This study investigates the influence of social preferences on voting decisions using a new Random Price Voting Mechanism (RPVM), which is best thought of as a public goods voting extension of the Becker-DeGroot-Marshack mechanism for private goods. In particular, this mechanism is used to...

Public referenda are frequently used to determine the provision of public goods. As public programs have distributional consequences, a compelling question is what role if any social preferences have on voting behavior. This paper explores this issue using laboratory experiments wherein voting...

The introduction of a centralized institution for trading production rights in quota-regulated agricultural sectors can dramatically improve the flow of information among market participants and increase efficiency. On the other hand, prevailing conditions in these small markets can provide...

The introduction of a centralized institution for trading production rights in quota-regulated agricultural sectors can dramatically improve the flow of information among market participants and increase efficiency. On the other hand, prevailing conditions in these small markets can provide...

Our study used AFT survey data to analyze the preferences of registered voters with regard to the non-market (mulitifunctional) benefits that agriculture produces jointly with market commodities. Descriptive data analysis demonstrates that the US public considers the multifunctionality of...

It has been well documented in the literature that ethnicity matters significantly in the determination of savings. In particular, African-American savings lag far behind that of other ethnic groups. Similarly, the literature also provides evidence of the long-lived nature of institutions and...

Using data gathered in two surveys we analyze the movement of information in agriculture. The relative importance of varying classes of information providers are assessed by classes of users. A network based framework expands models of human capital and bounded rationality to assess the calculus...

This paper reassesses the status of poverty in Sri Lanka using a monetary measure which was adjusted for people's perceptions about the social climate. Data collected by the Sri Lanka Integrated Survey was used to obtain incidences of poverty using cost of basic need (CBN) poverty lines and...

This paper uses a principal-agent model to examine incentive compatibility in the presence of information asymmetry between the government and individual producers. Prior models of livestock disease have not incorporated information asymmetry between livestock managers and social planners. By...

The rise of contract farming and vertical integration is one of the most important changes in modern agriculture. Yet the adoption and diffusion of these new forms of organization has varied widely across regions, commodities, or farm types, however. Transaction cost theories and the like are...