Alison F. Davis

Do Community Supported Agriculture programmes encourage change to food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes? New evidence from shareholders

ABSTRACT Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programmes have recently received attention for their potential to influence food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, though studies have mostly drawn from small samples (n < 25). Therefore, we designed a survey to test whether CSA participation links to changes in food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, and assess if the magnitude of changes varies based on respondent characteristics. A detailed survey was distributed to existing shareholders from three midsized CSAs near Lexington, Kentucky, and produced 151 usable responses. Through 20 paired questions, respondents reported on their food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes both prior to joining a CSA and then after CSA participation. Paired two-sided t-tests assess if paired means are statistically different, and multiple regressions of paired differences on socioeconomic factors, self-reported health, and years of CSA enrolment estimate the effect of respondent characteristics on behaviour change. The results strongly suggest that CSAs have the potential to positively impact shareholders’ food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, and that those reporting ‘poor health’ prior to CSA enrolment exhibited the most change overall. These results should be taken as an initial, yet promising, analysis of the impact of CSA participation on shareholder food lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes.

Residents' willingness-to-pay for attributes of rural health care facilities.

CONTEXT As todays rural hospitals have struggled with financial sustainability for the past 2 decades, it is critical to understand their value relative to alternatives, such as rural health clinics and private practices. PURPOSE To estimate the willingness-to-pay for specific attributes of rural health care facilities in rural Kentucky to determine which services and operational characteristics are most valued by rural residents. METHODOLOGY We fitted choice experiment data from 769 respondents in 10 rural Kentucky counties to a conditional logit model and used the results to estimate willingness-to-pay for attributes in several categories, including hours open, types of insurance accepted, and availability of health care professionals and specialized care. FINDINGS Acceptance of Medicaid/Medicare with use of a sliding fee scale versus acceptance of only private insurance was the most valued attribute. Presence of full diagnostic services, an emergency room, and 24-hour/7-day-per-week access were also highly valued. Conversely, the presence of specialized care, such as physical therapy, cancer care, or dialysis, was not valued. In total, respondents were willing to pay

Economic impact of the critical access hospital program on Kentucky's communities.

225 more annually to support a hospital relative to a rural health clinic. CONCLUSION Rural Kentuckians value the services, convenience, and security that rural hospitals offer, though they are not willing to pay more for specialized care that may be available in larger medical treatment centers. The results also inform which attributes might be added to existing rural health facilities to make them more valuable to local residents.

Valuing the Prevention of an Infestation: The Threat of the New Zealand Mud Snail in Northern Nevada

CONTEXT In 1997, the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program created the Critical Access Hospital (CAH) Program as a response to the financial distress of rural hospitals. It was believed that this program would reduce the rate of rural hospital closures and improve access to health care services in rural communities. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to analyze the economic impact of the CAH Program on Kentuckys communities. METHODS Both an economic input-output model and a quasi-experimental control group method are used in this research paper. While the analysis using the input-output model uses data from the year 2006, the analysis using the quasi-experimental control group method uses data from 1989 to 2006. CONCLUSION The results indicate that the rural counties where a CAH was adopted did appear to benefit in economic terms relative to those that did not have a CAH.

Willingness to Pay for Broadband Access by Kentucky Farmers

The Truckee/Carson/Walker River watershed in northern Nevada is under an imminent threat of infestation by the New Zealand mud snail, an aquatic nuisance species with the potential to harm recreational fisheries. We combine a utility-theoretic system-demand model of recreational angling with a Bayesian econometric framework to provide estimates of trip and welfare losses under different types of regulatory control policies. We find that such losses can be substantial, warranting immediate investments in preemptive strategies via public outreach and awareness campaigns.

Restaurant tax feasibility: determinants of restaurant threshold price

Since the Internet’s inception its impact has been felt across the United States, but the distribution and adoption of the Internet has not necessarily been uniform geographically. As more consumers and businesses rely on the Internet to access information, the data transmission requirements have also increased. Consequently, access to broadband has become increasingly more important since dial-up cannot realistically handle the increased requirements. The use of broadband in agriculture can provide better access to price, weather, and management information while also opening new markets. However, many rural communities lag behind urban areas in broadband access and adoption rates. This study evaluates, through the use of a producer survey, the level of broadband Internet use, motivations for its use, degree of access to broadband, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) to fund broadband infrastructure investments. Results from the producer survey suggested farmers utilize the Internet primarily for accessing weather reports, e-mail, market reports, and agricultural news. Notably, the survey’s WTP questions allowed for the use of an interval regression to calculate producer WTP for varying demographics. The results suggested that producers who were younger, farmed larger farms, and those who currently use the Internet but do not have broadband access were WTP more in property taxes to support broadband infrastructure investments than those of a differing demographic. Because WTP levels varied drastically depending on the underlying demographics, it becomes difficult to pinpoint a WTP level for a one-time payment in property taxes that would be acceptable from a policy standpoint.

An ex post analysis as a followup to stated preferences for management strategies in Nevada's Black Rock Desert

This study examines the determinants of threshold price for restaurant meal cost increase. Threshold price is defined as the required level of cost increase that would cause households to eat in restaurants less frequently or decrease the amount they would typically purchase. The study uses Tobit models to examine the threshold price by differing social, economic and demographic characteristics of households in Kentucky. The empirical estimates suggest that households which have dinner at restaurants more frequently, households with higher incomes and households that strongly prefer full-service restaurants have a higher threshold price-range and are thus more willing to pay an additional cost increase in restaurant meals. Conversely, households that always notice taxes before paying their checks, households close to retirement-age, and households that do not strongly prefer local-food restaurants have a lower threshold price-range and are consequently less willing to pay an additional cost increase in restaurant meals.

CSA shareholder food lifestyle behaviors: a comparison across consumer groups

Abstract Nevadas Black Rock Desert in High Rock Canyon (BRD/HRC) provides a variety of recreation services to a multitude of user groups, which makes the development of a management plan for the area a challenge. Stated preference analysis is a widely accepted method for analysing resource management plans; however, resource users with heterogeneous preferences make it difficult to estimate an empirical choice model across all user types. This study introduces an ex post analysis of attribute preferences by introducing a conjoint experiment with a set of follow‐up questions in order to better understand how visitors to the BRD/HRC feel about various management plans. The cost of data collection for the follow‐up questions is low, while their ability to provide explanatory power of choice behavior is significant.