Impact of Damage Control and Quality of Output: Estimating Pest Control Effectiveness

摘要: Damage control affects both realized output and product quality; ignoring quality leads to underestimates of damage agent productivity. Empirical analysis pesticide use in North Carolina apple production using the approach shows that fungicides pruning reduce yield losses degradation, while insecticides damage. Quality accounts for substantial shares profit-maximizing insecticide fungicide use. Use appears excessive, potential substitution between mechanical chemical disease large. A Cobb-Douglas specification quantity function gives substantially larger estimates productivity than specification.