Economists have long argued that increasing the price of agricultural water will encourage the adoption of efficient irrigation technologies. This article considers the choice of irrigation systems conditional on prior land allocation decisions. Adoption functions for gravity and low-pressure...

This study analyzes the impact of implementing carbon permit trading considered under the Kyoto Protocol, and the subsequent expected increase in energy and resource prices on U.S. crop production. The focus is on input substitution, net farm income, regional crop acreage, and crop prices. The...

This study estimates the benefits to agricultural and human health of reducing ozone in the San Joaquin Valley of California, and the costs of ozone control. The San Joaquin Valley's highly valued crops suffer from high ozone levels. Federal and state primary ozone standards are based on health...

This article argues that the existing maze of pesticide policies reflects the multidimensionality of side effects of pesticide use that cannot be addressed by uniform policies. Pesticide policies will improve as (a) economic literacy among natural scientists and policymakers increases; (b)...

A dynamic framework is presented for analyzing regulations affecting the use of spoilage-reducing inputs with potential negative environmental effects, such as pesticides, growth regulators, chemical preservatives, and irradiation. Such regulations change intertemporal consumption patterns as...

Politicians dealing with the “"farm problem”" sometimes lament that output increases when prices go up and when prices go down. This article presents three possible theoretical explanations. In the first, farmers deplete soil (over-farm) when prices are low and imperfect capital markets...

Offering evidence from the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) and centering around Kenkel and Norris conclusions regarding “"Agricultural Producers'’ Willingness to Pay for Real-Time Mesoscale Weather Information,"” this article questions the use of...

This article reviews two major approached used in the past for risk analysis—the expected utility approach and the use of safety rules—and endeavors to reconcile their applicability and use in light of the recent nonexpected utility risk literature and working using the mean-Gini...