Browsing by Author "Thilmany, Dawn, committee member"
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Item Open Access A bioeconomic and general equilibrium framework to address fishery management and invasive species(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Apriesnig, Jenny L., author; Goemans, Christopher, advisor; Warziniack, Travis, advisor; Manning, Dale, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Johnson, Brett, committee memberFisheries management is a complex issue that involves the management of people, fish populations and habitat. There are many facets to fishery issues including ownership, regulation, and environmental change. I address all three of these facets in the following work. I develop a general equilibrium model that incorporates fish stock and present two applications of it. I evaluate the change of a fishery under a regulated open access regime to an individual transferrable quota system. I apply the model to the Lake Erie yellow perch fishery, and I account for the different allocations of the value provided by the fish stock, and the potential changes in efficiency. I find that the change to an individual transferrable quota system results in welfare improvements but only if the individual transferrable quota system induces improved catchability and efficiency in fishery effort choices. I also develop an integrated bioeconomic model with the general equilibrium framework to evaluate the joint responses of a regional economy and lake food web to an environmental shock. The model is unique in that there are feedbacks between the economy and food web. The bioeconomic model is used to evaluate a potential Lake Erie Asian carp invasion. There are two primary results from the analysis; the Asian carp invasion leads to welfare improvements, and when invasion impacts are estimated with only the ecological food web model, without the consideration of changes in human choice, the impacts to some fish populations are overestimated while others are underestimated. In both applications, I show that using a general equilibrium framework captures welfare impacts that would be missed by a partial equilibrium analysis.Item Open Access A study of small-scale farms in the United States: characteristics and practices relevant to animal disease prevention and control(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Beam, Andrea, author; Olea-Popelka, Francisco, advisor; Van Metre, David, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Garber, Lindsey, committee memberTo view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.Item Open Access Economic impact of foot-and-mouth disease mitigation strategies: a meta-regression analysis(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Lee, Szu-Yin, author; Pendell, Dustin, advisor; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Mushinski, David, committee memberA meta-regression analysis was conducted to more clearly identify the control strategies that influence the economic impacts due to a foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in North America. Models were specified accounting for differences across control strategies (culling rate, vaccination, improving in traceability, and delayed detection) and epidemiological models that are used to simulate FMD outbreaks under different assumption. Results of the analysis show that applying vaccination-to-die policies increases the national loss but it might be a method to contain the disease when spreading widely. Delayed detection of infected animals is the most influential factor that impacts economic losses, however, by improving traceability system, the economic impacts can be reduces by localizing and depopulating latent or potentially infected animals before they allow disease to spread.Item Open Access Economics, politics and ecology of biotechnology in Malaysian agriculture(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Suntharalingam, Chubashini, author; Graff, Gregory, advisor; Byrne, Patrick, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Davies, Stephen, committee memberMalaysia has been moving from an agricultural, resource extraction, and manufacturing based economy in the 1980s toward a service-oriented, post-industrial, knowledge-based economy, with greater emphasis on skilled human capital, technology, and intangibles. Assessing Malaysia's current economic and policy regimes are crucial to help chart the next course of actions for Malaysia to set its economic goals. The patent landscape analysis showed Malaysia's economy evolution over the past six decades. Primarily dependent on the chemicals and petroleum sector between 1953 and 1985, the economy, currently is dependent on two sectors, i.e., electronics, semiconductors and computing, and chemicals and petroleum. Generally, the commercial sector dominates the patenting activities in Malaysia, in the economy wide patenting arena and also in the agbiotech and agchemicals technologies. High patenting trends by foreign commercial entities is to avoid imitations to their inventions in the Malaysian market attributable to their high FDI investment and export share. Within the agricultural sector, patents in agbiotech are relatively low and overshadowed by patents in agchemicals. The higher number of agchemicals technologies patented in Malaysia is due to the long history of European MNCs in Malaysia. And, the low number of agbiotech patented in Malaysia, mainly by non-commercial entities is due to two reasons: (1) misalignment of policies promoting the use of modern biotechnology in the Malaysian agricultural sector, and (2) ecological risks of cultivating transgenic crops in Malaysia, a rich-biodiversity country. A political economy framework was utilized in understanding the misalignment of policies promoting the use of modern biotechnology and examining the influence of relevant stakeholder groups on the decision making process concerning regulations overseeing the cultivation of transgenic crops. Two Malaysian Giant conglomerates, Sime Darby Berhad and Felda Holdings Berhad, dominate world palm oil exports and local oil production, and inevitably, have a strong policy influence of the Malaysian agricultural sector. The world's two dominant agchemicals players, Bayer and BASF, also play a major role in the agricultural policy making process in Malaysia. Bayer is one of the leading players that dominate the agchemicals patents in Malaysia. BASF, meanwhile has formed a strategic alliance with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and developed a new herbicide resistant Clearfield rice variety to tackle weedy rice outbreak in Malaysia. These two special interest pressure groups, oil palm and agchemicals producers face large welfare impact if Malaysia adopts transgenic crops. With risk of losing their market shares in Malaysia and their relatively small number, these groups have been able to converge and exercise influence over the stalled commercialization process of transgenic crops. The other reason attributable to the low number of granted agbiotech patents in Malaysia pertains to ecological risk concerning deployment of transgenic organisms on Malaysia's rich biodiversity. Scientific assessments carried out on transgenic rice and papaya suggest that transgenic rice and papaya lines can potentially exert positive and/or negative ecological impacts, i.e., non-target organisms, transgene escape, heteroencapsidation, and RNA recombination. However, the studies reviewed in this dissertation call for long-term assessments to determine the longer term impact of transgenic rice and papaya on non-target organisms and transgene escape. In addition to this, majority of ecological studies carried out on non-target organisms have been limited to third trophic interaction. Considering the fact that Malaysia is a mega-diversity country, ecological studies concerning higher trophic level are required to assess the impact transgenic rice and papaya has on these populations and the food-web dynamics. Studies on heteroencapsidation and RNA recombination of papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) resistant transgenic papaya is also limited even though PRSV-resistant transgenic papaya has been in the market for over fifteen years. Ultimately, while transgenic rice and papaya do carry ecological risks, the decision to cultivate these crops lies on the benefits brought upon by these crops. World food supplies demand intensive crop production due to increased population growth, climate change, pest and disease challenges, political unrest, deterioration of soil quality, drought and flood. Ultimately, the benefits and challenges in cultivating transgenic crops need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Cultivating transgenic crops has potential to decrease reliance on external inputs and reduce ecological risk. As such, until we can derive a balance between the two, we must strive to continue to improvise the transgenic technology to suit these two goals. For future research, it is recommended to determine the funding mechanisms of studies reviewed for the ecological assessments of transgenic rice and papaya in order to assess the objectivity of the study findings.Item Open Access Entrepreneurship by gender: characteristics, financing, and growth(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Conroy, Tessa, author; Weiler, Stephan, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Mushinski, David, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberWomen own less than one-third of firms in the United States, despite comprising nearly half of the labor force. The gender gap holds in most local areas, but analysis by county shows that there is significant variation in male- and female- business ownership across space. Though previous studies link entrepreneurial activity to several important regional characteristics, none consider how the impact of these characteristics, particularly the availability small business financing, might vary between men and women. Further, there has been little consideration for separate impacts of male- and female-owned firms on economic growth. Chapter one identifies the determinants of growth in the propensity for male- and female-owned firms and considers the relative importance of endowment and behavioral differences in explaining the gender gap in business ownership. The results indicate that there are significant endowment and behavioral differences between the male and female populations, particularly with regard to human capital accumulation. Human capital accumulation at the bachelor's degree level increases the propensity for male-owned firms, but the relationship between human capital accumulation and the propensity for female-owned firms forms an inverted "U." Counties with large shares of females at very low and very high education attainment have lower growth in the propensity for female-owned firms, and growth is highest in counties with a large share of female college graduates. Family structure is also a significant factor, shown by the negative effect of the number of children per adult, which is much stronger for males. A Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition demonstrates that though the effect of endowment differences is larger in absolute value, the behavioral differences captured by the coefficient effect, are key to alleviating the gender disparity in business ownership. Chapter two analyzes the impact of male- and female-owned firms on economic performance. The results show that counties with higher initial densities of male- and female-owned firms, generally have lower subsequent employment growth. More detailed analysis by employment status shows that male-owned employer firms have the strongest relationship to economic growth compared to female-owned employer firms and non-employer firms owned by either gender. Instrumental variable analysis using the historical mining industry addresses the potential endogeneity created by including births in the empirical model of employment growth. Chapter three focuses on capital as an especially important input to entrepreneurship, and ultimately, to economic growth. So far as bank loans are critical to the start-up, survival, and expansion of establishments, it is reasonable to expect spatial linkages between lending and establishment births as well as between lending and economic performance. This study examines the effect of small business loans based on Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) data and applies an instrumental variable strategy using money demand shocks to address potential endogeneity between lending and establishment births. Using an economic growth framework and cross-sectional empirical model for U.S. counties, we test the hypotheses that the establishment birth rate, employment growth, and our measure of entrepreneurship for each gender is higher in counties where bank financing is more available, controlling for community-level characteristics affecting business and economic dynamics. We also consider the long-term effect of small business lending and focus on establishing the appropriate lag structure. The results indicate that lending has a significant and positive effect on births that is strongest in rural and micropolitan counties. Second, increases in lending appear to have a weakly negative effect on employment growth. There is no effect of lending on entrepreneurship for either gender.Item Open Access Estimating the economic impacts of bird and rodent damage to selected California crops(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Gebhardt, Karen Susan Ilse, author; Fan, Chuen-mei, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Mushinski, David, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberThis research estimates the direct financial costs and the changes in economic welfare associated with bird and rodent damage to 15 different crop markets in eight agricultural regions in California. Three different models are used to quantify this impact: a meta-analysis to aggregate and analysis a large database of 206 damage estimates from 43 studies related to 15 crops across 6 (of 8) regions of California, a direct financial cost model to identify changes in profits and costs from an individual producer's perspective, and a combination of an equilibrium displacement model (EDM) and an economic surplus model to estimate changes to producer and consumer surpluses. Using a range of damage estimates calculated from the meta-analysis, results from the direct financial analysis indicate that birds and rodents have a direct financial impact in reducing income from lower production and increasing production costs and was calculated as a range from $1,153 m to $1,726 m. Results from the EDM and economic surplus model are the estimated gain in consumer surplus resulting from an absence of bird and rodent damage and a reduction is between $689.6 m and $$1,148.5 m and the estimated gain in producer surplus is between $396.0 m and $658.8 m. Understanding the aggregate impact of damage caused by birds and rodents to multiple economically important crops in California agriculture is crucial. The results of this study indicate that bird and rodent have caused negative impacts on California producers and consumers. Through the inclusion of a more complete damage data set, the impact of this damage on profits and consumer and producer surpluses was estimated with greater accuracy and yielded predictive and interpretive value to the profession.Item Open Access Exploring college students' interpretations and implications of the use of cannabis leaves on packaging of foods with hemp-derived ingredients(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Del Pozo, Carolina, author; Abrams, Katie, advisor; Sivakumar, Gaya, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberOne of the main communication channels used to acquire consumers' attention through emotional appeal is packaging, and after more than 80 years of stigma, the hemp industry is quickly developing in terms of the design and establishment of their products. In 2017 this industry reported $820 million in retail sales, 17% coming from food products. Designers have adopted different packaging approaches hoping to communicate efficiently with their customers. Some of them use green cannabis leaves on the package design of hemp-derived products, possibly driving the audience to different conclusions around the product. There is limited research done around hemp food advertising and the reframing of people's mentality around hemp and cannabis. There is a lack of academic research around the meaning of this symbol in general or in combination with marijuana products. For this reason, the purpose of this research is to; 1) explore people's beliefs around cannabis leaves and their symbolism in consumable hemp products, and 2) understand the attitudes, social norms, perceptions about product availability, and intent to purchase these products using the focus groups method. Two approaches were considered. Semiotics studies (i.e., the study of signs and symbolism), which offer lenses through which to further examine the consumer's perspective and beliefs on hemp food product consumption to navigate schemas around cannabis that could negatively impact the marketability of these products. Theory of Planned Behavior, which provide guidelines to understand the decision-making process around the purchase said products. It was found that late Z generation beliefs around the signs and symbols presented in the packages had an impact in their attitudes towards the product. Low behavioral control was one of the main limitations they considered when deciding whether to purchase hemp food products. Consumers self-described habits and past behavior were more strongly connected to their behavioral intention compared to attitudes.Item Open Access How Coloradoan's attributes, behaviors, and attitudes affect demand for local food(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Naasz, Elizabeth, author; Jablonski, Becca, advisor; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Abrams, Katie, committee memberDemand for local food has grown within the last several decades, leading to changes in the ways consumers shop for their food for at-home consumption. Many previous studies have investigated demand for local food in order to understand if and how private and public attributes, behaviors, and attitudes affect consumers' decisions to purchase local food. However, few studies have explored how these factors are related to a consumer's use of search, experience, and credence dimensions used when shopping and how these vary between different types of local food consumers. This study attempts to understand how consumers who are purchasing state branded products, interested in purchasing locally grown vegetables and fruits, and shopping at direct markets use product attributes, behaviors, and attitudes in different ways and how these factors relate to search, experience, and credence dimensions. We find that individuals interested in state branded products and locally grown vegetables are more likely to use experience dimensions, individuals interested in state grown fruits are more likely to use search dimensions, and individuals shopping at direct markets are more likely to use credence dimensions. These results provide insight into why these dimensions are most likely to be utilized by certain consumer groups and why the consumer groups differ.Item Open Access Measuring consumer willingness to pay for reduced sulfur dioxide content in wine: a conjoint analysis(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Appleby, Christopher, author; Costanigro, Marco, advisor; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Menke, Stephen, committee memberAs sulfites are often perceived by consumers as causing headaches and migraines, differentiated wines based on their sulfite content may be a profitable marketing avenue. Using stated choice methods, a sample of 223 wine consumers participated in a conjoint experiment where 36 hypothetical wine labels were ranked. Collected data included socio-demographic information, subjective experiences with headaches, and purchasing behavior. The results indicate that quality and price are the primary factors influencing wine choice, while "no sulfites added" labeling does not directly determine the purchasing decision. However, we find strong evidence that, at parity with price and quality, the average consumer is willing to pay $0.64 for no sulfites added in wine. Additionally, a substantial segment (34.08%) of the consumer population is willing to pay a greater premium of $1.23 for no sulfites added, indicating a potential niche market to which marketing promotions could be targeted.Item Open Access No como veneno: strengthening local organic markets in the Peruvian Andes(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Loomis, Jennifer C., author; Murray, Douglas, advisor; Raynolds, Laura, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberEconomic and social development in Peru can partially be achieved through the promotion of local organic Farmers’ Markets. Local markets provide unique spaces in which producers and consumers interact and foster relationships developing a stable supply of high quality organic produce. However, market opportunities are limited by an underdeveloped consumer base. The goal of this study is to identify the patterns and values among current organic consumers in order to develop further actions that would increase demand for and supply of organic agricultural products. I have found that organizational obstacles, limited organic supply of organic goods, and lack of marketing all contribute to the underdeveloped consumer base which thereby limits market opportunities for small-scale organic farmers. By providing a case study of a Farmer’s Market in Peru, we can understand the values and beliefs present among current organic consumers, identify opportunities for expanding the market, and in turn, organic agricultural production.Item Open Access Potential impacts of hard infrastructure development on agricultural trade(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Al-Maamari, Aaisha, author; Countryman, Amanda, advisor; Thilmany, Dawn, committee member; Pena, Anita, committee memberThe development of hard infrastructure has the potential to enhance agricultural production and international agricultural trade. Good quality physical networks could reduce the transport costs for producers and suppliers, thereby increasing the volume of agricultural bilateral trade. For most countries, tariff rates, transport costs, geographic drawbacks, and other nontariff barriers are considered to be the most significant potential impediments to trade. This study estimates the role of hard infrastructure on agricultural bilateral trade among North and Latin American countries, as one determinant of transport costs. By using panel data for agricultural imports from 2006 to 2014, we measure the potential impact of the quality of overall hard infrastructure as well as specific modes of transport networks such as roads, railroads, ports and airports infrastructure on the prevalence and patterns of agricultural trade. A modified gravity model of trade has been used to measure the impact of different trade barriers on the trade of food, animal, vegetable and aggregated agricultural products. Results show that the distance between countries and hard infrastructure are statistically significant and play an important role in determining transport costs as well as the variation in agricultural bilateral trade. For both aggregated and disaggregated agricultural trade, the estimated coefficients show that exporters' infrastructure has a larger impact on trade than importers' infrastructure. Results show that a 10 percent improvement in the quality of an exporters' hard infrastructure may increase total agricultural import volume by 8.6 percent, while a 10 percent improvement in importers' hard infrastructure may increase aggregated agricultural imports by 6.0 percent.Item Open Access Supplemental light-emitting diode effects on the growth, fruit quality, and yield of two greenhouse-grown strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa) cultivars(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Stuemky, Andrea, author; Uchanski, Mark, advisor; Newman, Steve, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberRecent interest in off-season, greenhouse-grown food crops using supplemental top lighting(STL) has created opportunities for controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) production of high-value fruit crops such as strawberries (Fragaria X ananassa). Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)can be tailored to specific wavelengths to promote increased production and quality of greenhouse grown crops when used as STL. However, more research is needed to evaluate specific wavelengths of light that can promote increased strawberry fruit production and overall fruit quality in a greenhouse environment. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of three LED STL bars on off-season CEA production of two day-neutral strawberry cultivars, 'Albion' and 'San Andreas'. LED effects on overall vegetative biomass (e.g. stolon production, crown numbers, and leaf area), marketable fruit yield, and fruit quality (e.g. individual fruit weight and soluble solids content (SSC)) were measured during decreasing day lengths of Oct. - Dec.2017 (Exp. 1) and the increasing day lengths of Jan. - April 2018 (Exp. 2). We hypothesized that the addition of STL via three LED bars would increase most measured parameters. Specifically, it was expected that the LED bars with higher densities of blue and red light would produce higher yields and also increase soluble solids content of the berries. The hypotheses were tested by evaluating three LED light top bars (WFR = white far-red, HB = high blue, and LB = low blue) with peaks of blue (450 nm) and red light (665 nm), but at differing photon flux densities (PFD). In these experiments, individual strawberry fruit size and SSC were increased with the use of HB and LB LEDs during the shortening days of Exp. 1. Increased leaf area and crown numbers were also positively affected within all LED treatments (WFR, LB, HB) for 'San Andreas'. The lengthening days of Exp. 2 elicited limited fruiting responses, but stolon production increased within all treatments. In some cases, the two cultivars responded differently to LED STL treatments for leaf area and SSC: 'San Andreas' produced larger leaves and 'Albion' berries having higher SSC than 'San Andreas'. Individual fruit weight of both cultivars increased fruit size in LB and HB treatments in both Exp. 1 and Exp. 2. Our studies indicate that the addition of STL, improved overall strawberry fruit quality and plant growth during shortening day lengths in a greenhouse.Item Open Access The male dominated field: a study on the gendered experiences of female farmers in northern Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Shisler, Rebecca C., author; Sbicca, Joshua, advisor; Opsal, Tara, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberThis research seeks to understand the gendered experiences of female farm operators in Northern Colorado. Specifically, how do female farmers perceive their experiences through a gendered lens? Semi-structured interviews with sixteen women from Boulder, Larimer, and Weld Counties in the state of Colorado were conducted to explore these experiences. Additionally, a supplementary observation at an agriculture conference was completed to reinforce themes. Analysis revealed that female farmers face many of the challenges faced by women in other male-dominated industries. The data collected through over a dozen interviews revealed that women in agriculture cope with pressures inherent to other male-dominated workspaces, such as coping with tokenism, navigating the double bind, and balancing motherhood with their farmer roles. Additionally, women’s work in agriculture often reflects an ethic of care through engagement with education, feeding others healthful food, and taking care of farmland and the environment.Item Open Access The nexus of farming & energy: navigating social tensions at the intersection of sustainable agriculture and unconventional O&G drilling(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Sprague, Cherilyn, author; Malin, Stephanie, advisor; Opsal, Tara, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberThe purpose of this research was to examine how unconventional O&G development is interacting with small-scale sustainable and organic agriculture in Northern Colorado, particularly Boulder, Weld, and Larimer counties. The issues explored are impacts which farmers face as a result of development, the political economic context that small-scale farmers operate under, and how these interactions with O&G development may result in voluntary or forced shifts in identity. By examining these issues, I show how the institution of split estate structures farmer’s interactions with O&G development because it dictates how much control they enjoy and how they are able to participate in procedural equity. I hope this research shows the unique challenges that sustainable and organic farmers face when dealing with O&G development, while also illustrating that it is the institution of split estate that impacts these challenges the most.Item Open Access Three essays in regional economics: migration, regional portfolio theory, resilience, and agglomeration economies(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Care, Jonathan Charles, author; Weiler, Stephan, advisor; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member; Alves Pena, Anita, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberCities and counties are dynamic entities that experience constant change, generated from both local and external forces. Some locations are rich in natural amenities, others are powerhouses of manufacturing or provide a rich level of services and quality of life to their citizens. Each location maintains a unique set of characteristics that makes it appealing to a given slice of the population and set of business enterprises. Understanding these characteristics and patterns of migration is a substantial focus in the field of regional economics. Researchers attempt to enhance our understanding by examining this phenomenon through a number of different lenses. Some have examined flows to the largest cities in the country and tried to uncover the underlying reasons for the unique advantages these metropolitan areas possess. Others have examined various measures of risk and reward to see which cities or counties outshine their competitors. Still others attempt to measure the appeal of regions by quantifying their natural amenities or investigating their resilience to negative economic events. Recent global events have brought understanding a number of these regional performance topics to the forefront of both academic and mainstream interest. This dissertation examines several aspects of regional economics with an aim to move the conversation forward along several tracks. The first chapter explores the contribution of regional employment portfolio risk and return measures in a case study of county level migration into Colorado. The level of employment data used in the construction of the employment portfolio measures is varied to see which level of aggregation best contributes to the understanding of migration flows. The results show that the employment portfolio composition of a county does play a role in attracting migrants and highlight interesting findings on economy-wide risk versus individual potential returns. Additionally, we find evidence of labor pooling and agglomeration effects for Colorado's largest counties. A lack of cohesion and consistency across sector-level measures of risk and return suggests that local governments should focus on creating a stable overall business environment, rather than attempting to focus on specific sectors. The second chapter discusses the concept of economic resilience and how it complements discussions relating to regional economic growth. A total of seven models are tested, split between two different formulations of measuring resilience. Testing is performed to identify a set of independent variables that robustly contribute as explanatory determinants of resilience. The results identify several determinants of resilience that are robust across different definitions of economic resilience and provide insights that can be used by local policy makers when considering the tradeoffs between balancing growth and resilience. The chapter ends with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of existing measures of resilience and the advantages of future work in this area. The final chapter of the dissertation examines the dual, decades-long decline in both migration rates and the level of economic dynamism within the United States. Specifically, the role of information generated by the churn of resources through the economy is explored within the context of county and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in-migration rates. The difference in average annual in-migration rates is also examined using a three-fold Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. This study finds that locally generated information on dynamism does contribute to the decision of whether to migrate. In particular, the findings show a unique role for information gained from regional dynamism when considering migration to smaller metropolitan areas, likely resulting from the more homogeneous identity these regions maintain, in comparison to larger, more multi-faceted, metropolitan areas. The overarching goal of this work is to contribute to the literature on why individuals choose to live where they do. The topics examined over the course of this dissertation permeate several veins of the regional economic literature. However, they all work together in the service of the question "what makes a place attractive to in-migrants?" This is accomplished by looking at the risks and returns to regional employment portfolios, the degree to and speed with which regions rebound from recessions, and how information generated by the churn of resources through the economy helps in the decision to migrate. These topics represent three of the drivers among the broad portfolio of factors regional economics utilizes to try and understand behavior within a country.Item Open Access Three essays in regional growth, distribution, and resilience(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Kacher, Nicholas J., author; Weiler, Stephan, advisor; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Shields, Martin, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberThis work delves into two significant but less understood topics in regional labor economics. The first contribution is to growing literature examining the effects of business dynamism on regional resilience. Significant attention has, understandably, been paid to understanding why the impact of and recovery from the 2008 recession has varied across regions. Chapters 1 and 2 extend to the question of regional resilience a hypothesis that gross rates of local establishment openings, or "churn," may affect local economic performance over a business cycle. In the US, higher-churn areas are found to experience faster average employment growth over the decade spanning the recession, but with more cyclical volatility. Churn is not positively correlated with median household income growth or poverty reduction at a county level. A novel cross-country analysis reveals that in the UK, local authorities with higher churn prior to the recession did weather the financial crisis slightly better, although data limitations restrict the direct comparability between the US and UK cases. Chapter 3 turns to the growth of self-employment in the US, motivated by two observations: first, that growth in the self-employment share has been regionally heterogeneous; and second, that theory suggests workers in wage-and-salary occupations exert limited agency over their working hours. This paper investigates whether average local working hours influence subsequent changes in the county self-employment share. I find a U-shaped relationship between working hours and self-employment growth: counties with working hours furthest from the mean experienced the fastest growth in local self-employment share, adding a new wrinkle to the running debate over whether the "gig economy" is driven by opportunity or necessity.Item Open Access Three essays on regional economic development(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Deming, Kristopher, author; Weiler, Stephan, advisor; Barbier, Edward, committee member; Pena, Anita, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberThis dissertation explores factors that contribute to regional economic growth. The first two chapters focus on one of the key drivers of regional economic growth: entrepreneurship. In the first two chapters I examine how the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) contributes to entrepreneurship. Chapter 1 focuses on the labor demand side of regional entrepreneurship, finding the introduction of state EITC policies reduces the number of new establishments and the number of establishment expansions relative to counties in states without such a policy. In Chapter 2, at the individual level, I find that increasing the amount of the EITC increases the likelihood that the child of the credit recipient becomes a business owner as an adult. The third chapter focuses directly on what caused economic growth in Pre-Colonial India. I propose that the introduction of a New World crop, a form of an agricultural productivity shock, caused economic growth in India. I find that the introduction of maize did contribute to economic growth in Pre-Colonial India.Item Open Access Visual rhetoric of U.S. agricultural films: auteurs, actors and assimilation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Littlefield, Joanne Speirs, author; Seel, Pete, advisor; Abrams, Katie, committee member; Champ, Joseph, committee member; Margolis, Eric, committee member; Thilmany, Dawn, committee memberAgriculture’s role in the expansion of the United States economy is examined through the analysis of five films and their role in presenting societal issues germane to agricultural production. Early in film’s history, the ability to motivate others to understand the need for changes in policy, through the use of persuasive visual, aural, and textual techniques was understood to be important to filmmakers—including those representing government agencies and civic groups. The production and distribution of non-fiction films focused on topics relevant to food and fiber production has kept pace with evolving motion picture production technologies since the first films were released in the early twentieth century. This research project analyzes the context in which these films were produced, how and if production objectives and goals were aligned with societal issues, and whether the expected outcomes were obtained. Research methods include: institutional ethnography/case studies/ethnographic content analysis (including video forensics and hermeneutic data analysis), to identify genre, voice and associated societal issues; in-depth interviews of those involved in the filmmaking where available; historic document analysis using structure of in-depth interviews to interrogate archival materials. The films analyzed here were produced and presented as an aid for agricultural producers, policy makers and agricultural educators to come together to create a shared understanding on what it would take to produce food, fiber and prosperity for their communities, and the nation. These all create not only a sense of accomplishment, but the accumulation of wealth and status for a nation that could not only provide for itself, but have an elevated status as the provider for the global community.