The small Indian mongoose is among the worst of invasive alien species, yet the implications of managing the species are poorly understood. To address concerns of interest to practitioners and policymakers, we analyze survey data to document the impacts of this species in Fiji and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of management approaches that are both culturally appropriate and readily implementable: live trapping, kill trapping, and hunting. We find that the monetized benefits of kill trapping exceed the benefits of live trapping and hunting. Still, all of these management options are preferred to the status quo of no management.

New wheat-breeding techniques, such as hybridization and genetic modification, show increasing yield potential. This study involves estimating multi-output multi-input production technology by stochastic frontier techniques to evaluate the economic value of this yield potential. An input-oriented distance function is formulated and applied to European Farm Accountancy Data of 23 European countries. Based on the analysis, an average shadow value is derived for the increase in the marginal yield of wheat that corresponded to 18.87 €/ha. Further, technical change, technical efficiency, and returns to scale are measured for different European regions.

The dynamics of entry and exit are examined across different categories of farms depending on the timing of entry and/or exit through a detailed panel data set on Canadian agriculture. The decomposition highlights the differences in the groups of farms and provides information affecting entry and exit beyond what can be inferred from net exit numbers. While aggregate values show a gradual fall in farm numbers over time and suggest a sector in decline, the decomposition reveals that approximately one-third of farms in each census are new entrants but only half of these will be in operation by the time of the next census. The results of the analysis suggest that many of the factors that increase the probability of entry also increase the probability of exit; smaller operations, producing vegetable/horticulture goods, located in more densely populated regions, are more likely to enter the sector but also to leave farming. Multigeneration involvement and a possible succession plan also contribute to the longevity of the farm operation after it has been launched. The results also highlight the decline of the mid-size operations and the growing importance of large farms in the overall share of production.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is currently in the throes of a budgetary crisis. Negotiated employee salary increases and the general inflationary trend of the 1970's have resulted in significant increases in operating costs. The Department, like many of its counterpart agencies in other states, is funded primarily from dedicated revenues collected from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. Since there are no built-in adjustments for inflation in license fees, as there are in sales taxes or even income taxes. Department revenues have not kept pace with costs. As a result, the Department is projecting a budget deficit of around one million dollars for FY 1980–81.

Supply functions, elasticity estimates, and nonjointness test results consistently indicated that few commodities compete economically in the production of six major Texas vegetables (cabbage, cantaloupes, carrots, onions, potatoes, and watermelons). Significant bias effects caused by government-supported commodities, fixed inputs, and technological change were observed and measured. Nonnested test results for the hypothesis of sequential decision making by vegetable producers were inconclusive, but they gave greater likelihood support to sequential than to contemporaneous decision making.

The negative effects of micronutrient deficiencies on human capital acquisition and economic productivity are well documented. A less well understood but potentially serious threat to human health in developing countries is the contamination of food crops by fungal toxins. This paper surveys what is known about the health and economic burdens attributable to insufficient micronutrients and toxic contamination of food in developing countries, discusses consumer demand for micronutrients and food safety, and describes some of the challenges to improving population nutrition, particularly in rural areas.

There is a substantial controversy in the economics literature over the magnitude of the expenditure elasticity for food grain in China that is caused, to a large extent, by whether time-series or cross-section data are used in the analysis. A set of reasonable elasticities for a complete demand system is estimated by using a panel of county level data in Guangdong Province for the last ten years. The results show that food grain has a small positive income elasticity, implying that food grain is not an inferior good in China. The reason that consumption per capita has not increased during a period of rapid economic growth in income is that the relative prices of the food and non-food substitutes for food grain have decreased.

Using data collected from a combination of on-site and on-line surveys, this study examines recreational demand for equestrian trail-riding in Kentucky. A truncated, negative binomial regression is applied to analyze individuals’ visitation behavior consistent with a travel cost model. Results suggest that distance is the most significant determinant of average annual visits to a particular site. Various trail site characteristics, such as trail length, scenic overlooks, and trail markers, affect the number of visits an individual takes. Geographic information system (GIS) analysis permits the identification of equestrian population centers. Information obtained from this study offers a decision base for policymakers to use to manage existing equestrian trails and locate new ones.

The effect that selected characteristics of a Pennsylvania hay auction has on winning bids of loads of hay are presented in this paper. Survey data from 107 buyers over the period September 1982 to April 1983 were used. Hay type, perceived quality, and the intended use of the hay were found to be significant factors in explaining prices paid per ton. Sellers could increase their revenues by producing alfalfa hay, alfalfa and legume-grass hay of higher quality, and attending marketing days with a larger number of horse feed buyers.

The case of reduction in ad valorem tariffs as a trade liberalization policy is considered in this article. It is shown that the reduction leads to a higher quality of imports, ceteris paribus. This hypothesis was tested on the case of Japanese beef imports from the United States and Australia. U. S. beef, according to the results of Gallup surveys, is considered by Japanese consumers to be a high quality product, while Australian beef is considered to be a low quality product. Empirical results support the hypothesis. Moreover, the recent domination of U. S. beef in the Japanese market is further explained by increasingly more efficient U. S. beef production relative to Australian production and a strong income effect, where an increase in per capita income leads to more demand for higher quality products.

The introduction of a centralized institution for trading production rights in quota-regulated agricultural sectors can dramatically improve the flow of information among market participants and increase efficiency. On the other hand, prevailing conditions in these small markets can provide sellers with a market advantage, yielding high quota prices that impose important financial costs on quota holders and limit the entry of new producers into the industry. In this paper, we modify the normal allocation rule of the k-double auction (kDA) to counter thin market conditions and to favor buyers who bid low prices. In laboratory experiments, we test the “truncated” kDA (T-kDA) against a regular kDA for its ability to affect buyer and seller behavior and decrease equilibrium prices, and assess how it impacts efficiency. The results show that the T-kDA significantly lowers the equilibrium price and results in moderate efficiency losses. Most importantly, the T-kDA effectively counters the market power of oligopolists when demand far outstrips supply.

Over-application of manure on cropland can cause water quality degradation. This paper reports a modeling approach for assessing tradeoffs among manure storage and handling systems as they relate to the nutrient loadings in cropland runoff, including nitrate losses to groundwater. The CREAMS simulation model provided estimates of nutrient losses. A linear optimization model was used to determine the income-nutrient loss tradeoffs. Six-month storage was profitable for farmers with average-size dairy herds, but compared to daily spreading caused increased nitrate leaching through the soil to groundwater resources. Twelve-month storage systems decreased farm profitability while decreasing the total nitrogen losses from farm fields.

Due to expanding trade and increasing concentration of production during the past few decades, small local farms have faced ever-growing competitive pressures. We investigate the impacts of this globalization on production of local food by examining Hawai‘i's open island economy and econometrically evaluating impacts of import competition on the growth and survival of individual fruit and vegetable farms. We find evidence that rising levels of imports significantly hinder farm growth in Hawai'i and have a smaller impact on farm survival. Increased foreign competition increases the likelihood of exit for commercial farms but has little effect on small noncommercial farms.

This study used 30 years of continuous data for 135 farms in Kansas to explore changes in productivity using Malmquist productivity indices (MPI). The indices were used to determine whether there was productivity convergence or divergence in Kansas farms. The results showed there was significant divergence among the farms. The average annual productivity growth was 0.50 percent; the top farms based on MPI were larger in terms of value of farm production, crop farm income, and livestock farm income and received a larger percentage of their income from oilseeds, feed grains, and swine than the other farms on average.

Water supply unreliability in many public water systems stems from aging infrastructure. We measure unreliability by the issuance of boil water notices (BWNs) within one year prior to single-family residential sale observations. Using a spatial quantile regression framework on transactions between 2012 and 2017, we find statistically significant, negative relationships between BWNs and residential properties. The estimated impacts of unreliability on residential housing prices, however, are not uniform across the distribution of prices. Specifically, we find that BWNs have a larger impact on medium- to low-priced houses (at or below the 60 percent quantile) compared with high-priced houses. An aggregate marginal willingness-to-pay value of $4.2 million was computed for a one-day reduction in annual BWN throughout Marion County.

Logit regression models are estimated to identify factors affecting decisions to enroll farmland in New York's agricultural districts program and participate in the use-value assessment program. The results suggest that the districts law is consistent with preserving the best farmland at the rural-urban fringe and that the decision to enroll in agricultural districts affects in a recursive fashion the decision to participate in the use-value assessment program. Short-term monetary gains are the overriding considerations in applying for use-value exemptions. This may lead to additional erosion of the tax base via tax preferences for agricultural land.

This study shows that the price-yield correlation is a major influence in determining the skewness of revenue. Therefore, normality for revenue may not be rejected even if the price and/or yield distributions are significantly skewed. Analysis of cotton revenue for Mississippi shows that this can be the case empirically when the correlation between price and yield is moderately negative and the relative variability of yield and price is not too high. Hence, for crops produced in their major production regions where negative correlations between prices and yields are the greatest, revenue distributions may have a greater tendency toward normal.

This study examines the causal effect of a change in administration of the New York State milk price gouging law on retail milk prices. Specifically, we focus on the November 2008 shift from a threshold pricing policy that consisted of monthly announced prices to a fixed margin policy. Using a regression discontinuity approach, we find lower prices and thus increased consumer welfare for retail milk purchasers in New York State. Furthermore, the change in application of the law may have eliminated previously hypothesized coordination in pricing by retailers through a more competitive retail milk environment.

Seasonal incentive plans, such as the base-excess plan, have been initiated to encourage producers to shift their production to be more similar to seasonal consumption patterns. The effectiveness of the seasonal incentive plan was evaluated by examining Maryland milk production data for the period 1966–78. The analysis indicated that month-to-month variation in milk production has increased in recent years, and suggests that current seasonal incentive plans be evaluated to encourage dairy producers to shift their production schedules.

Recent survey data are examined to improve current understanding of the factors that help to determine the value of information reported on a website that serves as the centerpiece of the USDA's “Soybean Rust Integrated Pest Management—Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education.” Respondents’ initial beliefs about their chances of experiencing a rust outbreak are shown to affect the likelihood that soybean producers will visit the website and change their management of fungicide use as a result.