Farmers make pest and disease management decisions without facing the social costs derived from their input choices. But given the sizable externalities involved, there is a rationale for government intervention. We model the profit-maximizing problem of a representative farmer by specifying a functional form for the damage function that incorporates the biological impact of the pathogen-vector system on yield as well as the abating impact of insecticides on the vector population. We use citrus greening disease in Florida as a case study because farmers there adopted an insecticide program that caused toxicity per acre to increase by 472%. Our simulation results show that a tax rate based on toxicity provides farmers with a strong incentive to substitute highly toxic chemicals with less toxic alternatives. Such a tax is also more efficient relative to a quantity-based tax that achieves a similar reduction in toxicity because it results in a significantly lower reduction in farmers’ yield and profit.

The study estimates the contribution of changes in world prices, exchange rates, and trade policies in explaining the variability of domestic prices under the scenario of incomplete transmission of changes and a counterfactual scenario of complete pass-through. We utilize data from the Indian wheat market for the period 2006–09 and 2017–20. The findings reveal an improvement in the pass-through of changes from the landed price to domestic markets. The price transmission elasticity increased from 50% in 2006/07–2008/09 to 67% during 2017/18–2019/20. The policy response to rising (declining) global prices of decreasing (increasing) import tariffs had a significant effect on prices. The variation in exchange rate offsets the impact of declining or rising global prices on domestic prices.

We consider the effect of labor market volatility on employment and wages in the meat processing sector. The period of study includes the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in significant labor market shocks in the sector. We examine the relationship between historical volatility of employment and wages and current employment and wages, focusing on the animal slaughtering and processing sector (NAICS 3116). We utilize county-level data to estimate dynamic panel data models of employment and wages. We find that historical volatility in both employment and wages had a significant negative impact on employment in the sector. In the case of wage volatility, we find that wages are higher following periods of significant wage volatility, suggesting that workers demand higher wages under conditions of market volatility. During COVID, smaller meat processors had lower levels of employment, but a small number of large processors had significantly higher levels of employment. In contrast, wages were higher after COVID-19 for almost all counties included in the analysis. In an aggregate sense, COVID tended to largely reduce employment but increase wages in the meat processing sector.

Heirs’ property poses barriers to income and wealth generation, especially in rural and underserved communities. Using county-level data from the contiguous U.S., this study examines spatial clustering and socioeconomic correlates of heirs’ property prevalence. Results show strong spatial concentration in the South and higher prevalence in counties with large Black populations, rural areas, and Appalachia. Income inequality and financial factors are more strongly associated with heirs’ property than poverty. Spatial spillovers suggest that addressing heirs’ property in one county may benefit neighbors. Findings highlight spatial dynamics and offer insights for targeting communities and promoting equitable land ownership.

The objective of our paper is to provide an explanation for the lack of joint adoption by farmers of cleaner technologies in banana production, specifically fallow period (FP) and disease-free seedlings (DFS). Our hypothesis is that while these technologies are synergistic from an agronomic and environmental perspective, and thus efficient from a social interest perspective, they are substitutable rather than complementary from a farmer’s private interest perspective. In other words, farmers receive lower returns from adopting both technologies together than from adopting them in isolation. To test this hypothesis, we present a unified empirical framework for assessing complementarity. We estimate a structural model of complementarity that overcomes the unobservable heterogeneity bias found in previous models using a database of 607 banana farmers in the French West Indies. Our results support our hypothesis, showing a substitution effect between FP and DFS rather than a complementarity effect. Moreover, we observe a contrasting profile of adopting farmers: smallholders who are reluctant to change adopt FP, while more specialized farmers who anticipate a pesticide ban adopt DFS. A public policy that promotes joint adoption should compensate smallholders for the cost of the DFS technology, while compensating more productive farmers for leaving their land fallow.

Heirs’ property is a form a land tenure that can negatively impact landowners, particularly those who want to use their land for agricultural purposes. Over the past decade there has been an increase in legal reforms and assistance programs aimed at addressing issues associated with heirs’ property. Yet, this phenomenon has received little attention in the applied economics literature. With the aim of motivating future economic research, we make the following two contributions. First, we synthesize the existing multi-disciplinary literature on heirs’ property into an economically tractable framework. Second, we use parcel-level tax record data from 2015 and 2021 to track changes to the amount of heirs’ property over time and examine its rate of formation net of land leaving heirs’ property. We examine the changes to heirs’ property on non-agricultural and agricultural parcels (and the number of acres of land within parcels) separately. We find that the total number of parcels and acres, on non-agricultural lands, declined by about one percent and six percent, respectively. Whereas, acreage on heirs’ property agricultural lands decreased by about two percent. These small changes mask large transitions in and out of heirs’ property. Our estimates suggest that the formation of heirs’ property persists today and offsets most of the reductions obtained from land leaving heirs’ property. Additional analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across regions and localities.

We analyze the equilibrium conditions in which contracts are desirable for firms (buyers) with various levels of management efficiencies procuring a factor input under two levels of quality from supplies. The quality of the factor input, which affects production efficiency, may be known to the buyer; the efficiency of the firm is not known to the supplier. We estimate, using principal-agent models, that firms with high-management efficiency do not have the incentive to pay a quality premium to suppliers, but firms operating with low management efficiency are willing to offer a price premium for quality. The model is applied to the question of preconditioning cattle for the feedlot.

Commodity index trading in futures markets is a relatively new investment strategy whose consequences are not fully understood. This paper tests the hypothesis that long-only, passive index trading in agricultural futures markets influences futures prices. Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models are a common empirical research approach for analyzing index trading. Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregression (FAVAR) models are a new approach to analyzing index trading. FAVAR models can incorporate a large data set into the traditional VAR framework. Using a FAVAR model improves the analysis by including additional market factors relevant to futures price formation. Models were estimated for 13 agricultural commodities (corn, soybean, soybean oil, soybean meal, soft red winter wheat, hard red winter wheat, cotton, cocoa, sugar, coffee, live cattle, feeder cattle, and lean hog) from January 2006 to December 2022. The results demonstrate the added value of FAVAR models in explaining the dynamics between prices and index trading. The conclusions are similar to other findings that prices lead index positions; however, adding demand-related data through a FAVAR model allows for a better understanding of market dynamics.

Dairy cows who excel at milk production also grow horns, which are dangerous to other animals and their human handlers. Recent developments in gene editing make it possible to edit a cow’s genome so that it does not grow horns. We assess from the consumer’s perspective whether the improvements in animal welfare resulting from gene-edited cows outweigh the perceived risks individuals associate with milk from these animals. We find that milk from gene-edited cows and milk from dehorned cows have lower willingness to pay relative to milk that comes from cows without mention of dehorning or gene editing.

Although forests play a vital role in US climate strategies, US forest area is expected to decline in the coming decades. Policymakers can help arrest or reverse that decline by strengthening incentives for forest carbon sequestration. Increased funding for afforestation, restoration, and bioenergy and wood products market development will likely benefit the forest sector unevenly across geographic, commercial, and demographic dimensions. This review explores the effects of policies – particularly incentives for afforestation and reforestation, carbon credit market participation, and wood products utilization – on US forest communities. We describe this policy landscape and use various data to investigate effects on diverse stakeholders, with special emphasis on the implications for disadvantaged and forest-dependent communities.

Afforestation policies in the South-Central region could significantly enhance carbon dioxide removal while reshaping rural dynamics. Forest carbon credit markets, though crucial for climate goals, may disadvantage small forest owners and communities, instead favoring large corporate entities. Policies promoting wood products in the South-Central region could benefit forest-dependent, high-poverty communities. We also note how policy implementation might ensure an equitable distribution of climate-related benefits among stakeholders in the forest sector.

In 2023 all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants were allowed to start grocery shopping online. This paper provides the first answer to the question: What is online shopping worth to the SNAP participant in dollars? Using meal-kit pricing and time-use data, an implicit wage rate and dollar value distribution are estimated for time saved in home food production from online grocery shopping. We report the 95th, 75th, 50th, 25th, and 5th percentile results. We simulate saving 50%, 75%, and 90% of grocery shopping time and estimate the savings per hour per meal. For example, if online shopping saved 75% of shopping time, the median saving per hour per meal would be $2.59. If a family of four made 15 to 30 meals a month, this corresponds to an implicit 5% to 11% increase in the benefits per month due to the time saved. The implicit wage rate provides simple and elegant economic insights into many aspects of food production and consumption not obtainable by just considering the money price.

Researchers have struggled to identify heirs’ property (HP) via the use of real estate records for years. This paper evaluates seven distinct methodological approaches to identify HP using CoreLogic’s national property database. We find minimal convergence among these algorithms, with different methods flagging largely non-overlapping sets of properties. Certain approaches show promise – particularly in identifying properties with characteristics consistent with documented HP patterns. The lack of agreement across methods, however, makes estimating the prevalence of HP difficult. Several paths exist forward to identify HP such as adding extra property characteristics into existing algorithms, developing more sophisticated algorithms, and establishing protocols for cross-jurisdictional validation.

Climate change can lead to increased pest migration and more frequent outbreaks by altering pest life cycles and habitats. Farmers facing increased temperatures or rainfall resort to more pesticides, emphasizing the need for adaptive pest management. This article evaluates the economic benefits of farmer networks for pest management by applying an economic model of social learning to a pilot network in Iowa. Our results show significant variation in the network’s effectiveness. We find that networks are particularly valuable for farmers facing high pest infestation risks, offering over $300 per acre in value against the impacts of extreme heat.1

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) makes an exception to its rules, which allows elderly and/or disabled individuals, their spouses, as well as homeless beneficiaries, to buy hot prepared food from restaurants if they live in a state that participates in the Restaurant Meals Program (RMP). Using the staggered countywide adoption timeline in California, coupled with a stacked difference-in-differences empirical strategy, I examine the intent-to-treat (ITT) nutritional effects of RMP on the elderly population. Overall, I find no evidence that obesity rates for the elderly are any different in counties with RMP versus those without RMP. I can statistically rule out moderate effects. Additional evidence from some of the early-adopting counties suggests that RMP is associated with a reduction in food insecurity among the elderly.

Social media has the potential to reshape rural agriculture in developing nations in ways that differ from other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) because the communication method is mediated through social capital that expands and strengthens relationships. This paper uses two quasi-experimental approaches to estimate the impact of four different communication treatments (including three ICTs) on production practices of small-scale farmers in Rondônia, Brazil. Our difference-in-differences estimation controls for time-invariant unobservable differences in the characteristics of households that do and do not engage with ICTs and draws on a panel from 2009 and 2019. Our propensity score matching is estimated with over 1,200 farmer households surveyed in 2019. We find that the use of social media increases the uptake of both old and new pasture management and cattle practices that are promoted by state and federal agencies via their social media feeds. We also test the impact of the interaction between social media and extension agent visits and find evidence appear to operate independently, potentially as substitutes. Our results suggest that social media is an effective and low-cost way for extension agencies to reach farmers, although we are uncertain as to whether these effects would be stronger with targeted extension visits that use social media to reinforce messaging.

This article serves as an introduction to the Special Issue section “Measuring and Enhancing Resilience of United States Rural Communities in the Context of Climate Variability.” To set the stage for this section, we review how climate hazards impact rural areas and synthesize insights that emerge across the issue’s four papers, noting their policy relevance and highlighting opportunities for continued research. We argue that emerging data tools can help program designers and policy makers better support the resilience of rural areas, but that doing so remains complicated by heterogeneity in resources and vulnerabilities across rural areas.

Public food procurement incentives and targeted policies by state and Federal governments are one of the most frequently enacted strategies to leverage food spending to promote co-benefits related to economic, environmental, and social outcomes. Here we use an optimization model to explore potential outcomes of policy alternatives and integrate co-benefit dimensions into schools' agri-food supply chains via Farm to School procurement incentives. We find that in the absence of policy supports, school food authorities are unlikely to participate in local food procurement programs. We then place the findings in context by inferring the level of financial incentives that are needed to reduce barriers to schools' participation. Our findings have implications for community and economic development policies, particularly those seeking to support agriculturally dependent areas via elevated institutional food procurement using the case of policies framed for a school setting.

For almost eight decades, productivity in the United States agricultural sector has substantially increased, in large extent due to the adoption of technological innovations. Despite the increased utilization of technology, questions remain regarding which producers are more likely to adopt a greater number of technological innovations. This research seeks to understand how commodity diversification strategies, farm characteristics, producer perceptions of risk, conservation, information sources, climate adaptation, and producer demographic characteristics are associated with technology adoption among beef cattle producers in the Southeast United States. Utilizing data from an online survey and an Ordered Probit model, we show that beef cattle producers who also produce fruit have an increased probability of adopting a greater number of technologies. The opposite effect is found for other commodities such as vegetables, row crops, and other livestock. Policy recommendations are also discussed.

Microplastic pollution from plastic fragments accumulating in agricultural fields threatens the world’s most productive soils and environmental sustainability. This is the first paper to address the challenge of developing a dynamic economic model to analyze the adoption of soil-biodegradable plastic mulches (BDMs) as a sustainable alternative to conventional polyethylene mulches. The model considers the trade-off between BDM degradation rates and agricultural production, seeking to balance the cost of BDMs and the cost of waste disposal. We consider both private and social perspectives under deterministic and stochastic environments. Our findings suggest that BDMs can significantly decrease long-term plastic pollution from single-use plastics in agriculture. For example, increasing landfill tipping fees incentivizes Washington State tomato growers to optimally adopt BDMs with a 61% degradation rate and to till used BDMs into the soil, reducing plastic waste accumulation in landfills. The study highlights the role of economic incentives, such as landfill fees, corrective taxes and the role of risk aversion, in promoting BDM adoption and curbing plastic pollution. The framework presented here offers valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to foster sustainable agricultural practices and mitigate global plastic pollution.