We investigate how exchange-rate uncertainty affects the foreign direct investment decision of a risk-neutral multinational firm (MNF). We assume the firm can open plants, each with decreasing average costs, in two different countries. Under certainty, the MNF would open only one plant. We...

We investigate how exchange-rate uncertainty affects the foreign direct investment decision of a risk-neutral multinational firm (MNF). We assume the firm can open plants, each with decreasing average costs, in two different countries. Under certainty, the MNF would open only one plant. We...

This paper analyzes the optimal production and hedging decisions for firms facing futures price, basis, and production risk, assuming futures and options can be used. Using constant absolute risk aversion utility and normal distributions, the authors derive an exact solution and show that joint...

This paper employs an overlapping generations model with output uncertainty to investigate how second-best social security schemes can be used to affect expected welfare. As with actual pension plans, our social security plan entails a proportional tax on earned income but provides a rebate that...

The quest for biorenewable energy sources is held to justify a number of government interventions, including support policies for biofuels such as those responsible for the recent rapid growth of US ethanol production. This article provides an analytical assessment of such policies. We construct...

This paper studies the firm-level relationship between decision to export and environmental performance. To guide the empirical work, we introduce environmental pollution and technology choice into a trade model with heterogeneous firms. The model predicts that a productive firm is more likely...

This paper provides an overview of the economics of biofuels. It starts by describing the remarkable growth of the biofuel industry over the last decade, with emphasis on developments in the United States, Brazil and the European Union, and it identifies the driving role played by some critical...

A quality certification standard in a competitive setting can improve welfare but may affect consumers and producers differently. In a competitive model with quality preferences of the vertical product differentiation type, we find that producers prefer a higher (lower) quality standard than...

A partial equilibrium four-region world trade model for the soybean complex is developed in which Roundup Ready (RR) products are weakly inferior substitutes to conventional ones, RR seeds are priced at a premium, and costly segregation is necessary to separate conventional and biotech products....