Resource Economics engages students and practitioners in natural resource and environmental issues from both local and global standpoints. The fourth edition of this approachable but rigorous text provides a new focus on risk and uncertainty as well as new applications that address the effect of new energy technologies on scarcity and climate change mitigation and adaptation, while preserving and systematically updating the approach and key features that drew many thousands of readers to the first three editions.
This volume celebrates the life and career of Gordon Rausser, pioneer and leader in natural resource economics, while critically overviewing the emerging literature in the field. As the chair of the Agriculture and Resource Economics department at UC Berkeley, Rausser led the transformation of the department from a traditional agricultural economics department to a diverse resource economics department addressing issues of agriculture, food, natural resources, environmental economics, energy, and development. This book builds on this theme, showcasing not only the scope of Rausser's work but also key developments in the field. The volume is organized into two parts. The first part speaks about the lessons of Gordon Rausser's career, in particular, his role as a leader in different spheres, his capacity to integrate teaching and entrepreneurship, and his impact on the world food system. The second part will address some of the significant developments in the field he contributed to and how it relates to his work. The chapters include contributions from modern leaders in the economics field and cover diverse topics from many subfields including public policy, public finance, law, econometrics, macroeconomics, and water resources. Providing an excellent reference, as well as a celebration of a pivotal figure in the field, this volume will be useful for practitioners and scholars in agricultural and resource economics, especially the many individuals familiar with Gordon Rausser and his career.
This book showcases the power of economic principles to explain and predict issues and current events in the food, agricultural, agribusiness, international trade, natural resources and other sectors. The result is an agricultural economics textbook that provides students and instructors with a clear, up-to-date, and straightforward approach to learning how a market-based economy functions, and how to use simple economic principles for improved decision making. While the primary focus of the book is on microeconomic aspects, agricultural economics has expanded over recent decades to include issues of macroeconomics, international trade, agribusiness, environmental economics, natural resources, and international development. Hence, these topics are also provided with significant coverage.
Harris and Roach present a compact and accessible presentation of the core environmental and resource topics and more, with analytical rigor as well as engaging examples and policy discussions. They take a broad approach to theoretical analysis, using both standard economic and ecological analyses, and developing these both from theoretical and practical points of view. It assumes a background in basic economics, but offers brief review sections on important micro and macroeconomic concepts, as well as appendices with more advanced and technical material. Extensive instructor and student support materials, including PowerPoint slides, data updates, and student exercises are provided.
Persistent problems with poverty, rapid population growth and malnutrition in many developing countries are among the most serious issues facing the world today. This book examines the causes, severity and effects of these problems, as well as potential solutions. The authors consider the implications of globalization of goods, services and capital for agriculture, poverty and the environment; and identify linkages in the world food system, stressing how agricultural and economic situations in poor countries affect industrialized nations and vice versa. Focusing on the role that agriculture can play in improving economic and nutritional wellbeing and how that role might be enhanced, this book is essential reading.
Policy analysis is a dynamic process of discovery rather than a passive exercise of memorizing facts and conclusions. This text provides opportunities to "practice the craft" of policy analysis by engaging the reader in realistic case studies and problem-solving scenarios that require the selection and use of applicable investigative techniques. US Agricultural and Food Policies will assist undergraduate students to learn how policy choices impact the overall performance of agricultural and food markets. It encourages students to systematically investigate scenarios with appropriate positive and normative tools. The book emphasizes the importance of employing critical thinking skills to address the complexities associated with the design and implementation of twenty-first-century agricultural and food policies. Students are asked to suspend their personal opinions and emotions, and instead apply research methods that require the careful consideration of both facts and values. The opportunities to build these investigative skills are abundant when we consider the diversity of modern agricultural and food policy concerns. Featuring case studies and critical thinking exercises throughout and supported by a Companion Website with slides, a test bank, glossary, and web/video links, this is the ideal textbook for any agricultural policy class.
Agricultural Policy in the US: Evolution and Economics traces the foundation of US agricultural policy from its colonial roots to the present, using economic concepts to analyze and interpret political and economic consequences. Ancient Roman food and agricultural reform, English Corn Law and other historic examples of agricultural policies are included to show that agricultural policy has a long history and has been found necessary for governance throughout history. Processes employed to develop US agricultural policies, the structure and function of government that develops and implements agricultural policy, and the specific evolution of policy from the early twentieth century to the Agricultural Act of 2014 are included. Specific policies in past farm bills are detailed in order to track their evolution and economic effects. This textbook includes arguments for and against common tools of US agricultural policy. This debate continues today and can be seen in a gradual change over time from taxes and tariffs to risk management. Information presented does not attempt to influence the readership towards a pro or con position but rather to present information to help the readers to understand the issues related to agricultural policy in the US.
This textbook integrates three related fields in economics, namely agricultural/forestry economics, environmental economics, and international trade, by foregrounding cost-benefit analysis as a significant policy tool. Exploring how welfare measures can be used in the analysis of agricultural, trade, and other economic policies, Applied Welfare Economics, Trade, and Agricultural Policy Analysis fills a gap in the literature on agricultural policy analysis by explaining the economic efficiency improvements and income transfers of various agricultural policy reforms in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. G. Cornelis van Kooten addresses methods of identifying and measuring economic surpluses (costs and benefits), the precautionary principle, identification of an appropriate discount rate, the importance of non-market values, and the role of agriculture in trade negotiations and climate change. Applied Welfare Economics, Trade, and Agricultural Policy Analysis draws on new research, brings attention to the existing literature, and includes review questions that challenge programming skills. The techniques developed in this text can be applied to the development and reform of agricultural policies in various regions in response to trade negotiations and many other situations involving government policy.
"The challenges facing agriculture are plenty. Along with the world's growing population and diminishing amounts of water and arable land, the gradual increase in severe weather presents new challenges and imperatives for producing new, more resilient crops to feed a more crowded planet in the twenty-first century. Innovation has historically helped agriculture keep pace with earth's social, population, and ecological changes. In the last 50 years, mechanical, biological, and chemical innovations have more than doubled agricultural output while barely changing input quantities. The ample investment behind these innovations was available because of a high rate of return: a 2007 paper found that the median ROI in agriculture was 45 percent between 1965 and 2005. This landscape has changed. Today many of the world's wealthier countries have scaled back their share of GDP devoted to agricultural R&D amid evidence of diminishing returns. Universities, which have historically been a major source of agricultural innovation, increasingly depend on funding from industry rather than government to fund their research. As Upton Sinclair wrote of the effects industry influences, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." In this volume of the NBER Conference Report series, editor Petra Moser offers an empirical, applied-economic framework to the different elements of agricultural R&D, particularly as they relate to the shift from public to private funding. Individual chapters examine the sources of agricultural knowledge and investigate challenges for measuring the returns to the adoption of new agricultural technologies, examine knowledge spillovers from universities to agricultural innovation, and explore interactions between university engagement and scientific productivity. Additional analysis of agricultural venture capital point to it as an emerging and future source of resource in this essential domain"--
