Job Market Paper:
Temperature, Wages, and Agricultural Labor Productivity (paper)
Agricultural laborers frequently work for piece rate wages – where they are paid per unit of output rather than per unit of time – based on the assumption that these wages incentivize productivity. In this paper, I exploit quasi-experimental variation to estimate the elasticity of labor productivity with respect to piece rate wages by analyzing a high-frequency panel of over 2,000 blueberry pickers on two California farms over three years. To account for endogeneity in the piece rate wage, I use the market price for blueberries as an instrumental variable. I find that picker productivity is very inelastic on average, and I can reject even modest elasticities of up to 0.7. However, this average masks important heterogeneity across outdoor working conditions. Specifically, at temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, I find that higher piece rate wages do induce increases in labor productivity. This is suggestive evidence consistent with a model where at moderate to hot temperatures, workers face binding physiological constraints that prevent them from exerting additional effort in response to higher wages. This insight has important implications for understanding how climate change will affect the agricultural labor sector. (JEL codes: J24, J31, J43, Q12, Q54)
Publications:
Measuring Consumer Responses to a Bottled Water Tax Policy (paper)
Advance Access: American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE)
(with Peter Berck, Jacob Moe-Lange, and Sofia Villas-Boas)
Abstract: Using panel data of retail purchases, we measure the effects of the introduction, and later removal, of a bottled-water tax in the state of Washington. We use a difference in differences approach to measure effects of the tax against untreated stores (in comparable control states) and untreated weeks (the pre-period). We further estimate triple difference specifications comparing bottled water to juice and milk substitute products. Our results show that, when imposed, the tax causes bottled water sales to drop by nearly six percent in our preferred specification. Sales never fully recover, even after the tax removal. In terms of the heterogeneity of this effect, we find larger quantity drops in high tax rate areas and in the lowest and highest quintile income areas.
Taxing Bottled Water as an Environmental Policy (paper)
Agricultural and Resource Economics Update, University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics
(with Peter Berck and Sofia Villas-Boas)
Abstract: Litter from plastic water bottles is an environmental concern for cities and states throughout the country. One potential policy response to this issue is to implement a consumer tax on bottled water in hopes that the subsequent reduction in total sales translates into less litter. We explore evidence from Washington state to analyze how effective and efficient a consumer tax on bottled water is as an environmental policy.
Working papers:
Fueling Local Water Pollution: Ethanol Refineries, Land Use, and Nitrate Runoff (paper)
Abstract:
Ethanol production in the United States, driven by federal renewable fuel policy, has exploded over the past two decades and has prompted the construction of many ethanol refineries throughout the US Corn Belt. These refineries have introduced a new inelastic demand for corn in the areas where they were built, reducing basis for nearby farmers and effectively subsidizing local corn production. In this paper, I explore whether and to what extent the construction of new ethanol refineries has actually increased local corn acreage. I also explore some environmental effects of this acreage increase. Using a thirteen year panel of over two million field-level observations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska, I estimate a net increase of nearly 300,000 acres of corn in 2014 relative to 2002 that can be attributed to the placements of new ethanol refineries. This increase comprises approximately 0.75% of the total 2014 corn acreage within my dataset. Furthermore, this effect is separate from the general equilibrium effect of ethanol policy increasing aggregate demand for corn. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that over 21,000 tons of the nitrogen applied to fields in my sample in 2014 can be attributed to refinery location effects. Essentially all of these observed effects occur only in areas within 30 miles of an ethanol refinery, suggesting that refineries have meaningful localized impacts on land use and environmental quality such as nitrate runoff. (JEL codes: Q15, Q16, Q53)
Quinoa Quandary: Cultural Tastes and Nutrition in Peru (paper)
(Revise and Resubmit: Food Policy)
Abstract:
Using a model of household food demand that incorporates regional preferences (tastes) for culturally appropriate food, I investigate whether tastes for quinoa in the Puno region of Peru reduce household nutrition intakes when quinoa prices dramatically increase between 2004 and 2012. Adapting a model from Atkin (2013) and utilizing data from a national Peruvian household survey (ENAHO), I am able to deconstruct regional changes in household nutrition over time into several general equilibrium effects; in particular, I isolate the effect of regional tastes for quinoa on nutrition outcomes. This effect is identified by an exogenous spike in quinoa prices driven by international demand for quinoa. While I find evidence that regional tastes for quinoa do exist in the Puno region, these tastes do not have a statistically significant impact on nutrition outcomes. My results suggest that tastes for culturally appropriate food do not meaningfully affect household nutrition if the food in question is a sufficiently small component of a household’s overall diet. (JEL codes: D12, I12, O15, R22)
Reap What Your Friends Sow: Church Mergers and Technology Adoption in the Upper Midwest (paper)
(with Fiona Burlig – note: linked draft lists Fiona Burlig as Fiona Wilkes)
Abstract:
This paper explores the connection between social networks and technology adoption by exploiting naturally-occurring exogenous shocks to American farmers’ social networks in the early 1960s. We exploit unique data on mergers between congregations of the American Lutheran Church in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to identify the causal effect of these mergers on agricultural input decisions. We build a simple model of information dissemination and technology adoption, and use a difference-in-differences strategy to demonstrate that congregational mergers led to a 14 percent increase in fertilizer and lime use. Mergers do not affect technologies about which all potential adopters are already informed, providing evidence that information is the main driver of these effects.
Measuring Willingness to Pay for Environmental Attributes in Seafood (paper)
(with James Hilger, Eric Hallstein, and Sofia B. Villas-Boas)
Abstract:
We investigate whether consumers are willing to pay for sustainability in seafood purchases. To do this, we estimate a demand model of seafood purchases using a product- level scanner dataset that includes data both before and after the implementation of an independent, non-profit, third party seafood advisory and sustainability label system. This label system is based on seafood species, catch method, production method, and country of origin. Sustainability information is presented through the use of a traffic light label rating system, where a color rating is assigned and labeled to each fresh seafood stock-keeping unit. Green represents the best choices, yellow represents the “proceed with caution” choices, and red represents the worst choices. Using our panel dataset of individual seafood purchases, we estimate a random utility choice model (RUM) of consumer demand for seafood products. In our demand model, a seafood product is defined as a bundle of attributes, such as price, catch type, environmental contaminant advisory information, and sustainability rating color. Our model is identified by virtue of the fact that the label system was partially and randomly implemented across the retail chain. Our first empirical results suggest that consumers perceive seafood as a differentiated product category with respect to the sustainability labels. Additionally, we regress several product characteristics on the product fixed effects estimated from the RUM model. The results of this secondary analysis indicate that consumers prefer selective harvest methods, wild caught seafood over farmed, and U.S. caught seafood.
We investigate whether consumers are willing to pay for sustainability in seafood purchases. To do this, we estimate a demand model of seafood purchases using a product- level scanner dataset that includes data both before and after the implementation of an independent, non-profit, third party seafood advisory and sustainability label system. This label system is based on seafood species, catch method, production method, and country of origin. Sustainability information is presented through the use of a traffic light label rating system, where a color rating is assigned and labeled to each fresh seafood stock-keeping unit. Green represents the best choices, yellow represents the “proceed with caution” choices, and red represents the worst choices. Using our panel dataset of individual seafood purchases, we estimate a random utility choice model (RUM) of consumer demand for seafood products. In our demand model, a seafood product is defined as a bundle of attributes, such as price, catch type, environmental contaminant advisory information, and sustainability rating color. Our model is identified by virtue of the fact that the label system was partially and randomly implemented across the retail chain. Our first empirical results suggest that consumers perceive seafood as a differentiated product category with respect to the sustainability labels. Additionally, we regress several product characteristics on the product fixed effects estimated from the RUM model. The results of this secondary analysis indicate that consumers prefer selective harvest methods, wild caught seafood over farmed, and U.S. caught seafood.