Many states are adopting economic education standards for the K-12 curriculum, mandating economic education courses in rural and urban schools. We examine economic education outcomes for rural and urban students using test scores gathered during a national high school academic competition and by estimating a production function for economic education. We find only limited differences between the education production function in urban and rural settings and lower average scores for rural students. To close this gap, results suggest that rural schools should place economic content in the senior-year curriculum and provide teachers with increased postgraduate training in economics.

Laboratory market experiments are used to estimate the incidence of a stylized subsidy in factor market negotiations with university student and agricultural professional subjects. In separate sessions with both groups, prices converged approximately four and a half tokens higher when a 20-token per-unit subsidy was paid to buyers; this equates to 44% of the predicted 10-token split. A proportional market incentive treatment clarifies this subsidy effect. Discrepancies between predicted and observed incidence are similar to previous empirical estimates of subsidy incidence in agricultural land rental markets. A behavioral anomaly as well as buyer-buyer market competition may contribute to experimental results.

Preferences for pomegranates, including some novel pomegranate varieties, were evaluated using an experimental auction and nonhypothetical preference ranking mechanism. Additional information on the taste and health benefits of the products was provided to mimic the information-gathering process on novel products. Product familiarity, product information, and reference prices were key factors in explaining willingness to pay for the included novel products. Results from the auction and nonhypothetical preference ranking procedures were divergent. Furthermore, interactions were detected between information treatments and product characteristics.

We present a demonstration of a Bayesian spatial probit model for a dichotomous choice contingent valuation method willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions. If voting behavior is spatially correlated, spatial interdependence exists within the data, and standard probit models will result in biased and inconsistent estimated nonbid coefficients. Adjusting sample WTP to population WTP requires unbiased estimates of the nonbid coefficients, and we find a $17 difference in population WTP per household in a standard vs. spatial model. We conclude that failure to correctly model spatial dependence can lead to differences in WTP estimates with potentially important policy ramifications.

Socioeconomic factors influencing consumer demand for nursery products and landscape projects were investigated using consumer survey data collected from North Carolina in 2008. Tobit models were estimated for censored dependent variables, budget expenditure shares on nursery products, and landscape spending. The most significant factors influencing the share of income spent on nursery products were age and household income. The elderly and baby boomers tend to spend less on bedding plants, perennials, and outdoor hardscapes than Generations X and Y. The income elasticities suggest that the amount spent on outdoor living projects is sensitive to changes in household income, whereas spending in vegetable plants and chemicals is less responsive to income.

When consumers have heterogeneous perceptions about product quality, traditional parametric methods may not provide accurate marginal valuation estimates of a product's characteristics. A quantile regression framework can be used to estimate valuations of product characteristics when quality perceptions are not homogeneous. Semiparametric quantile regressions provide identification and quantification of heterogeneous marginal valuation effects across a conditional price distribution. Using purchase price data from a bull auction, we show that there are nonconstant marginal valuations of bull carcass and growth traits. Improved understanding of product characteristic valuations across differentiated market segments can help producers develop more cost-effective management strategies.

This study sought to determine whether monthly revisions of U.S. Department of Agriculture current-year corn and soybean yield forecasts are correlated and whether this correlation is associated with crop size. An ex-ante measure of crop size based on percent deviation of the current estimate from out-of-sample trend is used in efficiency tests based on the Nordhaus framework for fixed-event forecasts. Results show that available information about crop size is generally efficiently incorporated in these forecasts. Thus, although this pattern may appear obvious to market analysts in hindsight, it is largely based on new information and hence difficult to anticipate.

In this article, possible use of climate forecasts in rainfall index insurance of hay and forage production is considered in a geographical area (southeast United States) relatively heavily impacted by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Analysis of the stochastic properties of rainfall, yields, and the ENSO forecasts using the copula technique shows that the forecast impact depends on the proximity to the Gulf Coast where the impact of the ENSO is more pronounced and earlier in the year. Stochastic modeling shows that the use of skillful long-term climate forecasts by the insured producers creates intertemporal adverse selection that can be precluded by offering forecast conditional premiums. The impacts on the efficiency of the rainfall index insurance and results of sensitivity analysis with respect to model parameters are discussed.

This article analyzes the economies of capacity use regarding hot water decontamination to reduce postslaughter risk of pathogens in meat, taking interfarm heterogeneities of Salmonella risk and costs of transportation into account, using Denmark as a case study. If risk reduction goals are stated at the processing plant level, then the exploitation of the favorable cost-effectiveness properties of hot water slaughtering requires fairly ambitious risk reduction goals and thus high use of decontamination capacity. If instead risk reduction goals are formulated for the sector as a whole, the cost-effectiveness properties can be exploited even for relatively low-risk reduction goals.

Although the negative externalities of large-scale hog production have been well studied, econometric estimates of its potentially positive labor markets effects are lacking. We use the geographic shifts in large-scale hog production between 1992 and 2007 to estimate such production's effects on local farm and nonfarm labor markets. We find that every additional 1000 head at large-scale facilities in a county generates 0.57 additional large-scale hog operation jobs, 0.04 fewer small-scale hog operation jobs, 0.16 fewer nonhog-related agricultural jobs, and 0.59 additional nonfarm jobs, for a total of 0.96 jobs. Our total estimate is lower than previous ones based on input-output modeling.

This article determines the accuracy of quarterly land value forecasts provided by bankers through the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions. Bankers' qualitative forecasts of up, down, or no change are compared against actual, self-reported changes in land values. A large proportion of bankers forecast no change. Despite this action, aggregates of bankers' qualitative forecasts help predict changing land values and forecast better than naïve models. Thus, the forecasts in the survey are helpful in predicting land values.

U.S. rice industry producers face pressure from consumers, suppliers, and the government to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with rice (Oryza sativa L.) production. Arkansas rice cultivar-specific net GHG emissions information allows models of paddy rice emissions. Baseline levels of profit, yield variance, and GHG emissions are established using extension data. Varietal selection is then optimized to maximize profits and minimize GHG emissions, both constrained and unconstrained by baseline yield variance. Carbon abatement functions are estimated to examine the effects of hypothetical carbon prices on varietal selection.