Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy最新文献

We study the effectiveness of the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI) in reducing nitrogen pollution in surface water bodies. We use a Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder (KOB) counterfactual decomposition method to quantify the role of income and policy in reducing nitrogen pollution in waterbodies. Our results show that the MRBI policy for the 2012 cohort of implemented watersheds across five states (Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Tennessee) experienced a 43% reduction in nitrogen concentrations when comparing the 2009–2011 pre-treatment period to the 2012–2018 post-treatment period. Decomposition results show that 79% of the improvement in water quality from policy treatment is derived from an endowment effect, driven mainly by location-fixed effects that include cross-sectional mean differences in income, among other characteristics. Results also show that 21% of differences are derived from the coefficient effect or differences in the response of policy-treated watersheds compared to a set of control watersheds.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the cornerstone food assistance program in the United States and has been shown to reduce the risk of food insecurity. Most research on the causal effect of SNAP on food insecurity relies on the 12-month food insecurity scale along with usage of SNAP at any point during the year. However, recent social surveys ask about experiences with food insecurity in the 30 days prior to the survey. In this paper, we examine whether similar protective effects of SNAP against food insecurity are obtained whether using the 30-day or 12-month food insecurity scale using the December Supplement of the Current Population Survey for 2002–2019. Results indicate comparable average treatment effects of SNAP in mitigating food insecurity across both 30-day and 12-month reference periods.

Persistent malnutrition and food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa demand creative experimentation beyond conventional financing and interventions. Impact investing merits consideration. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) shape diets and health outcomes in Africa and may present an investment opportunity. The Nutritious Food Financing Facility (N3F) aims to harness blended impact investing for improved nutrition. We describe this novel approach to enhancing food environments using as a model the N3F, which provides financial and technical support to SMEs to increase the availability and affordability of more nutritious foods in domestic food environments. We consider both the opportunities and challenges of this approach.

Food insecurity has many causes, including insufficient incomes, competing expenditure needs, and inadequate facilities to store and prepare food. The characteristics that contribute to food insecurity may also contribute to other co-occurring hardships. This article examines people's experiences of food insecurity, poor financial wellbeing, poor physical health and long-term disability, low social support, inadequate economic resources, and housing stress, using 2020 data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. It finds that food insecurity typically co-occurs with other hardships. Nearly two-thirds of food-insecure Australians experience another hardship, and just under one-third experience multiple other hardships.

We examine the association between woman farmers and community well-being using U.S. county-level data. We address modeling uncertainty around three measures of community well-being by using a spatial Bayesian model averaging approach and find that a higher share of farms operated or owned by women in a county is associated with higher rates of new business formation, longer life expectancies, and lower poverty rates. The results are consistent with a growing literature that finds women business owners approach their businesses more holistically, with positive community spillovers.

Current and proposed policies aim to leverage the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) to promote conservation practices. This study uses corn farm-level survey data to inform the effectiveness of targeting FCIP participants. We implement an unsupervised machine learning algorithm to assess what conservation practices are most common among participants. We find that farms that use crop insurance have higher adoption rates for practices that are generally profit-maximizing. We also calculate nitrogen balance, a yield-scaled measure of nitrogen fertilizer's potential environmental impact. We find a positive relationship between crop insurance and nitrogen balance closer to the optimum.

In 2022, U.S. consumers experienced an infant formula shortage that resulted in historic out-of-stock rates and brought renewed attention to market concentration in the infant formula market. FDA regulation, tariffs, and limiting WIC benefit redemption to a state's contract brand of infant formula, all potential barriers to competition, were temporarily relaxed to mitigate the impact of the shortage. This article discusses the potential trade-offs associated with permanent policy changes while highlighting opportunities for future research to support the development of policies to improve resiliency in the infant formula market.

Regional trade agreements (RTAs) have experienced significant growth worldwide, leading to an increase in studies assessing their impact on bilateral trade flows. With the availability of disaggregated trade data, numerous studies have examined the influence of these agreements specifically on agri-food trade. However, the results of these studies exhibit heterogeneity, posing challenges for policymakers seeking to understand the effects of RTAs on agri-food trade. To address this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis of 61 studies investigating the effects of various RTAs on agri-food trade. Using funnel asymmetric testing, our analysis reveals the presence of publication bias in the existing literature. By accounting for this bias, we found robust evidence that RTAs positively and significantly promote agri-food trade. Notably, the extent of this effect depends on the depth of economic integration within the RTA, distinguishing between customs unions and free trade agreements, as well as the classification of agri-food products as primary or processed. The ex-post effects of RTAs on agri-food trade are less pronounced when we control for both publication bias and heterogeneity, compared to controlling only for publication bias.

This paper investigates how scanner data affect demand elasticity estimates and develops methods for scientists to adapt estimated elasticities to analyses of specific policies. We conduct a meta-analysis of U.S. demand elasticities and find evidence that scanner data generate statistically different elasticities, with more elastic demand than other data types. Own-price elasticity estimates from household scanner quantity data appear to be more elastic than other quantity types. Household-level estimates using retail scanner price data, as proxies for prices, tend to be more price-elastic than other price types. These results suggest caution or adjustment when selecting elasticities for policy analysis.

Agri-food systems are important sources of rural off-farm employment, but insights on job quality are limited. We study job quality in the Peruvian horticultural sector and explore the driving forces of decent and equal work, using survey data and econometric methods. We find structural disparities in wages and job quality between men and women and between local and migrant workers, trade-offs between wage and nonwage dimensions of decent work, and sector and company differences. Our findings contest that global value chains are a catalyst for decent and equal work and underscore the importance of formalization and government regulation of employment.