The purpose of this paper is to develop a water allocation and technology adoption model under the prior appropriation doctrine that recognizes informational asymmetry among water users and between water users and water authorities. We consider informational asymmetry about the agent's type,...

This paper analyzes the sequential decision to adopt two site-specific technologies, soil testing and variable rate technology (VRT), and their impact on nitrogen productivity in four Midwestern states. The results indicate that while farm location was a key variable influencing the adoption of...

This paper examines the extensive and intensive margin changes in land use in the U.S. likely to be induced by biofuel policies and the implications of these policies for GHG emissions over the 2007-2022 period. The policies considered here include the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) by itself as...

Biofuels have been promoted to achieve energy security and as a solution to mitigating climate change. This research presents a framework to examine the extent to which biofuel mandates and subsidies reduce gasoline consumption and their implications for the food and fuel prices. A dynamic,...

Corn ethanol produced in the US and sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil are the world’s leading sources of biofuel. Current US biofuel policies create both incentives and constraints for the import of ethanol from Brazil, and together with the competitiveness and greenhouse gas intensity of...

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/04/10.

We conduct an econometric analysis of the factors influencing U.S. crop yields and acres using U.S. county level data from 1977 to 2007 and evaluate the likely effects of future climate change on U.S. crop yields based on the projected climate changes by IPCC (2001) and our estimated parameters.

A carbon tax would penalize carbon intensive fuels like gasoline and shift fuel consumption to less carbon intensive alternatives like biofuels. Since biofuel production competes for land with agriculture, a carbon tax could raise land rents, divert land towards fuel production, and raise...

We analyze the effect of an emergence of biofuel industry on the Conservation Reserve Program. The government expenditure on Conservation Reserve Program needs to increase dramatically to keep the current scale of CRP program when the biofuel industry is considered. We propose that the...

The ethanol tariff is one of the instruments used by the government to encourage domestic ethanol production. Existing literature analyzing the market and welfare effects of the US ethanol tariff has concluded that removing the tariff would increase social surplus and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG)...