Scholarly Work - Agricultural Economics & Economics
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/3048
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Item Determinants of crop diversification and its impact on farmers' income: A case study in Rangpur District, Bangladesh(Wiley, 2024-09) Islam, Md Sayemul; Jahan, Hasneen; Sultana Ema, Nishat; Ahmed, Md. RubelBackground. In the face of rising global food demand, climate change, and economic uncertainties, crop diversification has emerged as a crucial tool for achieving both economic and environmental sustainability. In Bangladesh, where the economy heavily relies on agriculture, crop diversification can play a vital role in enhancing farmers' livelihoods and domestic food production. Results. This study focuses on Rangpur district, an agricultural hub in Bangladesh, analyzing data from 122 farmers to assess the status, determinants, and effects of crop diversification. The Simpson Diversification Index (SDI) analysis revealed that 29% and 68% of the farmers exhibit very high and high degrees of crop diversification, respectively. The Tobit model identified significant drivers of crop diversification, including education, household size, farming experience, non-farm income, mobile phone information access, experience with climatic shocks, and land type. Additionally, the Log-Linear model indicated that each unit increase in the SDI score corresponds to a 2.41% increase in farmers' income. Conclusion. The study demonstrates that crop diversification is a key strategy for enhancing economic sustainability and increasing income among farmers in Bangladesh. By improving both economic outcomes and resilience, crop diversification supports sustainable agricultural practices in the region.Item The Returns to Public Library Investment(American Economic Association, 2024-05) Gilpin, Gregory; Karger, Ezra; Nencka, PeterLocal governments spend over $12 billion annually funding the operation of 15,427 public libraries in the United States, yet we know little about their effects. We use data describing the near universe of public libraries to show that public library capital investment increases library visits, children's attendance at library events, and children's circulation by an average of 5–15 percent in the years following investment. Increases in library use translate into improved test scores in nearby school districts: a $200 or greater per student capital investment in local public libraries increases reading test scores by 0.01–0.04 standard deviations in subsequent years.Item Financial education affects financial knowledge and downstream behaviors(Elsevier, 2022-08) Kaiser, Tim; Lusardi, Annamaria; Menkhoff, Lukas; Urban, CarlyWe study the rapidly growing literature on the causal effects of financial education programs in a meta-analysis of 76 randomized experiments with a total sample size of over 160,000 individuals. Many of these experiments are published in top economics and finance journals. The evidence shows that financial education programs have, on average, positive causal treatment effects on financial knowledge and downstream financial behaviors. Treatment effects are economically meaningful in size, similar to those realized by educational interventions in other domains, and robust to accounting for publication bias in the literature. We also discuss the cost-effectiveness of financial education interventions.Item In the depths of despair: Lost income and recovery for small businesses during COVID-19(Elsevier BV, 2024-02) Wiatt, Renee; Marshall, Maria I.; Haynes, George; Lee, Yoon G.This study examined how small business owners sought to keep their businesses operating during the harshest times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this study was to determine the association between business funding strategies and actions taken by the business to both percent lost income and length of recovery for small businesses in the United States. Businesses that were already experiencing cashflow problems before the COVID-19 pandemic experienced higher income losses. Changing how the business serves customers and being a homebased business were positively associated with percent lost income. Time to recovery was longer when household savings were used to cover business expenses but was shortened when the business owner was a minority. Results provide insights into factors that exacerbated income losses as well as insights into which funding strategies significantly reduced the time to recovery.Item Who does (and does not) take introductory economics?(Informa UK Limited, 2023-11) Stock, Wendy A.The author of this article summarizes which, when, where, and how students take introductory economics. Among students who began college in 2012, 74 percent never took economics, up from 62 percent in 2004. Fifteen percent of beginning college students in 2012 took some economics, and 12 percent were one-and-done students. About half of introductory economics students never took another economics class, and only about 2 percent majored in economics. The characteristics of one-and-done and some economics students are generally similar and closer to one another than to students with no economics. The implication is that efforts to diversify the profession should focus at least in part on attracting students who would otherwise not take introductory economicsItem Market power in California's water market(Wiley, 2023-10) Tomori, Françeska; Ansink, Erik; Houba, Harold; Hagerty, Nick; Bos, CharlesWe estimate market power in California's surface water market. Market power may distort the potential welfare gains from water marketing. We use a Nash-Cournot model and derive a closed-form solution for the extent of market power in a water market setting. We then use this solution to estimate market power in a newly assembled dataset on California's water economy. We show that, under the assumptions of the Nash-Cournot model, market power in this thin market is limited.Item Effects of water surplus on prevented planting in the US Corn Belt for corn and soybeans(IOP Publishing, 2023-09) Lee, Seunghyun; Abatzoglou, John TRecord-high prevented planting of staple crops such as corn and soybeans in the United States (US) Corn Belt due to heavy rainfall in recent years has spurred concern over crop production, as growing evidence suggests winter and spring precipitation extremes will occur more frequentlyin the coming decades. Using county-level data, we examine the effects of planting-season water surplus—precipitation minus evaporative demand—on prevented planting of corn and soybeans in the US Corn Belt. Using monthly water surplus data, we show significant impacts of excess moisture on preventing planting and suggest a 58%–177% increase in prevented planting during the months of April–June per standard deviation increase in water surplus. Downscaled climate change projections are used to estimate future changes in prevented planting during the mid-century (2036–2065) under the moderate emission scenario (RCP4.5). Our model predicts a decrease in prevented planting of approximately 111,000 acres (12%) for corn and 80,000 acres (16%) for soybeans in the US Corn Belt, relative to historical levels from 1950 to 2005. However, if we consider only precipitation and disregard evaporative demand, the alternative model indicates an increase of approximately 260,000 acres (30%) for corn and 86,000 acres (19%) for soybeans. Geographically, we find that prevented planting will slightly increase in some parts of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and generally decrease in the other parts of the US Corn Belt. This work collectively highlights the value of incorporating water surplus data in assessing prevented-planting impacts and is the first known study to examine changing risk of prevented planting under future climate scenarios that may help inform adaptation efforts to avoid losses.Item Generic Aversion and Observational Learning in the Over-the-Counter Drug Market(American Economic Association, 2023-07) Carrera, Mariana; Villas-Boas, SofiaThrough a labeling intervention at a national retailer, we test three hypotheses for consumer aversion to generic over-the-counter drugs: lack of information on the comparability of generic and brand drugs, inattention to their price differences, and uncertainty about generic quality that can be reduced with information on peer purchase rates. With a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that posted information on the purchases of other customers increases generic purchase shares significantly, while other treatments have mixed results. Consumers without prior generic purchases appear particularly responsive to this information. These findings have policy implications for promoting evidence-based, cost-effective choices.Item Measuring Fishing Capacity Using Quantile Data Envelopment Analysis(University of Chicago Press, 2023-07) Walden, John B.; Atwood, JosephData envelopment analysis (DEA) is an extensively used method to estimate capacity and technical and economic efficiency of fishing vessels. However, DEA is often criticized because of the influence that outliers, or noisy data, can have on the DEA estimates. Recently, quantile data envelopment analysis (QDEA) was introduced to identify and address issues caused by influential data outliers. QDEA endogenously identifies potential outliers and eliminates them from a given observation’s DEA reference set. In this study, we utilize QDEA to estimate fishing fleet capacity for vessels operating in the northwest Atlantic Ocean during 2019. We present methods for implementing the QDEA model that we think are practical and can be adapted for fishing fleets worldwide. Results show lower capacity estimates using the QDEA model than what the standard capacity model would yield. Our results are quite encouraging in terms of utilizing the QDEA model in future work.Item The spillover effects of parental verbal conflict on classmates' cognitive and noncognitive outcomes(Wiley, 2022-11) Zhou, Weina; Hill, Andrew J.This study shows that children exposed to Interparental Verbal Conflict (IPVC) exert negative spillovers on their peers. Our first identification strategy uses within-school, across-classroom variation in peer's IPVC in schools that randomly assign students into classrooms. Our second strategy uses within-student, year-to-year changes in peer's IPVC to control for peer's pre-existing characteristics. Both results suggest that being randomly assigned to classes where more classmates experience IPVC reduces mental wellbeing, lowers social engagement, diminishes self-confidence, and increases the likelihood of problem behaviors. Effects operate by damaging relationships between classmates. There is no evidence of impacts on test scores or teacher behavior.