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Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from Economic Research Service (United States). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.

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4.3K
Citations
178.2K
h-index
181
i10-index
2.9K
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Top-cited papers from Economic Research Service

Climate change effects on agriculture: Economic responses to biophysical shocks
Gerald C. Nelson, Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Peter Havlík +4 more
2013· Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences821doi:10.1073/pnas.1222465110

Agricultural production is sensitive to weather and thus directly affected by climate change. Plausible estimates of these climate change impacts require combined use of climate, crop, and economic models. Results from previous studies vary substantially due to differences in models, scenarios, and data. This paper is part of a collective effort to systematically integrate these three types of models. We focus on the economic component of the assessment, investigating how nine global economic models of agriculture represent endogenous responses to seven standardized climate change scenarios produced by two climate and five crop models. These responses include adjustments in yields, area, consumption, and international trade. We apply biophysical shocks derived from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's representative concentration pathway with end-of-century radiative forcing of 8.5 W/m(2). The mean biophysical yield effect with no incremental CO2 fertilization is a 17% reduction globally by 2050 relative to a scenario with unchanging climate. Endogenous economic responses reduce yield loss to 11%, increase area of major crops by 11%, and reduce consumption by 3%. Agricultural production, cropland area, trade, and prices show the greatest degree of variability in response to climate change, and consumption the lowest. The sources of these differences include model structure and specification; in particular, model assumptions about ease of land use conversion, intensification, and trade. This study identifies where models disagree on the relative responses to climate shocks and highlights research activities needed to improve the representation of agricultural adaptation responses to climate change.

Postharvest losses and waste in developed and less developed countries: opportunities to improve resource use
R.J. Hodges, Jean C. Buzby, Ben Bennett
2010· The Journal of Agricultural Science759doi:10.1017/s0021859610000936

SUMMARY This review compares and contrasts postharvest food losses (PHLs) and waste in developed countries (especially the USA and the UK) with those in less developed countries (LDCs), especially the case of cereals in sub-Saharan Africa. Reducing food losses offers an important way of increasing food availability without requiring additional production resources, and in LDCs it can contribute to rural development and poverty reduction by improving agribusiness livelihoods. The critical factors governing PHLs and food waste are mostly after the farm gate in developed countries but before the farm gate in LDCs. In the foreseeable future (e.g. up to 2030), the main drivers for reducing PHLs differ: in the developed world, they include consumer education campaigns, carefully targeted taxation and private and public sector partnerships sharing the responsibility for loss reduction. The LDCs’ drivers include more widespread education of farmers in the causes of PHLs; better infrastructure to connect smallholders to markets; more effective value chains that provide sufficient financial incentives at the producer level; opportunities to adopt collective marketing and better technologies supported by access to microcredit; and the public and private sectors sharing the investment costs and risks in market-orientated interventions.

The Dropout Process in Life Course Perspective: Early Risk Factors at Home and School
Karl L. Alexander, Doris R. Entwisle, Nader Kabbani
2001· Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education648doi:10.1111/0161-4681.00134

From a life course perspective, high school dropout culminates a long-term process of disengagement from school. The present paper uses data from a representative panel of Baltimore school children to describe this unfolding process. Over 40% of the study group left school at some point without a degree, but this high overall rate of dropout masks large differences across sociodemographic lines as well as differences involving academic, parental, and personal resources. A sociodemographic profile of dropout for the study group shows how dropout rates vary across different configurations of background risk factors including family socioeconomic status (SES), family type, and family stress level. Dropout risk factors and resources in support of children's schooling then are examined at four schooling benchmarks: the 1st grade, the rest of elementary school (years 2–5), the middle school (years 6–8), and year 9 (the 1st year of high school for those promoted each year). Academic, parental, and personal resources condition dropout prospects at each time point, with resources measured early in children's schooling forecasting dropout almost as well as those from later in children's schooling. Additionally, evidence is presented that resources add on to one another in moderating dropout risk, including risk associated with family SES. These patterns are discussed in terms of a life course view of the dropout process.

The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models
Hugo Valin, Ronald D. Sands, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, Gerald C. Nelson +4 more
2013· Agricultural Economics565doi:10.1111/agec.12089

Understanding the capacity of agricultural systems to feed the world population under climate change requires projecting future food demand. This article reviews demand modeling approaches from 10 global economic models participating in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). We compare food demand projections in 2050 for various regions and agricultural products under harmonized scenarios of socioeconomic development, climate change, and bioenergy expansion. In the reference scenario (SSP2), food demand increases by 59-98% between 2005 and 2050, slightly higher than the most recent FAO projection of 54% from 2005/2007. The range of results is large, in particular for animal calories (between 61% and 144%), caused by differences in demand systems specifications, and in income and price elasticities. The results are more sensitive to socioeconomic assumptions than to climate change or bioenergy scenarios. When considering a world with higher population and lower economic growth (SSP3), consumption per capita drops on average by 9% for crops and 18% for livestock. The maximum effect of climate change on calorie availability is -6% at the global level, and the effect of biofuel production on calorie availability is even smaller.

Trends in American economic growth, 1929-1982
Roger K. Conway
1985492

The growth rate of national income has fluctuated widely in the United States since 1929. In this volume, Edward F. Denison uses the growth accounting methodology he pioneered and refined in earlier studies to track changes in the trend of and its determinants. At every step he systematically distinguishes changes in the economy's ability to produce as measured by his series on potential national income from changes in the ratio of actual to potential output. Using data for earlier years as a backdrop, Denison focuses on the dramatic decline in the growth of potential national income that started in 1974 and was further accentuated beginning in 1980, and on the pronounced decline from business cycle to business cycle in the average ratio of actual to potential output, a slide under way since 1969. The decline in growth rates has been especially pronounced in national income per person employed and other productivity measures as growth of total has slowed despite a sharp acceleration in growth of employment and total hours at work. Denison organizes his discussion around eight table that divide 1929-82 into three long periods (the last, 1973-82) and seven shorter periods (the most recent, 1973-79 and 1979-82). These tables provide estimates of the sources of growth for eight measures in each period. Denison stresses that the 1973-82 period of slow growth in unfinished. He observes no improvement in the productivity trend, only a weak cyclical recovery from a 1982 low. Sources-of-growth tables isolate the contributions made to growth between input and output per unit of input. Even so, it is not possible to quantify separately the contribution of all determinants, and Denison evaluates qualitatively the effects of other developments on the productivity slowdown.

Land Tenure and the Adoption of Conservation Practices
Meredith J. Soule, Abebayehu Tegene, Keith Wiebe
2000· American Journal of Agricultural Economics483doi:10.1111/0002-9092.00097

Abstract We use a logit adoption model with data on 941 U.S. corn producers from the 1996 Agricultural Resource Management Study to analyze the influence of land tenure on the adoption of conservation practices. We extend previous analyses by distinguishing renters according to lease type and by distinguishing practices according to the timing of costs and returns. We find that cash‐renters are less likely than owner‐operators to use conservation tillage, but share‐renters are not. Both cash‐renters and share‐renters are less likely than owner‐operators to adopt practices that provide benefits only over the longer term (grassed waterways, stripcropping, and contour farming).

Impact of Foreign Direct Investment and Trade on Economic Growth: Evidence from Developing Countries
Shiva S. Makki, Agapi Somwaru
2004· American Journal of Agricultural Economics481doi:10.1111/j.0002-9092.2004.00627.x

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade are often seen as important catalysts for economic growth in the developing countries. FDI is an important vehicle of technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries. FDI also stimulates domestic investment and facilitates improvements in human capital and institutions in the host countries. International trade is also known to be an instrument of economic growth (Frankel and Romer). Trade facilitates more efficient production of goods and services by shifting production to countries that have comparative advantage in producing them. Even though past studies show that FDI and trade have a positive impact on economic growth, the size of such impact may vary across countries depending on the level of human capital, domestic investment, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, and trade policies. The literature continues to debate the role of FDI and trade in economic growth as well as the importance of economic and institutional developments in fostering FDI and trade. This lack of consensus limits our understanding of the role of FDI and trade policies in economic growth processes and restricts our ability to develop policies to promote economic growth. This article analyzes the role of FDI and trade in promoting economic growth across selected developing countries and the interac-tion among FDI, trade, and economic growth. We examine data from sixty-six developing countries over the last three decades. Our

Machine learning methods for crop yield prediction and climate change impact assessment in agriculture
Andrew Crane‐Droesch
2018· Environmental Research Letters478doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aae159

Crop yields are critically dependent on weather. A growing empirical literature models this relationship in order to project climate change impacts on the sector. We describe an approach to yield modeling that uses a semiparametric variant of a deep neural network, which can simultaneously account for complex nonlinear relationships in high-dimensional datasets, as well as known parametric structure and unobserved cross-sectional heterogeneity. Using data on corn yield from the US Midwest, we show that this approach outperforms both classical statistical methods and fully-nonparametric neural networks in predicting yields of years withheld during model training. Using scenarios from a suite of climate models, we show large negative impacts of climate change on corn yield, but less severe than impacts projected using classical statistical methods. In particular, our approach is less pessimistic in the warmest regions and the warmest scenarios.

Recasting the Creative Class to Examine Growth Processes in Rural and Urban Counties
David A. McGranahan, Timothy R. Wojan
2007· Regional Studies469doi:10.1080/00343400600928285

McGranahan D. and Wojan T. (2007) Recasting the creative class to examine growth processes in rural and urban counties, Regional Studies 41, 1–20. Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class (2002) makes a compelling argument that regional development now depends on novel combinations of knowledge and ideas, that certain occupations specialize in this task, that people in these occupations are drawn to areas providing a high quality of life, and thus the essential development strategy is to create an environment that attracts and retains these workers. The present analysis of recent rural development in rural US counties, which focuses on natural amenities as quality of life indicators, supports the creative class thesis. A repetition for urban counties also shows a strong relationship between creative class presence and growth, although natural amenities play a smaller role. However, the results depend on a recast creative class measure, which excludes from the original Florida measure many occupations with low creativity requirements and those involved primarily in economic reproduction. The measure conforms more closely to the concept of creative class and proves to be more highly associated with regional development than the original Florida measure. McGranahan D. et Wojan T. (2007) Reformuler la classe créatrice pour examiner les processus de croissance dans les comtés ruraux et urbains, Regional Studies 41, 1–20. Dans son livre Rise of the Creative Class (L'Essor de la classe créatrice) (2002), Richard Florida affirme de façon convaincante que, de nos jours, l'aménagement du territoire dépend des combinaisons originales de la connaissance et des idées, que certaines catégories socioprofessionnelles se spécialisent dans cette tâche, que ceux qui travaillent dans de telles catégories sont poussés vers des professions qui offrent une qualité de la vie élevée, et donc la stratégie clé est de créer un milieu qui attire et retient ces travailleurs. L'analyse du développement rural récent dans les comtés ruraux aux E-U qui porte sur l'équipement naturel comme indicateur de la qualité de la vie, confirme la thèse qui prône la classe créatrice. Répéter l'analyse pour les comtés urbains montre aussi une corrélation étroite entre la présence de la classe créatrice et la croissance, alors que l'équipement naturel joue un moindre rôle. Cependant, les résultats dépendent d'une mesure de la classe créatrice reformulée qui exclut de la mesure originale de Florida beaucoup des professions dont les critères de créativité sont peu importants et dont les employés travaillent principalement dans la production économique. La mesure se conforme plus étroitement à la notion de la classe créatrice et s'avère en corrélation plus étroite avec l'aménagement du territoire que ne le fait la mesure originale de Florida. Equipement Validité du concept Professions Aménagement du territoire McGranahan D. und Wojan T. (2007) Neues Modell der kreativen Klasse zur Untersuchung von Wachstumsprozessen in ländlichen und städtischen Bezirken, Regional Studies 41, 1–20. In Rise of the Creative Class (2002) legt Richard Florida überzeugend dar, dass eine Regionalentwicklung heute auf neuartige Kombinationen aus Wissen und Ideen angewiesen ist, dass bestimmte Berufe auf diese Aufgabe spezialisiert sind, dass die Ausübenden dieser Berufe von Gebieten mit hoher Lebensqualität angezogen werden und dass die wichtigste Entwicklungsstrategie daher darin bestehen muss, eine Umgebung zu schaffen, die diese Arbeiter anzieht und zum Bleiben bewegt. Unsere Analyse der aktuellen Entwicklung in ländlichen Bezirken der USA stützt sich auf natürliche Erholungsgebiete als Indikatoren der Lebensqualität und bekräftigt die These der kreativen Klasse. Auch bei einer Wiederholung der Studie für städtische Bezirke zeigt sich ein enger Zusammenhang zwischen der Präsenz einer kreativen Klasse und dem Wachstum, obwohl hierbei natürliche Erholungsgebiete eine geringere Rolle spielen. Allerdings hängen unsere Ergebnisse von einem umgestalteten Maßstab für die kreative Klasse ab, bei dem zahlreiche Berufe mit geringen kreativen Anforderungen sowie Berufe, die in erster Linie mit wirtschaftlicher Reproduktion befasst sind, aus dem ursprünglich von Florida herangezogenen Maßstab ausgenommen werden. Unser Maßstab wird dem Konzept einer kreativen Klasse besser gerecht und erweist sich als stärker mit der Regionalentwicklung verknüpft als Floridas ursprünglicher Maßstab. Erholungsgebiete Gültigkeit von Konstrukt Berufe Strategie zur ländlichen Entwicklung McGranahan D. y Wojan T. (2007) Reformulación de la clase creativa para examinar los procesos de crecimiento en comarcas rurales y urbanas, Regional Studies 41, 1–20. La teoría de la clase creativa, propuesta por Richard Florida en su libro The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), sostiene de forma convincente que el desarrollo regional depende ahora de nuevas combinaciones de conocimiento e ideas, que ciertas ocupaciones se especializan es esta labor, que las personas en estas ocupaciones se interesan por áreas que ofrecen un alto nivel de calidad de vida, y que por tanto la estrategia básica de desarrollo es crear un ambiente que atraiga y conserve a este grupo de trabajadores. En nuestro análisis de reciente desarrollo rural en comarcas rurales de los Estados Unidos, centrado en las prestaciones naturales como indicadores sobre la calidad de vida, defendemos la tesis de la clase creativa. Un caso similar en comarcas urbanas también demuestra un sólido vínculo entre la presencia de la clase creativa y el crecimiento, si bien los indicadores naturales desempeñan un papel más pequeño. Sin embargo, nuestros resultados dependen de una refórmula de medición de la clase creativa que excluye de la medición original de Florida muchas ocupaciones con baja creatividad y en las que es más importante la reproducción económica. Nuestra medición se rige más por el concepto de clase creativa y demuestra estar más relacionado con el desarrollo regional que la medición original de Florida. Servicios Validez de constructo Ocupaciones Estrategia de desarrollo rural

Hunger: Its Impact on Children’s Health and Mental Health
Linda Weinreb, Cheryl Wehler, Jennifer Perloff, Richard Ira Scott +3 more
2002· PEDIATRICS453doi:10.1542/peds.110.4.e41

OBJECTIVE: Hunger, with its adverse consequences for children, continues to be an important national problem. Previous studies that document the deleterious effects of hunger among children cannot distinguish child from family hunger and do not take into account some critical environmental, maternal, and child variables that may influence child outcomes. This study examines the independent contribution of child hunger on children's physical and mental health and academic functioning, when controlling for a range of environmental, maternal, and child factors that have also been associated with poor outcomes among children. METHODS: With the use of standardized tools, comprehensive demographic, psychosocial, and health data were collected in Worcester, Massachusetts, from homeless and low-income housed mothers and their children (180 preschool-aged children and 228 school-aged children). Mothers and children were part of a larger unmatched case-control study of homelessness among female-headed households. Hunger was measured by a set of 7 dichotomous items, each asking the mother whether she has or her children have experienced a particular aspect of hunger during the past year--1 concerns food insecurity for the entire family, 2 concern adult hunger, and 4 involve child hunger. The items, taken from the Childhood Hunger Identification Project measure, are summed to classify the family and divided into 3 categories: no hunger, adult or moderate child hunger, or severe child hunger (indicating multiple signs of child hunger). Outcome measures included children's chronic health condition count using questions adapted from the National Health Interview Survey, Child Health Supplement, and internalizing behavior problems and anxiety/depression, measured by the Child Behavior Checklist. Additional covariates included demographic variables (ie, age, gender, ethnicity, housing status, number of moves, family size, income), low birth weight, child life events (ie, care and protection order, out of home placement, abuse, severe life events count), developmental problems (ie, developmental delay, learning disability, emotional problems), and mother's distress and psychiatric illness. Multivariate regression analyses examined the effect of child hunger on physical and mental health outcomes. RESULTS: The average family size for both preschoolers and school-aged children was 3; about one third of both groups were white and 40% Puerto Rican. The average income of families was approximately $11 000. Among the school-aged children, on average 10 years old, 50% experienced moderate child hunger and 16% severe child hunger. Compared with those with no hunger, school-aged children with severe hunger were more likely to be homeless (56% vs 29%), have low birth weights (23% vs 6%), and have more stressful life events (9 vs 6) when compared with those with no hunger. School-aged children with severe hunger scores had parent-reported anxiety scores that were more than double the scores for children with no hunger and significantly higher chronic illness counts (3.4 vs 1.8) and internalizing behavior problems when compared with children with no hunger. There was no relationship between hunger and academic achievement. Among preschool-aged children, who averaged 4 years of age, 51% experienced moderate child hunger and 8% severe child hunger. For preschoolers, compared with children with no hunger, severe hunger was associated with homelessness (75% vs 48%), more traumatic life events (8.5 vs 6), low birth weight (23% vs 6%), and higher levels of chronic illness and internalizing behavior problems. Mothers of both preschoolers and school-aged children who reported severe hunger were more likely to have a lifetime diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. For school-aged children, severe hunger was a significant predictor of chronic illness after controlling for housing status, mother's distress, low birth weight, and child live events. For preschoolers, moderate hunger was a significant predictor of health conditions while controlling for potenns while controlling for potential explanatory factors. For both preschoolers and school-aged children, severe child hunger was associated with higher levels of internalizing behavior problems. After controlling for housing status, mother's distress, and stressful life events, severe child hunger was also associated with higher reported anxiety/depression among school-aged children. CONCLUSION: This study goes beyond previous research and highlights the independent relationship between severe child hunger and adverse physical health and mental health outcomes among low-income children. Study findings underscore the importance of clinical recognition of child hunger and its outcomes, allowing for preventive interventions and efforts to increase access to food-related resources for families.

Land-use change and carbon sinks: Econometric estimation of the carbon sequestration supply function
Ruben N. Lubowski, Andrew J. Plantinga, Robert N. Stavins
2005· Journal of Environmental Economics and Management415doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2005.08.001

If the United States chooses to implement a greenhouse gas reduction program, it would be necessary to decide whether to include carbon sequestration policies—such as those that promote forestation and discourage deforestation—as part of the domestic portfolio of compliance activities. We investigate the cost of forest-based carbon sequestration by analyzing econometrically micro-data on revealed landowner preferences, modeling six major private land uses in a comprehensive analysis of the contiguous United States. The econometric estimates are used to simulate landowner responses to sequestration policies. We treat key commodity prices as endogenous and predict carbon storage changes with a carbon sink model. Our estimated sequestration costs exceed those from previous engineering cost analyses and sectoral optimization models. Our estimated sequestration supply function is similar to the carbon abatement supply function from energy-based analyses, suggesting that forest-based carbon sequestration merits consideration in a cost-effective portfolio of domestic US climate change strategies.

Incorporating Reference Price Effects into a Theory of Consumer Choice
Daniel S. Putler
1992· Marketing Science375doi:10.1287/mksc.11.3.287

Although there has been a good deal of research on incorporating the effects of reference price formation into empirical models of consumer buying behavior, little formal theoretical work had been undertaken to date. This paper incorporates reference price effects into the traditional economic theory of consumer choice, and examines the effects of reference price formation on the results of the traditional theory, its marketing implications, and the implications for empirical models which examine the effects of reference price formation on actual consumer behavior. Several implications of the theoretical model are empirically tested using weekly retail egg sales data from Southern California. This analysis indicates that reference price formation does have significant effects on consumer behavior. Furthermore, these effects are asymmetric with consumers two and a half times more responsive to egg price increases that are in excess of the reference price than they are to comparable egg price decreases.

Do Roads Cause Deforestation? Using Satellite Images in Econometric Analysis of Land Use
Gerald C. Nelson, Daniel Hellerstein
1997· American Journal of Agricultural Economics368doi:10.2307/1243944

Abstract In this paper we demonstrate how satellite images and other geographic data can be used to predict land use. A cross‐section model of land use is estimated with data for a region in central Mexico. Parameters from the model are used to examine the effects of reduced human activity. If variables that proxy human influence are changed to reflect reduced impact, “forest” area increases and “irrigated crop” area is reduced.

METROPOLITAN, URBAN, AND RURAL COMMUTING AREAS: TOWARD A BETTER DEPICTION OF THE UNITED STATES SETTLEMENT SYSTEM
Richard L. Morrill, John Cromartie, Gary Hart
1999· Urban Geography355doi:10.2747/0272-3638.20.8.727

Abstract Discontent with the current definition of metropolitan areas and the lack of differentiation within nonmetropolitan territory provided the incentive for the research presented here. Census tracts rather than counties were used as the building blocks for assignment of tracts, not just to metropolitan areas, but also to larger towns (10,000 to 49,999) and to smaller urban places (2,500 to 9,999). The analysis used 1990 census-defined urbanized areas and tract-to-tract commuter flows. Results include a modest shift of population from metropolitan to nonmetropolitan, as well as a significant reduction in the areal size of metropolitan areas, disaggregation of many areas, and frequent reconfiguration to a more realistic settlement form. [Key words: metropolitan, urban-rural, commuting.]

Nutrition Services and Foods and Beverages Available at School: Results From the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2006
Terrence P. O’Toole, Susan E. Anderson, Clare H Miller, Joanne F. Guthrie
2007· Journal of School Health347doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2007.00232.x

BACKGROUND: Schools are in a unique position to promote healthy dietary behaviors and help ensure appropriate nutrient intake. This article describes the characteristics of both school nutrition services and the foods and beverages sold outside of the school meals program in the United States, including state- and district-level policies and school practices. METHODS: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducts the School Health Policies and Programs Study every 6 years. In 2006, computer-assisted telephone interviews or self-administered mail questionnaires were completed by state education agency personnel in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and among a nationally representative sample of school districts (n=445). Computer-assisted personal interviews were conducted with personnel in a nationally representative sample of elementary, middle, and high schools (n=944). RESULTS: Few states required schools to restrict the availability of deep-fried foods, to prohibit the sale of foods that have low nutrient density in certain venues, or to make healthful beverages available when beverages were offered. While many schools sold healthful foods and beverages outside of the school nutrition services program, many also sold items high in fat, sodium, and added sugars. CONCLUSIONS: Nutrition services program practices in many schools continue to need improvement. Districts and schools should implement more food preparation practices that reduce the total fat, saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar content of school meals. In addition, opportunities to eat and drink at school should be used to encourage greater daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat or low-fat dairy products.

Nutrient intakes of individuals from food-insufficient households in the United States.
Donald Rose, Victor Oliveira
1997· American Journal of Public Health342doi:10.2105/ajph.87.12.1956

OBJECTIVES: Understanding the nutritional consequences of food insufficiency is important for informed policy-making that addresses the problem of domestic hunger. This study estimated the extent to which individuals from food-insufficient households were likely to have low intakes of energy and 14 other nutrients. METHODS: The diets of pre-schoolers, adult women, and the elderly were analyzed with 24-hour recall data from the 1989 through 1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the association of self-reported household food insufficiency with nutrient intakes below 50% of the recommended daily allowance. RESULTS: For adult women, food insufficiency was significantly associated with low intakes of eight nutrients, including energy, magnesium, and vitamins A, E, C, and B6. Elderly individuals in the food-insufficient group were also more likely to have low intakes of eight nutrients, including protein, calcium, and vitamins A and B6. Household food insufficiency was not significantly associated with low intakes among preschoolers. CONCLUSIONS: The results validate the use of self-reported hunger measures in nutritional surveillance and highlight nutrients of concern for food assistance and nutrition education efforts targeted at individuals from food-insufficient households.

Climate change impacts on agriculture in 2050 under a range of plausible socioeconomic and emissions scenarios
Keith Wiebe, Hermann Lotze‐Campen, Ronald D. Sands, Andrzej Tabeau +4 more
2015· Environmental Research Letters340doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/8/085010

Previous studies have combined climate, crop and economic models to examine the impact of climate change on agricultural production and food security, but results have varied widely due to differences in models, scenarios and input data. Recent work has examined (and narrowed) these differences through systematic model intercomparison using a high-emissions pathway to highlight the differences. This paper extends that analysis to explore a range of plausible socioeconomic scenarios and emission pathways. Results from multiple climate and economic models are combined to examine the global and regional impacts of climate change on agricultural yields, area, production, consumption, prices and trade for coarse grains, rice, wheat, oilseeds and sugar crops to 2050. We find that climate impacts on global average yields, area, production and consumption are similar across shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP 1, 2 and 3, as we implement them based on population, income and productivity drivers), except when changes in trade policies are included. Impacts on trade and prices are higher for SSP 3 than SSP 2, and higher for SSP 2 than for SSP 1. Climate impacts for all variables are similar across low to moderate emissions pathways (RCP 4.5 and RCP 6.0), but increase for a higher emissions pathway (RCP 8.5). It is important to note that these global averages may hide regional variations. Projected reductions in agricultural yields due to climate change by 2050 are larger for some crops than those estimated for the past half century, but smaller than projected increases to 2050 due to rising demand and intrinsic productivity growth. Results illustrate the sensitivity of climate change impacts to differences in socioeconomic and emissions pathways. Yield impacts increase at high emissions levels and vary with changes in population, income and technology, but are reduced in all cases by endogenous changes in prices and other variables.

Nonlinear Effects of Weather on Corn Yields*
Wolfram Schlenker, Michael J. Roberts
2006· Review of Agricultural Economics334doi:10.1111/j.1467-9353.2006.00304.x

This paper examines the reduced-form relationship between weather and yields using a unique data set of maize yields and daily weather records covering the eastern USA for 1950-2004. Since weather variations in a fixed location are exogenous and random, the reduced-form relationship constitutes a viable natural experiment and is therefore clearly identified. The study finds a significant nonlinear relationship between temperature and maize yields that is roughly in line with the concept of degree days: yields increase with temperature at moderate temperatures (between 12°C and 25°C), but rapidly become negative at temperatures in excess of 30°C.

The Relation Between Dietary Change and Rising U.S. Obesity
Rising U. S. Obesity, James K. Binkley, James K. Binkley
1997319

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the source from which food is obtained has contributed to the increased obesity of the US population, while controlling for demographic, lifestyle and regional factors. METHODS: Multiple regression was used to estimate the effect of food source on body mass index (BMI) while accounting for other factors which have been shown to affect obesity in a nationally representative sample of the US population. SAMPLE: This study used secondary data from the 1994–1996 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII). The CSFII is a nationally representative sample of 16,103 individuals, obtaining for each respondent 24 h recalls of all food intake on two nonconsecutive days as well as demographics and information on lifestyle choices. RESULTS: For a large number of demographic and lifestyle factors, our results support those which have previously been found to contribute to increased overweight. Our contribution is to examine whether the source from which food is obtained also contributes to increased overweight. Our evidence suggests that this is the case. The average height for males in our sample was 1.77 m. For two such males, one who ate food away from home (FAFH) during the previous 24 h period and the other who did not, results suggest that the first will be about 1 kg heavier, all other factors being equal. For two females of average height (1.63 m) the same is true for those who ate fast food, but not at restaurants. In all cases, except females who ate at restaurants, the effects are significant in the regression (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The trends in both increased US obesity and in increased consumption of FAFH are unlikely to be coincidental. FAFH, and particularly fast food consumption, are likely to be contributing factors to increased obesity.

One-and-One-Half-Bound Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation
Joseph Cooper, W. Michael Hanemann, Giovanni Signorello
2002· The Review of Economics and Statistics310doi:10.1162/003465302760556549

Although the double-bound (DB) format for the discrete choice contingent valuation method (CVM) has the benefit of higher efficiency in welfare benefit estimates than the single-bound (SB) discrete choice CVM, it has been subject to criticism due to evidence that some of the responses to the second bid may be inconsistent with the responses to the first bid. As a means to reduce the potential for response bias on the follow-up bid in multiple-bound discrete choice formats such as the DB model while maintaining much of the efficiency gains of the multiple-bound approach, we introduce the one-and-one-half-bound (OOHB) approach and present a real-world application. In a laboratory setting, despite the fact that the OOHB model uses less information than the DB approach, the efficiency gains in moving from SB to OOHB capture a large portion of the gain associated with moving from SB to DB. Utilizing distribution-free seminonparametric estimation techniques on a split-survey data set, our OOHB estimates demonstrated higher consistency with respect to the follow-up data than the DB estimates and were more efficient as well. Hence, OOHB may serve as a viable alternative to the DB format in situations where follow-up response bias may be a concern.