Browsing by Author "Hudson, Darren (TTU)"
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Item Attributes that Influence Consumers' Preferences for Choosing Locally Grown Food Sources during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic(2023) Seo, Frank (TTU); Hudson, Darren (TTU)The objective of this study is to identify attributes that influenced consumers' preferences when selecting locally grown food across different sources during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated the willingness to pay (WTP) for locally grown food sources. Results showed that respondents valued Freshness, Accessibility, Variety, and Risk Shift attributes, respectively. In addition, community-supported agriculture (CSAs) have the lowest WTP among other sources, and respondents valued CSAs' general weaknesses more than their advantages when choosing where to purchase locally grown food. However, we found that increasing community outreach levels positively affects choice probabilities for CSAs over other sources.Item Consumer willingness to pay for production attributes of cotton apparel(2023) Boufous, Sawssan; Hudson, Darren (TTU); Carpio, Carlos (TTU)We investigate US consumers' willingness to pay for cotton apparel production and country of origin attributes. Using a choice-based conjoint experiment and information treatments, we examine the preferences of 727 US shoppers for the attributes: cotton fiber production systems and country of manufacture of the cotton fiber. Random utility theory is the basis for the survey's responses analysis to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) values for the attributes. Choices made by consumers are modeled using a mixed logit model in WTP space estimated using simulated maximum likelihood procedures. Results show that consumers are willing to pay more for cotton apparel from the United States than apparel from other countries, and more for apparel made from fiber produced in organic systems than in conventional systems. Only some subgroups of consumers were found to be affected by exposure to an information treatment regarding potential labor exploitation in cotton farms and textile mills.Item High Risk, Constrained Return: Impact of Student Loans on Agricultural Real Estate(2024) Diosdado, Leobardo; Lacombe, Donald (TTU); Hudson, Darren (TTU)A farming household’s decision to continue producing agricultural commodities within the United States is influenced by a multitude of factors. Thus, this study seeks to examine whether the outstanding student loan balance of any member within a farming household may explain why the total number of acres devoted to the production of agriculture in the United States continues to decline. Panel data from the 2007–2009 Survey of Consumer Finances are analyzed via a fixed effect model to estimate the effect of outstanding student loan balances on farmland acreage owned, controlling for other factors like farm income, debt, and land prices. The results suggest that for each additional dollar of outstanding student loan debt, there is an associated decrease of 0.0064 acres in total farmland ownership. This suggests that student loan debt may also be a factor in the decline in real estate devoted to agriculture production. The estimated effect is both economically and statistically significant. This study contributes to the literature on the risks and constraints associated with farming households that own or seek to procure additional acres of agricultural producing real estate.Item Implications and evaluation of crop insurance choices for cotton farmers under the 2014 farm bill(2018) Luitel, Kishor P.; Hudson, Darren (TTU); Knight, Thomas (TTU)The Agricultural Act of 2014 introduced new crop insurance policies to manage agricultural risk, especially to cotton farmers. A representative farm panel was used to elicit the yield distribution of the farm, county, and correlation. Results suggest that the optimal underlying insurance policy is Revenue Protection at a 75% coverage level for both high- and low-productivity farms even with a Yield Exclusion provision. The Stacked Income Protection Plan benefit is mostly attributable to a higher insurance premium subsidy. For any crop, efficient agricultural risk management can be achieved through understanding the guaranteed yield and its relation to the farm and county yield.Item Spillover effect of violent conflicts on food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa(2023) Muriuki, James; Hudson, Darren (TTU); Fuad, Syed (TTU); March, Raymond J.; Lacombe, Donald J. (TTU)We examine violent conflict's spillover effects on food insecurity in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Malawi. Using a contiguity matrix weighted on the distance between housing units and data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey, we find a statistically significant spillover effect of violent conflict on food security in Ethiopia and Uganda. Statistically significant indirect effects of violent conflict on food security were negative within Malawi and positive within Ethiopia. Direct and spillover effects of violent conflicts and other covariates on food security are also analyzed.Item The impact of conflict on food security: evidence from household data in Ethiopia and Malawi(2023) Muriuki, James; Hudson, Darren (TTU); Fuad, Syed (TTU)Background: Violent conflicts threaten food security and household welfare in sub-Saharan Africa. While a more robust understanding of the causal relationship between food security and conflict is vital in mitigating food insecurity and bolstering peace prospects, only limited research exists on this topic, especially at the household level where estimations are more empirically challenging given data constraints and identification issues. Our analysis utilizes a newly developed and novel difference-in-differences model developed by de Chaisemartin and D’Haultfoeuille (2020) to determine the causal relationship between violent conflicts and food security in two sub-Saharan African countries—Malawi and Ethiopia using household-level data from the World Bank’s Household Living Standards Measurement Survey. Results: Our results suggest that exposure to violent conflict on average decreases the food consumption score (FCS) by 6.84 units, which corresponds to a 16.13% reduction in FCS. With respect to individual countries, Malawi shows the largest effect-size, with the FCS decreasing by 10.54 units (equivalent to a 20.22% reduction in FCS). In Ethiopia, the causal estimate was slightly smaller at − 4.32 (equivalent to a 11.67% reduction in FCS) although the baseline food security status was lower relative to Malawi. Disaggregated analyses show that the effect-size can be several orders of magnitude larger when conflict is experienced simultaneously with natural shocks. Robustness checks using different iterations of propensity score matching generate comparable causal estimates and reinforce the overall findings. Conclusions: The findings help improve our understanding of a broader issue by providing new direct and granular evidence regarding the relationship between conflict and food security using household data. The results hold implications for aid and humanitarian efforts to help households facing food insecurity stemming from violence and other factors.