variable regressions to estimate the relationship between FAW effort and multiple measures of farm economic performance. We find that higher FAW effort scores have no effect on margins and costs. However, higher FAW effort scores are associated with lower farm sales. Findings suggest that policies (such as targeted label for high FAW) that increase farm revenue as well as incentivize the uptake of FAW-improvement practices may be able to compensate farmers for their FAW effort.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49527435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Econometric identification of crop insurance participation","authors":"Francis Tsiboe, Dylan Turner","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.13","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper shows how econometric identification can be improved in studies making use of crop insurance participation as either an independent or dependent variable. The paper provides the reader with a succinct overview of how crop insurance contracts are priced and how to use publicly available data to derive a novel composite crop insurance design parameter that emulates existing crop insurance rating parameters using a procedure that is based on current actuarial practices. The derived design parameter performs well at predicting historic crop insurance loss-cost ratios and satisfies the requirements for an instrumental variable for a variety of empirical applications related to crop insurance. Representative empirical examples are presented where it is shown that the proposed instrument has favorable two-staged least squares diagnostic tests and is effective at eliminating endogeneity bias.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47656267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Women farmers and climate change: Empirical evidence from Burkina Faso","authors":"A. Diendéré, Djibril Ouédraogo","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.12","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study examines the factors influencing women farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and the effects of these strategies on household income and food insecurity. A field survey was conducted among 426 women farmers in the Center-North region, which covers 7% of Burkina Faso territory. Descriptive statistics, a multinomial logit model, and a propensity score matching model were used to analyze the data collected. The results of the econometric analysis show that high domestic tasks, type of climate shocks experienced, membership in women’s group, and financial constraints are important determinants of adaptation decisions. Adaptation strategies are also found to have a positive impact on income and a negative impact on household food insecurity. These different findings highlight the need to prioritize flexible adaptation options to improve women farmers’ resilience to climate change, rather than generic solutions.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49531989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Residential mobility and the value of water quality improvements in the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern","authors":"Emma Donnelly, Richard T. Melstrom","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.10","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper presents research on the benefits of removing legacy pollutants in Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). AOCs are heavily polluted coastal locations identified as priorities for restoration under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between the United States and Canada. Legacy pollutants pose a human and environmental health risk that can limit opportunities for redevelopment, recreation, and wildlife habitats. The AOC program improves water quality through remediation and restoration projects, which may increase the desirability of living in proximity to AOCs. In this paper, we estimate the economic benefit of cleaning up part of the Milwaukee Estuary AOC with a two-part sorting model using panel data on neighborhood populations and moving decisions before and after a series of remediation actions. Our results provide evidence that residents value remediation, though estimates are sensitive to the definition of the cleanup area. The average annual benefit for a household living near the AOC just downstream of cleanup is $268, with a range of $28-$499 depending on their race and tenure group; the aggregate benefit is $350 million. Results indicate a large difference in benefits between renters and owners but statistically insignificant differences between race groups.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47034507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How reliable – and (net) beneficial – is the green in green infrastructure","authors":"P. Groffman, A. Matsler, Z. Grabowski","doi":"10.1017/age.2023.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2023.6","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The idea of green infrastructure (GI) has generated great interest and creativity in addressing a range of challenging and expensive environmental problems, from coastal resilience to control of combined sewer overflows (CSOs). The appeal of GI stems from its cost savings compared to traditional “gray” infrastructure and the multiple benefits it provides, including biodiversity, aesthetics, and carbon sequestration. For example, a “green” approach to controlling CSOs in New York City saved $1.5 billion compared to a “gray” approach. Despite these advantages, GI still does not have detailed design and reliability specifications as compared to engineered gray infrastructure, potentially hindering its adoption. In this paper, we review some of the potential applications of GI in modern environmental science and discuss how reliability and associated (un)certainty in net benefits need to be addressed to realize the potential of this new approach.","PeriodicalId":44443,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural and Resource Economics Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46840360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}