Proposals for reform of the federal multiple-peril crop insurance program for specialty crops seek to change fees for catastrophic insurance from a nominal fifty-dollar per contract registration fee to an actuarially sound premium. Growers argue that this would cause a significant reduction in participation rates, thus impeding the program’s goals of eventually obviating the need for ad hoc disaster payments and worsening the actuarial soundness of the program. The key policy issue is, therefore, empirical one - whether the demand for specialty crop insurance is elastic or inelastic. Previous studies of this issue using either grower or county-level field crop data typically treat the participation problem as either a discrete insure / don’t insure decision or aggregate these decisions to a continuous participation rate problem. However, a grower’s problem is more realistically cast as one of simultaneously making a coverage level / insurance participation decision. Because the issue at hand considers a significant price increase for only one coverage level (50%), differentiating between these decisions is necessary both from an analytical and econometric standpoint. To model this decision, the paper develops a two-stage estimation procedure based on Lee’s multinomial logit-OLS selection framework. This method is applied to a county-level panel data set consisting of eleven years of the eleven largest grape-growing counties in California. Results show that growers choose among coverage levels based upon expected net premiums and the variance of these returns, as well as the first two moments of expected market returns. At the participation-level, the mean and variance of indemnities are also important, as are several variables measuring the extent of self-insurance, such as farm size, enterprise diversity, or farm income. The results also show that the elasticity of 50% coverage insurance is elastic, suggesting that premium increases may indeed worsen the actuarial soundness of the program. These increases will also cause a significant adjustment of growers among coverage levels.
A structural latent variable model of apple variety demand is used to analyze the effect of variety specific newspaper advertisement characteristics on variety attraction (preferences), and in turn on variety demand. The influence of advertisement size, the use of color and the Washington apple logo were analyzed. The estimated variety attraction variable is important in explaining demand. Model specifications which exclude this variable tend to understate demand elasticities. Advertisement size has a positive impact on Granny Smith, Fuji, and Gala sales. Red Delicious sales are positively influenced by color ads, but negatively affected by ads with the Washington apple logo.
The Fuji apple variety is relatively new in the U.S. As a new product, questions concern the relative impact of consumer learning by experience, by variety-specific promotion, or by generic apple promotion. A two-stage (LES/LAIDS) model incorporating both types of promotion is used to estimate the effect of generic and variety specific promotion, as well as consumer experience, on the demand for Fuji apples. Estimates show each to have a positive impact, and also show new or specialty apple varieties to be relatively price inelastic, but income elastic. Grower returns to promotion are calculated with an equilibrium displacement model of price changes and producer surplus. Changes in producer surplus provide a base-scenario benefit:cost ratio of 14.73.
Marketing research in consumer packaged goods shows that consumers’ brand choices, category choices, and purchase volumes are all affected by different factors and in different ways by pricepromotions
and advertising. Research also suggests that brand-loyalty, purchase rates, and inventory behavior are important determinants of category choice. These findings are likely to be true of apples as well.
On a biennial basis, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission is tasked with preparing for the governor a criminal justice system trends report. Available resources, the size and complexity of the criminal justice system and the availability of relevant data influence the scope of the issues addressed in the report. In support of data-driven decision making, this report uses publicly available data to describe the activity of Arizona’s criminal justice system from law enforcement agencies description of the offenses reported to their agencies to the population of the Arizona Department of Corrections.
Directory of law enforcement agencies and courts in Arizona.
Arizona’s Annual Report on activities carried out under the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Grant program for each fiscal year ending September 30. In Arizona, federal Residential Substance Abuse Treatment funds are used to help the state and local governments improve residential substance abuse treatment programs within the state and local correctional and detention facilities. Residential treatment provides care 24 hours per day, in correctional settings, using the therapeutic community and cognitive-behavioral therapy models.
House Bill 2554 appropriated $3 million from the state general fund in fiscal year 2007 to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission for distribution to each county board of supervisors for “…increased methamphetamine interdiction efforts including investigation, training, prosecution, abuse treatment, or education programs.” By statute, each county that receives funds was required to submit quarterly reports to ACJC regarding the use and effectiveness of its award. The forms requested information on the type of program(s) developed, a description of the performance measures used to document the effectiveness of these funds, and the activity of each funded program. These reports provides a brief summary of activity of the two-year Methamphetamine Interdiction Fund project. They provide a summary of the reports submitted by each county.
This report describes the results of a process and impact evaluation of the Kino Coalition Weed and Seed site in Tucson, Arizona. The evaluation was conducted from February through June of 2006, and covered the first four years of Kino’s existence as an accepted site.
Widespread obesity in the U.S. is a relatively recent phenomenon, reaching epidemic proportions only in the last 15 years. However, existing research shows that while calorie expenditure through physical activity has not changed appreciably since 1980, calorie consumption has risen dramatically. Consequently, any explanation of obesity must address the reason why consumers tend to overeat in spite of somewhat obvious future health implications. This study tests for an addiction to food nutrients as a potential explanation for the obesity epidemic. Specifically, we use a random coefficients (mixed) logit model applied to household scanner data to test a multivariate version of the rational addiction model of Becker and Murphy and Chaloupka. We find evidence of a rational addiction to all nutrients – protein, fat and carbohydrates – as well as to sodium, but particularly strong evidence of a forward-looking addiction to carbohydrates. The implication of this finding is that price-based policies – sin taxes or produce subsidies that change the expected future costs and benefits of consuming carbohydrate-intensive foods – may be effective in controlling excessive nutrient intake.