Abstract This study assesses the effectiveness of pay‐as‐you‐throw (PAYT) schemes in managing household food waste by comparing volume‐based and weight‐based approaches. Using a utility maximization framework and survey data from Korean households (2019–2022), we find that weight‐based PAYT more effectively reduces food waste by creating stronger incentives for adopting food preservation technologies and practices, as disposal fees depend on waste weight. The study also emphasizes the role of public awareness campaigns on food waste's environmental impacts, showing that education on sustainable practices can further enhance these systems' performance. Findings offer guidance for policymakers designing efficient food waste management programs.
The organic industry in the United States (US) has never kept pace with consumer demand and heavily relies on imports. This paper investigates how consumers value certified transitional labels, indicating growers are transitioning from conventional to organic production. Results show that, on average, consumers are not willing to pay for potato chips with certified transitional labels. However, environmentally conscious consumers are willing to pay more for certified transitional labels. Findings suggest that policymakers and the food industry should identify strategies to overcome the marketing barriers associated with certified transitional labels, which is vital for the continued growth of organic production in the US.
This study spatially extends the USDA's Food Dollar framework, analyzing food expenditure distribution across regional economies. Using regional SAMs and county-level data, we estimate farm shares, industry contributions, and food dollar multipliers. Results reveal significant geographic disparities, with processing shares ranging from over 25% to under 20% and farm shares ranging from 10.2% to 12.9%. The food dollar contributions and multipliers also show geographic diversity and indicate varying densities of food supply chains throughout the United States. These insights support place-based policies strengthening local food systems may be in place, and their existence may be effective in promoting food sector-based regional economic development.
Despite the common intuition that similar products are stronger demand substitutes, this study shows a more nuanced relationship between perceived similarity and utility substitution. Using pile sorting, a method where items are sorted into groups according to their similarity, we conduct large-scale consumer surveys on purchasing 21 foods for at-home and away-from-home consumption. We find perceived similarities differ across settings: in grocery contexts, foods perceived as more similar tend to be utility complements, whereas in restaurants, more similar foods tend to be utility substitutes. Our findings provide a rich characterization of consumer food preferences that can aid marketing and strategy decision-making.
This paper derives the asymptotic properties of an iterated three-stage least squares (I3SLS) estimator and applies it to estimate a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand (QUAID) system for 47 fruits and vegetables with endogenous prices. We calculate an exact price index from the estimates and compare it with several commonly used price indexes. We find that the superlative Fisher Ideal and T & ouml;rnqvist indexes approximate our QUAID exact index well, supporting their continued use in cost-of-living measurement. We also see considerable variation in the regional cost of acquiring fruits and vegetables.
As farmers adapt to changing climate, they modify practices to manage evolving production risk. Understanding farmers' risk attitudes is critical to predicting their decisions about climate change adaptation. This research empirically estimates utility functions to measure the risk preferences of Michigan corn-soybean farmers. We elicit choices between paired lotteries in both a general and an agricultural domain. We find that farmers are risk-averse across domains. However, farmer risk preferences are more heterogeneous in the agricultural domain than in the general one. These results are robust across specifications of utility functions, individual versus aggregate estimates, and types of risky outcomes.
We examine the impacts of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the world's largest workfare program, on forest cover as proxied by vegetation density. We estimate null effects on vegetation for the overall sample as well as for the subsample where we are best able to isolate changes in forest cover, but we find significant treatment effect heterogeneity, with program impacts mediated by pre-treatment cropland expansion trends and market access. Our findings suggest that any positive and negative effects of NREGS on forest cover offset one another on average, but that program impacts varied by context.
In May 2024, the United States announced a steep increase in tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs) imported from China. This paper evaluates the short-run impacts of that policy on trade flows and investor expectations. We find that imports of Chinese EVs declined sharply following the announcement. However, this timing also aligns with an increase in EV imports from third-country trade partners. Further, we find that Tesla's valuation increased relative to Stellantis after the tariff was announced. This is consistent with investor expectations of reduced foreign competition for U.S. EV manufacturers.
We jointly elicit the time and risk preferences of farmers using a survey. Assuming risk neutrality (linear utility), we estimate a mean annual discount rate of 15.3%, which falls to 4.2% when accounting for risk preferences. Most farmer characteristics have an insignificant relationship with time and risk preferences, except that the percent of income from farming has a negative relationship with risk aversion. Time and risk preferences also show no significant relationship with irrigation intensity. These findings are informative for agricultural decision-making, as production often involves delayed and uncertain payoffs, and can help guide conservation policy design and promote sustainable practices.
Forward contracting is a common pre-harvest marketing strategy for row crops, with evidence suggesting higher prices during summer months due to embedded weather risk premiums. While aggressive forward contracting increases farmers' yield risk and potential non-delivery penalties, crop revenue protection can help offset these financial burdens. This study employs a prototypical simulation approach with a Gaussian copula for yield-price correlations, using the expected utility framework and certainty equivalent analysis to quantify risk returns for various forward contracting and crop insurance strategies. The findings of this study have implications for risk management education and the development of integrated agricultural policies that consider the interplay between forward contracting and crop insurance.
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has invested in direct-to-consumer initiatives to expand local food consumption and enhance farmers market opportunities. To evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts, this study employs a sample-selected ordered probit model to analyze consumer perceptions of farmers market performance across four states in the Southeast United States. Specifically, we examine differences in awareness and performance of product quality, diversity, and market infrastructure. Awareness and perceptions vary significantly by age, other demographics, and state. These insights provide market organizers and policymakers with data-driven strategies to tailor marketing efforts and improve engagement across diverse consumer segments.
Aquatic invasive species threaten water resources by reducing biodiversity, disrupting ecosystems, and impeding recreation. Managing these invaders is challenging due to public concerns over chemical control methods and conflicting stakeholder preferences. In this paper, we evaluate stakeholder preferences for aquatic invasive species management and test the impact of information on management decisions. We find strong public support for mechanical harvesting and hybrid approaches over herbicide use, with preferences shaped by environmental concerns, pre-existing beliefs, and recreational experiences. Anglers and waterfowlers demonstrate the highest willingness to pay for mechanical control methods. Scientifically validated information can ease public concerns about herbicide use.
This paper uses counterfactual simulations to examine the impact of bilateral trade linkage disruptions on the U.S. agricultural and food trade system. Using an econometric gravity model, we estimate the relationship between disruptions and trade flows, identify critical state-to-state trade linkages whose disruption would significantly impact domestic trade and national welfare, and extend the analysis to the state level to measure the consequences of disruptions to individual states' interstate trade linkages. The findings offer valuable insights for mitigating the impacts of bilateral trade linkage disruptions and transport cost shocks on the U.S. agricultural and food trade system.
This study assesses the effectiveness of pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) schemes in managing household food waste by comparing volume-based and weight-based approaches. Using a utility maximization framework and survey data from Korean households (2019-2022), we find that weight-based PAYT more effectively reduces food waste by creating stronger incentives for adopting food preservation technologies and practices, as disposal fees depend on waste weight. The study also emphasizes the role of public awareness campaigns on food waste's environmental impacts, showing that education on sustainable practices can further enhance these systems' performance. Findings offer guidance for policymakers designing efficient food waste management programs.
We study how risk preferences and risk perceptions relate to three risky food behaviors-eating unwashed greens, rare meat, and raw dough-among US adults. Using two self-assessed measures of risk preference and an experimental measure, we find that increased risk aversion negatively correlates with risky food behaviors. Self-assessed risk measures in the general and food-at-home domains provide better model fit than the experimental one. Meanwhile, risk perceptions negatively correlate with risky food behaviors, especially when risk aversion is low. Heightened risk perceptions discourage risky food behaviors among males, Hispanics, and college graduates, underscoring risk perception's importance in behavior change.
We demonstrate that unexpected increases in enforcement have a temporary but costly impact on labor supply among noncitizen farmworkers. Analyzing Current Population Survey data and immigration-related arrests, we find that unexpected increases in immigration arrests decrease labor force participation (LFP) among noncitizen farmworkers by up to 3.4 percentage points and reduce weekly work hours by up to 23.1% per month. These effects translate into a 1.38 percentage point decline in LFP and a 9.08% reduction in weekly hours worked across farmworkers. Our results suggest that localized enforcement exerts downward pressure on immigrant populations during periods when policies are not activated.
This paper examines the corporatization of veterinary medicine and its impact on independent veterinary practices in the United States using a longitudinal data set from 2000 to 2021. Results show independent practices are 1.9% more likely to exit after corporate entry, with employment and revenue dropping 5.7% and 6.9%, respectively. Urban areas experience nearly double the impact of rural ones. Event studies reveal a delayed response, with revenue effects becoming statistically significant 6 years post-entry, reaching 18.7% in urban and 13.3% in rural areas. Co-location benefits have diminished since 2010, highlighting rising market power and adverse competition from corporate practices.
Irrigation drives the decline in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. Rapid adoption of water-conserving practices (WCPs) is key. Duration analysis of the adoption of computerized (polypipe) hole selection (CHS) and center-pivot (CP) irrigation in the Mississippi Delta shows that: NRCS funding for WCPs and crop acreage (cotton for CP and soybean for CHS) accelerate while farming experience, the establishment of a state task force and farming experience slows adoption. Farmer education accelerates but land ownership decelerates CHS adoption. Center pivot adoption slowed down as more farmers adopted it. Continuing educational programs introducing new practices early may accelerate WCP adoption.
Despite the rising interest in cultured meat, there remains scant information on whether consumers would value it. This study evaluated consumers' willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for cultured chicken and examined how information affects WTP. Using a choice experiment with a total of 571 samples, the results found that consumers are unwilling to pay a premium price for cultured chicken. The provision of information significantly enhances consumers' WTP, resulting in an increase of 8.66RBM/500 g for cultured chicken. Consumers who are younger, males, have higher environmental awareness, and exhibit lower levels of new food neophobia are willing to pay more for cultured meat.
Pesticides boost agricultural yields but bring environmental and climate concerns, driving a cycle of increased use. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) aims to lower pesticide reliance, yet it may impact ecosystems. This study examines consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for IPM-labeled fruits and the role of climate awareness. A survey of blueberry and cherry buyers shows the highest WTP for biocontrol over other IPM methods. After a climate intervention, WTP increased for all labels. Latent class analysis reveals three groups: pro-biocontrol, price-conscious, and pro-gene editing. These insights guide marketing, policymaking, and education on IPM's benefits and climate impact mitigation.
