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Virginia Tech

Three Essays on Food Insecurity and Economics

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This dissertation is composed of three manuscripts focusing on food insecurity and food economics in the United States. The first manuscript titled ``Differences in Food Insecurity Across the Rural/Urban Spectrum - The Role of Trade Flows" uses county food trade data to examine its correlation with food insecurity rates based on a county's rural-urban continuum code. In addition, an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is employed to determine the causes of food insecurity rate differences between county's based on their rural-urban continuum codes. The second manuscript titled ``The Role of Infrastructure on Food Flows in the United States" uses county food trade data to examine the relationship between county infrastructure important to the food supply chain, such as roadways, ports, food processing and manufacturing plants, grocery stores, supercenters, and restaurants, and the impact on food trade between counties. Specifically, two types of food trade from two Standard Classification of Transported Goods categories are analyzed: agricultural products, and other food stuffs. A Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood model is employed to account for the zero-trade flows observed between counties. The analysis determines that certain infrastructure has an important impact, and the impact can differ depending on the type of goods category. The third manuscript, "Reactions to Food Safety Recalls Among Food Insecure and Food Secure Households" examines the behavioral responses of food secure and food insecure persons to a hypothetical food safety recall using a vignette approach. The analysis finds that reactions can differ across demographics, including those of food insecure individuals.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Economics, Agriculture and Life Sciences
Department dc:contributor.department
Economics
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2022

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Beverly, Mariah Danielle
Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Ramsey, Ford
  • Neill, Clinton L.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Moeltner, Klaus
  • Morgan, Kimberly L.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:35324
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/111163

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Beverly, Mariah Danielle. Three Essays on Food Insecurity and Economics. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/111163