Dyson School Faculty Papers
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The materials listed here have been authored or co-authored by faculty members currently or formerly associated with Cornell's Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Selected by faculty themselves, they represent only a portion of materials authored by them, where no copyright restrictions exist. For a more recent and complete list of publications, please visit the Dyson School web site .
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Item Assessing the Economic Impacts of Food Hubs on Regional Economies: A Framework that Includes Opportunity CostsJablonski, B.B.R.; Schmit, T.M.; Kay, D. (Cambridge University Press, 2016-04)The number of food hubs—businesses that aggregate and distribute local food—in the United States is growing, fueled in part by increasing public support. However, there have been few data-driven assessments of the economic impacts of these ventures. Using an input-output-based methodology and a unique data set from a successful food hub, we measure net and gross impacts of a policy supporting their development. We estimate a gross output multiplier of 1.75 and an employment multiplier of 2.14. Using customer surveys, we estimate that every $1 increase in final demand for food hub products generates a $0.11 reduction in purchases in other sectors.Item Looking for Locapours: Using Zagat Survey Data to Examine Restaurant Demand for Local WinePerla, J.M.; Rickard, B.J.; Schmit, T.M. (Cambridge University Press, 2014-04)There is increasing interest in local foods among consumers in the United States and a rise in offerings of local products in restaurants. We use Zagat survey data and restaurant-specific menu information to estimate factors that influence the availability of New York State (NYS) wine in 1,401 NYS restaurants. We focus on wine because its production region is clearly labeled on menus and there is a burgeoning industry in NYS. Our econometric results indicate that decor ratings, cuisine styles, certain wine list characteristics, and distance to wine regions have statistically significant impacts on the likelihood of NYS restaurants serving local wine.Item Assessing the costs and returns of on-farm food safety improvements: A survey of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training participantsSchmit, T.M.; Wall, G.L.; Newbold, E.J.; Bihn, E.A. (PLOS, 2020-07-02)Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training programs were developed to provide guidance to fruit and vegetable growers on how to reduce food safety risks on the farm. These pro-grams have been enhanced over the years due, in part, to increasing buyer and regulatory requirements. However, the costs of implementing additional food safety practices has been identified as a primary barrier to long-term farm financial feasibility, particularly for smaller scale producers. A survey of past participants in New York State revealed that increasing food safety improvements facilitated by GAPs have not significantly impacted the size of farm operations or the types of crops grown. In terms of farm size, we show that both the financial costs and financial benefits of food safety improvements increase with farm size, but at decreasing rates. In so doing, relatively higher market sales gains per acre by smaller farms from additional food safety investments offset the relatively higher costs to them of their implementation. We also demonstrate that benefits of food safety improvements were significantly higher for farms that had third-party food safety audits and for those that market primarily through wholesale channels. The results should prove welcome by educators as they encourage participation by all scales of producers in GAPs trainings and for growers in understanding that food safety investments can support both reduced microbial risks and sales growth.Item Assessing Barriers to Expansion of Farm-to-Chef Sales: A Case Study from Upstate New YorkSchmit, T.M.; Hadcock, S.E. (Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2012-02)Columbia County Bounty is a local organization made up of farmer and culinary business members, with a mission that includes promoting connections between local agricultural producers and culinary businesses. A case study was conducted to address questions raised by CCB related to expanding farm-to-chef marketing in their area. Common barriers for restaurants included larger time commitments, inconvenience, and consistency in product volumes and quality; however, satisfaction with local wholesale distributors may create new opportunities for farmers to work collaboratively with them in including more local products in their distribution. A closer inspection of channel performance by farms in the study will drive changes in future channel strategies and utilization of farm-to-chef marketing, as farms are already benefiting from strong direct marketing channels and restaurants procuring local products from these channels.Item The Economic Value of Distributed Storage at Different Locations on an Electric GridJeon, Wooyoung; Lamadrid, Alberto J.; Mount, Timothy D. (International Association for Energy Economics, 2019-03)The objective of this article is to analyze the system benefits of distributed storage at different locations on a grid that has a high penetration of renewable generation. The chosen type of distributed storage modeled is deferrable demand (e.g., thermal storage) because it is relatively inexpensive to install compared to batteries and could potentially form a large component of the peak system load. The advantage of owning deferrable demand is that the purchase of energy from the grid can be decoupled from the delivery of an energy service to customers. Consequently, these customers can reduce costs by shifting their purchases from expensive peak periods to off-peak periods when electricity prices are low. In addition, deferrable demand can provide ramping services to the grid to mitigate the uncertainty of renewable generation. The primary economic issue addressed in this paper is to determine how the storage capacity is allocated between shifting load and providing ramping services. The basic economic tradeoff is between the benefit from shifting more load from peak periods to less expensive periods, and reserving some storage capacity for ramping to reduce the amount of conventional reserve capacity purchased. Our approach uses a new form of stochastic, multi-period Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow (SCOPF) that minimizes the expected system costs for energy and ancillary services over a 24-hour horizon. For each hour, five different levels of wind generation may be realized and these are treated as different system states with known probabilities of occurring. This model is applied to a reduction of the grid in New York State and New England and simulates the hourly load on a hot summer day, treating potential wind generation at different sites as stochastic inputs. The results determine the expected amount and location of conventional generating capacity dispatched, the reserve capacity committed to maintain operating reliability, the charging/discharging of storage capacity, and the amount of potential wind generation spilled. The results show there are major differences in how the deferrable demand at two large load centers, Boston and New York City, is managed, and we provide an explanation for these differences.