http://hdl.handle.net/2097/981 Tue, 21 May 2013 17:03:14 GMT 2013-05-21T17:03:14Z http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15461 High Plains Aquifer study revisited: a 20-year retrospective for western Kansas Peterson, Jeffrey M.; Bernardo, Daniel J. The most comprehensive water policy analysis conducted on the High Plains region to date was the High Plains Ogallala Regional Aquifer Study completed in 1982. Twenty years later, we had a unique opportunity to compare the projections from this study with the changes that actually occurred over the past two decades. Specific comparisons were made for the area of western Kansas overlying the High Plains Aquifer. These comparisons revealed some significant differences in the status of the aquifer and in the region's economic development, relative to the predictions of the study. Most notably, contrary to the study's predictions, irrigated area did not decline precipitously, but rather continued to increase during the period. Despite large increases in irrigated area and production of more water-intensive crops, such as corn and alfalfa, both per-unit area and total water use declined over the 20 years. Differences in observed and projected results can be attributed to a variety of factors, including large differences in crop prices, yield trends, energy prices, farm commodity programs, and irrigation technologies relative to those assumed in the study. Future research will need to better account for these factors to offer useful guidance in setting water management policies. Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15461 2013-04-09T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15397 Incentive-compatible pollution control policies under asymmetric information on both risk preferences and technology Peterson, Jeffrey M.; Boisvert, Richard N. This article proposes a method to accommodate asymmetric information on farmers’ risk preferences in designing voluntary environmental policies. By incorporating stochastic efficiency rules in a mechanism design problem, the government can find incentive-compatible policies by knowing only the general class of risk preferences among farmers. The model also accounts for hidden information on technology types and input use. The method is applied empirically to simulate a pollution control program in New York. Results suggest that participation incentives would be inadequate for many risk-averse producers if the government does not account for the diversity in risk preferences. Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15397 2013-03-21T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15396 Environmental policies for a multifunctional agricultural sector in open economies Peterson, Jeffrey M.; Boisvert, Richard N.; de Gorter, Harry This paper derives the efficient set of policies for a multifunctional agriculture and relates them to trade. In general, efficiency cannot be achieved through simple output subsidies, but the efficient policies to move closer to socially optimal levels of multifunctional, non-commodity outputs may also change commodity output levels. Accounting for international price effects, large importing and exporting nations have incentives to favour subsidies for non-commodity outputs and oppose them, respectively, regardless of the true value of these agriculturally-related public goods. The policy incentives are illustrated through a stylised simulation of United States’ agriculture. Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15396 2013-03-21T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15395 Economic adjustments to groundwater depletion in the High Plains: do water-saving irrigation systems save water? Peterson, Jeffrey M.; Ding, Ya A common policy prescription for conserving irrigation water is to promote more efficient or “water-saving” irrigation technologies. We develop a risk programming model to quantify the effect of irrigation efficiency on irrigation water use in the High Plains, taking account of irrigation timing and well capacity limits. We find that optimal irrigation does not respond monotonically to changes in efficiency, although intermediate and high efficiency systems both result in less water use than an inefficient flood system. Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15395 2013-03-21T00:00:00Z