Papers by Karina Schoengold
Agricultural Economics, 2021
In Mexico, farmers only pay the cost of electricity used to pump groundwater from wells for groun... more In Mexico, farmers only pay the cost of electricity used to pump groundwater from wells for groundwater consumption and also receive electricity subsidy from government. It causes the fact that farmers consume groundwater under the situation that private marginal cost is lower than social marginal cost. Furthermore, in Mexico, different wells function under different institutional arrangements. Some wells are privately owned while others are shared by multiple farmers. In some shared wells, farmers pay for their own electricity consumption but in other shared wells farmers distribute total electricity cost based on a pre-specified rule. Both the jointly ownership and pre-specified payment rule may cause further distortion of groundwater pumping cost. By estimating the frontier demand function and technical efficiency of groundwater, we calculate the own-price elasticity of groundwater and test the effect of joint ownership and pre-specified electricity payment rule on the groundwate...
Common groundwater management concerns that are driving policy change worldwide include aquifer d... more Common groundwater management concerns that are driving policy change worldwide include aquifer depletion, surface water-groundwater interaction, and water quality degradation. This article discusses recent innovations in groundwater quantity management from around the northern and central High Plains region of the United States, where much of the policy change has occurred at a local level. There are several principles underlying the development of new groundwater management tools. Local and stakeholder input are common, generally effective, and are often more politically feasible than top-down regulations. Evidence is emerging that the behavioral and signaling aspects of policy have been effective in changing producer behavior.
Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) Technology -VRI is precision irrigation that allows custom water a... more Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) Technology -VRI is precision irrigation that allows custom water application based on topography information, soil data maps, yield data, and other user-defined information (Evans et al., 2000). Prescription Mapping -Prescription mapping uses electrical conductivity data to read the variability of the land and prescribe the correct amount of water, fertilizer, or seed that should be applied throughout the different zones within a field. Wetland -A wetland is an area that is inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soils (Nebraska Wetlands, 2015). NRCS -The Natural Resource Conservation Service provides technical assistance to farmers and other private producers and managers (The Rainwater, 2015). WREP -The Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership offers incentives for producers to restore wetlands on their property located within the Rainwater Basin (The Rainwater, 2015). RWBJV -The Rainwater Basin Joint Venture is a partnership that works to achieve habitat conservation through cooperation and sound science (About, 2016). NRD -The Nebraska Natural Resources Districts were "created to solve flood control, soil erosion, irrigation run-off, and groundwater quantity and quality issues" (NRD History, 2018). Payback Model -The discounted payback model is a capital budgeting method used for determining the profitability of a project. The time it takes to breakeven on the investment is calculated while taking into account the changing value of money over time. Price Differential -In this research, the price differential is the net change in average net income per acre from pre to post-VRI.
Science of The Total Environment, 2019
Water Economics and Policy, 2018
The Kura–Araks Basin is facing problems with insufficient water availability for all needs and po... more The Kura–Araks Basin is facing problems with insufficient water availability for all needs and poor water quality, which results in high rates of waterborne diseases. The riparians of the basin struggle with management of water resources within their national borders, as well as internationally, across the basin. With international rivers, interdependency among countries is created, where the upstream country can impact the quantity and quality of water downstream. This study focuses on the upstream–downstream relationship with the Kura River between Azerbaijan and Georgia. The analysis uses a game theoretical framework, which incorporates several issues in the negotiation space. Specifically, water quantity and water quality are analyzed separately and combined into an aggregated isolated game. The analysis compares the aggregated isolated game, where the outcome of each game is negotiated separately, with an interconnected game, where the two games are jointly negotiated. Using re...
Integrated Groundwater Management, 2016
This chapter provides an overview of the issues and challenges facing policy makers intending to ... more This chapter provides an overview of the issues and challenges facing policy makers intending to establish groundwater markets. It studies in detail two developed countries that have introduced groundwater trading and have some experience in its implementation-Australia and the United States of Americaand draws out lessons from these countries that need to be considered for the development of groundwater markets around the world. The key lessons that this chapter stresses are: the importance of establishing institutions and regulations; investing in high quality economic and scientific research; that opportunities arise from crises; and that social concerns are not always the most important considerations to be aware of for efficient and effective groundwater markets. Globally, groundwater extraction is the outcome of decisions by organisations and individuals; there is little control or planning involved with its management. Groundwater withdrawals supply a large percentage of the world's population. It accounts for about 50 % of global drinking water and 43 % of global irrigation (van der Gun 2012). As detailed in Chap. 2, its overuse is associated with several S.A. Wheeler (*) Global Food Studies,
Agricultural Economics, 2016
Groundwater depletion is a serious problem in Mexico. Several policy alternatives are currently b... more Groundwater depletion is a serious problem in Mexico. Several policy alternatives are currently being considered in order to improve the efficiency of irrigation water use so that extraction of groundwater is diminished. An understanding and quantification of different sources of inefficiency in groundwater extraction is critical for policy design. Survey data from a geographically extensive sample of irrigators is used to gauge the importance of common pool problems on input-specific irrigation inefficiency. Results show that mechanisms of electricity cost sharing implemented in many wells have a sizable impact on inefficiency of irrigation application. Moreover, irrigation is very inelastic to its own unitary cost. Therefore, results suggest that policies aimed at eliminating electricity cost-sharing mechanisms would be significantly more effective than electricity price-based policies in reducing irrigation application. Results also show that well sharing does not affect groundwater pumping significantly, suggesting either a limited effect of individual pumping on water level or absence of strategic pumping by farmers sharing the wells.
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2014
The paper estimates the impacts of risk-reducing government programs on the use of conservation t... more The paper estimates the impacts of risk-reducing government programs on the use of conservation tillage (no-till and other conservation tillage) practices in agriculture. Conservation tillage can be used to reduce production risk from weather shocks. However, subsidized crop insurance and disaster payments also reduce risk through financial assistance. The paper examines the extent to which risk-reducing tillage practices and government programs are substitutes for each other. The economic model shows that a decline in average weather conditions increases the use of conservation tillage. The economic model also shows that the impact of weather risk and risk aversion on risk-reducing practices like conservation tillage are ambiguous. The effect depends on the degree that losses are offset by government payments. The paper uses county-level tillage practice data from the Conservation Tillage Information Center for the three-state region of Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Results are estimated using instrumental variables and spatial panel data techniques. Instruments for the program participation and payment data include political variables and weather data. The empirical analysis shows that recent disaster and indemnity payments are associated with an increase in the use of no-till and a decrease in the use of other conservation till. Results also show that producers in counties with recent drought and flood events are more likely to use other conservation tillage. The results imply that there may be unintended impacts of changes to agricultural policies like disaster payments and crop insurance on the use of on-farm conservation practices.
Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, 2014
ABSTRACT The paper develops a comparative statics model of long-run industry equilibrium in the p... more ABSTRACT The paper develops a comparative statics model of long-run industry equilibrium in the presence of size-based environmental regulation stringency and applies the model to the U.S. hog industry. The economic model shows that when size-based environmental stringency is also size biased, large farms downsize, expand, or do neither depending on how environmental stringency shifts their marginal production cost relative to their average cost. Empirical testing using data from the top-ten hog-producing states suggests that environmental regulation stringency has limited impact on small farms and leads to a reduction in the number of large farms. Results cannot reject positive size bias at the farm level due to the stringency of environmental regulation.Dans le présent article, nous élaborons un modèle de statique comparative pour étudier les effets que le durcissement de la réglementation environnementale fondé sur la taille d'une l'exploitation a sur l’équilibre à long terme de l'industrie porcine et nous appliquons le modèle à l'industrie porcine étatsunienne. Selon le modèle économique, lorsque le durcissement de la réglementation est fondé sur la taille de l'exploitation et qu'il affecte la taille des exploitations, les grandes exploitations diminuent leur taille, prennent de l'expansion ou ne font ni l'un ni l'autre selon les effets qu'a le durcissement de la réglementation environnementale sur leurs coûts marginal et moyen de production. Des tests empiriques effectués à l'aide de données sur les dix principaux États producteurs de porcs autorisent à penser que le durcissement de la réglementation environnementale entraîne des répercussions limitées sur les petites exploitations agricoles et une diminution du nombre de grandes exploitations. Nous ne pouvons rejeter l'effet positif du durcissement de la réglementation environnementale sur la taille des exploitations.
Water Resources and Economics, 2014
Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, 2013
Decreased instream flows are thought to negatively impact river recreation, such as whitewater ra... more Decreased instream flows are thought to negatively impact river recreation, such as whitewater rafting. Runoff declines are often accompanied by high temperatures, wildfires, and associated media coverage. Very few studies have examined the impact of these accompanying factors, and none have disentangled their influence. Using regression analysis of data from the Arkansas River in Colorado, we find that reduced flows usually decrease the number of whitewater rafting customers, although very high flows also deter rafting activities. More importantly, negative media coverage of wildfires also appears to have adverse impacts on rafting tourism, controlling for instream flows and weather.
Agriculture is by far the dominant user of water in the western United States and in nearly all a... more Agriculture is by far the dominant user of water in the western United States and in nearly all arid regions of the planet. Despite this fact and despite a growing push to rely on price mechanisms for rationalizing water allocation, there are few econometric studies of agricultural water demand that measure its responsiveness to price. Using a unique panel data set of water use at a disaggregated level, this paper estimates the parameters of an agricultural water demand function. The approach incorporates the notion of "jointness" in the farm production function, which postulates that producers choose inputs, outputs and technology simultaneously. Estimation results indicate that the own-price elasticity of water use is in the range [-0.415, -0.275], which includes the indirect effects of water price changes on output and technology choices. The estimation results also provide the first direct measurement of the conservation benefits of investment in precision irrigation technology. Water savings from technology adoption vary widely by crop but can be as high as 50 percent relative to gravity irrigation.
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Papers by Karina Schoengold