According to a Virginia-North Carolina watershed survey, farmers view advisory services as having the effect of decreasing pesticide use. However, analysis of pesticide use shows that hired staff, scouting personnel, and extension agents are associated with higher pesticide toxicity applied to...

The purpose of this paper is to empirically compare the out-of-sample predictive capabilities of artificial neural networks, logit and probit models using dichotmous choice contingent valuation survey data. The authors find that feed-forward backpropagation artificial neural networks perform...

This dissertation is comprised of three essays that generate methods to measure the ex-ante economic impacts of agriculture technology innovations. The first essay entitled âValuing Intellectual Property Rights in an Imperfectly Competitive Market: A Biopharming Applicationâ presents a method...

Cassava is the main staple crop in Nigeria. Using primary data from four south eastern states in Nigeria, the study assessed the gender impacts of improved cassava varieties. Comparative statistical analysis reveals that total female labor is higher than total male in cassava production,...

This dissertation is composed of three essays; the first two examine the decision-making of potato producing households in Bolivia and the third examines well-being changes among Zimbabwe households. The first essay entitled âThe role of risk mitigation in production efficiency: A case study of...

The expected benefits from herbicide resistant transgenic rice in Uruguay are estimated with stochastic simulation techniques. Economic surplus methods that account for private profits are used to measure the magnitude and distribution of the benefits between producers and a multinational firm....