eCommons

 

Three Essays on Economic Issues Confronting the Fresh Produce Sector

dc.contributor.authorYeh, Dourong Adeline
dc.contributor.chairGomez, Miguel I.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberKaiser, Harry Mason
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLin Lawell, C.-Y. Cynthia
dc.date.accessioned2021-09-09T17:41:10Z
dc.date.available2023-06-09T06:00:44Z
dc.date.issued2021-05
dc.description164 pages
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation consists of three chapters investigating economic issues confronting the fresh produce sector in the U.S., focusing on alternative production practices and technologies that have sustainability implications for the sector. The first chapter investigates the signaling effects of genetically modified (GM) related food labels on consumer demand for other competing fresh produce in the market. Using a choice experiment with over 1,300 subjects, results show significant impacts from GM labels on demands for conventional unlabeled products. The second and third chapters assess pre- and post-harvest pest controls to manage spotted wing drosophila (SWD) for the lowbush blueberry production in Maine and highbush blueberry production in North Carolina, respectively. Specifically, the second chapter develops a novel dynamic bioeconomic analytical framework to assess the optimal pre-harvest pest control and incorporates structural econometrics to estimate growers’ perceptions. Results suggest that it is optimal to include early harvest, the focal sustainable pest control alternative, as part of the pest management. The third chapter focuses on a post-harvest pest control strategy consisting of putting blueberries in cold storage after harvest to minimize the risk of SWD infestation. The study proposes a game theory framework to model the strategic behaviors that affect a grower’s decision of using post-harvest cold storage and a buyer’s decision of testing fruit infestation. The analysis highlights that incorporating post-harvest cooling is optimal under Nash equilibrium. This dissertation contributes to the food and agricultural economics literature and provides empirical contributions to stakeholders on pressing issues facing fresh produce value chains today.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7298/77zq-bz14
dc.identifier.otherYeh_cornellgrad_0058F_12511
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/cornellgrad:12511
dc.identifier.otherbibid: 15049526
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/109825
dc.language.isoen
dc.relation.localurihttps://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/15049526
dc.titleThree Essays on Economic Issues Confronting the Fresh Produce Sector
dc.typedissertation or thesis
dcterms.licensehttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810
thesis.degree.disciplineApplied Economics and Management
thesis.degree.grantorCornell University
thesis.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.namePh. D., Applied Economics and Management

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Yeh_cornellgrad_0058F_12511.pdf
Size:
3.31 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format