Many non-native weed pests of food, fiber, and nursery crops pose threats to U.S. environment and agriculture. Noxious weed regulations play an important role in preventing the introduction and spread of non-native plants, thereby protecting the local biodiversity, environment and economic activities. However, these regulations could also hamper agricultural trade....
Many economists believe that the slowdown of the productivity growth rates in the U.S. economy in early 1970's was a consequence of the increased level of environmental regulations. The main reason presented in support of this argument is that increased environmental regulations impose an additional burden to the firms, thus...
In modern economies, national governments have a wide
range of policies for restricting international trade and
protecting domestic industries at their disposal. The most
popular form of non-tariff trade policies is probably that
of a direct quantitative restriction. This policy takes
two principal forms: explicit import quotas and voluntary
export...
The construction industry employs about 7% of the total US workforce, and yet it accounts for 15.7% of all occupational fatalities. Specifically in 2011, there were 721 deaths in construction, second only to transportation with 733. The cause of a large number of these construction deaths can be attributed to...
The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship among fashion media, the social responsibility agenda of the Audubon Society, and the use of birds in millinery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Both the content analysis method and the historic method were used to gain...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of commodity promotion activities on the United States' hazelnut farmer's economic welfare. Commodity promotion activities, such as generic advertising and research, are the responsibilities of government mandated commodity commissions, such as the Hazelnut Marketing Board (HMB). The HMB is a...
Hospital patients are at high risk for foodborne illness; it is essential that hospital foodservice managers know food safety principles. The purpose of this research was to assess the basic food safety knowledge of hospital foodservice managers and to determine their interest in continuing education related to food safety. A...
This dissertation addresses two main issues involving alcohol markets. In the first, we employ both parametric and nonparametric methods to analyze the market structure and estimate the degree of market power in the U.S. brewing industry. In the nonparametric case, we use the variations in the excise tax to test...
In 1996, China started to increase its annual soybean imports at a tremendously high speed. It has become one of the most important soybean import markets for the world's largest soybean producers: the United States, Brazil and Argentina. In the meantime, the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), a Chinese soybean futures...
In this study, the rates of technological change in food processing sectors of U.S. and Mexico are compared through econometric estimation of both the unrestricted (long-run) and restricted (short-run) profit functions with first order autocorrelation correction. Then, the dual rate of productivity growth is computed and decomposed into its sources....