In a school lunchroom, a convenience line that offered only healthier food options nudged students to consume fewer unhealthy foods. This result has key implications for encouraging healthy behavior in public schools nation wide, cafeterias and other food establishments.

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A biofuel blend mandate may increase or decrease consumer fuel prices with endogenous oil prices, depending on relative supply elasticities. Biofuel tax credits always reduce fuel prices. Tax credits result in lower fuel prices than under a mandate for the same level of biofuel production. If tax credits are implemented alongside mandates, then tax credits subsidize fuel consumption instead of biofuels. This contradicts energy policy goals by increasing oil dependency, CO2 emissions, and traffic congestion, while providing little benefit to either corn or ethanol producers. These social costs will be substantial with tax credits costing taxpayers $28.7 billion annually by 2022.

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The efficacy of alternative biofuel policies in achieving energy, environmental and agricultural policy goals is assessed using economic cost‐benefit analysis. Government mandates are superior to consumption subsidies, especially with suboptimal fuel taxes and the higher costs involved with raising tax revenues. But subsidies with mandates cause adverse interaction effects; oil consumption is subsidized instead. This unique result also applies to renewable electricity that faces similar policy combinations. Ethanol policy can have a significant impact on corn prices; if not, inefficiency costs rise sharply. Ethanol policy can increase the inefficiency of farm subsidies and vice‐versa. Policies that discriminate against trade, such as production subsidies and tariffs, can more than offset any benefits of a mandate. Sustainability standards are ineffective and illegal according to the WTO, and so should be re‐designed.

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