Research

Publication

• Lee, H., Kwon, O.S. (2021). Estimating the Substitution Effects of the Reusable Trash Bags for the Standard Trash Bags (in Korean). Journal of Environmental Policy and Administration, 29(3), 49-75. https://doi.org/10.15301/jepa.2021.29.3.49

Policy Publication

• Lee, H., E.W. Hodgson, D.M. Lagos-Kutz, and D.A. Hennessy. 2025. "Soybean Aphid and Changing Pesticide Usage in Iowa." Agricultural Policy Review Fall 2025. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University. https://agpolicyreview.card.iastate.edu/fall-2025/soybean-aphid-and-changing-pesticide-use-iowa 

Working Paper

• Beyond the Threshold: Costly Information and Scouting under Integrated Pest Management, with David A. Hennessy

  • Abstract: This paper studies how costly and imperfect information limits the private implementation of threshold-based Integrated Pest Management (IPM). While IPM prescribes treatment based on economic thresholds, applying those thresholds requires timely field information on pest density and short-run population growth. We develop a model in which farmers face uncertainty about short-run soybean aphid growth and choose whether to acquire information through scouting before deciding whether to spray. The model separates a treatment margin (spraying) from an information margin (scouting): information has value only when it can change action, and private scouting is feasible only when the density-induced path intersects the scouting frontier. Using detailed data on soybean aphid management in the U.S. Midwest, we document weak alignment between foliar spraying and realized pest pressure together with strong persistence in farmer behavior and widespread prophylactic alternatives. Calibrating the model to the soybean aphid environment, we find that although empirically relevant densities often lie in a range where growth-state information could matter in principle, the gross value of information at the benchmark is only about $0.125 per acre relative to an observed scouting cost of $4.61, implying an empty privately optimal scouting set under the benchmark cost structure. Because pesticide mistiming can cause environmental and health damage not fully borne by the farmer, weak private information acquisition is also socially important. The results imply that the main implementation gap in threshold-based IPM lies less in threshold placement than in the private economics of monitoring, and they point to information-focused policies and technologies as more direct levers than policies that operate only on the spray margin.

Work in Progress

• The Option Value of Tillage Choice: A Dynamic Approach to Agricultural Land Valuation, with David A. Hennessy

• Private Control, Public Benefit: Spatial Externalities in Pesticide Use, with David A. Hennessy