Two essays on environmental and food security

The first essay of this dissertation, "estimating non-market economic benefits of using biodiesel fuel: a stochastic double bounded approach", is an attempt to incorporate uncertainty into double bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation. The double bounded approach, which entails asking respondents a follow-up question after they have answered a first question, has emerged as a means to increase efficiency in willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. However, several studies have found inconsistency between WTP estimates generated by the first and second questions. In this study, it is posited that this inconsistency is due to uncertainty facing the respondents when the second question is introduced. The author seeks to understand whether using a follow-up question in a stochastic format, which allows respondents to express uncertainty, would alleviate the inconsistency problem. In a contingent valuation survey to estimate non-market economic benefits of using more biodiesel vs. petroleum diesel fuel in an airshed encompassing South Eastern and Central Ohio, it is found that the gap between WTP estimates produced by the first and the second questions reduces when respondents are allowed to express uncertainty. The proposed stochastic follow-up approach yields more efficient WTP estimates than the conventional follow-up approach while maintaining efficiency gain over the single bounded model. From a methodological standpoint, this study distinguishes from previous research by being the first to implement a double bounded contingent valuation survey with a stochastic follow-up question.;In the second essay, "analyzing the effects of civil wars and violent conflicts on food security in developing countries: an instrumental variable panel data approach", instrumental variable panel data techniques are applied to estimate the effects of civil wars and violent conflicts on food security in a sample of 73 developing countries from 1970 to 2002. The number of hungry in the developing countries has been rampant in the past several years. Civil wars and violent conflicts have been associated with food insecurity. The study aims to provide empirical evidence as to whether the manifest increase in the number of hungry can be ascribed to civil unrest. From a statistical standpoint, the results convincingly pinpoint the danger of using conventional panel data estimators when endogeneity is of the conventional simultaneous equation type, i.e. with respect to the idiosyncratic error term. From a policy viewpoint, it is found that, in general, civil wars and conflicts are detrimental to food security. However, more vulnerable are countries unable to make available for their citizens the minimum dietary energy requirements under which a country is qualified for food aid. Policies aiming at curbing food insecurity in developing countries need to take into account this difference.