Agricultural Economics & Economics
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Situated jointly within MSU's College of Agriculture and College of Letters and Sciences, our department offers a unique opportunity for students with diverse interests to learn skills in critical analysis, logical problem solving, data and policy analysis, written and oral communication, business management. We train individuals who will make a big difference in the world by applying solid critical thinking skills. Our award-winning faculty has expertise in a wide variety of fields. We conduct cutting-edge research and teach a myriad of courses.
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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.Item Terrorism and political attitudes: Evidence from European social surveys(Elsevier BV, 2023-03) Peri, Giovanni; Rees, Daniel I.; Smith, BrockTerror attacks in Europe have increased substantially since the turn of the last century. Using data from European Social Surveys (ESS), we examine their effects on political attitudes and orientation by comparing within-country survey responses shortly before and after terror attacks involving at least one fatality. At the national level, we find little support for the hypothesis that terror attacks influenced attitudes towards immigration or political orientation. By contrast, there is evidence of post-attack increases in satisfaction with the national government and trust in parliament among ESS respondents living in the region that was attacked.Item Geography, Geology, and Regional Economic Development(Elsevier BV, 2022-09) Berry, Kevin; James, Alexander; Smith, Brock; Watson, BrettWe examine how large and localized resource discoveries affect long-run population growth in the United States, and examine how these shocks interact with pre-existing geographic properties of the discovery site. Using a dynamic event study analysis and developing novel, geographically delineated measures of both amenity value and geographic isolation, we find that resource discoveries cause population to grow both in the short and long-run (e.g., fifty years). However, this effect is largely driven by discoveries in unfavorable locations that might struggle to grow in the absence of a resource discovery. More generally, this paper highlights the importance of considering heterogeneous effects of resource shocks and yields insights into the observed spatial distribution of people in the United States.Item Does Paid Family Leave Cause Mothers to Have More Children? Evidence from California(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022-05) Golightly, Eleanor; Meyerhofer, PamelaLiterature on the labor market and health effects of paid family leave largely overlooks the impacts on fertility, particularly in the United States. Increased childbearing following the introduction of a modest paid family leave policy in the U.S. could explain the contrasting short–term gains and long–term losses in women’s labor market outcomes found in recent work. We exploit the nation’s first paid family leave program, implemented in California in 2004. Using the universe of U.S. births and a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that access to leave increases fertility by 2.8 percent, driven by higher order births to mothers in their 30s, as well as Hispanic mothers and those with a high school degree. Our results are robust to corrective methods of inference, including synthetic controls. Our findings may inform the discussion of a national paid family leave policy.Item The Thinning Cash Cattle Market: Evaluating Sample Size, Policy Prescriptions, and Pricing Proxies(Cambridge University Press, 2022-08) Brester, Gary W.; Swanser, Kole; Crosby, BrettMany cattle producers and producer organizations are concerned that the live cattle negotiated market has become too thin. The percentage of live cattle procured through direct negotiations has declined below 20%, while the percentage procured through formulas has increased to more than 60%. Most formulas are based on directly negotiated cattle prices. Proposed legislation mandating that a larger percentage of live cattle be procured through negotiations represents a market intervention. We show that live cattle futures prices are good proxies for negotiated cash prices, while being less restrictive for meeting proposed cash cattle procurement percentage requirements.