This study develops and empirically estimates a structural framework to decompose the causal pathways of multilevel behavioral interventions targeting adolescent health behaviors. We apply this framework to the Kids SIPsmartER (KSS) program, a 6-month, school-based intervention evaluated through a clustered randomized control trial in rural Appalachia to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption among 7th-grade students. KSS includes a classroom-based student component (KSS-S) grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior and health literacy, and a caregiver component (KSS-C) delivered through two-way text messaging to modify household beverage practices. Using structural equation modeling grounded in a Stackelberg household production framework, we estimate how behavioral strategies, health literacy, and caregiver-child decision-making jointly shape students' SSB intake. Stronger behavioral intentions are associated with a 5.30 oz/day reduction (p<0.01), and the caregiver decision index (capturing household rules, availability, and role modeling) corresponds to a 16.41 oz/day reduction. KSS-S reduces intake by 6.42 oz/day (p<0.05), largely through a direct pathway (6.23 oz/day, p<0.05). KSS-C reduces intake by 4.22 oz/day, primarily through caregiver-mediated effects (3.36 oz/day). Combined, both components reduced students' SSB consumption by 10.64 oz/day (36% from baseline) (p<0.01). We use the estimated structural parameters to simulate hypothetical SSB tax scenarios, finding that KSS achieves reductions comparable to those generated by modest tax rates. This suggests that school-based behavioral interventions like KSS can function as complementary or alternative policy tools. By identifying causal mechanisms and enabling counterfactual policy simulations within a unified framework, the structural approach provides richer policy insights than average treatment effects alone.

Abstract Our general interest is in global trade loss from livestock pathogens, specifically exports. We adopt a causal inference approach that considers animal disease outbreaks over time as non‐staggered binary treatments with the potential for switching in (infection) and out of treatment (recovery) within the sample period. The outcome evolution of switchers and non‐switchers identifies the treatment effects. Using a recently proposed dynamic difference‐in‐differences estimator, we estimate the treatment effects that decompose into “infected” (switch in) and “recovered” (switch out) effects. As a case study, we investigate the global impacts of foot and mouth disease outbreaks on meat exports using panel data across 178 countries from 1996 to 2016. We find that the outbreak decreases meat export by 19,000 to 48,000 metric tons per year (14% ‐ 35% of the mean annual meat export) in the 5 years following an outbreak, which is brought about by a decline in the infected countries' meat exports, while the disease‐recovered countries do not fully regain the export losses even after 5 years. The average total effect is estimated at about 54,000 metric tons per outbreak over 5 years following an outbreak, resulting in an export revenue loss of $141 million. Asymmetric post‐infection and post‐recovery trade losses imply a significant disease burden on the endemic regions. Regional decomposition of treatment effects reveals that while the magnitude of export loss is greater for the non‐endemic regions, the relative magnitude (compared to the mean annual export per country) is many times higher in the endemic regions.

Abstract Agricultural land holds tremendous potential to contribute to net zero greenhouse gas emission goals by providing low carbon renewable energy to displace fossil fuels and by serving as a sink for sequestering carbon in the soil with climate‐smart practices. This potential is, however, far from being realized. This paper examines the economic incentives and barriers to implementing land‐based carbon mitigation strategies and discusses the specific features of land‐based carbon mitigation practices on carbon emissions that need to be considered in designing policy incentives to induce adoption. Although a carbon price‐based policy is socially efficient, the more commonly observed policies to promote land‐based carbon mitigation include practice‐based conservation programs, technology mandates, and sector‐specific standards. The paper discusses the rationale for these alternative policy approaches and concludes with a discussion of emerging opportunities for designing policy and market‐based approaches for promoting land‐based carbon‐mitigation and future directions for economics research.

Abstract Popular society increasingly questions preferences that drive many resource allocations and production decisions, with many groups actively seeking to alter those preferences to achieve changes to resource use. Agricultural and applied economists, who are already equipped with excellent technical skills to undertake consumer preference and valuation studies, must also be challenged to understand post‐Beckerian consumer theories that can help guide emerging requests placed upon economists as multi‐disciplinary collaborators as non‐academic groups press us to join in work involving interventions that work from the implicit assumption that preferences are malleable and potentially endogenous. I call association members to follow our best traditions of studying production dynamics and incorporating emerging theories drawn from or inspired by other disciplines so that we may better interact with the broader scientific community who, as many suggest, finds our insistence on stable and static preferences to limit the usefulness of economists in handling a raft of modern dilemmas. In addition to setting out the history of economists' reticence in considering endogenous preferences, I will outline several threads of emerging literature that can provide structure to professional inquiry in this domain and sketch some emergent cases with implications for the agricultural and resource sectors.