CROP INSURANCE, GOVERNMENT AGRICULTURAL POLICIES, AND SOIL EROSION

This paper investigates the relationship between government agricultural programs and soil erosion. Using county-level data from the years 1992 and 1997, we estimate a model of water-induced (i.e., sheet and rill) soil erosion and crop insurance participation for counties where corn, soybean, and winter wheat account for at least 90% of total planted acreage. This includes most of the areas that have exhibited the highest historical levels of sheet and rill erosion. We find that crop insurance participation and conservation payments are significantly associated with county average soil erosion levels. In particular, corn insurance participation exhibits a positive impact on soil erosion, while wheat insurance participation exhibits a negative impact. After controlling for differences in soil erodibility, counties that receive higher conservation payments exhibit lower levels of soil erosion. We also find that government price and income support program payments (e.g., target price-based/loan deficiency payments and AMTA payments) exhibit no statistically significant association with our soil erosion measure.Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Relationship Between Economically and Environmentally Marginal Land

Concerns have frequently been raised regarding the impact of federally-subsidized crop insurance and agricultural subsidy payments on land allocation and crop mix choices. If the reduction in production risk encourages farmers to plant on economically marginal land, it has often been asserted that this will lead to increases in environmental damage, including increases in soil erosion rates. This paper investigates the "conventional" wisdom that economically marginal land is also environmentally fragile, as defined by higher levels of inherent soil erodibility. We address this issue by looking at the distribution of crop yields for 4 major crops across National Resource Inventory (NRI) erodibility classes and by performing regression analysis. Our results indicate that land with higher levels of soil erodibility exhibit lower mean crop yields, a proxy for economic marginality, which lends support to the conventional wisdom.Environmental Economics and Policy,

THE FEDERAL CROP INSURANCE PROGRAM - AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN ACREAGE RESPONSE AND PARTICIPATION

The extent to which crop insurance programs have resulted in additional land being brought into production has been a topic of considerable debate. We extend a multi-equation structural model of crop acreage response, insurance participation, CRP enrollment, and input usage developed in Goodwin and Vandeveer (2000) to wheat and barley production in the "Northern Great Plains" region. We also update earlier results for corn and soybean production in the "Heartland" region. Our results confirm earlier findings that increased participation in insurance programs provoke a statistically significant acreage response. This response is, however, relatively modest. We find that cross-the-board decreases of 50% in insurance premiums significantly increase participation but result in acreage increases of about 0.5% for barley and 3.7% for wheat. In the modern period (1997-1998),expanded insurance participation brought about by premium rate reductions has almost no effect on acreage. Our results for the recent period show a shifting in coverage toward revenue insurance.Crop Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

The population of Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War era

This thesis studies the population of Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War era by examining the persistence (those who remained in the city for ten years) of a sample of white, male heads of household from 1860. It focuses on such characteristics as age, nativity, wealth, and occupation. In contrast to other investigations of persistence, individuals who left the city, but remained in the state, also are examined. Further, a sample from Richmond\u27s population in 1850 is traced during that decade to compare persistence rates and characteristics to the 1860 sample. The low persistence rates in both the 1850s and 1860s demonstrate high turnover in the population and also in businesses. This investigation suggests that the rapid growth which occurred during the 1850s affected the population in a similar fashion as the Civil War and Reconstruction later did. Theories concerning what characteristics affect persistence were supported as persisters in the 1860s were generally in their thirties, wealthier, and had better occupations than non-persisters

Fractal analysis of fingerprints

Current methods for comparing fingerprints have weaknesses that have opened them to criticism. Current methods concentrate on the comparison of minutia in the print either manually or with the assistance of a computer algorithm. This causes these methods to depend highly on the presence of minutia and their relationship to one another. Absence or rotations of minutia can prevent current methods form making accurate comparisons. The goal of this process is to develop a new method for analyzing fingerprints that addresses many of the concerns with current methods.;The developed process uses an iterated function sequence (IFS) to convert the image of a fingerprint into a fractal pattern. The input for the IFS is constructed by a random walk through the image. Once a fingerprint is converted into a fractal pattern, the fractals can be used to make comparisons. Fractals are well defined mathematical objects that make them far easier to compare than fingerprints themselves. This process addresses many of the issues with current methods. This method is global in nature and thus it is not dependent on a set number of minutiae. Moreover, the rules for the random walk are constructed so as to make the fractal produced invariant of orientation of the print.;This method offers a new fast way to compare images. This method can be used to increase confidence, both in court and public opinion, in the use of fingerprints as identification. It can offer both an independent and/or supplemental method to the current ones used

Redefining the City Market

Kansas City developed in the tradition of many other midwestern cities which relied on the rivers as a link to the more developed East. Settlement of Kansas City began in the 1840\u27s along the riverfront, an area recently renamed the Rivery Quay

Comparison of macroalgal dominants in the two Olentangy River experimental wetland basins

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Algal and Lemna populations continue to fluctuate seasonally and basin-to-basin in the Olentangy River wetlands

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Summer mat macroalgae largely replaced by duckweed, Lemna minor, in 1999 in two Olentangy River experimental wetlands

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history