Given that approximately half of all U.S. farmland is leased, absentee (non-operator) landowners have a significant role in agriculture. Because decisions about how to use farmland can be affected by ownership status, tenure can have far reaching implications for the production of food and...

This paper considers supply decisions by firms in a dynamic setting with adjustment costsand compares the behavior of an optimal control model to that of a rule-based system whichrelaxes the assumption that agents are explicit optimizers. In our approach, the economicagent uses believably simple...

In this paper we demonstrate how satellite images and other geographic data can be used to predict land use. A cross-section model of land use is estimated with data for a region in central Mexico. Parameters from the model are used to examine the effects of reduced human activity. If variables...

In order to control for censoring and the integer nature of trip demand, the use of count ata models in travel cost analysis is attractive. Two such models, the Poisson and negative binomial, are discussed. Robust estimation techniques that loosen potentially stringent distributional assumptions...

The paper develops a theoretical foundation for using count data models in travel cost analysis. Two micro models are developed: a restricted choice model and a repeated discrete choice model. We show that both models lead to identical welfare measures.

Due to the weak behavioral foundations of aggregate demand models, zonal travel cost models have been largely abandoned in favor of models based on individual observations. However, sample selection difficulties in individual-observation models often require the use of distribution-sensitive...

Conservation programs faced with limited budgets often use a competitive enrollment mechanism. Goals of enrollment might include minimizing program expenditures, encouraging broad participation, and inducing adoption of enhanced environmental practices. We use experimental methods to evaluate an...

Benefit transfer offers an inexpensive alternative to conducting an original study to determine economic value. Unfortunately, benefit transfers can also result in biased welfare estimates. In this paper, we suggest a method of calibrating the benefit transfer to reduce this bias. An empirical...

How might increases in commodity prices, along with the acreage reduction mandated in the 2008 Farm Act, impact the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)? Modeling StrategyThe Likely To Bid (LTB) model “restarts” the CRP from scratch. Uses National Resources Inventory data to find parcels...