bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Strategic Role of Supermarket Buyer Intermediaries in New Product Selection: Implications for Systemwide Efficiency
Authors: McLaughlin Edward W. , Rao Vithala R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractBased on logistic regression models that describe the accept/reject decisions of supermarket buyers for new products and market performance of accepted products, the implications for systemwide efficiency of decision making by channel intermediaries are analyzed. The statistical models perform very well. The results point to areas where systemwide performance may be enhanced regarding the allocation of new product development resources. For example, the system may be potentially more efficient if manufacturers reallocate the promotional allowances directed to the retail trade. Better prediction by retail buyers of ultimate product preference by their consumers is likely to increase both firm and system efficiency.
Elasticities in AIDS Models
Authors: Green Richard , Alston Julian M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn the literature, a variety of approaches have been used to calculate demand elasticities in almost ideal demand system (AIDS) models of demand. It is common to estimate the linear approximate almost ideal demand system (LA/AIDS) instead of the AIDS. When the LA/AIDS is estimated, all of the previously reported approaches to compute elasticities are theoretically incorrect. This paper presents correct formulas for LA/AIDS elasticities and illustrates the potential errors from using incorrect computing formulas.
A Simple Multiperiod Minimum Risk Hedge Model
Authors: Mathews Kenneth H. , Holthausen Duncan M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA multiperiod hedging model is developed that is simpler than other multiperiod models in the literature. The model permits periodic adjustment of the hedge while minimizing the producer's profit variance. Minimum risk hedge ratios are calculated for steers, cows, hogs, com, and soybeans using the full model with hedge adjustments every two months. These ratios are compared to those using the model without periodic hedge adjustments and to a simple single‐period model. The results suggest that simple models may work well for simple hedges, while the full model is best for more complex hedging situations such as cross hedges.
Producer Welfare Consequences of Regulating Chemical Residues on Agricultural Crops: Maleic Hydrazide and Tobacco
Authors: Foster William E. , Babcock Bruce A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA procedure is presented to calculate welfare consequences of chemical regulation from demand curves when input applications are unobserved, and is applied to maleic hydrazide and tobacco. The relationship between chemical residues and weather variables and prices is estimated, and from this we derive demand curves using an application‐residue relationship estimated using research station data. Chemical price levels required to attain given regulatory goals are estimated. Yearly producer losses from a chemical ban range from $@@‐@@6 million to $@@‐@@14 million, two to five times greater than from a tax achieving a 95% assurance rate of residues falling below a proposed standard.
Estimating Duality Models with Biased Technical Change: A Time Series Approach
Authors: Clark J. Stephen , Youngblood Curtis E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractTechnical change is an omitted variable in econometric models which estimate technical change biases with no direct measure of this variable. Modeling technical change as a deterministic time trend is a restrictive representation that may be inconsistent with the type of nonstationarity of the other model variables. We used a time‐series approach to estimate a cost function for central Canada and found that factor shares, prices, and output are cointegrated, implying that technical change is neutral. In contrast, estimating the system with a time trend as a technical change measure leads one to conclude inappropriately that technical change biases exist.
Computerized Analysis of Individual Sow‐Herd Performance
Authors: Huirne Ruud B. M. , Dijkhuizen Aalt A. , Renkema Jan A. , van Beek Paul 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA computer model, CHESS, was developed to allow systematic and objective analysis of individual swine breeding farms. The model works by identifying deviations from standards, weighting the deviations, analyzing the weighted deviations, and finally evaluating individual farm performance based on the results. CHESS consists of one decision support system and three expert systems. A field test to validate the CHESS model resulted in a test disagreement between CHESS and human experts of about 4% only.
Teaching Innovations in Agricultural Economics: An Economic Approach
Authors: Dahlgran Roger A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn economic learning model, with time inputs of instructional preparation, classroom contact, and student preparation under both innovative and traditional teaching methods, is developed and used to evaluate teaching innovations in agricultural economics. The model's implications for evaluating teaching innovations are developed and tested. The conclusions are as follows: a comparison of test scores for experimental and control groups to evaluate teaching innovations ignores the efficiency impacts of “labor‐saving#x201D; innovations; students can provide useful data for evaluating teaching innovations; and economic cost‐benefit concepts should guide conclusions about the effectiveness of innovations.
The Distribution of Food Consumption over a Year: A Longitudinal Analysis
Authors: Guilkey David K. , Haines Pamela S. , Popkin Barry M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractLongitudinal methods are used to examine food consumption decisions by American women aged 19–50. The data set used is the 1985 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is a six‐wave longitudinal data set gathered over the course of a year. The multivariate results give insights into how individuals make food group consumption decisions. In addition, the use of longitudinal data allows calculation of variance ratios that have proven to be useful in dietary research. Simulations are run to highlight the effects of important explanatory variables.
Characteristics of Grain Elevators that Contract with Railroads
Authors: Hanson Steven D. , Baumhover Stephen B. , Baumel C. Phillip 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Staggers Rail Act of 1980 allowed contracts between railroads and shippers which have resulted in increased grain prices to some farmers while, at the same time, increasing competitive pressure on some local grain elevators. This study employs a logistic model designed for complex survey designs to identify characteristics of elevators that had railroad contracts during 1983–85. The total volume shipped from an elevator, number of railroads serving an elevator location, and affiliation with elevator firms serviced by more than one railroad company are found to contribute significantly to the probability of a grain elevator receiving a railroad contract.
Managing Change in Extension
Authors: Holt John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractManaging change in extension is capitalizing on today's strengths while building tomorrow's niches. A shrinking support base, increasing competition, and rapid changes in what people need and want in off‐campus education are strong forces for change in extension programs. But inertia inherited from past success, the difficulties of changing mental habits, conflicting clientele signals, and rewards schema that give no clear signals all complicate change management. Symbiosis is needed between faculty and all levels of administration in order to find the support, and the will, to manage change constructively.
Estimation Risk in Farm Planning Under Uncertainty
Authors: Collender Robert N. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of estimation risk on a decision maker's ability to distinguish between the mean‐variance characteristics of different farm plans. The importance of making such distinctions should be clear; risk‐averse decision makers will want to bear risk only if they can be reasonably confident of commensurate increases in expected return. When parameters are unknown, statistically testing for differences in their estimated values is appropriate. An illustration of such tests using data from Hazell suggests considerable resources must be devoted toward data generation if normative statements under uncertainty are to be reliable.
Scientific Principle and Practice in Agricultural Economics: An Historical Review
Authors: Breimyer Harold F. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractEver since their field of learning took its own identity, agricultural economists have seen themselves as dedicated to the scientific principle. In early years that commitment was trusted as a guard against human fallibility, and the more so as the first investigations relied heavily on statistical data and analyses—supposedly bias‐free. Thus originated a lasting emphasis on the quantitative. A need for underlying economic principles, recognized at once, was developed in depth beginning in the 1950s. Research taxonomies, outlined in the 1920s, devolved later into an array of research methods. Scientific practice is viewed also as how scientists “behave,” and writings about agricultural economists' record are couched in terms of values, objectivity, ethics. Despite just claims to systematic rigor, science responds also to unsystematic elements, among them imagination and hunch. Most engaging in literature are never‐ending exchanges about the merits of mathematics and model building.
Impact Targets versus Discharge Standards in Agricultural Pollution Management
Authors: Braden John B. , Larson Robert S. , Herricks Edwin E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWhen attempting to protect fish in streams, sediment or erosion targets are inefficient. Use of a habitat suitability target reveals lower cost abatement measures because it accounts for pesticides as well as soil particles. In Lake Michigan case studies, the lower cost measures involve more crop diversity, less use of no‐till, and changes on more acres than the solutions based on sediment discharges or erosion rates.
Consumer's Surplus Revisited
Authors: Shonkwiler J. S. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA technique for approximating welfare measures using knowledge of the Marshallian demand relation is developed and compared numerically to the true measures and other approximations. The technique does not rely on the solution of differential equations and is easily illustrated graphically. The technique should be useful as a pedagogic device and applicable in empirical work when derivation of the indirect utility function is burdensome.
Prospect Theory and Risk Preferences of Oregon Seed Producers
Authors: Collins Alan , Musser Wesley N. , Mason Robert 
Published: July 2006

AbstractProspect theory relates risk preference classifications to gains and losses from a reference income level. This study applies prospect theory to reinterpret historical studies of risk preferences of Oregon grass seed growers. A significant relationship between changes in classifications of preferences and changes in income was found. Results indicated that those who lost income were concentrated in the category of changing to risk preferrers. Income changes calculated from crop combinations were also found to be correlated in a theoretically correct pattern with positive measures of risk from crop enterprises. The research therefore is consistent with further applications of prospect theory to farm management.
Robustness of the Mean‐Variance Model with Truncated Probability Distributions
Authors: Hanson Steven D. , Ladd George W. , Curtiss Charles F. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe known sufficient conditions for the mean‐variance framework to produce expected utility results are violated in the presence of truncated probability distributions. A theoretical simulation is conducted to examine the ability of the linear mean‐variance model to approximate expected utility results when the income distribution is truncated by the use of commodity option contracts. The mean‐variance model is shown to produce solutions that are close approximations to the expected utility model results under the assumptions of constant absolute risk aversion and normally distributed prices. However, some inconsistency was found between the comparative static results of the two models.
Evaluating Robust Regression Techniques for Detrending Crop Yield Data with Nonnormal Errors
Authors: Swinton Scott M. , King Robert P. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAlthough ordinary least squares is not efficient when errors are not distributed normally, it generates better crop yield trend coefficient estimates than six alternative robust regression methods. This is because of the econometric properties of an uninterrupted series independent variable as well as the level of skewness typical of corn yields. The evaluation covers actual farm‐level corn yield series as well as a set of “contaminated” data series and one thousand sets of Monte Carlo yield series. Where an influential end‐of‐series outlier is suspected, the DFBETAS regression diagnostic statistic is recommended.
Construction of True Cost of Food Indexes from Estimated Engel Curves
Authors: Blisard William Noel , Blaylock James R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper applies a technique to derive true cost‐of‐living indexes from the estimation of a simple system of piglog Engel curves. This technique allows a maximum amount of commodity disaggregation, and the indexes show the impact of inflation on households with different expenditure levels and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that the consumer price index (CPI) underestimated the cost of food over the 1980–85 period. The CPI more accurately reflects the cost of food for nonwhite households with low or average food expenditures.
Supply Response Under Proportional Profits Taxation
Authors: Quiggin John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA striking result in the theory of the competitive firm under certainty is the proposition that a proportional profits tax (with full offsets for losses) will have no impact on optimal output. This result does not apply under uncertainty. It is shown that, under constant or increasing returns to scale, a proportional profits tax will yield an unambiguous expansion in output. The same result is shown to hold for the more general rank‐dependent expected utility (RDEU) model.
Put‐Call Parity and Arbitrage Bounds for Options on Grain Futures
Authors: Wilson William W. , Fung Hung‐Gay 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMany arbitrage opportunities have become available for market participants since the inception of trading in options. Central to many of these is the put‐call parity relationship. If this condition is violated, arbitrage profits could be earned. This paper examines arbitrage possibilities between put and call options on grain futures using two different tests. One is a test of market efficiency over the duration of trading, and the other evaluates arbitrage bounds on individual trading days. In general, the results suggest that the options markets on grain futures are not completely efficient. However, violations varied substantially across contracts and through time.
Measuring the Economic Efficiency of Producing Rural Road Services
Authors: Deller Steven C. , Nelson Carl H. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe research reported here examines the ability of a sample of Midwest township officials to produce low‐volume rural road services in an economically efficient manner. Farrell‐type measures of input use and scale efficiency are reported. Results suggest that over 50% of costs may be unnecessarily incurred because of input use inefficiency. Correlation between output measures and the efficiency measures suggests that larger jurisdictions are more efficient than smaller jurisdictions. In addition, 84.5% of the townships exhibit technology characterized by increasing returns to scale. These results suggest that jurisdictional consolidation of production‐related responsibilities may yield substantial cost savings.
Crop Insurance and Disaster Assistance Designs for Wheat and Grain Sorghum
Authors: Williams Jeffery R. , Carriker Gordon L. , Barnaby G. Art , Harper Jayson K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis study compares the effectiveness of two crop insurance and two disaster assistance program designs used in conjunction with a government commodity program and a linked crop insurance/government commodity program design. Stochastic dominance analysis of farm‐level net return distributions is used to select the preferred design(s). The results indicate that the disaster assistance programs are preferred over the alternatives. The results also suggest that individual crop insurance is preferred to area crop insurance. A subsidy is required for risk‐averse managers to prefer area crop insurance to individual crop insurance.
Individual Travel Cost Method: Estimation and Benefit Assessment with a Discrete and Possibly Grouped Dependent Variable
Authors: Dobbs Ian M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe trip/visit variable in the individual travel cost method is often regarded as discrete. Furthermore, it is often reported in surveys as a grouped variable (the number of visits reported falling into one of several classes). This paper develops a travel cost model which takes account of discreteness and grouping in both demand and benefit estimation. A case study and associated simulations are then reported which indicate the potential extent of bias that may arise from ignoring discreteness/grouping in demand and benefit estimation. The information loss involved in varying the size of visit classes is also examined.
The Incidence of Benefits from U.S. Soybean Productivity Gains in a Context of World Trade
Authors: Cooke Stephen C. , Sundquist W. Burt 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA new procedure for measuring the “K‐shift” in the supply function from new technology is introduced. This procedure is used to show that U.S. soybean total factor productivity increased by 1.6% per year between 1974 and 1983. Brazilian and Argentine soybean productivity increased 2.4% per year during this period. Total economic surplus in the U.S and the rest of the world increased between $@@‐@@1.7 and $@@‐@@3.2 billion. Of this total, U.S. resource owners received between $@@‐@@1.3 and $@@‐@@1.5 billion and U.S. consumers received between a $@@‐@@0.1 and $@@‐@@0.2 billion increase in income from increased soybean productivity.
Acreage Decisions Under Risk: The Case of Corn and Soybeans
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Holt Matthew T. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn acreage supply response model is developed under expected utility maximization. The resulting framework is used to specify and estimate a system of risk‐responsive acreage equations for corn and soybeans in the United States. Particular attention is given to the truncation effects of government price supports on the distribution of corn and soybean prices. Also, a wealth variable is included in the acreage equations. The empirical results indicate that risk and wealth variables play an important role in corn‐soybean acreage decisions. The analysis also shows that cross‐commodity risk reduction is important in acreage allocation decisions.
A Revised Test of the Law of One Price Using Rational Price Expectations
Authors: Goodwin Barry K. , Grennes Thomas J. , Wohlgenant Michael K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe law of one price (LOP) is an important ingredient in theories of international trade. Typical analyses of the LOP assume that parity should hold contemporaneously. This assumption overlooks temporal elements of trade. Recognizing this fact, we expect parity to hold for expected prices. Two empirical procedures are utilized to consider the LOP in international markets for U.S. agricultural commodities. The first utilizes econometric procedures to test an expectations augmented version of the LOP. A second approach uses nonparametric procedures to provide an alternative consideration of expectations. In each case, results provide support for a rational expectations view of the LOP.
The Reaction of Live Hog Futures Prices to USDA Hogs and Pigs Reports
Authors: Colling Phil L. , Irwin Scott H. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractStrong concerns about how efficiently live hog futures prices react to U.S. Department of Agriculture Hogs and Pigs Reports have been raised by livestock producer groups. Using market survey data, direct tests of the efficient markets hypothesis are performed for the live hog futures market. Two‐limit tobit models account for institutional price limits. Results support the efficient market hypothesis in that live hog futures prices (a) do not react to anticipated changes in reported information, (b) do react significantly and in the expected direction to unanticipated changes in reported information, and (c) generally adjust to unanticipated information on the day following release of the reports.
A Simulation Model of the U.S. Export Enhancement Program for Wheat
Authors: Seitzinger Ann Hillberg , Paarlberg Philip L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractNash bargaining game models representing negotiations of Export Enhancement Program (EEP) sales are combined with a quarterly spatial price equilibrium model representing non‐EEP world wheat trade to simulate the EEP's impact in late 1985 and early 1986. The benefits of the EEP in terms of increased U.S. export revenues adjusted for subsidy costs are estimated to be less than one percent of total U.S. revenues. For the first quarter of 1986, model simulations also show a lowering of the CCC loan rate to have a much greater potential for increasing U.S. wheat exports than the EEP as operated.
Estimation of Australian Wool and Lamb Production Technologies under Uncertainty: An Error‐Components Approach
Authors: O'Donnell C.J. , Woodland A. D. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA model of producer behavior, which explicitly accounts for both output price and production uncertainty, is formulated and estimated. If the production technology is multiplicatively separable in its deterministic and stochastic components, then the expected utility maximization problem implies cost minimization for planned or expected output. Consequently, our empirical model of three lamb‐ and wool‐producing sectors in Australia involves the estimation of a system of input cost share and cost equations whose disturbances have an error‐components structure. The empirical results are evaluated in terms of input demand elasticities, and estimates of the stochastic components of production are presented.
Quality‐Adjusted Price and Quantity Indices for Pesticides
Authors: Fernandez‐Cornejo Jorge , Jans Sharon 
Published: July 2006

AbstractQuality‐adjusted price indices are calculated for pesticides used on major crops in U.S. agriculture for 1967–92 using hedonic methods. Pesticide potency, hazardous characteristics, and persistence in the environment are used as quality characteristics. Separate hedonic functions are estimated for pesticides by end‐use (crop) and major pesticide class. Price indices are aggregated using chained Tornqvist indices. Adjusted quantity indices are computed using pesticide expenditures. The adjusted price index rose steadily, reaching in 1992 around 2.5 times the level of 1968. Pesticide use at constant quality peaked in 1981 at a level substantially higher than the peak reached by the unadjusted index.