Although the United States has typically been in a position to import ethanol, cornbasedethanol exports are surging as the domestic market becomes saturated andworld prices rise due to high prices for sugar, the competing global feedstock. TheU.S. is now the world’s leading ethanol producer...

The U.S. fuel ethanol industry has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, with roughly a 3.6-fold increase in ethanol production since 2005 (RFA, 2012). A fuel blender’s credit (the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit), a secondary tariff on imported ethanol, and mandatory use of...

The promotion of biofuel use in preference to traditional petroleum-based transportation fuel has linked agricultural commodity markets and energy markets more closely together. Biofuel policies can involve multiple policy instruments, but studies examining their effects on biofuel feedstock and...

Although the United States has typically been in a position to import ethanol, corn-based ethanol exports are surging as the domestic market becomes saturated and world prices rise due to high prices for sugar, the competing global feedstock. The U.S. is now the world’s leading ethanol...

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard program (RFS), which involves mandates for various biofuels, is complex and has been often misinterpreted or oversimplified in previous studies. In this paper we analyze the implications of the RFS for the U.S. domestic and international ethanol markets. We...

Achieving high compliance rates in incentive-based agri-environmental schemes is animportant issue. This paper explores the use of a mixed penalty-reward approach underheterogeneous compliance costs. Specifically, we examine the use of a “compliancereward” under asymmetric information and...

Several theoretical and empirical models have been developed to examine how risk aversion affects compliance with agri-environmental schemes under asymmetric information and uncertainty. However, none has examined the case where the level of compliance is a continuous variable and producers face...

Achieving high compliance rates in incentive-based agri-environmental schemes is an important issue. This paper explores the use of a mixed penalty-reward approach under heterogeneous compliance costs. Specifically, we examine the use of a “compliance reward” under asymmetric information and...

Ensuring that farmers comply with the terms of agri-environmental schemes is an important issue. This paper explores the use of a 'compliance-reward' approach under heterogeneous net compliance costs with respect to cost-share working lands programmes such as the Environmental Quality Incentives...