Postdoctoral Research Associate T. Jake Smith and Professor GianCarlo Moschini had their article "Major impacts of the US Renewable Fuel Standard on corn and soybean cultivation" published in Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Smith and Moschini's article uses data on observed crop choices and ethanol production to estimate the local impacts of ethanol plants and the overall impact of the 2007 US Renewable Fuel Standard on crop patterns. The authors find that the RFS2 increased total corn area by 9.7%, corn monoculture by 16.8%, and soybean area by 6.7%, with notable spatial heterogeneity in both the overall impact and the local effects of ethanol plants.

Major impacts of the US Renewable Fuel Standard on corn and soybean cultivation
T. Jake Smith and GianCarlo Moschini
Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
doi: 10.1002/jaa2.134