Production Control and Production Contracts: Why Do Integrators Control Inputs?

Industrial Organization,

Liability Rules, Collective Organizations and the Provision of Food Safety

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Modeling Processor Market Power and the Incidence of Agricultural Policy: A Non-parametric Approach

Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy,

PESTICIDE REGULATION IN CALIFORNIA

A necessary condition for socially desirable regulation is that total social benefits outweigh total social costs. We report available information regarding the costs of pesticide regulation in California, and evaluate the likelihood that the generated benefits outweigh these costs. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for future policy research and reforms.Crop Production/Industries,

DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF ALTERNATIVES TO ORGANOPHOSPHATE USE IN CALIFORNIA ALMONDS

In order to explain trends in pesticide use, modeling efforts were undertaken related to dormant season organophosphate use in California almonds. Over time, growers are less likely to choose to use environmentally unfriendly pesticides, especially when effective alternatives are available.Farm Management,

Selective vs. Broad-Spectrum Pesticides: When Do Private Decisions Differ from Socially Optimal Decisions?

This paper examines the spatial externalities of conventional and organic pest control methods to determine if, and how, the two types affect each other. These interactions make the problem more complicated than the usual analysis of a single externality. The numerical simulation model includes one organically managed and one conventionally managed field. One pest and one predator of the pest move between the two fields over five seasons. In each season, the conventional grower has the option of applying a broad-spectrum pesticide that kills the predator a selective pesticide that has no adverse effects on the predator but is either more expensive or less effective than the broad-spectrum pesticide. The organic grower can apply an organic pesticide, augment the predator population, or both. The simulation model identifies the socially optimal pest control decisions and the Nash equilibrium decisions of both growers over the five growing seasons. The relative price and efficacy of the selective pesticide, the type of predator, and the type of pest introduction all influence whether or not either or both growers make inefficient decisions. Under certain conditions, regional pest management, equivalent to coordination of pest control across growers, could increase total regional profits.spatial-dynamic games, spatial externalities, non-cooperative games, organic agriculture, biological control, agricultural policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C61, C72, Q18, Q52, Q57,

IS ATTITUDES: TOWARD THEORETICAL AND DEFINITION CLARITY

There has long been a recognized need to measure the success or efficacy of information systems and the implementation process. Various constructs related to success have been suggested, such as user attitudes, system use, performance, and value. The attitude construct has received a great deal of attention for both theoretical and operational reasons. This paper focuses on the need for a convincing theoretical model linking systems or policies and user attitudes on the one hand, and user attitudes and performance or value on the other. Using job satisfaction research as a reference discipline for understanding the relationship between attitudes and performance, a model of IS attitudes, beliefs, and performance is developed. This model suggests that performance is affected by the correspondence or fit between the task requirements and the functionality of the IS environmenL In addition a distinction between beliefs and attitudes is recommended. While satisfaction might be best determined by measuring attitudes, the correspondence between task and functionality is best determined by measuring beliefs. The implications of this model for future research are discussed

The Role of Mothers in Muslim Families in Ouakam, Dakar: Navigating Traditional Gender Roles in a Modern Context

My study is on the role of women in Muslim families in Dakar, Senegal. What are they expected to do for their families? How do these women feel about their position and role in their families? What aspects of their role in the family do they enjoy and which do they wish were different? How is their role changing as more women enter the workforce? This topic interests me because many people in the United States have a negative perception of the position of women in Muslim societies. They claim that these women are oppressed and that the women suffer from the paternalistic values of Islam. I want to hear the stories and opinions of the Muslim women in Dakar and allow them to express how their religion affects their role in their families and how they feel about this influence. In order to not overextend myself, I limited the scope of my study by doing a case study of Muslim mothers in my neighborhood of Ouakam in Dakar. I conducted my research primarily through interviews with women and a few men in my neighborhood and through limited (participant) observation in their homes and in my host stay family. I also did secondary research on the topic of women’s roles in Muslim societies that are similar to Senegal as well as the experience of Senegalese women, specifically

Probabilistic Political Viability: A Methodology for Predictive Political Economy

Currently available political economic tools are not very useful for predicting the outcomes of real-world policy problems. Researchers have limited information on which to assign parameters to the mappings from policies to outcomes to utilities or to represent the political process adequately. We present a method for evaluating the viability of political alternatives in complex settings and apply it to an ongoing California water policy debate. Certain options would be "robustly politically viable" if stakeholder groups trusted that they would be implemented as negotiated. Once we incorporate institutional mistrust into the model, none of the alternatives are robustly politically viable.

IS COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT BENEFICIAL FOR PUBLIC POLICY EFFICIENCY?

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/02.Political Economy,