Environmental Regulation Stringency and U.S. Agriculture
Date
2018-08-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-7721-4873
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
To understand the likely impact of federal policies on nonpoint agricultural water pollution, a robust measure of state-level environmental regulation stringency is required. The objective of this paper is to derive and characterize state-level environmental regulation stringency across states and over time. I compute a measure of environmental regulation stringency for the agricultural sector from 1960-2004 by calculating the shadow price of polluting inputs. The estimation provides evidence suggesting an increase in regulation stringency across all regions over the sample period, with the exception of the Corn Belt (Heartland) and the Northern Crescent regions, which have decreased in stringency. With few exceptions, regions of the U.S. with the highest proportion of farms see the lowest levels of regulation stringency.
Description
Keywords
Environmental regulation, Stringency, Shadow price
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Program
Agricultural Economics