bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen‐Land Substitution in Corn Production: A Reconciliation of Aggregate and Firm‐Level Evidence
Authors: Hertel Thomas W. , Stiegert Kyle , Vroomen Harry 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we seek to reconcile low farm‐level substitution elasticity between nitrogen, fertilizer, and land, with larger industry‐level values for the corn sector. This is accomplished with a micro‐simulation model which identifies twenty‐three heterogeneous groups of corn farmers based on survey data for Indiana. After controlling for soil quality, slope, crop rotation, and natural nitrogen sources, considerable variation in fertilizer application rates remains. Model simulations indicate that the estimated substitution elasticity at the state level (1.15) is consistent with very low farm‐level substitutability. The difference is attributable to compositional changes in the wake of relative price shocks. These compositional effects are potentially very important but they are ignored in most policy analyses.
The Determinants of Wheat Variety Selection in Kansas, 1974 to 1993
Authors: Barkley Andrew P. , Porter Lori L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn 1993, over one‐third of Kansas wheat acres were seeded to varieties with milling and baking qualities ranked “less desirable,” stimulating interest in the determinants of wheat variety selection. Regression analysis is used to quantify the relationship between planted varieties and wheat characteristics relating to production and end‐use qualities. Results indicate that Kansas wheat producers consider end‐use qualities, production characteristics, relative yields, yield stability, and past production decisions when selecting wheat varieties. Simulation results reveal potential tradeoffs facing wheat breeders and seed dealers. Time paths of adoption are projected for potential improvements in wheat yields and quality characteristics.
Economic and Environmental Implications of Soil Nitrogen Testing: A Switching‐Regression Analysis
Authors: Fuglie Keith O. , Bosch Darrell J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA simultaneous equations, or “switching‐regression,” model is developed to assess the impact of soil nitrogen (N) testing on N fertilizer use, crop yields, and net returns in corn growing areas of Nebraska. The results indicate that when there is uncertainty about the quantity of available “carry‐over” N, N testing enables farmers to reduce fertilizer use without affecting crop yields. However, the value of information from N tests depends critically on cropping history and soil characteristics. These findings have implications for environmental and technology transfer policies designed to reduce nonpoint source water pollution.
International Comparisons of Cattle Cycles
Authors: Mundlak Yair , Huang He 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe time‐series properties of cattle production in three countries with different technologies, Argentina, the United States, and Uruguay, are studied in order to shed light on the role of technology in the dynamics of the cattle sector. Four series are analyzed for each country, slaughter, price, stock of cows, and total herd. Spectral decomposition of the time series shows the existence of cycles having surprising regularity for all the four time series. The three countries exhibit very similar cyclicities in spite of their different technologies and economic environment.
Production Risk and the Evolution of Varietal Technology
Authors: Traxler Greg , Falck‐Zepeda Jose , Ortiz‐Monasterio R. J.I. , Sayre Ken 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA Just‐Pope production function is used to estimate the effect of genetic improvement on the first two moments of wheat yield for the period 1950–86. The model characterizes the green revolution as the culmination of an era in which wheat breeders achieved rapid increases in yield potential accompanied by higher yield variances. To date, the post‐green revolution has been an era of slower mean yield growth, but of relatively rapid improvement in yield stability. Overall, the analysis indicates steady progress in producing “better” varieties; successive releases have improved either stability, mean yield, or both.
Pricing to Market with Transactions Denominated in a Common Currency
Authors: Pick Daniel H. , Carter Colin A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe present a model with two exporters who ship a differentiated commodity to the same import destination. All pricing occurs in a common currency, that of the home exporter. We show that the foreign‐exporter to home‐exporter exchange rate can influence the home exporter's pricing decision. It has been previously argued that only the importer to home‐exporter exchange rate matters to the home exporter.
Fluid Milk Purchases: A Multivariate Tobit Analysis
Authors: Cornick Jorge , Cox Thomas L. , Gould Brian W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe formulate an econometric model of fluid milk expenditures, taking into account two important characteristics: expenditures may be censored at zero and may be interdependent across milk type. Censoring of fluid milk expenditures is addressed with a generalized Tobit system estimator. Interdependence of milk expenditures is examined through a likelihood function with no restrictions on elements of the Engel curve error covariance matrix. Expenditure function parameters are estimated using a March 1991 to March 1992 U.S. consumer panel.
Do Roads Cause Deforestation? Using Satellite Images in Econometric Analysis of Land Use
Authors: Nelson Gerald C. , Hellerstein Daniel 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we demonstrate how satellite images and other geographic data can be used to predict land use. A cross‐section model of land use is estimated with data for a region in central Mexico. Parameters from the model are used to examine the effects of reduced human activity. If variables that proxy human influence are changed to reflect reduced impact, “forest” area increases and “irrigated crop” area is reduced.
Insurance, Moral Hazard, and Chemical Use in Agriculture
Authors: Horowitz John K. , Lichtenberg Erik 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper examines how crop insurance affects corn farmers' fertilizer and pesticide use in the U.S. Midwest. Crop insurance might be expected to affect chemical use because of “moral hazard”; insured farmers may undertake riskier production than do uninsured farmers. Results suggest that insurance exerts considerable influence on corn farmers' chemical use decisions. Those purchasing insurance applied significantly more nitrogen per acre (19%), spent more on pesticides (21%), and treated more acreage with both herbicides and insecticides (7% and 63%) than did those not purchasing insurance. These results suggest that both fertilizer and pesticides may be risk‐increasing inputs.
Transfer Costs, Spatial Arbitrage, and Testing for Food Market Integration
Authors: Baulch Bob 
Published: July 2006

AbstractConventional tests for food market integration ask, often misleadingly, whether prices in different locations move together. In this paper an alternative methodology, the parity bounds model (PBM), is developed which uses information on transfer costs in addition to food prices to assess the efficiency of spatial arbitrage. Monte Carlo experiments using data generated by a point‐space spatial price equilibrium model show the PBM to be statistically reliable. An application to Philippine rice markets demonstrates that the PBM detects efficient arbitrage when other tests do not.
The Effect of Farm Supply Shifts on Concentration and Market Power in the Food Processing Sector
Authors: Hamilton Stephen F. , Sunding David L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we examine the marginal impact of changing farm supply on the market structure of the downstream food processing sector. We develop a theoretical model that allows for cost differences among processors and endogenizes downstream entry and exit. Comparative statics results are consistent with several well‐established trends in the food processing sector. In particular, the analysis demonstrates that increasing concentration in the food processing sector is consistent with decreasing market power. Indeed, we find that when the farm supply curve shifts outward, an increase in concentration can only occur when there is a decrease in market power.
Agricultural Productivity Revisited
Authors: Ball V. Eldon , Bureau Jean‐Christophe , Nehring Richard , Somwaru Agapi 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper describes production accounts for agriculture. Output is defined as gross production leaving the farm as opposed to real value added. Inputs are not limited to capital and labor but include intermediate inputs as well. We derive index numbers of gross output, capital, labor, and intermediate inputs. These data are used to construct indexes of total factor productivity. We then compare the contributions of input growth and productivity growth to economic growth. The important role of productivity growth in agriculture becomes immediately apparent.
International Productivity Patterns: Accounting for Input Quality, Infrastructure, and Research
Authors: Craig Barbara J. , Pardey Philip G. , Roseboom Johannes 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper, we present measures of land and labor productivity for a group of ninety‐eight developed and developing countries using an entirely new data set with annual observations spanning the past three decades. The substantial cross‐country and intertemporal variation in productivity in our sample is linked to both natural and economic factors. We extend previous work by dealing with multiple sources of systematic measurement error in conventional agricultural inputs. The mix of conventional inputs, indicators of quality of agricultural inputs, and the amount of publicly provided infrastructure are all significant in explaining observed cross‐sectional differences in productivity patterns.
The Effects of Imperfect Competition on the Size and Distribution of Research Benefits
Authors: Alston Julian M. , Sexton Richard J. , Zhang Mingxia 
Published: July 2006

AbstractStudies of agricultural research benefits usually assume perfectly competitive markets. Studies that have allowed for market power of agribusiness firms have generally assumed unrealistic pure monopsony or monopoly behavior. This paper allows for processing firms to exhibit a range of degrees of oligopsony power in buying raw farm products and oligopoly power in selling processed farm products. The results indicate that different types of research‐induced technical change can exacerbate or ameliorate distortions from the exercise of market power by agribusiness firms, which affects the size and especially the distribution of research benefits.
Agricultural Graduate Earnings: The Impacts of College, Career, and Gender
Authors: Barkley Andrew P. , Sylvius Cynthia K. , Stock Wendy A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSurvey data were used to identify determinants of starting and current salaries of agricultural graduates from Kansas State University from 1976–97. Salaries were significantly influenced by major field, advanced degrees, job location, gender and family variables, motivation for accepting a job, and job mobility. Salary structures were estimated separately for male and female alumni. Women earned less than men, after controlling for observed differences between the two groups. Decomposition of the salary differential revealed that gender salary differences were primarily due to differences between sexes in starting salaries, field of study, job experience, and higher returns to married men.
An Econometric Analysis of the Costs of Sequestering Carbon in Forests
Authors: Plantinga Andrew J. , Mauldin Thomas , Miller Douglas J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Kyoto Protocol and the U.S. Climate Change Plan recognize afforestation as a potential means of reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. To examine the cost‐effectiveness of afforestation, we use econometric land use models to estimate the marginal costs of carbon sequestration in Maine, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Our findings include the following: (a) earlier studies of afforestation programs tend to underestimate carbon sequestration costs, (b) afforestation still appears to be a relatively low‐cost approach to reducing CO2 concentrations, (c) Wisconsin offers the lowest‐cost opportunties for carbon sequestration, and (d) projected population changes have the largest effect on costs in South Carolina.
Simple Nonparametric Tests of Technological Change: Theory and Application to U.S. Agriculture
Authors: Bar‐Shira Ziv , Finkelshtain Israel 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSeveral nonparametric tests of technological change are proposed conditional on alternative maintained behavioral assumptions. The tests are simple as they require verification of axioms via binary comparisons that are analogous to those of the revealed preference theory. Our model allows a broad interpretation of technological changes, yet trivial rationalization of the data with either profit‐maximization or cost‐minimization behavior is excluded. The tests are applied to study the U.S. aggregate agricultural data, supporting the hypotheses of rankable and neutral Technological Variations.
The Economics and Econometrics of Damage Control
Authors: Saha Atanu , Shumway C. Richard , Havenner Arthur 
Published: July 2006

AbstractConcern for the potentially harmful side effects of agricultural chemical inputs, especially pesticides, highlights the need to accurately determine the economic levels of their use. We consider three model specification issues: interaction of direct production inputs with damage control inputs in damage abatement, justification for a priori exclusion of production inputs from the abatement function, and the motivations and consequences of alternative stochastic specifications. Empirical analysis using farm‐level data shows that misspecification of the stochastic element in the production function can overestimate the marginal physical productivity of pesticides and grossly underestimate the responsiveness of demand to increases in pesticide prices.
Market Imperfections and Output Loss in the Presence of Expenditure Constraint: A Generalized Shadow Price Approach
Authors: Bhattacharyya Anjana , Kumbhakar Subal C. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn view of widespread capital market imperfections and farmers' budget constraints in developing countries, an indirect production function (IPF) is used for a study of 289 Indian paddy growers. The analysis generalizes the IPF to accommodate the numerous kinds of market imperfections and policy‐induced distortions that pervade less developed countries' agriculture. The presence of these distortions in an expenditure‐constrained situation results in a loss of output, defined as the difference between maximal potential output and actual output. For the sample of farmers, average output loss is found to be in the range of 12%.
Farm Income Variability and the Supply of Off‐Farm Labor
Authors: Mishra Ashok K. , Goodwin Barry K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIf farmers are risk averse, greater farm income variability should increase off‐farm labor supply. This effect is confirmed for a sample of Kansas farmers. Off‐farm employment of farmers and their spouses is also found to be significantly influenced by farm experience, off‐farm work experience, farm size, leverage, efficiency, and farm‐specific education. In addition, farm operators and spouses who receive significant income support through government farm programs are less likely to work off the farm. This may suggest that policy changes reducing farm income support payments may increase off‐farm employment of farmers and their spouses.
Spike Models in Contingent Valuation
Authors: Kriström Bengt 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSpike models allow for a nonzero probability of zero willingness to pay in referendum‐style contingent valuation experiments. They include many of the often used models as special cases and allow various analyses that are not possible in standard applications. In this paper, the economic rationale for the spike models and their estimation techniques are discussed, and empirical illustrations are provided. One study suggests that mean willingness to pay is zero, and both studies strongly suggest that median WTP is zero. These results have some bearing on the continuing debate of the incentive properties of hypothetical surveys and the construction of scenarios in contingent valuation experiments.
Determinants of Nonfarm Earnings of Farm‐Based Husbands and Wives in Northern Ghana
Authors: Abdulai Awudu , Delgado Christopher L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe nonfarm work participation decisions of married men and women in rural Northern Ghana were jointly and separately estimated for married couples through a bivariate probit, using recent survey data. Selectivity bias was corrected for in estimating wage offer and labor supply equations, using Heckman's procedure. Education, experience, infrastructure, distance to the capital, and population density, as well as interactions between education and infrastructure and between education and distance to the city, were found to be significantly related to the probability of nonfarm labor market participation, wages, and the amount of nonfarm labor performed, with significant differences by gender.
Patterns of State Productivity Growth in the U.S. Farm Sector: Linking State and Aggregate Models
Authors: Ball V. Eldon , Gollop Frank M. , Kelly‐Hawke Alison , Swinand Gregory P. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article focuses on agricultural productivity growth at both sector and state levels. It does so in a way that preserves the economic integrity of national and state production accounts. A model accounting for interstate transactions in farm goods links sectorwide and state‐specific measures of total factor productivity growth. An interesting conclusion is that the smooth, persistently positive trend typically observed for farm sector productivity growth masks considerable variation across states and regions. The results also indicate that farm sector productivity growth is wholly a function of productivity trends in the individual states. Interstate shifts in production activity and resource reallocations have had little impact.
Explaining the Choice of Organic Produce: Cosmetic Defects, Prices, and Consumer Preferences
Authors: Thompson Gary D. , Kidwell Julia 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe choice between organic and conventional produce was estimated empirically using a two‐equation probit model. Data were collected in‐store on cosmetic defects, produce prices, and consumers' demographic and economic traits. Store choice displayed a significant impact on the probability of purchasing organic produce. Shoppers at the specialty grocer were sensitive to price differences between organic and conventional items. Households with children under eighteen were more likely to purchase organic produce while shoppers with graduate or professional degrees were less likely to do so. Differences in cosmetic defects had statistically significant albeit small effects on the probability of purchasing organics.
Domestic Costs of Statutory Marketing Authorities: The Case of the Canadian Wheat Board
Authors: Carter Colin A. , Loyns R.M.A. , Berwald Derek 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is a statutory marketing authority with exclusive control over exports of Canadian wheat and barley and sole authority over domestic marketing of milling wheat and malting barley. It is a government marketing board with implicit monopoly rights over the supply of wide‐ranging marketing services to farmers, but with no legal responsibility to farmers. These characteristics fit a stylized Niskanen model of bureaucratic decision making, where the CWB is modeled as supplying excess marketing services to farmers. Allowing the market to determine the quantity of marketing services would result in lower marketing costs and presumably higher farm incomes.
Effects of Insecticide Attributes on Within‐Season Insecticide Product and Rate Choices: The Case of U.S. Apple Growers
Authors: Hubbell Bryan J. , Carlson Gerald A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe use a random utility framework to examine within‐season choices of insecticide products and application rates made by U.S. apple growers. Impacts on pesticide choices of insecticide efficacy, environmental safety, user safety, and regulatory attributes, as well as integrated pest management (IPM) practices, are investigated using cross‐sectional data from the USDA Fruit and Nut Chemical Use Survey. The results show that the product and rate choices are most influenced by efficacy and user safety attributes, respectively. Impacts of IPM practices are mainly on the choice of insecticide products, but effects differ by practice and by product.
Impacts of Trade and Macroeconomic Linkages on Canadian Agriculture
Authors: Lachaal Lassaad , Womack Abner W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractImplications of trade and macroeconomic policies on the performance of the Canadian agricultural sector were analyzed using a structural econometric model. Results indicated that had Canada been more integrated with the world economy, its volume of trade would have been 3% higher than its actual level, and much greater price incentives for agriculture would have occurred.
Optimal Self‐Protection from Nitrate‐Contaminated Groundwater
Authors: Ready Richard C. , Henken Kimberly 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSelf‐protection by well owners from potential nitrate contamination is modeled as an optimal stopping problem, where an owner sequentially tests the well and uses the test results to update his or her subjective probability that the well is contaminated. Because nitrate concentrations in a well vary over time, a single test contains limited information about whether the well is contaminated. The optimal self‐protection strategy may therefore involve multiple tests or may not involve any tests at all. For Kentucky wells, optimal self‐protection reduces a well owner's expected damage from nitrate contamination by 38%, relative to taking no action.
Cost‐Effective Hazard Control in Food Handling
Authors: Fox John A. , Hennessy David A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe develop a bioeconomic model to investigate postharvest food quality control. The trade‐off between costly intervention and economic damage is studied when economic parameters, such as fixed and variable costs of control, and biological parameters, such as the stochastic rate of contamination and the growth rate of contaminants, are altered. The model can accommodate alternative environmental settings. Regulations through random inspections and through terminal inspections are analyzed. As an illustration, optimal actions to control insect infestations in stored wheat are simulated and found to be in accord with commercial practice.
Political and Economic Factors Affecting Agricultural PAC Contribution Strategies
Authors: Van Doren Terry D. , Hoag Dana L. , Field Thomas G. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractPublic choice describes a marketplace for political favors that could explain strong support for agriculture. While many researchers have studied political markets, few have examined agriculture. This study addresses contributions from twenty‐six PAC aggregates to senators in the 103rd Congress. Using a tobit model, legislative attributes, such as tenure, committee membership, and ideology, were regressed on contributions. Overall, the agricultural industry targeted nonsenior, conservative Democrats from agriculturally dependent states in close election races and who served either on the agriculture committee or the agriculture appropriations committee. However, many differences were found across subsectors within agriculture, such as crops and livestock.