Copyright (c) 2013 Western Kentucky University All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar Recent documents in Agriculture Department Seminar Series en-us Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:49:42 PDT 3600 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/4 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/4 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:18:21 PDT Agricultural Economics is a very applied field covering many topics beyond those stereotypically thought of as pertaining to agriculture. These may include finance and risk management, environmental and natural resource economics, game theory, or public policy analysis to name a few.

]]> Matt Bogard http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/3 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/3 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:18:20 PDT An annotated bibliography related to the sustainability of biotechnology and pharmaceutical technologies used in modern agriculture.

]]> Matt Bogard References http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/2 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/2 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:57:41 PDT This presentation covers what Public Choice economists refer to as ‘rent seeking,’ generally seeking favor or special privilege from government through subsidies or regulatory advantages. Particularly, the biotech industry is the area of focus for this presentation. Problems with rent seeking in the biotech industry involve less innovation and industry consolidation. Policies related to biotech regulation, school lunch programs, the Clean Air Act, and ethanol subsidies are discussed. A game theoretic approach is used and it is concluded that issues related to rent seeking and special interests are not adequately addressed by recent campaign finance reform efforts. Alternatives such as constitutional restraint and super majority voting requirements are discussed.

]]> Matt Bogard http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/1 http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/seminar/1 Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:33:08 PDT Given worldwide problems of access to safe potable water, this presentation examines how tools of economics can aid in drafting appropriate mitigating policies. Utilizing partial equilibrium analysis, it demonstrates the role that prices play in social coordination and then applies the framework to real world examples. In addition it examines Pigouvian Taxation and Coasean Bargaining as two classic methods for dealing with externalities in the context of water pollution. Second-best solutions such as tradable permits and metered pricing by public utilities are discussed. This presentation concludes by examining the issues and challenges that policy makers face when trying to implement a mixture of market based incentives and government regulation.

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