The authors present an empirical model used to estimate the effects of alternative farming practices on potential nitrogen runoff and leaching in 128,591 National Resource Inventory sites across the Midwest and the Northern Plains of the United States. This model integrates the effects of soils,...

Contained in this paper are estimates of the benefits and costs of alternative soil conservation policies in a spatially and temporally consistent framework. The policies considered are implementation of soil conservation practices with an objective of reducing erosion to a site's tolerance...

Designing policies to control conjoint pollution poses several difficulties for environmental authorities. This study aims to provide general conditions under which the relative efficiency of input-use taxes and standards can be judged in the presence of spatial heterogeneity. It also shows how...

Resource purchasing funds have become a major tool for environmental protection and resource conservation. Existing conservation funds do not use identical strategies for targeting purchases, which may be determined by both political and economic considerations. This paper compares the effects...

To what extent can a significant portion of the environmental benefits offered by CRP be maintained if CRP outlays are significantly reduced? Recent CARD research reported here in a succinct manner addresses the issue of economic and environmental trade-offs in CRP.

This report summarizes the major findings of a study in which an integrated agro-ecological economic modeling system was constructed around Agriculture Canada's Canadian Regional Agriculture Model (CRAM) to analyze the economic and environmental impacts of proposed agricultural policies. The...

The effect of sampling error in estimation of farmers' mean yields for crop insurance purposes is explored using farm-level corn yield data in Iowa from 1990 to 2000 and Monte Carlo simulations. We find that sampling error combined with nonlinearities in the insurance indemnity function will...

Projections of U.S. ethanol production and its impacts on planted acreage, crop prices, livestock production and prices, trade, and retail food costs are presented under the assumption that current tax credits and trade policies are maintained. The projections were made using a multi-product,...

The ongoing growth of corn-based ethanol production raises some fundamental questions about what impact continued growth will have on U.S. and world agriculture. Estimates of the long-run potential for ethanol production can be made by calculating the corn price at which the incentive to expand...

Participants in a supply chain of agricultural value-added products face significant challenges. Many of the costly distinctive traits are difficult (if not impossible) to observe even after consumption. A complicating factor, addressed here, is that in some circumstances delivered quality can...