Suchergebnisse

AbstractWe assess the effects of the European Union's School Fruit and Vegetables Scheme (SFVS) on reported consumption frequencies and revealed preferences for fruit and vegetables among schoolchildren. Estimated treatment effects based on double‐difference models indicate that the SFVS raised children's fruit and vegetable consumption frequency by 30% to 50%. However, the results from actual choice data show that children exposed to the program had a decreased probability of choosing apple slices over cookies. Our findings suggest that the program increased fruit and vegetable consumption because of increased availability, exposure, and awareness rather than actual preference changes.

AbstractThe Mississippi River plays a vital role in the global competitiveness of U.S. agricultural commodities. The key to the river's effectiveness is how efficiency it can carry bulk loads. However, limited research has investigated how barge‐load size affects efficiency. It is hypothesized that increasing the load‐size will enhance barge transportation efficiency. As a test, a vector autoregressive model was developed, with results supporting the hypothesis. Barge‐rate volatility and magnitude may be reduced by regulating draft depth, which is the main constraint for barge load size.

AbstractWhen buying a product, consumers are confronted with a host of information presented to them. However, this information can only affect shoppers' choices if they pay attention to it. Eye tracking can measure visual attention to information. Most recently, agricultural and food economics research has combined eye tracking and valuation methods to give insight into the relation between visual attention, preferences, and choices. We present an overview of the eye‐tracking literature, and discuss theory and applications. Also, insights on how to measure visual attention and choice are provided. While eye tracking has its challenges, there are interesting future research avenues that can be explored by agricultural and food economists using eye tracking.

AbstractThis paper examines the effect that Walmart Supercenters, which lower food prices and expand food availability, have on food insecurity. Data come from the 2001–2012 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements matched to Walmart Supercenter entry dates and locations. Using instrumental variables models that leverage Walmart's predictable expansion pattern outward from corporate headquarters, we find that closer proximity to a Walmart Supercenter improves household and child food security, as measured by affirmative responses to a food insecurity questionnaire and an indicator for food insecurity. The effects are largest among low‐income households and children but are also sizeable for middle‐income children.

AbstractA perk of academic employment is the ability to earn additional income from non‐university entities by consulting. Despite the availability of such work, the potential synergies with research, teaching, and extension, and the controversy sometimes surrounding it, there is surprisingly little research on the prevalence of outside consulting, the determinants of consulting, or the response of faculty to specific university consulting policies. To address these issues, this paper utilizes data from a nationwide survey of academic agricultural economists. We find that about 43% of the sample reported consulting activities in the year prior to the survey. Of those who consulted, 12% (or about $34,000) of their total household income on average comes from outside consulting activities. Income from consulting is positively correlated with having a research appointment, income earned from the university, and number of career published papers. We also document extensive heterogeneity across university consulting policies and perceptions of these policies.

AbstractThis study uses farm‐level information from the ARMS database to evaluate the distribution of payments from major 2014 Farm Bill safety net programs—federal crop insurance, Agricultural Risk Coverage, and Price Loss Coverage—across farm size. Results indicate that farms within the top decile for crop sales receive over two‐thirds of the total payments from these programs. Recent legislative proposals to implement payment caps on each farm are shown to impact a relatively small percentage of farms that are almost entirely within the top decile of crop sales. However, implementing these caps is likely to result in as much as $2.51 billion in taxpayer savings. These help provide direction for continued efforts to design cost‐effective, equitable agricultural safety net policies.

AbstractThis paper, which investigates food access and underserved areas in the U.S., differs from most existing research by explicitly examining food retailers' in‐store product availability, a retailing outcome that might exacerbate or mitigate consumer impacts of residing in areas with poor food access. Using detailed retailer scanner data from 2010–2015 and measures of food access, we investigate the relationship between healthy product assortments and food access. Our results consistently show a negative and significant relationship between census tracts with poor food access and healthy product assortments featuring fruits and vegetables. This finding provides rigorous documentation for what other researchers have claimed, namely that consumers who reside in underserved communities and are already burdened with poor food access endure the hardship of facing less healthy assortments of food items.

AbstractThis article reviews the literature on contract farming (CF) in India and assesses the impact of smallholders' perceived production risks on the adoption of CF; the impact of CF on smallholders' food security; and its impact on employment generation in their farming enterprises. We also show the impact of the outcome variables by risk preference of smallholders. Using farm‐level data and endogenous switching regression methods, this study presents three key findings. First, the perception of weather and pest risk, access to irrigation facilities, extension visits, and access to institutional credit are the main drivers of CF adoption. Second, CF adoption increases food security and varies with the revealed risk preference of smallholders, and risk‐seeking smallholders tend to gain higher food security. Third, regardless of revealed risk preferences, smallholders who did not adopt CF benefit from adoption by reducing their labor requirements, with no significant losses in yield.

AbstractContract farming, wherein a processor contracts out the production of an agricultural commodity to a grower, is the first step toward more vertically coordinated—and thus more modern—agricultural value chains. As such, in principle contract farming is a necessary condition for the structural transformation of developing economies to occur. Yet contract farming is far from monolithic, and the institution takes on a variety of forms. In this article, we describe how the institution of contract farming varies in cross‐sectional data covering 1,200 households across six regions of Madagascar, half of which are growers in contract farming agreements covering a dozen different crops. In this setting, participation in contract farming has been associated with increases in income, improvements in food security, and reductions in income variability. Given those presumed effects in this setting of participation in contract farming, we then look at the correlates in our data of participation in contract farming. as well as one's willingness to pay to participate in contract farming as a grower in an attempt to better target policies aimed at encouraging participation in contract farming.

AbstractWe explore pricing in local food‐retailing markets where supermarkets operate versus those occupied solely by smaller food retailers. Using data from the Women, Infants, and Children program in the Greater Los Angeles area, we show that supermarkets do not raise prices in local markets or as a function of market concentration or firm market shares. Smaller food retailers charge substantially higher prices on average than supermarkets. Their prices increase with market concentration and shares of sales, especially when small retailers face no direct competition from supermarkets. Given the dominance of small retailers in some low‐income areas, our findings have important implications regarding local market power, food costs, and supermarket entry.

AbstractProduct traceability is advocated as a way to target non‐compliant products in recalls and protect the sales of compliant products. Using a large scanner‐level dataset from a national grocery chain and a difference‐in‐differences approach, we test whether consumers in California reduced egg purchases after three consecutive egg recalls during the 2010 Salmonella outbreak. In a setting where contaminated eggs could be traced to the box level, leaving no contaminated eggs in stores, we find a 7% to 9% reduction in egg sales following the recalls. The effect lasted at least three months. We find no evidence of overall substitution toward "greener" types of eggs, such as organic eggs. Finally, although the national grocery chain had contaminated eggs only in Northern California, we find reductions in egg sales in Southern Californian stores as well. Our results show that, even with traceability, consumers' responses to recalls can negatively affect the sales of compliant products.

AbstractMany states have increased the asset limits used to determine eligibility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in recent years. Using three panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we estimate the effect of increases in the SNAP vehicle and total asset limits on vehicle and financial assets among low‐education families. We find that higher vehicle limits, together with the elimination of the total asset limit, increase the probability that a family owns a vehicle. Moreover, eliminating the total asset limit increases the value held in liquid accounts. The effect on liquid assets is greater among families in metro areas and for those at the lower end of the asset distribution. The effects on vehicle assets occur mainly among those in non‐metro areas and at the higher end of the asset distribution. Our findings imply that removing asset limits of assistance programs can lead to an increase in assets among the low‐income population.

AbstractWe review research on eye movements in decision making and show that decision makers are subject to several visual biases such as the size, salience, position, emotional valence, predictability, and number of information elements. These biases lead decision makers to allocate their attention in ways that are arbitrary to their goals and sometimes bias their choices. We show that while some visual biases can be minimized, others are unavoidable. Consequently, it is impossible to present information in a completely neutral way. Any presentation format will bias decision makers to attend or ignore different information and thereby influence their choices.