About

James Chalfant is a Professor Emeritus at the UC Davis Agricultural and Resource Economics Department. His research focuses on econometrics, agricultural marketing and demand analysis, risk and uncertainty, agricultural production and supply, and environmental economics. He has contributed to the development of econometric theory and its applications in agricultural economics, with a particular emphasis on demand analysis and risk management in agricultural markets. His work integrates econometric methods with practical issues in agricultural production, marketing, and environmental resource management, providing valuable insights into the economic behavior of agricultural producers and markets.

Research topics

• Computer Security
• Computer Science
• Pathology
• Business
• Medicine
• Medical physics
• Accounting

Selected publications

• Regulations and Standards of Care

  Springer eBooks · 2022

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Medical physics
  • Medicine
  PublisherDOI

• Effect of tooth substrate and porcelain thickness on porcelain veneer failure loads in vitro

  Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry · 2017-12-19 · 28 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Economic Viability of Steam as an Alternative to Preplant Soil Fumigation in California Strawberry Production

  HortScience · 2017-03-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  One challenge of conducting research regarding agricultural production systems is that field trials are time consuming and expensive, limiting their scale and scope. Thus, policymakers and producers benefit from researchers extracting as much information as possible from each trial. We used the Monte Carlo techniques and the sensitivity analyses to enhance our analysis of the competitiveness of steam as an alternative to fumigation for preplant soil disinfestation in California strawberry production. Chloropicrin + 1,3-dichloropropene 59.6:39 (CP + 1,3-D) resulted in higher mean net returns than did steam. However, the Monte Carlo analysis showed that in one field trial there was a high probability that steam would be more profitable, whereas in the other it was quite unlikely. We also assessed the change in economic performance of steam when it was applied combined with soil amendments of mustard seed meal (MSM). Switching from steam to steam + MSM would have reduced mean net returns. The Monte Carlo results showed that steam + MSM performed at least as well as steam alone around half the time. We evaluated factors that were likely to affect the net returns, defined as total returns minus treatment, weeding, and harvest labor costs, of using steam in the near future. Reductions in application time increased net returns. A decrease in the price of propane increased net returns.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• International commodity trade, transport costs, and product differentiation

  Journal of commodity markets · 2016-03-01 · 7 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Forward Sales on Spot Markets: Pre‐commitment Sales and Prices for Fresh Strawberries

  American Journal of Agricultural Economics · 2010-01-01 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Increasingly, agricultural markets are vertically coordinated. Often a thinning spot market coexists with coordinated transactions, raising the question of how private coordination affects the market as a whole. One of the greatest challenges when analyzing such market‐level effects is obtaining information on private transactions. We utilize publicly available data to evaluate how informal contracts in the fresh strawberry market affect spot market prices using a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic in mean (GARCH‐M) model. We find that these informal contracts increased spot prices, as argued by some industry members, while the effect on spot price volatility varied by production region.

  PublisherDOI

• School Failure

  Encyclopedia of Special Education · 2008-07-15

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Population dynamics and the economics of invasive species management: The greenhouse whitefly in California-grown strawberries

  Journal of Environmental Management · 2008-01-24 · 15 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Pesticide Resistance, Population Dynamics, and Invasive Species Management

  AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · 2008-01-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  This report describes a dynamic bioeconomic simulation model that represents the biological, economic, and regulatory features of a specific invasion management problem: the late 1990s invasion of California strawberries by the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, and the pesticide use restrictions imposed by California regulators to manage pesticide resistance. The model has three components: the population dynamics of the greenhouse whitefly, a population-yield damage function, and grower profit maximization. Use regulations are introduced as constraints on the grower’s decision. The cost of the regulations during a single season resulted in the restriction to 2 or fewer applications of pyriproxyfen which always reduced profits. Applying imidaclopid at planting always increased profits. The regulation, which restricts use of imidacloprid at planting only, does not offset the cost of the restriction to 2 or fewer applications of pyriproxyfen per season. Instead, a third application of pyriproxyfen and imidacloprid are complements, so the cost of the 2-application limit per grower is larger when imidacloprid is applied at planting. The requirement regarding the timing of the first application of pyriproxyfen reduced profits. Comparing the regulations’ benefit in slowed resistance to the reduction in profits over a 6-year period shows that there are some conditions under which use regulations provide a net benefit. Regulation, however, does not substitute for coordination among growers when seeking to control the greenhouse whitefly. Greater profits are possible through coordination, even under regulation.

  PublisherDOI

• MODELING THE EFFECT OF SPATIAL EXTERNALITIES ON INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT

  2006-01-01 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Changes in production conditions associated with biological invasions can be complex. As a result, modeling invasive species management decisions can be difficult. Modeling these decisions is further compounded by externalities associated with spatial relationships among growers. In order to calculate optimal management decisions, an accurate bioeconomic model of the feedback between grower decisions and the new biological interactions created by an invasive species population is needed. In this paper, a bioeconomic model is used to explicitly analyze how externalities caused by spatial relationships among agricultural producers affect optimal invasive species management decisions. The example of the coordinated greenhouse whitefly management in the Oxnard, CA, area is discussed. This is an interesting example because of the complex cycle of host crops used by the whitefly and the effect this cycle has on the optimal whitefly management decisions for strawberry growers. Three research objectives achieved in this paper include first, using the model to assess how the spatial relationship among growers affects incentives for regional invasive pest management. Second, analyze whether current policies could be adjusted to substitute for coordination among growers. Third, the use of the bioeconomic model to identify factors for this specific case that affect whether or not growers may voluntarily coordinate their management decisions. We find that spatial relationships among growers affect the need for coordination in the strawberry/whitefly case. Whitefly migrations across host crop fields require growers to manage the whitefly on a regional basis in order to maximize strawberry producer welfare. The results also indicate that the amount of effort needed to achieve coordination required is limited; the only requirement is that information related to field management be shared among growers of whitefly host crops. The results from the bioeconomic model describe the biological and economic feedback of the grower's decision which allows policymakers to identify the willingness of producers to coordinate at various times of year. In the Oxnard strawberry/whitefly case, for example, growers will not find it optimal to adjust their application timing for a second immigration of adult greenhouse whiteflies when they occur near the end of the season, such as in May or June, but will for earlier points in the season. Three policy implications of the results from the strawberry/whitefly case are also discussed in the paper. First, adjustments to current policies regulating whitefly management do not remove the need for coordination among growers to them. Also, it was found that current policies do not, by themselves, generate the need for coordination. Finally, the results show it is not always necessary to create a central agency for regional invasive species management.

  PublisherDOI

• Bioeconomic Modeling of Greenhouse Whiteflies in California Strawberries

  AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · 2006-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Crop Production/Industries, Resource/Energy Economics and Policy

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Julian M. Alston

  University of California, Davis

  39 shared

• Rachael E. Goodhue

  University of California, Davis

  18 shared

• Colin A. Carter

  Agricultural & Applied Economics Association

  18 shared

• Nicholas E. Piggott

  12 shared

• Gordon C. Rausser

  University of California, Berkeley

  10 shared

• Kostas G. Stamoulis

  Economical and Social Research Centre

  10 shared

• Richard J. Sexton

  United States Naval Observatory

  7 shared

• Israel Finkelshtain

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  7 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  North Carolina State University

  1983