Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy最新文献

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is by far the largest of food assistance programs in the U.S. Given its size, there is an expectation it should succeed and an extensive literature has demonstrated its success in improving the well-being of recipients across numerous dimensions. Its success and popularity is due to many factors but what is especially important is its promotion of the dignity of recipients and allowing for the autonomy of recipients' choices. In contrast, two other well-known food assistance programs run by the USDA, the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), have imposed hurdles to the goals of dignity and autonomy which have led to many potential participants foregoing benefits. This article begins with a review of each of these three programs. After this review, I discuss how the lessons learned from the success of SNAP can be leveraged by NSLP and WIC.

This manuscript investigated the relation between student evaluations of teaching (SETs) and grades. Specifically, the research aimed to determine grades' causal effect on SETs and compare it to the effect of other instructor and course factors. Data collected from surveys at a US University and a Central American University were analyzed using panel data regression procedures. The findings revealed a positive grade effect on SETs at both institutions. Other instructor and course characteristics had relatively equal or smaller effects on SETs. The study findings can help faculty to enhance SETs scores and institutions when they assess their validity.

A strong research program is crucial for academic faculty, as it influences promotions, tenure, salary raises, and professional recognitions/awards. We summarize relative journal rating/ranking metrics from multiple sources, and for selected journals commonly targeted by agricultural economists, to provide insights on their perceived value. We also present combined results from a survey, measuring perceptions of agricultural economists in the US regarding research quantity/quality expectations for tenure/promotion, and actual research metrics from CVs of faculty in US higher education institutions who recently received tenure. We hope this article provides useful insights for junior faculty to better understand the assessment of their research output.

Wholesalers of agricultural crops have historically received limited attention in the literature on agricultural development, which has a strongly productivist focus. When wholesalers are considered, they are often framed as exploitative, taking advantage of information asymmetries, market failures, and unequal power relations to extract heavy surpluses from farmers. However, there is a growing appreciation that wholesalers may play important roles in facilitating agricultural development and rural transformation. This paper evaluates wholesaler conduct and performance using a survey of 218 maize wholesalers in 12 of the major maize-growing and trading townships of South Shan State, Myanmar and the cities of Lashio and Muse in North Shan. Hybrid maize emerged very rapidly in Myanmar over the past two decades to become a major cash crop, supplying domestic animal feed mills and becoming one of Myanmar's most important exports to China and Thailand. Wholesalers have been central to the development of this supply chain and the sector. Contrary to recent literature from Myanmar that has cast maize wholesalers as exploitative, the survey finds that the rapidly growing wholesaler segment of the maize value chain is highly competitive, rapidly changing with respect to technology, and functions efficiently. Farmers obtaining maize inputs from wholesalers in the form of tied output credit sell their maize at prevailing market rates. The emergence of clusters of maize wholesalers and allied actors such as third-party logistics services occurred spontaneously and symbiotically with the expansion of hybrid maize cultivation, and with each set of actors essential to the emergence of the others.

This paper provides an ex ante evaluation of the economic potential of the emergent industrial hemp industry in Oregon, a state with conditions favorable to hemp cultivation. The analysis exploits available data to simulate the performance of hemp for fiber and oil in existing cropping systems. The study finds that profitability and adoption of hemp into existing crop production systems in Oregon could range widely, depending on key factors including hemp prices, costs of production, investments in production technology and supply chains, and policies affecting hemp production and utilization.

This study investigates the effect of food biotechnology misinformation on consumer demand and attitudes toward bioengineered food and tests the effectiveness of pre-bunking and debunking mitigation strategies. Using choice experiment data from a sample of 1270 U.S. consumers, we find that exposure to misinformation has a significant effect on consumers' food preferences and policy attitudes. We also find that while pre-bunking is an effective mitigating strategy, debunking by itself is not sufficient. Our findings suggest that preemptively warning consumers about misinformation and the tactics used to spread it is more effective than merely correcting the misinformation afterward.

Despite increasing scholarly attention to individual aspirations, rural women's aspirations in agriculture remain largely unexplored. With women increasingly central to agricultural work, understanding their aspirations is crucial. Using farm surveys from Ecuador, Kenya, and Rwanda, we investigate the relationship between gender and aspiration formation in agriculture. Similar to previous findings related to education and entrepreneurship, our findings show women have lower ambitions for agricultural production. Addressing the unique challenges they face, gender-sensitive policies are vital for inclusive, sustainable agriculture. Our study contributes to a broader understanding of the multidimensional factors shaping agricultural outcomes, underscoring the importance of integrating diverse perspectives for effective policy formulation in agriculture.

This study examines the drivers of rice trade. The analysis uses the standard comparative advantage model, the Heckscher–Ohlin–Vanek (HOV) framework, supplemented with a gravity-type equation. Using the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation for data from 2002 to 2020, the analysis broadly confirms HOV model predictions. Results indicate that arable land, along with GDP, distance, precipitation and crop season temperature, significantly influences rice trade dynamics. The results showed that the precipitation play a key role in influencing the rice trade rather than the blue water availability. However, agricultural water stress discouraged exports and encouraged imports.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine War, global food markets have been in turmoil. Agricultural input and energy prices doubled between 2020 and 2022, with immediate consequences on food accessibility. We examine the drivers of the EU food inflation patterns, and how trade integration shapes these dynamics. We find that food price inflation has been mainly driven by surges in agricultural production costs and, to a lesser extent, by global food price increases. Trade openness has not exacerbated the inflating dynamics during this period. We conclude with reflections on inflationary, production, and trade policies.

This article analyzes the geostrategic dimensions in food policy responses to two recent global shocks: the Corona-SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the Russian war against Ukraine. The analysis adds to the general assessments of economic security by providing a case study of food policy and food security as an element of economic security. Strong national path dependent trajectories in food policies can be observed. However, geostrategic dimensions related to interstate interaction and political considerations in policymaking that go beyond food security are also observed.