bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Profit Function Approximations and Duality Applications to Agriculture
Authors: Thompson Gary D. , Langworthy Mark 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMonte Carlo simulations of profit functions indicate that flexible functional forms may be ranked nearly the same with respect to Allen‐Uzawa partial substitution elasticities or price and fixed factor elasticities. Flexible functional form approximations of output price elasticities are generally worse than approximations of input price or fixed factor elasticities. Minflex Laurent functional forms did not appear to approximate underlying elasticities any better than did their translog and generalized Leontief counterparts.
A Nonparametric Analysis of Agricultural Technology
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Cox Thomas L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractU.S. agricultural technology and technical change are analyzed nonparametrically under cost minimization and profit maximization. Based on annual data for 1948–83, various separability hypotheses concerning the aggregate production function for U.S. agriculture are investigated. The proposed nonparametric approach also provides some insights into the nature of technical change.
Arbitrage Pricing, Capital Asset Pricing, and Agricultural Assets
Authors: Arthur Louise M. , Carter Colin A. , Abizadeh Fay 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA new asset pricing model, the arbitrage pricing theory, has been developed as an alternative to the capital asset pricing model. The arbitrage pricing theory model is used to analyze the relationship between risk and return for agricultural assets. The major conclusion is that the arbitrage pricing theory results support previous capital asset pricing model findings that the estimated risk associated with agricultural assets is low. This conclusion is more robust for the arbitrage pricing theory application because it provides a better explanation of the relationship between risk and returns than does the capital asset pricing model.
Dynamic Input Decisions in Econometric Production Models
Authors: Antle John M. , Hatchett Stephen A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis study develops an econometric methodology for estimating dynamic production models with sequential intermediate input decisions. Two problems arise in the study of intermediate inputs: intermediate input decisions may be endogenous to final output, and intermediate inputs are likely to be correlated with each other and other variables, making identification and estimation difficult. The econometric model measures the productivity of intermediate inputs, taking into account the farmer's sequential input decisions and input productivity differences during the growing season. A multistage Cobb‐Douglas model of wheat response to irrigation water is used to illustrate the proposed methods.
Food Pricing Policy in Developing Countries: Bias against Agriculture or for Urban Consumers?
Authors: Byerlee Derek , Sain Gustavo 
Published: July 2006

AbstractPrice policy discrimination against agricultural producers, in order to provide cheap food for urban consumers, has been widely cited in development forums as a cause of agricultural stagnation. Evidence is presented that suggests no consistent pattern of discrimination against producers for a major food commodity, wheat. However, consumer subsidies and trade policies have reduced bread prices to urban consumers in many countries. Price data from the early 1980s are assembled for thirty‐one developing countries. Nominal protection coefficients for producers and consumers at official and corrected exchange rates and wheat‐fertilizer price ratios are estimated for each country.
A Variance Components Approach to Food Grain Market Integration in Northern Nigeria
Authors: Delgado Christopher L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA variance components methodology is developed for joint tests on a sample of time series of prices for seasonal differences in the price integration of markets. The approach requires a statistically adequate number of observations for each market within seasons characterized by constancy of transactions costs among markets. The model is applied to eighteen months of weekly grain prices for twenty‐two villages in northern Nigeria. Results suggest that markets are not well integrated in the six months covering the harvest period. Implications are drawn for research on market performance in the region.
Agricultural Price Policy in General Equilibrium Models: Results and Comparisons
Authors: de Janvry Alain , Sadoulet Elisabeth 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA number of alternative policies toward agricultural prices, food subsidies, and intersectoral allocation of investment are analyzed with computable general equilibrium models for six countries. The models generally allow us to trace the intersectoral and intertemporal growth effects of these policies as well as their income distribution effects across social groups. The results obtained are shown to be eventually quite different from those derived from partial equilibrium and multimarket approaches. Sensitivity analysis to alternative specifications of the mechanism of wage determination shows that the real income effects of price policies are critically dependent upon the particular theory of wage determination used.
Time and the Recreational Demand Model
Authors: Bockstael Nancy E. , Strand Ivar E. , Hanemann W. Michael 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper, a theoretically consistent approach to including time costs in recreational demand models is developed. The demand model is conditional on the recreationist's labor market situation. For individuals at corner solutions in the labor market, utility maximization is subject to two constraints, leading to a demand function with travel costs and travel time as independent variables. With interior solutions in the labor market, time is valued at the wage rate and combined with travel costs to produce one “full cost” variable. In an illustration, welfare measures based on the new model are estimated for a sample of sportfishermen.
The Production Structure and Demand for Labor in Postwar Japanese Agriculture, 1952–82
Authors: Kuroda Yoshimi 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper analyzes the factor relations of postwar Japanese agriculture to identify the factors which explain a significant decline in labor in the agricultural sector. A nonhomothetic and Hicks‐non‐neutral translog cost function is estimated. The results of the decomposition analysis based on the estimates show that biased technical changes and nonhomotheticity together with price‐induced factor substitutions play an important role in easing the transfer of agricultural labor to the nonagricultural sectors. The results also suggest that the biased technical change is consistent with the Hicksian‐induced innovation hypothesis.
The Farm‐Retail Price Spread in an Imperfectly Competitive Food Industry
Authors: Holloway Garth J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractGardner's popular model of perfect competition in the marketing sector is extended to a conjectural‐variations oligopoly with endogenous entry. Revising Gardner's comparative statics on the “farm‐retail price ratio,” tests of hypotheses about food industry conduct are derived. Using data from a recent article by Wohlgenanr, which employs Gardner's framework, tests are made of the validity of his maintained hypothesis—that the food industries are perfectly competitive. No evidence is found of departures from competition in the output markets of the food industries of eight commodity groups: (a) beef and veal, (b) pork, (c) poultry, (d) eggs, (e) dairy, (f) processed fruits and vegetables, (g) fresh fruit. and (h) fresh vegetables.
Food‐Pricing Policy in Developing Countries: Further Evidence on Cereal Producer Prices
Authors: Taylor Daphne S. , Phillips Truman P. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractRecently, two independent studies have produced contradicting evidence regarding the extent of price discrimination in developing countries. The objective of this study is to reexamine the evidence of direct and indirect distortion in cereal producer prices. Nominal protection coefficients for wheat, maize, and rice are calculated for fifty‐one developing countries spanning the period 1980–86. Black market exchange rates are used to adjust the nominal protection coefficients to reflect the indirect effect of price interventions through exchange rate policies. The results confirm the conventional wisdom that, although developing countries tend to protect domestic cereal producers, taxation caused by overvaluation of official exchange rates exceeds any direct price protection offered domestic producers.
Modeling Interdependence: An Approach to Simulation and Elicitation
Authors: Fackler Paul L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA method for eliciting probability information about jointly dependent random variables and incorporating that information directly in a method for generating simulated random variables is developed. The method is particularly useful in situations in which information on several interdependent variables is required. Applications in agriculture include whole‐farm planning with uncertainty about multiple crop yields and prices.
Agricultural Trade Liberalization and Low Income Countries: A General Equilibrium‐Multimarket Approach
Authors: Sadoulet Elisabeth , de Janvry Alain 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIntegrated multimarket‐general‐equilibrium models are constructed to analyze the impact on poor cereal importers of rising world prices following OECD trade liberalization. Archetypes contrast African countries in which cereal imports are not competitive with domestic production (Africa I) to African and Asian countries where they are competitive. Results show rising food import bills and exchange rate depreciation in Africa I and the opposite in the other two regions. Policy implications include promoting agricultural exports from Africa I and promoting food crops for import substitution in the other regions. Food aid needed to shelter the poor during the transition period is calculated.
Solving Empirical Bioeconomic Models: A Rangeland Management Application
Authors: Standiford Richard B. , Howitt Richard E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn empirical bioeconomic model was developed for private ranches conducting firewood, cattle, and hunting enterprises on California's hardwood rangelands. Hunting, forage, cattle, and oak firewood production functions were derived. Nonlinear optimal control was used to solve for two state and four control variables to give optimal time pathways for oak density and cattle stocking. Risk was considered through use of chance constraints, rainfall variability, and price expectations. Commercial hunting is shown to be the dominant economic value on these rangelands. Inclusion of stochastics shifts production away from cattle to less risky firewood and hunting enterprises.
Inter‐Firm Differences in Fed Cattle Prices in the Southern Plains
Authors: Ward Clement E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractPooled cross‐section time‐series data were used to assess inter‐firm differences in fed cattle prices paid by southern plains meatpackers during June 1989. Significant price differences were found among packers, even after accounting for numerous factors affecting fed cattle value. Some buyers paid higher prices and some lower prices than did one of the three largest packers. As a group, the Big Three firms paid lower prices than did smaller firms, both in the southern plains as a whole and in three of its subregions.
End‐Use Performance Uncertainty and Competition in International Wheat Markets
Authors: Wilson William W. , Preszler Todd 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe input characteristic model (ICM) is expanded in this paper to account for technical coefficient uncertainty. The model is used to analyze effects of price and quality on competition in the U.K. wheat import market. Results are used to identify critical quality characteristics and impacts of technical coefficient uncertainty on import demand. The expected values for most characteristics of U.S. wheat have greater variances than those of Canadian wheat. Results show that both the characteristic's level and variance are important in determining import market shares.
Welfare Effects of the National Pseudorabies Eradication Program
Authors: Ebel Eric D. , Hornbaker Robert H. , Nelson Carl H. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA welfare methodology is adapted to evaluate market and distributional effects of a completed pseudorabies eradication effort in the U.S. The model predicts small market effects from pseudorabies eradication. Welfare analysis suggests that, in states generating relatively large hog numbers, producers will experience a net gain from eradication in all scenarios considered, yet in smaller hog producing areas individual hog operations may lose producer surplus. Consumer surplus changes vary by scenario but are always positive. In general, the national pseudorabies eradication program is shown to be economically efficient.
The Effects of Management Decisions on Agricultural Bank Failures
Authors: Belongia Michael T. , Gilbert R. Alton 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe assertion that local economic conditions have been responsible for the failures of large numbers of agricultural banks is investigated by pairing solvent and failed banks within rural counties and examining whether balance sheet items alone explain differences in the probability of failure for the two groups of banks. Estimation of a probit model indicates that higher ratios of loans to assets and agricultural to total loans were associated with higher probabilities of failure; banks with higher capital ratios and those affiliated with multibank holding companies had lower probabilities of failure.
Education and Innovation Adoption in Agriculture: Evidence from Hybrid Rice in China
Authors: Lin Justin Yifu 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper uses the diffusion of F1 hybrid rice as a case for examining the effects of education on the adoption of new technology in China. A simple behavioral model that treats the adoption of hybrid rice as a portfolio selection problem is presented. The implications of the model are tested with farm‐level data collected from a sample of 500 households in Hunan Province. The results from a dichotomous probit model and a two‐limit tobit model are consistent with the hypothesis that education has a positive impact on the adoption of new technology.
Production, Hedging, and Speculative Decisions with Options and Futures Markets
Authors: Lapan Harvey , Moschini Giancarlo , Hanson Steven D. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper analyzes production, hedging, and speculative decisions when both futures and options can be used in an expected utility model of price and basis uncertainty. When futures and option prices are unbiased, optimal hedging requires only futures (options are redundant). Options are used together with futures as speculative tools when market prices are perceived as biased. Straddles are used to speculate on beliefs about price volatility and to hedge the futures position used to speculate on beliefs about the expected value of the futures price. Mean‐variance analysis in general is not consistent with expected utility when options are allowed.
The Silence of the Lambdas: A Test of the Almost Ideal and Rotterdam Models
Authors: Alston Julian M. , Chalfant James A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractDuring the past decade, the Linear Approximate (LA) Almost Ideal Demand System and the Rotterdam model have been by agricultural economists as the demand systems of choice in most applications. The apparent explanation is that the two models are both (second‐order) locally flexible and compatible with demand theory, they have identical data requirements and are equally parsimonious with respect to parameters, and both are linear in the parameters. While the two models are thus equally attractive in most respects, and indeed appear very similar in structure, they lead to different results in some applications. This article develops a test of each against the other. In an illustrative application to U.S. meat demand, the Almost Ideal model is rejected while the Rotterdam model is not.
An Empirical Analysis of the Demand for Multiple Peril Crop Insurance
Authors: Goodwin Barry K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractKnowledge of factors affecting farmer purchases of crop insurance is essential for evaluating the soundness and profitability of crop insurance programs. Despite this importance, the demand for crop insurance has received limited empirical attention. The present paper reports on an empirical assessment of the demand for crop insurance by Iowa corn producers. Adverse selection in the insured pool suggests that producers with differing levels of loss‐risk have different demand elasticities. Loss‐risk is included in the empirical analysis and is found to influence the elasticity of demand. Results show average demand elasticities of about −0.32 for relative insured acres and −0.73 for liability per planted acre. Implications for the actuarial soundness of the industry are provided.
Farm Consumption and Liquidity Constraints
Authors: Langemeier Michael R. , Patrick George F. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis study examines whether farm family consumption is liquidity‐constrained. Results, using 1976 to 1990 data for groups of Illinois and Kansas farms, indicate that consumption behavior is not liquidity‐constrained. Analysis of 207 Kansas farms in 1989 and 1990 provides similar results. These results are in contrast to findings for nonfarm families, and support the validity of using the life cycle‐permanent income hypothesis for farm level modeling and analysis.
Productivity Effects of Indigenous Land Tenure Systems in Sub‐Saharan Africa
Authors: Place Frank , Hazell Peter 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article uses household survey data from Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda to test if the indigenous land rights systems in sub‐Saharan Africa are a constraint on agricultural productivity. Rights which farmers hold over individual parcels of land vary widely, and are in many cases surprisingly privatized. Yet with few exceptions, land rights are not found to be a significant factor in determining investments in land improvements, use of inputs, access to credit, or the productivity of land. These results cast doubt on the need for ambitious land registration and titling programs at this time.
Intraseasonal Demand for Fall Potatoes under Rational Expectations
Authors: Miranda Mario J. , Glauber Joseph W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn iterative numerical strategy combining maximum likelihood methods and stochastic‐dynamic programming is used to estimate a dynamic nonlinear rational expectations model of the U.S. fall potato market. The model captures the essential processes governing the intraseasonal dynamics of potato consumption and storage, including the impact of price expectations on stockholding decisions. The model is used to analyze the temporal pattern of demand for fall potatoes.
Decision Rules for the Dynamic Animal Feeding Problem
Authors: Burt Oscar R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractUnder a criterion of maximum expected present value, dynamic programming is used to derive sequential decision rules that give feed rations as a function of animal weight and indicate the critical weight at which to sell a batch of animals. These rules are adaptable to short‐term random changes in prices of inputs and outputs, and typically require solution of a single equation at a given weight. A new stochastic model is introduced that encompasses both the infinite sequence and single batch models found in the literature; the infinite chain of batches is randomly terminated after each batch is marketed.
Impacts of Liberalizing Trade in the World Rice Market
Authors: Cramer Gail L. , Wailes Eric J. , Shui Shangnan 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA multi‐product quadratic programming model is used to investigate impacts of trade liberalization on the world rice market, recognizing product differentiation and allowing substitution among various rice types and qualities. Model simulations predict a large increase in both trade volumes and prices for all rice types and a significant welfare gain for most rice exporters and importers. Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, and Brazil would be the major importers. Trade liberalization would increase total U.S. export revenue by 109%. Movement to free trade by Japan has significant effects on world rice trade and on Japanese rice production.
Sectoral Implications of Farm Program Modifications
Authors: Chang Ching‐Cheng , McCarl Bruce A. , Mjelde James W. , Richardson James W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe overall and distributional effects of farm programs and selected revisions are examined using a mathematical programming sector model. The model incorporates market distortions caused by price supports, target prices, program participation, deficiency payments and marketing loans. Current farm programs are found to increase producer prices, depress consumer prices, and in turn result in excess production and higher consumption and exports. Domestic and foreign consumers as well as domestic producers are subsidized by farm programs. Social deadweight loss occurs as government payments exceed welfare benefits received by consumers and producers. Society as a whole benefits from reductions in program provisions.
Testing Hypotheses of Functional Structure: Some Rules for Determining Flexibility of Restricted Production Models
Authors: Driscoll Paul , Alwang Jeff , McGuirk Anya 
Published: July 2006

AbstractRules are proposed to help determine whether a production function maintains flexibility under parametric restrictions required to impose homogeneity, homotheticity, and forms of separability. After imposing restrictions and applying the rules, many second‐order “flexible” forms are found to be more inflexible than formerly believed.
Another Look at Returns to Agricultural and Nonagricultural Assets
Authors: Bjornson Bruce , Innes Robert 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper presents econometric tests of whether mean returns on agricultural assets have been higher or lower than those on comparable‐risk assets in nonagricultural capital markets. The tests are based on alternate maintained hypotheses that the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) or the arbitrage pricing theory (APT) characterize nonagricultural asset returns. Results indicate that mean returns to farmer‐operators have been lower than those to owners of comparable‐risk nonagricultural assets and that mean returns to farmland owners have been higher than those to owners of comparable‐risk nonagricultural assets.
Modeling Supply Response with Implicit Revenue Functions: A Policy‐Switching Procedure for Rice
Authors: Chen Dean T. , Ito Shoichi 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn econometric method of estimating implicit revenue with a policy switching mechanism is proposed for supply response analysis. The model develops important linkages between farm program instruments and commodity market equilibrium and allows evaluation of supply response decisions under conditions of major policy shifts. The econometric procedure developed here is applied to the U.S. rice sector to determine program compliance/noncompliance decisions under three alternative rice program periods. A change in farm prices was found to affect significantly producers' net returns and participation rate. Results indicate price impacts on acreage planted are inelastic for program participants but elastic for nonparticipants.