bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Goal Programming via Multidimensional Scaling Applied to Senegalese Subsistence Farms
Authors: Barnett Douglas , Blake Brian , McCarl Bruce A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA methodology is developed to estimate empirically the weights for a multiple‐goal objective function of Senegalese subsistence farmers. The methodology includes a farmer‐oriented goal preference survey and an application of a multidimensional scaling technique to the survey data. A comparison of model performance under the multiple‐goal objective function with a profit‐maximization objective function does not indicate that there are distinct advantages to using either function.
Near‐Optimal Management Strategies for Controlling Wild Oats in Spring Wheat
Authors: Taylor C. Robert , Burt Oscar R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractNear‐optimal multiperiod decision rules for controlling wild oats in spring wheat in north central Montana are presented in this paper. Decision alternatives are fallow, use of a preemergent or postemergent herbicide, and crop without use of a herbicide. The near‐optimal decision rules, which were obtained from a partially decomposed stochastic dynamic programming model, depend on density of wild oats seed in the plow layer, whether the land was previously cropped or fallow, soil moisture level, price of spring wheat, and post‐planting density of wild oats.
Toward a Theory of Agricultural Insurance
Authors: Ahsan Syed M. , Ali Ali A. G. , Kurian N. John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we develop a theory of crop insurance. We start by reaffirming the risk‐spreading role of competitive crop insurance markets. It is argued, however, that once the problems of imperfect information are recognized, a competitive crop insurance market may not exist at all. Two candidates present themselves. First is market insurance with the public sector as a source of (costly) information gathering and dissemination, and second, is the direct provision of crop insurance by the public sector. We focus on the latter and develop a model of public insurance as a decentralized plan where the farmer determines factor utilization taking the insurance contract as given. In turn, the insurance agency, taking factor utilization as determined by the farmer, chooses the optimal contract so as to maximize the value of aggregate output in the economy.
A Nonlinear Expenditure System Using a Linear Logit Specification
Authors: Tyrrell Timothy , Mount Timothy 
Published: July 2006

AbstractRecent literature on the estimation of models of consumer expenditure patterns indicates that Engel curves are nonlinear and demographic variables are important determinants of demand. A linear logit household expenditures model is presented which automatically displays “adding up” properties derived from the budget constraint while permitting great flexibility in the Engel curves. In addition, homogeneity and symmetry can be imposed and tested, and by a simple transformation the coefficients can be estimated by linear regression. Another advantage of the model is that demographic variables, such as household size and composition, can be introduced without sacrificing the “adding up” properties.
Effects of an Increase in the Federal Excise Tax on Cigarettes
Authors: Sumner Daniel A. , Wohlgenant Michael K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe economic impact of a cigarette tax increase on the cigarette and tobacco industries depends on market forces and on the U.S. tobacco program. This study uses a log‐linear equilibrium displacement model, parameter estimates from prior studies, and recent data to indicate quantitative effects. International trade implies that the effect of the tax increase on the price of domestic tobacco will be small, even in the case of fixed tobacco quotas. However, the effects on tobacco producers' revenue, quota lease rates, and producer economic rents can be significant, depending on the response of U.S. tobacco policy to a tax change.
Institutional Affiliation of Contributors to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1973–83
Authors: Simpson James R. , Steele John T. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractHistory of reviews of contributions to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics are examined. Total pages, pages per capita all faculty, and per teaching research faculty of contributors to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics for 1979–83 are reported for land grant institutions. Rankings are provided. There are also averages for 1973–79 and 1980–83.
Marketed Surpluses of Agricultural Households in Sierra Leone
Authors: Strauss John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn agricultural household model is used with household level data from Sierra Leone to estimate elasticities of marketed surplus for several outputs and for labor with respect to price and nonprice variables. Positive own‐price elasticities are found, with magnitudes considerably above own‐price output elasticities. Changes in household characteristics and production technology also affect marketed surpluses but not always in anticipated directions. Elasticities are reported for households when grouped by their total expenditure, not just for the sample mean. The differences are important, showing that low expenditure households respond as much as high expenditure households.
Agricultural Productive and Consumptive Use Components of Rural Land Values in Texas
Authors: Pope C. Arden 
Published: July 2006

AbstractConsumptive demand applies significant upward pressure on rural land values and plays an important role in determining farm and ranch structure in Texas. Using cross‐sectional land value data and regression analysis, various factors that affect rural land values in Texas are evaluated. Population density, proximity to major metropolitan centers, quality of deer hunting, and aesthetic differences across the state explain the majority of the differences in rural land values. On the average, only about 22 percent of the total market value of rural land in Texas can be statistically explained by its productive value.
Errors in the Numerical Assessment of the Benefits of Price Stabilization
Authors: Helms L. Jay 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper presents a simple computational procedure for determining a consumer's willingness to pay to have a price stabilization policy implemented. Numerical simulations are then provided which demonstrate that the commonly used expected surplus measures (whether Hicksian or Marshallian) can in fact seriously misstate the true benefits of price stabilization. These simulations also illustrate the extent to which the results may be dependent upon the assumptions made—implicitly or explicitly—regarding the consumer's attitudes toward risk, thereby underscoring the need to conduct sensitivity analyses to determine the robustness of cost‐benefit assessments with respect to these assumptions.
Endogenous Price Policies and International Wheat Prices
Authors: Sarris Alexander H. , Freebairn John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractInternational prices are modeled as Cournot equilibrium interactions of national excess demand functions, which, in turn, are solutions of domestic welfare optimization problems. It is shown that interaction of national policies can lead to excess depression and instability of both international and domestic prices. The model is estimated for wheat and is used to show that, under free trade, average world prices would be much higher while price instability would be much lower. Furthermore, the European Economic Community policies alone contribute about 80% to these distortions.
Agricultural Pests as Common Property: Control of the Corn Rootworm
Authors: Lazarus William F. , Dixon Bruce L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractInsecticide resistance is an increasingly widespread problem reducing effectiveness and necessitating a switch to more expensive controls. A common property resource model is used to describe potential gain from internalizing resistance externalities through regional coordination. A nonlinear programming model of an Illinois cash grain farm is used to estimate the gain for corn rootworm control where rotation to soybeans is an alternative to insecticide. Switching to rotation as resistance builds causes a relatively minor decrease in profits because soybeans are profitable. Gain from delaying resistance is slight. Co‐states give price changes necessary to alter externality production.
A Hedonic Price Model for Rough Rice Bid/Acceptance Markets
Authors: Brorsen B. Wade , Grant Warren R. , Rister M. Edward 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSeveral quality factors are important in valuing rough rice. This paper first evaluates the ability of federal grades to explain these factors. Second, the discounts associated with various quality factors are estimated. Finally, the factors affecting acceptance of a bid are investigated. The results indicate grades are useful but inadequate in explaining observed quality differentials. The major quality factor in determining price was head yield. Stinkbug damage was the most important quality factor of those that producers could control. The probability of acceptance increased with higher than expected bids, smaller lot sizes, more bidders, and as the marketing season progressed.
Portfolio Diversification, Futures Markets, and Uncertain Consumption Prices
Authors: Berck Peter , Cecchetti Stephen G. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper examines the robustness of the Keynes‐Hicks backwardation hypothesis for futures markets in a model that admits diversification and inflation protection as speculative motives. It presents a criterion in terms of the correlation of futures price with anticipated consumption net of other asset holdings for the Keynes‐Hicks proposition to be true. The paper finds the effect of changes in net wealth and commodity demand on the risk premium, spread, open interest, and storage.
Agricultural Lending Decision: A Multiattribute Analysis
Authors: Stover Roger D. , Teas R. Kenneth , Gardner Roy J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper examines the agdcultural loan decision process from the perspective of the individual loan officer. An analysis of this process concerns the relative effects of various criteria on the loan application and the degree to which tradeoffs are made among them by the loan officer. The theoretical model is empirically tested using a set of factorially designed combinations of these variables. This format avoids several of the problems previously encountered when the iending process has been empirically examined. The model not only exhibits a high degree of explanatory power but also permits important insights into this process.
Marketing Margins and Price Uncertainty: The Case of the U.S. Wheat Market
Authors: Brorsen B. Wade , Chavas Jean‐Paul , Grant Warren R. , Schnake L. D. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper seeks to determine the effect of changes in output price risk on marketing margins. A theoretical model of price determination in a marketing channel with risk‐averse firms is developed. This model shows that if marketing firms ate competitive and decreasingly absolute risk averse, then an increase in output price risk should result in higher expected marketing margins. Empirical evidence from the wheat marketing channel supports the theoretical model: increased price variability significantly increases wheat marketing margins for both the farm‐mill margin and the mill‐retail margin. These results suggest a potential benefit from price stabilization programs.
The Effects of Cashing out Food Stamps on Food Expenditures
Authors: Hollonbeck Darrell , Ohls James C. , Posner Barbara 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA demonstration program conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at eight sites around the United States tested the concept of food stamp cashout for participants in the Food Stamp Program who are elderly and/or who receive Supplemental Security Income. Participants in the demonstration received their food stamp allotments in the form of cash (checks) rather than as food coupons. The results of the demonstration evaluation suggest that the switch to cashout did not substantially weaken the impacts of the Food Stamp Program on food expenditures.
The Demand for Irrigation Water in the High Plains of Texas, 1957–80
Authors: Nieswiadomy Michael 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA new method of calculating groundwater pumpage is used to estimate water demand. These results are used, via the Gisser‐Sanchez model, to show that pumpage regulation is unlikely to be beneficial in the Texas High Plains. A sensitivity analysis is performed on present value profits under optimal control and competitive schemes, using different (water demand) slope and intercept values. The results indicate that the Gisser‐Sanchez rule is useful in determining the divergence in pumpage time paths and percentage difference in profits, under the two schemes, but it is not insightful in determining the nominal difference in profits.
Monetary Returns to Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Agricultural Economics
Authors: Broder Josef M. , Deprey Rodney P. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractCharacteristics of agricultural economics alumni from the University of Georgia were discussed and a general linear model was developed to explain differences in bachelors and masters alumni salaries. Graduate education, work experience, resource mobility, gender, family background, and high school size were found to influence alumni salaries. Returns to a masters degree were computed along with capital recovery periods. Assistantship levels, cost of borrowed and human capital, and nonmonetary benefits were relevant in decisions to attend graduate school. Some costs and benefits of graduate education were found to be subjective, to vary across individuals, and to be influenced by prevailing economic conditions.
A Portfolio Analysis of Poor Rural Wage‐Working Families' Assets and Debts
Authors: Bryant Keith W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractData from the 1970–73 rural income maintenance experiment were employed to estimate a stock adjustment model for poor rural wage‐working families' assets and debts. The assets were owned housing, cars, consumer durables, and liquid assets. The debts were home mortgages, non‐real estate debts to financial institutions, and non‐real estate debts to nonfinancial institutions. Poor whites increase assets by $.12 and debts by $.06 given a $@@‐@@1.00 increase in nonwelfare income; poor blacks react hardly at all. Both own‐ and cross‐partial stock adjustment coefficients were estimated. Stock adjustments are more complex in the white than the black portfolios.
U.S.‐Mexican Trade in Winter Vegetables and Illegal Immigration
Authors: Torok S. J. , Huffman W. E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper presents an integrated approach to U.S.‐Mexican trade in a labor‐intensive commodity (fresh winter tomatoes) and illegal immigration of agricultural labor. A seven‐equation econometric model is developed that includes excess demand (U.S. import) and supply (Mexican export) equations for fresh winter tomatoes, U.S. demand and Mexican supply equations for apprehensible individuals, intercountry price and wage relationship equations, and a U.S. Border Patrol apprehension effort equation. The empirical results indicate that both U.S. and Mexico economic conditions affect the number of apprehended illegal Mexican aliens. The results also indicate that immigration and trade policies affect apprehensions.
Economic Impact of Public Pest Information: Soybean Insect Forecasts in Illinois
Authors: Moffitt L. Joe , Farnsworth Richard L. , Zavaleta Luis R. , Kogan Marcos 
Published: July 2006

AbstractPrevious agricultural pest management information studies have focused on the consequences of providing pest information to farmers without access to other sources of pest information. In view of the proliferation of commercial scouting services, this paper uses a preposterior decision model of pest management to examine the outcomes likely to follow from introduction of public pest information into an area with an existing commercial pest information market. Empirical estimates of the impact of a soybean insect forecast system in Illinois demonstrate that although farmers can benefit from public pest information, the implications for pesticide use depend on the reliability of public forecasts.
The Theoretical Effects of Farm Policies on Optimal Leverage and the Probability of Equity Losses
Authors: Featherstone Allen M. , Moss Charles B. , Baker Timothy G. , Preckel Paul V. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe degree to which the use of debt is increased in response to risk‐reducing and income‐augmenting farm policies is studied theoretically. A mean‐variance model is used to determine the optimal leverage adjustment, then the effects of policies on the cumulative probability of earning very low rates of return on equity are examined. The evidence suggests that farm policies induce a large enough increase in financial leverage to increase the probability of farmers having negative returns to equity.
Exact Welfare Measurement for Producers under Uncertainty
Authors: Larson Douglas M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractEx ante compensating and equivalent variations for producers under price or production uncertainty frequently can be obtained from properly specified ordinary ex ante output supply or input demand functions without assumptions about the decision maker's risk aversion. The Slutsky‐Hicks equations for several common empirical specifications of the production problem under uncertainty can be integrated to obtain the compensated supplies (demands) from observed ordinary supplies (demands). Closed‐form expressions for the exact welfare measures of parameter changes are derived for these cases.
Small‐Sample Evaluation of Mean‐Variance Production Function Estimators
Authors: Buccola Steven T. , McCarl Bruce A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractProduction functions have been shown useful for characterizing input effects on both the mean and variability of yield. Monte carlo experiments are used here to investigate small‐sample properties of selected mean‐variance production function estimators. Estimation efficiency in the mean is found to improve with iteration on the mean and variance components. Although efficiency in the variance is greatest at the first stage, bias in the variance diminishes through at least the second stage. These effects are influenced by the degree and sign of heteroscedasticity and by sample size.
Imperfectly Competitive Equilibria in International Commodity Markets
Authors: Kolstad Charles D. , Burris Anthony E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe simple model of perfect competition in spatial markets has been widely applied in analyzing international agricultural trade. Yet, many markets do not appear to be perfectly competitive. In this paper we offer a new and efficient method for computing spatial equilibrium in oligopolistic or oligopsonistic markets. We apply the technique to an analysis of several hypotheses of market conduct in the international wheat market that have been put forward by other authors. We conclude that a Cournot‐Nash duopsony model does not perform well in explaining trade.
A Nonlinear Programming Analysis of Production Response to Multiple Component Milk Pricing
Authors: Kirkland Jack J. , Mittelhammer Ron C. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe problem of feeding Holstein cows so as to maximize revenue over feed costs was analyzed under various scenarios concerning milk component prices. Results suggested that production response of milk components to component price incentives was inflexible. When compared to baseline solutions generated under a standard federal order pricing system, fat production was within 3.5%, and solids nonfat and fluid carrier within 1.0% of baseline levels for a 100‐cow herd. Component pricing scenarios having blend prices equal to the blend price in the baseline scenario were associated with reductions in revenue over feed costs of less than 4%.
Aggregate Milk Supply Response and Investment Behavior on U.S. Dairy Farms
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Klemme Richard M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper presents a dynamic model of herd composition and supply response in the U.S. dairy sector. By incorporating biological information, the influences of the economic environment on culling rates and the dynamics of the dairy cow population are analyzed. Short‐run and long‐run supply elasticities provide considerable insights on milk supply adjustments over time.
Competition from Fish Farming in Influencing Rent Dissipation: The Crawfish Fishery
Authors: Bell Frederick W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAs fish farming has emerged to compete with a preexisting common property fishery sector, rent dissipation and consequently welfare losses may be reduced. Fish farming increases the increment to supply resulting in lower prices, which reduces the quantity supplied by the commons. Welfare gains accrue only when marginal cost is rising faster than average cost, which is the usual case in the wild fisheries. Using data from the Louisiana pond and wild crawfishing industries, it was shown that for the year 1978, fish farming of crawfish reduced potential welfare losses by 76 percent.
Risk Analysis with Single‐Index Portfolio Models: An Application to Farm Planning
Authors: Collins Robert A. , Barry Peter J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSharpe's 1963 single‐index portfolio model, the separation theorem, and a solution method suggested by Elton, Gruber, and Padberg are adapted in this paper to the farm diversification problem. The objectives are to develop risk measures, based on single‐index parameters and computationally simple methods for farm risk planning, that are suitable for microcomputers and modern hand‐held calculators. The intent is to produce a normative model with possible extension applications.
Dynamic Animal Economics
Authors: Rosen Sherwin 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMarket equilibrium dynamics of herd inventory management are derived for homogenous female populations. Short‐run supply is backward bending in response to permanent changes in demand and is rising in response to transitory changes in demand. Increasing inventories are associated with high and falling prices and decreasing inventories with low and rising prices, but there is no market instability in this. These unusual intertemporal substitution effects follow from both rational expectations and appropriately formulated cobweb models and go part of the way toward explaining hog and cattle inventory cycles.
The Seasonality of Risk and Return on Agricultural Futures Positions
Authors: Murphy J. Austin 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis study uses spectral analysis to investigate the risk and return seasonality of agricultural futures contracts. The results indicate that neither the expected return nor the contribution of agricultural futures to the risk of diversified investment portfolios vary seasonally. Because numerous authors have hypothesized that seasonality might exist, the findings of this article have important implications for speculators, hedgers, and researchers.
Risk Modeling via Direct Utility Maximization Using Numerical Quadrature
Authors: Kaylen Michael S. , Preckel Paul V. , Loehman Edna T. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn approach to risk modeling is developed which uses nonlinear programming and numerical integration to directly solve the expected utility maximization problem. The approach contrasts with earlier efforts in that, rather than using an empirical density function, a joint probability density function is explicitly specified. Comparisons are done showing that this approach yields more accurate solutions than the empirical density approach even when many points are sampled from the theoretical distribution.