Browsing by Author "Baral, Ranju"
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- Evaluating Cost Effectiveness of the USDA's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education ProgramBaral, Ranju (Virginia Tech, 2013-08-05)The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is one of the largest efforts of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to promote healthy dietary behavior practices among the low income adults and youths in the US. Although the program is shown to be effective in achieving its stated goals, the cost effectiveness of the money spent on EFNEP remains largely unknown. This dissertation analyzes the costs and effectiveness of the EFNEP, and is organized in three essays. The first essay investigates the effectiveness of the adult EFNEP and evaluates the returns to scale on the money spent in this program by utilizing an indirect production function approach. Results indicate that the program has increasing returns to scale at the National level, although a significant variation exists across the states. The second essay develops a framework for conducting the cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) for the youth EFNEP. The CEA framework is then applied to the data from Virginia youth EFNEP to estimate the cost effectiveness ratio (CER). The CER is estimated to be about $75 per behavior improvement. The third essay examines the outcomes and the attributes of the youth EFNEP program using the Rasch model type measurement model. Findings suggest that the youth EFNEP is effective in achieving its stated program goals. In addition, the program related characteristics are found to be important attributes of effective programs. Overall, this dissertation has important policy implications for improving the (cost) effectiveness of nutrition education programs. "
- National, Regional, and State-Level Estimates of Returns to Scale in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education ProgramBaral, Ranju; Davis, George C.; You, Wen (Cambridge University Press, 2013-05)The effectiveness of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in achieving its goals at the national, regional, and state level is unknown. Using US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data from all states and territories for the years 2000–2006, the impact of program and participant characteristics and returns to scale on the three outcome indicators used by the USDA are estimated. Program and participant characteristics do not seem to be as important as the amount of money spent on the program. Generally speaking, there are constant and increasing returns to scale for two of the three federal outcome indices for most states but not all.