This paper looks at the disruption in food supply chains due to COVID‐19 induced economic shutdown in India. We use a novel dataset from one of the largest online grocery retailers to look at the impact on product stockouts and prices. We find that product availability falls by 10% for vegetables, fruits, and edible oils, but there is a minimal impact on their prices. On the farm‐gate side, it is matched

Using data on a sample of small Iowa towns consistently collected over two decades, we investigate how agglomeration economies, social capital, human capital, local fiscal policy, and natural amenities affect new firm entry. We find that human capital and agglomeration are more conducive to new firm entry than are natural amenities, local fiscal policy, or social capital. The impact of local fiscal

We conducted a two‐treatment randomized control trial in northern Ghana to investigate how bundling index insurance with agricultural loans affects smallholder access to credit. In one treatment, farmer groups were invited to apply for production loans bundled with an index insurance contract that, in the event of a drought, indemnifies farmers directly (micro‐insured loans). In the second treatment

The Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 aimed to improve the financial stability of the banking industry. This reform was intended to reduce the too‐big‐to‐fail practices for very large banks. However, it might also affect the performance of relatively small asset size banks with different lending portfolios. Using the Call Report data from 2006 to 2016, evidence suggests

Though extension services have long since proved their value to agricultural production and farmer prosperity, their record in sub‐Saharan Africa has been mixed. To study the impact of such programs on farmers' learning about agricultural technologies, we implemented a quasi‐randomized controlled trial and collected detailed panel data among Malawian farmers. Based on those findings, we develop a two‐stage

Small sample size often limits forecasting tasks such as the prediction of production, yield, and consumption of agricultural products. Machine learning offers an appealing alternative to traditional forecasting methods. In particular, Support Vector Regression has superior forecasting performance in small sample applications. In this article, we introduce Support Vector Regression via an application

The last couple of decades have seen the emergence of several labels, many of which certify a higher environmental quality to appeal to customers with environmentally friendly tastes. Existing eco‐labels present different standards and different levels of uptake. Often, there is a trade off between these two dimensions: the eco‐label sponsor anticipates that if a standard is too stringent, fewer producers

We present evidence on evolving dietary patterns in Nigeria using six rounds of household consumption data from the Nigerian General Household Survey panel between 2011 and 2016. First, following conventional definitions in the literature, we show that Nigeria has not shown any aggregate increase in consumption of highly processed foods over this period, contrary to patterns observed elsewhere in the

A large number of previous studies suggest that many USDA forecasts are biased and/or inefficient. These findings, however, may be the result of the assumed loss function of USDA forecasters. We test the rationality of the USDA net cash income forecasts and the WASDE production and price forecasts between 1988 and 2018 using a flexible multivariate loss function that allows for asymmetric loss and

Agricultural fertilizer use is widely acknowledged to be a leading cause of water pollution. Yet, no national estimates exist on the effect of fertilizer application on concentrations of agricultural pollutants in US watersheds. This paper employs a watershed‐level panel data on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution readings to examine the impact of fertilizer use on US water quality over a fifty‐five‐year

Restrictive social norms and strategic constraints imposed by family members can limit women’s access to and benefits from social networks, especially in patrilocal societies. We characterize young married women’s social networks in rural India and analyze how inter-generational power dynamics within the household affect their network formation. Using primary data from Uttar Pradesh, we show that

Over the past decade, straw burning has been debated as one of the causes of severe air pollution in developing countries. However, the magnitude and pattern of its impact on air quality have not been precisely estimated. This paper employs satellite remote sensing data on straw burning and examines the overall impact of straw burning on air quality in China for the first time. Based on the difference-in-differences

Insurance can be classified into two broad categories: Compulsory (government/public) and Voluntary (market/private). In practice, the vast majority of compulsory insurance is partially compulsory, where compulsory insurance provides only partial coverage, and it allows for supplemental voluntary purchases (mixed insurance). In this paper, we use the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) as both the assessment

In arid areas, irrigation water is an essential input into agricultural production. However, rainfall and, correspondingly, surface water supplies, are often highly variable, creating uncertainty over the value of long-term, water-dependent investments in these cropping systems. Moreover, climate change is expected to increase both crop water requirements and the variability of seasonal rainfall, meaning

Child undernutrition remains a widespread problem in many developing countries. The empowerment of women, and mothers in particular, was shown to improve child nutrition in various geographical contexts. One important avenue to empower women is fostering female employment. However, maternal employment can influence child nutrition through different mechanisms; it is not clear under what conditions

Index‐based insurance offers a climate risk management strategy that can benefit the poor. This article focuses on whether adopting index insurance improves access to financial markets and reduces credit rationing, using empirical analyses focused on Ethiopia. With different identification strategies, including a newly developed method that leverages the varying availability of index insurance across

Soil degradation, a serious environmental problem in many developing countries, often necessitates the use of fertilizers to improve crop yields. However, smallholders usually do not have sufficient information about their soil nutrient levels to make profit-maximizing decisions about fertilizer usage. We conducted two-round experimental auctions to determine whether providing information and fertilizer

The text in the article “Policy Shocks and Market-Based Regulations: Evidence from the Renewable Fuel Standard” described all sample quantile (SQ) tests as two-sided hypothesis tests whereas the authors' Stata code implemented one-sided tests. While none of the authors' point estimates change, several of their significance levels do when the code is corrected. The conclusions remain the same. Updated

Cash transfersimpact evaluationlabor supplylivelihoodsproductive impactsrisk managementsub-Saharan Africa

Grant, C.W. and Mann, J.M. Applied Economics for Agribusiness. John Wiley and Sons 2018.

Agricultural advisory services generally rely on interpersonal knowledge transfers in which agricultural extension agents visit farmers individually or in groups to provide information and advice. This approach is not always effective and has often proved hard to bring to scale, particularly in highly dispersed smallholder farming systems. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been

Widow chastity in China’s history is regarded as the outcome of traditional thoughts of Confucianism. The study examines how economic factors play key roles in the formation of a cultural tradition by studying the causality between the technological progress of cotton textile industry and the increase of widow chastity between Ming and Qing dynasties. We find that compared to those in non-cotton areas

This paper revisits the economic consequences of land fragmentation, taking seriously concerns regarding the exogeneity of fragmentation, its measurement and the importance of considering impacts in terms of welfare metrics. Using data that are well-suited to addressing these issues, the analysis finds that land fragmentation reduces food insecurity. This result is robust to how fragmentation is measured

Behavioral biases are more pronounced for individuals with lower cognitive abilities. This paper examines what connection if any there is between cognitive ability and bidding strategy in second price auctions. Despite truthful revelation being a weakly dominant strategy, previous experiments have consistently observed overbidding, which makes use of such auctions for inferring homegrown value problematic

From 1977 through April 2019, USDA published monthly season‐average price (SAP) forecasts for key agricultural commodities in the form of intervals meant to indicate forecasters' uncertainty but without attaching a confidence level. In May 2019, USDA eliminated the intervals and began publishing a single point estimate—a value that has a very low probability of being realized. We demonstrate how a

Farmers in developing countries face relatively large income risk and have limited access to formal financial products that can help them manage their risk. We present results from a randomized controlled trial in rural China designed to understand whether a small change in the timing of a premium payment for a swine insurance contract helps to overcome an important barrier to insurance demand and

We present the results of an experiment introducing commercial rainfall index insurance into drought-plagued farming cooperatives in Amhara State, Ethiopia. We introduce a market-priced rainfall deficit insurance product through producer cooperatives, and test a number of potential ways to kick-start private demand. Takeup of the insurance at market prices is very low, between .5% and 3% across seasons

This article examines the effects of domestic currency depreciation on agricultural exports from Pakistan including the responses of price and quantity margins. It uses highly disaggregated firm‐level data that contains the exchange rates of the actual currencies of invoicing at the transaction level. The study finds that the currency depreciation positively affects both intensive and extensive margins

We provide a theoretical framework and detailed bioeconomic simulations to examine privately and socially optimal dairy farmmanagement in the presence of nutrient runoff and greenhouse gas emissions. Dairy farms produce milk by choosing herd size, diet, fertilization and land allocation between crops, as well as (discrete) manure storage and spreading technologies and the number of milking seasons

This article provides a framework to estimate the potential effects and benefits of the provision of market information in storable commodity markets. This framework is applied to the case of production forecasts for the soybean market. A rational expectations storage model of the global soybean market accounting for both inter‐annual and intra‐annual market dynamics is built. Shocks that occur between

In this paper, I focus on the contrast between doing elegant, or peer impressing applied economics, and relevant applied economics that develops solutions to real‐world problems. I emphatically applaud elegant economics but in this paper focus on how our profession can achieve relevance to those outside our profession. In particular, I examine several key areas of professional relevance. First, I examine

This paper revisits the decades-old relative deprivation theory of migration. In contrast to the traditional view which portrays absolute income maximization as a driver of migration, we test whether relative deprivation induces migration in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Taking advantage of the internationally comparable longitudinal data from integrated household and agriculture surveys from

This article reports and provides an explanation for a discrepancy between two theoretically equivalent, frequently used, and incentive‐compatible methods of measuring premia for improved novel products: the full‐bidding and endow‐and‐upgrade methods. We found the following reverse endowment effect in a willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) elicitation Becker‐DeGroot‐Marschak (BDM) experiment for the newly developed

The D4 RIN is the tradable compliance certificate for the biomass-based diesel mandate in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Understanding the price dynamics of the D4 RIN is important for understanding the RFS because its price sets a ceiling on the ethanol RIN (D6) and because some observers have suggested that RIN price fluctuations are too large to be explained by economic theory. We use option

A number of agricultural and food policy instruments are predicated on the idea that producers dislike output price risk. We test experimentally some theoretical predictions about the behavior of producers in the face of output price risk, namely Sandmo's (1971) prediction that price risk at the extensive margin causes risk‐averse producers to decrease how much they produce and Batra and Ullah's (1974)

This article models and estimates the efficiency gains from using market‐based instruments relative to command and control to manage groundwater. A theoretical model of an imperfectly competitive groundwater market is developed to show how the magnitude and distribution of the gains from trade change as market structure varies. Market structure is a key consideration because future groundwater markets

Biological innovations played a far more important role in American agricultural development than previously thought. These innovations were essential in allowing farmers to combat pests and diseases, to move the agricultural production into new environments, and to increase farm productivity. Many biological advances, especially those aimed at fighting contagious animal diseases, required unprecedented

The display of nutrition facts is mandatory on virtually all packaged foods sold in the United States. Yet manufacturers and retailers add their own claims to differentiate their products and capture consumers' attention at point of sale. We implement experimental nutrition claims on shelf labels in a retail setting and test how consumers react to the display of these labels that express information

Although many studies analyzed effects of sustainability standards—such as Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance—on smallholder farmers in developing countries, most did not sufficiently account for systematic differences between certified and noncertified farmers. Certified farmers are typically organized in cooperatives. When sampling only from a small number of cooperatives, as previous studies did,

Measuring food waste at the individual household level has been nearly impossible because comprehensive, current data on uneaten food do not exist. By using food acquisition data, this article employs a new approach to estimating household‐level food waste via a stochastic production frontier model in which food waste is identified as input inefficiency. For households in our data, the average household

The supply of credit to agriculture in the United States has been affected by a variety of financial regulations over time. One recent regulatory change is the Dodd‐Frank Act in 2010 that includes the Ability‐to‐Repay rule increasing the operating costs of banks. Although the rule increases the safety of the bank's portfolio, it requires more compliance costs to verify borrower's income status. Given

The main objective of this paper is to estimate the causal effect of wine medals on producers’ prices. Our data set combines information on transactions between wine producers and wholesale traders (these data are registered by a wine broker who acts as a middleman in this market), with records from eleven important wine competitions. Our identification strategy exploits a particularity in our data

This article opens the black box of total factor productivity by decomposing this “all‐in‐one” index into various input‐embedded and input‐free productivities in a new growth accounting framework. The new method identifies different channels through which growth drivers affect economic growth and finds the most effective way to boost the economy, which is unidentified in standard method. This new approach

There is considerable anecdotal evidence that farm workers who are paid by piece rate tend to “income target,” or work only until they achieve a certain amount of daily income, and then stop work. We estimate reduced‐form and structural models derived from the reference‐dependent preference model of Koszegi and Rabin (2006) to test the income‐targeting hypothesis using data from the National Agricultural

High transaction costs and thin participation plague water quality trading and prevent markets from delivering expected efficiency gains. Little prior work explores the relationship between transactions costs and market performance. We develop a model of point–nonpoint trading that includes transactions costs. Point sources (PS) generate a single pollutant, whereas nonpoint sources (NPS) generate multiple

The article sheds light on price jump risk in corn futures prices in the era of electronic trading and after the shift to real‐time announcement of USDA reports. Using intraday prices from 2008 to 2015, we employ a nonparametric test to detect jumps and variance analysis to assess the relative importance of jump risk. Real‐time trading of major USDA reports has substantially increased the frequency

External cost from meat consumption raises an issue of possible government mechanisms toward mitigation. Economic theory provides a framework for determining the optimal set of mechanisms considering the associated benefits and costs. Such a theoretical development rests on consumers' responsiveness to alternative mechanisms. Considering two mechanisms, a Pigouvian tax and green‐label education, yields

The Federal Reserve shifted monetary policy from early 2016 by gradually increasing nominal interest rates until very recently (July 2019). A decline in commodity prices is expected in response to a contractionary policy. According to the overshooting hypothesis, agricultural prices could decrease more than their long‐run equilibrium levels (i.e., overshoot) in the short run. This research contributes

Agricultural production is substantially affected by the variations in global weather patterns, particularly by the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Thus, incorporating the forecast of imminent ENSO phases can enhance the effectiveness of crop insurance and mitigate the adverse impacts of weather on agriculture. Given the probabilistic nature of the ENSO phase forecast, we employ a Bayesian framework

Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages exhibits strong associations with weight gain, obesity, and dental caries, especially in young children. The aim of this article is to estimate price elasticities for parents' sugar-sweetened beverages consumption choices with respect to their pre-school children and to estimate elasticities with respect to nutritional attribute labels across sugar-sweetened

Air pollution reduces crop yields by slowing down photosynthesis. We estimate the increase in US corn and soybean yields attributed to the recent dramatic reductions in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO) from electric power plants. In response to the observed changes in power plant NO emissions over the eight‐year period from 2003–05 to 2011–13, we estimate that average corn yields improved by 2.46%

Author(s): Springborn, MR; Faig, A; Dedrick, A; Baskett, ML | Abstract: © 2019 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Strategies for increasing production of goods from working and natural systems have raised concerns that the diversity of species on which these services depend may be eroding. This loss of natural capital threatens to homogenize global food supplies and compromise the stability

A long‐standing puzzle in commodity markets is the low explanatory power of supply and demand fundamentals for explaining the variability of prices in these markets. We apply an instrumental variable correction for measurement errors to investigate how noise in the surprise component of USDA Crop Production reports affects estimated price responses in corn, soybeans, and wheat futures markets from

Many technologies face disapproval from some portion of the general public due to perceived risks or externalities. Individuals can respond to these controversial technologies either as consumers by choosing favorable alternatives or as voters by supporting regulation. We examine the relationship between willingness to pay a premium for products that avoid a controversial technology and willingness

Crop yields in smallholder systems are traditionally assessed using farmer-reported information in surveys, occasionally by crop cuts for a sub-section of a farmer's plot, and rarely using full-plot harvests. Accuracy and cost vary dramatically across methods. In parallel, satellite data is improving in terms of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution needed to discern performance on smallholder

The Ricardian approach is a popular hedonic method for analyzing climate change impacts on agriculture. The approach typically relies on a cross-sectional regression of farmland asset prices on fixed climate variables, making it particularly vulnerable to omitted variables. I conduct a long-spanning Ricardian analysis of farmland prices in the eastern United States (1950-2012) and find a convergence

Debate over the implementation of food assistance programs and the role of in‐kind food aid has intensified in recent years. Within that context, we study a randomized control trial of rural communities in Yemen. From 2011 to 2012, poor households in half of the communities received assistance in the form of in‐kind food (wheat flour and oil), and households in the other half received an equal valued

Bargaining between consumer‐product manufacturers and their retail customers is at least nominally constrained by the prohibitions on price discrimination of the Robinson–Patman Act (RPA) of 1936. However, because the RPA is generally regarded as being inconsistent with the anti‐trust principle of protecting consumers, it is not often enforced by the Federal Trade Commission or the Anti‐trust Division

This paper studies the impact of financial investments on agricultural futures prices, using structural vector autoregressions. We identify exogenous variation in net long positions of speculators through heteroskedasticity. We first show that demand shocks of both index investors and noncommercial traders lead to a statistically significant contemporaneous increase in futures prices. We then quantify

Child dietary diversity is poor in much of rural Africa and developing Asia, prompting significant efforts to leverage agriculture to improve diets. However, growing recognition that even very poor rural households rely on markets to satisfy their demand for nutrient-rich non-staple foods warrants a much better understanding of how rural markets vary in their diversity, competitiveness, frequency and