Ethanol production has recently surged in response to biofuel policies and increased fossil oil prices. We develop a partial equilibrium model focused on U.S. corn-based ethanol production with downside risk-averse farmers to assess the consequences of ethanol production on agricultural...

Nearly all western states lack comparative advantages for producing corn for ethanol and oilseeds for biodiesel. Despite this disadvantage, most western states have legislated incentives for production of biofuels. Unfavorable changes in price relationships, high transportation costs for...

This article analyzes recent volatility spillovers in the United States from crude oil using futures prices. Crude oil spillovers to both corn and ethanol markets are somewhat similar in timing and magnitude, but moderately stronger to the ethanol market. The shares of corn and ethanol price...

We develop a positive mathematical programming model to investigate the impact of climate change on land use in the prairie pothole region of western Canada, with particular focus on wetlands retention. We examine the effect of climate change and biofuel policies that are implemented to mitigate...

A mixed-integer programming model is developed to assess the economic feasibility of siting a woody biomass-based ethanol facility in the central Appalachian hardwood region. The model maximizes the net present value (NPV) of a facility over its economic life. Model inputs include biomass...

The value of maintaining a minimum streamflow objective on average is lessened when there is considerable dispersion around the average. An integrated economic and hydrology model is presented which provides water policy planners with a way to accurately measure both the economic cost and...

Conventional wisdom implies that high discount rates accelerate depletion of tropical forests. As shown in this article, this result does not necessarily hold in a two-state variable model that distinguishes between primary and secondary forest stocks. In the context of a fixed concession period...

Fires are an important and natural component of forest ecosystems that affect the timber value of forests, and thus optimal rotations. Fire also affects amenity values provided by forests. This analysis examines the relationships among forest fire risk, timber values, and amenity values in a...

A model of recreation demand is developed to determine the role of water levels in determining participation at and frequency of trips taken to various federal reservoirs and rivers in the Columbia River Basin. Contingent behavior data are required to break the near-perfect multicollinearities...

A computable general equilibrium model of the southeastern Colorado economy is used to compare the economic impacts of a proposed increase in reservoir storage to an alternative: temporary water transfers. While both provide municipalities with reliable water supply during droughts and are shown...