Contracting is a contentious issue in agriculture. Competing theories assert that risk or transactions cost drive contracting decisions, with some argument that autonomy also plays a role. We examine preferences for different contract attributes using a choice-based conjoint experiment. Results...

In this paper we show that the wildly popular Holt and Laury (2002) risk preference elicitation method confounds estimates of the curvature of the utility function, the traditional notion of risk preference, with an estimate of the extent to which an individual weights probabilities...

We conduct a field valuation experiment where we vary the valuation method (contingent valuation vs. inferred valuation) as well as the payment format (dichotomous choice vs. payment card). Willingness-to-accept and willingness-to-pay valuations are elicited in a within-subjects design for foods...

Despite the fact that conceptual models of individual decision making under risk are deterministic, attempts to econometrically estimate risk preferences require some assumption about the stochastic nature of choice. Unfortunately, the consequences of making different assumptions are, at...

It is common practice to have subjects make decisions which pay out in a fictitious experimental currency. Earnings in the experimental currency are then converted to cash at the end of the experiment. Like many practices in experimental economics, however, these procedural choices seems to be...

High profile cases of exploitative labor practices have increased concerns over agricultural working conditions. However, it is unclear whether and to what extent the public is willing to trade-off fair working conditions for higher prices and food imports. We implement a large-scale survey to...

Animal welfare is emerging as one of the most controversial issues in modern livestock agriculture. Although consumers can buy free range products in niche markets, some have argued that existing markets cannot solve the animal welfare dilemma because there are individuals who care about animal...

Current restrictions on the food stamp program include alcohol and cigarettes among other things, and present research on food stamp effects focuses on adding more restrictions to the program like not allowing soda or sugary fruit juice to be purchased with the funds. The goal is to encourage...

We use a laboratory experiment to elicit discount rates over a 20-year time horizon using government savings bonds as a payment vehicle. When using a constant (exponential) discount rate function, we find an implied average discount rate of 4.9 %, which is much lower than has been found in...

Current research has focused on whether nutrition labeling and pricing policies (i.e., soda taxes) influence food decisions; however, less attention has been given to how peers influence one’s food decisions. This study uses sales receipts from a full-service restaurant to take a closer look...