Presenting research papers and posters provides valuable experience for PhD Candidates and Post Doctoral Researchers preparing to enter the job market. Wei Chen, Xiao Dong, Oudom Hean, Ana Claudia Sant’Anna, Danbee Song, Chang Xu and Shang Xu will present the following at the 2018 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) meeting in Washington D.C.:
Title: The Impact of HABs on Recreational Visits to Lake Erie
Authors: David Wolf, Wei Chen, Sathya Gopalakrishnan, Timothy Haab and H. Allen Klaiber
Abstract: Lake Erie has been plagued by the emergence and growth of harmful algal blooms (HABs) for nearly 20 years. This paper simultaneously examines the effect of E. coli and HABs on recreational behavior using survey data collected from Ohio recreators who visited Lake Erie during the summer of 2016. We combine survey responses on visitation with information on harmful algal blooms acquired from remote-sensing data. Using simulation based on latent class models of recreation choice, we find that beach-goers and recreational fishermen would lose in aggregate $5.3 million and $59.2 million respectively each year if water conditions became so poor that Lake Erie’s western basin was closed. In counterfactual simulations, we find significant welfare gains of $227,000 and $4.3 million respectively associated with a 40% reduction in phosphorus loadings, which is an objective set by the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). Finally, we recover heterogeneity in recreators’ aversion towards algae and Escherichia coli (E. coli), with beach-goers more averse to E. coli and fishermen more averse to algae, indicating that water quality remediation policies will have strong distributional effects.
Poster Title: Hoarding Behavior in Response to the EISA “Light Bulb Ban”
Authors: Xiao Dong, H. Allen Klaiber
Paper Title: Silence of Falling Trees: Hidden Forest Loss from Shale Gas Development
Authors: Xiao Dong, H. Allen Klaiber, Sathya Gopalakrishnan, Douglas H. Wrenn
Paper Title: The Impact of Metropolitan Technological Progress on the Non-metropolitan Labor Market: Evidence from U.S. Patent Counts
Authors: Oudom Hean
Abstract: While urban technology growth exerts a positive effect on rural development through knowledge spillovers, urban technology also raises the competitive advantage of urban firms over rural firms in product market competition. The progress in urban technology also affects the rural labor market through brain drain. Brain drain, which is often considered to be a negative effect of urban technology on rural growth, in actuality, does not have an unambiguous effect on the rural labor market. Therefore, the net effect of urban technology on the rural labor market performance is theoretically ambiguous.
Paper Title: Determinants of Land Value Volatility in the Corn Belt
Authors: Ana Claudia Sant’Anna and Ani Katchova
Abstract: Understanding land value volatility and its reaction to exogenous shocks helps land owners, investors, and lenders assess risk. Land value volatility, the variance of the unpredictable component of land value growth rates, is modelled for each of the Corn Belt states in the U.S. using EGARCH. A pooled VAR system is then estimated to capture the interactions between land value determinants and land value volatility. The variables of the pooled VAR are split into negative and positive vectors to allow for asymmetric impacts. Impulse response functions are mapped. All states exhibit land value volatility clustering. Inflation, cash rent and population growth rates granger cause land value volatility. Land value volatility responses to negative shocks are greater than those to positive shocks. Lenders and investors should expect greater swings in land values after negative shocks to land value growth rates, but not an overreaction of land values from shocks to cash rent growth rates. Positive shocks to changes in interest rates increases land value volatility, but unexpected shocks to population growth rates do not have statistically significant impact on land value volatility.
Paper Title: Does ISO Adoption boost Export Performance? An Empirical Study using Industry-level Data
Authors: Danbee Song and Abdoul Sam
Abstract: This paper empirically explores whether the adoption of ISO 14001 boosts export performance, and whether the effect differs depending on the destination countries that have various levels of environmental governance and interests. To examine the effect of ISO 14001 on exports, we estimate the gravity model using a panel data of industry-level exports from South Korea to the various destination countries over the 1988-2015 period. We find that ISO 14001 has a positive impact on exports in the international trade market, and the size of the impact varies by the level of economic development of importing countries. Specifically, the impact is larger when the destinations are the OECD members than the non-OECD countries. We also find that ISO 14001 increases exports to the United States but has no significant impact on exports to China. As expected, GDP per capita has a positive impact and distance between countries has a negative impact on the volume of exports, however, tariffs and regional trade agreements show mixed results.
Paper Title: Provision of Natural Gas Infrastructure and Shifts in Fuel Patterns
Authors: Shang Xu and Allen Klaiber
Abstract: In many developing countries, fiber based wood fuels and coal are predominant sources of fuel used by both residents and industry. The extensive use of wood and coal based fuel sources has well documented environmental impacts as well as potential adverse health impacts on local communities through degraded air quality. One impediment to the adoption of cleaner burning fuel sources is the poor accessibility to alternative fuel sources. In this paper, we use a new pipeline for natural gas in China to estimate the impacts of increased natural gas provision on household and firm energy choices and resulting air quality changes spanning ten years from 1999 to 2008. In our quasi experimental setting, we identify a control group from an as-yet-to-be-completed pipeline in a similar yet distant region. Using a difference-in-differences (Ashenfelter and Card 1985) approach we find robust evidence of fuel substitution, although we show this to be heterogenous across fuel type. We also find that the construction of the new natural gas pipeline reduces air pollution.
Paper Title: The Impact of Concessions of Household Location Choice and Well-Being in Indonesia
Authors: Shang Xu
Abstract: We present a novel analysis of how establishment of industrial forest concessions and a subsequent moratorium affect household well-being using an equilibrium-based location choice model in Indonesia. The discrete choice model we develop uses data from the fifth wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS 5) to model the utility maximizing location choice of individual households (Bayer and Timmins, 2007). We estimate households’ heterogeneous preferences for land use arrangements, with instrument variables for wage rates applying the logic of spatial equilibrium underlying the labor market. Using this model, we estimate the household willingness to pay to locate near government concessions and simulate the impact of altering concession patterns across Indonesia.
Poster Title: The Effect of Bank Consolidation on Agricultural Loan Availability
Authors: Chang Xu and Ani Katchova
View the entire list of student and faculty presentations.