Food
Environment
Trade
Risk
BiorenewablesAgriculture and the Environment
Objective: To assess the environmental health of midwestern agriculture and the consequences of alternative agricultural and environmental management policies for environmental quality.
Command-and-control policy instruments versus market-based instruments for the provision of environmental goods
Researchers at CARD currently are assessing command-and-control policy instruments versus market-based instruments for the provision of environmental goods. The purpose is to investigate, after the fact, which policies would have been cheaper in providing the same amount of environmental goods and/or would have provided more environmental goods given the same funding. We will evaluate carbon sequestration as one of the environmental goods. See Carbon Sequestration.
Midwestern agriculture and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico
Map of the watershed
This interdisciplinary project focuses on the role that agricultural activities have on hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Resource and Environmental Policy researchers are working with the Grassland, Soil & Water Research Laboratory, USDA-Agriculture Research Service, in Temple, Texas, to integrate the watershed-based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model with economic models. This will allow us to estimate the economic and environmental impacts of alternative tillage, cropping, and nutrient management practices on water quality in the Upper Mississippi River Basin and, ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico. See Water Quality.
The effect of livestock operations on house values
Map of the study area with confinements
Resource and Environmental Policy researchers are developing a hedonic price model to analyze the effect of animal feeding operations on the price of rural residential property in Iowa in the last ten years. Thanks to the adoption of geographical information systems technology, very detailed spatial information is available. This has allowed us to develop very precise estimates of distance, which can be combined with information on prevailing wind patterns and other important determinants of hedonic prices. We also plan to research whether selection bias effects are present by studying which properties were sold near animal feeding operations. Finally, we are integrating house and livestock operation data with information on fish kills and manure spills to include the possible impact of perceived risk on house prices. See Water Quality.
Estimation of discrete choice models with aggregate data
This study presents an econometric technique for circumventing the lack of individual choice data in a framework of a discrete choice model by utilizing aggregate choice data. The estimation combines 1997 NRI data with the aggregate data on conservation tillage choices in the form of county-level proportions of cropland in conservation tillage. The technique developed not only allows for estimation of a discrete choice model of conservation tillage adoption using the newer 1997 NRI data but also can be used in other situations of discrete choice modeling. For instance, the technique can be used when information on the characteristics of the decisionmakers and the determinants of their choices is available at the individual level but the choice information is aggregated, for example, because of confidentiality reasons.
Determinants of fall application of fertilizer
Researchers in the Resource and Environmental Policy Division are currently studying reasons why farmers apply fertilizer in the fall. The purpose of the investigation is to gain an understanding of how this environmentally detrimental decision is made and to suggest potential policy responses.
Researchers at CARD currently are assessing command-and-control policy instruments versus market-based instruments for the provision of environmental goods. The purpose is to investigate, after the fact, which policies would have been cheaper in providing the same amount of environmental goods and/or would have provided more environmental goods given the same funding. We will evaluate carbon sequestration as one of the environmental goods. See Carbon Sequestration.
Midwestern agriculture and hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico
Map of the watershed
This interdisciplinary project focuses on the role that agricultural activities have on hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Resource and Environmental Policy researchers are working with the Grassland, Soil & Water Research Laboratory, USDA-Agriculture Research Service, in Temple, Texas, to integrate the watershed-based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model with economic models. This will allow us to estimate the economic and environmental impacts of alternative tillage, cropping, and nutrient management practices on water quality in the Upper Mississippi River Basin and, ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico. See Water Quality.
The effect of livestock operations on house values
Map of the study area with confinements
Resource and Environmental Policy researchers are developing a hedonic price model to analyze the effect of animal feeding operations on the price of rural residential property in Iowa in the last ten years. Thanks to the adoption of geographical information systems technology, very detailed spatial information is available. This has allowed us to develop very precise estimates of distance, which can be combined with information on prevailing wind patterns and other important determinants of hedonic prices. We also plan to research whether selection bias effects are present by studying which properties were sold near animal feeding operations. Finally, we are integrating house and livestock operation data with information on fish kills and manure spills to include the possible impact of perceived risk on house prices. See Water Quality.
Estimation of discrete choice models with aggregate data
This study presents an econometric technique for circumventing the lack of individual choice data in a framework of a discrete choice model by utilizing aggregate choice data. The estimation combines 1997 NRI data with the aggregate data on conservation tillage choices in the form of county-level proportions of cropland in conservation tillage. The technique developed not only allows for estimation of a discrete choice model of conservation tillage adoption using the newer 1997 NRI data but also can be used in other situations of discrete choice modeling. For instance, the technique can be used when information on the characteristics of the decisionmakers and the determinants of their choices is available at the individual level but the choice information is aggregated, for example, because of confidentiality reasons.
Determinants of fall application of fertilizer
Researchers in the Resource and Environmental Policy Division are currently studying reasons why farmers apply fertilizer in the fall. The purpose of the investigation is to gain an understanding of how this environmentally detrimental decision is made and to suggest potential policy responses.