Shogren, Jason F.

December, 2012

WAEA Keynote Address Behavioral Environmental Economics: Money Pumps & Nudges

By: Shogren, Jason F.
Herein we explore how money pumps from rational choice theory and nudges from behavioral economics work toward helping create better environmental policy. We examine the role of money pumps in environmental policy, and whether policymakers can use nudges to "supercharge" incentives. We summarize insight that has emerged from both camps in the areas of conflict/cooperation and mechanism design.
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December, 2010

Second-Order Ambiguity in Very Low Probability Risks: Food Safety Valuation

By: Kivi, Paul A.; Shogren, Jason F.
Food consumption involves inherently risky decisions with uncertain probabilities. This study examines how second-order ambiguity, or uncertainty over probabilities, affects food safety decisions. We conduct a food safety survey wherein subjects face both unambiguous and ambiguous situations, each with the same expected value. Respondents show a preference for unambiguous situations and state a willingness to pay to avoid ambiguity
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December, 2006

Valuing Conflicting Public Information About a New Technology: The Case of Irradiated Foods

By: Rousu, Matthew C.; Shogren, Jason F.
Scientists and advocates can disagree on the value of new products or technologies, such as growth hormones, genetically modified organisms, and food irradiation. Both sides of the debate disseminate information to the public hoping to influence public opinion. This study assesses the economic value of both pro and anti public information using food irradiation as a case study. The value of information sources is estimated in isolation and in combination. In isolation, the results indicate each set of information has value. In combination, only the anti-irradiation information is found to have net positive value (persuading some consumers to purchase non-irradiated products). Pro-irradiation information worked to decrease the value of anti-irradiation information by 68% per person.
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December, 2003

Consumer Willingness to Pay for Genetically Modified Food Labels in a Market with Diverse Information: Evidence from Experimental Auctions

By: Huffman, Wallace E.; Shogren, Jason F.; Rousu, Matthew C.; Tegene, Abebayehu
With the continuing controversy over genetically modified (GM) foods, some groups advocate mandatory labeling of these products, while other groups oppose labeling. An important issue is how GM labels affect consumers' willingness to pay for these food products in the market. Using a statistically based economics experiment with adult consumers as subjects, we examine how willingness to pay changes for three food products--vegetable oil, tortilla chips, and potatoes--when GM labels are introduced. Participants in the experiments discounted GM-labeled foods by approximately 14% relative to their standard-labeled counterparts. The evidence also showed that sequencing of food labels affects willingness to pay, and that randomizing treatments is an important methodological feature in experiments of willingness to pay.
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December, 1998

DO ALL THE RESOURCE PROBLEMS IN THE WEST BEGIN IN THE EAST?

By: Shogren, Jason F.
Economics can make good policy better and bad policy go away- a message often constrained by the political realities surrounding federal resource policy toward the West. This essay responds to these challenges to economic reasoning based on the lessons learned after a stay at the Council of Economic Advisers. My goal is to help make apolitical economists more effective advocates of efficiency.
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December, 1993

VALUING AMBIGUITY: THE CASE OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED GROWTH ENHANCERS

By: Buhr, Brian L.; Hayes, Dermot J.; Shogren, Jason F.; Kliebenstein, James B.
A split-valuation method is developed and implemented to elicit the willingness to pay to consume- or avoid consuming- a product of ambiguous quality. The split-valuation method uses experimental auction markets to separate and value the positive and negative attributes of the ambiguous good. The results show that the method can be used to successfully value a good ambiguous quality. Our application reveals that for a sample of students at a midwestern land-grant institution, the average respondent is willing to pay a premium for meat produced with the use of a genetically engineered growth enhancer that has 30% to 60% fewer calories and is 10% to 20% leaner.
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