Timothy W. Kelsey

Farm tractors and mandatory roll-over protection retrofits: potential costs of the policy in New York.

Tractor roll-overs are the leading cause of fatal farm accidents, accounting for more than one-fourth of all agriculturally related deaths. Most of these deaths could be prevented if the tractors were equipped with roll-over protective structures (ROPS). This study estimates the number of tractors in New York without ROPS, projects their retirement, and then estimates the number of lives which would be saved if ROPS were retrofitted on old tractors. The basic costs associated with mandating ROPS are calculated from these estimates. The minimum economic cost of mandating ROPS is

Local income related to Marcellus shale activity in Pennsylvania

511,136 per life saved for the retrofits, and an additional

Resident vs. Nonresident Employment Associated with Marcellus Shale Development

253,254 per life saved for every

Food Processors’ Use of Contracts to Purchase Agricultural Inputs: Evidence from a Pennsylvania Survey

1 million spent annually on enforcement. It is concluded that a policy mandating ROPS on all tractors would be expensive, but should be considered with particular attention to the need for and cost effectiveness of enforcement.

Marcellus Shale and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

This study examines the impact of Marcellus shale development on Pennsylvania (USA) residents’ income, as reported on state tax returns between 2007 and 2010, and pays special attention to the distribution of these economic impacts across residents within Pennsylvania counties. The analysis shows that Marcellus development has had a positive effect on taxable income of local residents and that the increases in lease and royalty income going to mineral right owners exceed local employment and compensation impacts in high drilling activity counties. This suggests that focusing on employment effects from such activity, as has been done in much recent economic research, misses an important potential impact on resident income. In addition, because land ownership is highly concentrated, it means local economic benefits of unconventional drilling are heavily concentrated among a small percentage of the population, potentially raising equity issues about the distribution of costs and benefits from such activity.

The Shale Gas Economy in the Northeast Pennsylvania Counties

There is much debate about the employment effect of shale gas development, especially as it relates to extraction counties. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of the jobs created are filled by nonresidents. We examine the impact shale gas development has on local employment in Pennsylvania using a data set that links workers to their personal residences. We find that activity in the Marcellus shale has had a modest positive impact on job growth. The impact is cut in half, however, when we use data for county residents only. Thus, traditional employment data may overestimate employment impacts from shale development.

Marcellus Shale Gas Development and Farming

Using data from a survey of Pennsylvania food processors, we investigate what firm-level characteristics make a processor more or less likely to buy agricultural inputs and ingredients though contracts. We find that over 20 percent of Pennsylvania processors use contracts, and over 44 percent of agricultural inputs (based on value) are purchased under contract. We also analyze the two related questions of what firm attributes, attitudes, or other factors make a firm more likely to use contracts at all, and what factors lead a processor who does contract to use them more intensively.

Hotels and Oil/Gas Development Booms, Busts, and the Future of Hotels in Oil/Gas Development Areas

Much of the enthusiasm about Marcellus Shale has been its promise of economic benefits. State and federal data suggests that Marcellus Shale is having generally positive but modest effects on employment, wages, and local business activity. Wages and income generally have increased more than the number of workers, suggesting that much of the impact has been more work hours, higher pay, or a combination of both, rather than significant new job creation. Employment is up, particularly in sectors directly related to drilling activity, yet the number of residents reporting wages and salaries has not changed as much, indicating that many of the new jobs are going to nonresidents. Counties with Marcellus Shale activity typically did a little better in retaining or adding local businesses than did the rest of the state. Many of these economic numbers appear more modest than would be expected, given the billions of dollars being spent to develop the Marcellus Shale.

Outcomes and Economic Benefits of Penn State Extension’s Dining With Diabetes Program

More than half of the Marcellus Shale wells drilled in Pennsylvania through 2013 are within six counties of the Northern Tier, which account for four of Pennsylvania’s top five drilling counties. These counties overwhelmingly are rural, with low population densities and relatively small economies. Unlike the Marcellus Shale counties in southwest Pennsylvania, they lack past gas and coal development, so the activity is fundamentally different than what they have experienced. This chapter explores the economic impacts occurring within the Northern Tier counties. Due to their relatively small population size, such changes are relatively more visible than if the economies were larger.

THE IMPACT OF AN AGING RURAL POPULATION ON LOCAL TAX STRUCTURES

We study changes in farming in the Marcellus region associated with unconventional natural gas drilling activity. Due to concerns raised by the popular press, we consider 18 different county-level agricultural variables. While we find no significant changes in the number of farms or land in farms in drilling counties relative to non-drilling counties, there is an increase in median farm sizes, indicating potential consolidation in drilling counties. Despite anecdotal evidence suggesting a transition away from dairy farming to either beef or hay production, we find no support for this at the county level.