September 9, 2011, 3:00, 210 Filley Hall - Dr. Weber A. Neves do Amaral
Dr. Amaral is a professor at the University of São Paulo and is a visiting professor at the UNL Department of Biological Systems Engineering
Title: Bioenergy Systems in Brazil: Challenges and Future Economic Developments
Recording
PowerPoint

September 30, 2011, 3:00, 210 Filley Hall – Dr. Rodolfo Nayga (Joint seminar with the Department of Food Science)
Dr. Nyaga is a Professor and Tyson Chair in Food Policy Economics at the University of Arkansas Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness
Recording

Title: “The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Childhood Obesity”
Paper: The Effect of Fast-Food Restaurants on School-Level Obesity
Abstract: We analyze the effect of the number of fast food restaurants at different distances from public schools in Arkansas on school-level obesity rates. We use instrumental variable estimation with fast-food restaurant proximity being instrumented by proportion of the population within the 15 to 24 year-old age group and nearness of the school to major highways. Although statistical evidence of the causal effect is mixed, results generally suggest that fast-food restaurants near schools are likely contributing to childhood and adolescent obesity. The impact of fast-food restaurants is greatest when they are within a quarter of a mile of schools and this impact declines as distance between the school and fast-food restaurants increases. The magnitudes of this impact are robust but statistical significance varied depending on model specification.

October 7, 2011, 3:00, 210 Filley Hall - Dr. Murray Fulton
Dr. Fulton is Professor and Graduate Chair at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
Title: "Policy Issues in the Transition from Organization to Market: The Case of the Canadian Wheat Board"
Recording

October 28, 2011, 3:00, 210 Filley Hall - Dr. Richard Gray
Dr. Gray is a Professor in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan
Title: "Intellectual Property Rights and the role of public and levy-funded research: Some lessons from international experience"
Paper: Intellectual Property Rights and the role of public and levy-funded research: Some lessons from international experience
Recording

January 27, 2012, 3:00 210 Filley Hall – Dr. Guanming Shi
Dr. Shi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin
Title: "An Analysis of Selectivity in the Productivity Evaluation of Biotechnology"
Paper: An Analysis of Selectivity in the Productivity Evaluation of Biotechnology: An Application to Corn
Abstract: This paper investigates selectivity bias issues arising in the productivity evaluation of biotech hybrids, with an application to GM corn yield. The analysis is applied to experimental data on Wisconsin corn yields covering the period 1990-2010. Relying on a “Heckman-like” factor that accounts for selectivity, the analysis uncovers evidence of selection bias. It indicates that some of the observed yield advantage associated with GM hybrids is contributed by their conventional genes. This stresses that, even after the widespread adoption of GM corn in the US, traditional breeding still plays an important role in productivity improvements for corn. We also document how rising market concentration of biotech firms has contributed to increasing selectivity bias in corn yield. Our results suggest that current patenting laws may not appropriately differentiate between GM genes and conventional genes.
Recording

February 24, 2012, 3:00, 210 Filley Hall - Dr. Jeff Peterson
Dr. Peterson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University
Title:Transaction Costs in Payment for Environmental Service Contracts
Abstract: Payment for environmental service (PES) contracts area a common means of acquiring public ecosystem goods or services from private landowners. Aside from the well-studied incentive problems with these contracts, such as hidden action and hidden information, a sparsely studied complication is the role of transaction costs in contract initiation and enforcement. This paper quanties both the individual and aggregate impacts of the transaction costs that arise from nonprice contract attributes, such as time requirements contract enrollment and compliance procedures during the contract period. Individual agents were found to incur widely varying transaction costs from these attributes, but on average transaction costs comprise a significant portion of contract willingness-to-accept. At the aggregate level, transaction costs were found to create a significant drain on the cost-effectiveness of contracting, similar in magnitude to theinefficiency created by hidden information

March 9, 2012, 3:00, Hardin Hall Auditorium – Dr. Scott Rozelle (Filley-Garey Seminar)
Dr. Rozelle is the Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow and the co-director of the Rural Education Action Program in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
Title: "There is Exactly Enough Time Starting Now: Inequality, Poverty and Malnutrition and the Middle Income Trap in China"
Abstract

March 28, 2012, Hardin Hall - Dr. Richard Howitt
Dr. Howitt is a Professor at the University of California-Davis

April 5, 2012, Hardin Hall - Dr. Michael Roberts
Dr. Roberts is a Professor at North Carolina State University 

April 20, 2012, 3:00, 210 Filley Hall – Dr. Tim Dalton
Dr. Dalton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics as Kansas State University

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