bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hysteresis and the Shortage of Agricultural Labor
Authors: Richards Timothy J. , Patterson Paul M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractFruit and vegetable growers often allege a shortage of agricultural workers, but in a review of the H2A nonimmigrant guestworker program the General Accounting Office claims that no such shortage exists. The apparent shortage may be due to workers that are in the labor force but do not choose to take agricultural jobs. According to real options theory, when nonagricultural jobs are uncertain, workers require added incentive to invest in sectoral migration. Estimates of an arbitrage model in monthly Washington state wage data show the labor‐shortage probability to be far greater than the probability of a surplus.
Returns to Public Investments in Agriculture with Imperfect Downstream Competition
Authors: Hamilton Stephen F. , Sunding David 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA multiple‐market framework is developed to measure the size and distribution of research benefits. The model considers an upstream raw product market and a downstream finished productmarket and allows for imperfect competition in the intermediary food‐processing sector. A central conceptual result is derived: an increase in raw product output is a sufficient condition for cost‐reducing innovations in the farm sector to increase social welfare. A special case of linear farm supply and isoelastic processing production functions reveals that necessary conditions for welfare to decrease are a convergent farm supply shift, an oligopsonistic upstream market configuration, and increasing returns‐to‐scale processing technology.
Tenure Security, Investment and Productivity in Gambian Agriculture: A Generalized Probit Analysis
Authors: Hayes Joseph , Roth Michael , Zepeda Lydia 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe determinants of investment, input use, and productivity are investigated under customary tenure in peri‐urban areas of the Gambia. A structural model is specified to investigate the role of tenure security on farm investments and input use and thereby on yield. Testing of the structural form hypotheses requires simultaneous equation estimation. Containing both continuous and discrete endogenous variables, the model is estimated as a feasible generalized least squares Amemiya's generalized probit. Some of the positive relationships hypothesized between tenure security, investment, and yields are corroborated. In particular, tenure security is found to enhance long‐term investments, which in turn enhance yields.
Hedonic Cost Models and the Pricing of Milk Components
Authors: Buccola Steven , Iizuka Yoko 
Published: July 2006

AbstractTo assess likely producer response to milk price reform, we examine the technology of protein, butterfat, and fluid carrier production on 1,924 U.S. dairy farms. A variant of a hedonic cost model is proposed in which the output aggregator is expressed as a function of total output and of the percentage concentrations of its components. Dairy farmers have responded rationally to artificially low protein prices. Due to the cow's appetite limit, farmers operate in stage I of feed‐to‐milk production functions; yet protein's marginal cost rises sharply with protein output. Only modest substitutability is evident among feed inputs or milk component outputs.
Reducing Yield Variation in Peach Orchards by Geographic Scattering
Authors: Davis Stephen B. , Price T. Jeffrey , Wetzstein Michael E. , Rieger Mark W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAssuming a declining correlation in yields as distance between pairs of orchards increases, yield variability in peach production may be reduced by increasing distances among orchards. As a measure of yield variability that avoids possible bias resulting from orchard‐specific effects, a stochastic production function is estimated. Results support the assumption that a declining correlation between yields exists as distance increases. For every mile further apart, the correlation in yield declines 2.28%.
Potential Demand for Drought Insurance in Burkina Faso and Its Determinants
Authors: Sakurai Takeshi , Reardon Thomas 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe objectives of this paper are twofold: (a) to estimate demand for formal drought insurance using farm household data in Burkina Faso and (b) to find what determines insurance demand. The following findings are salient. First, effective demand is found in all zones, which implies inadequacies in households' current self‐insurance strategies. Second, there is much heterogeneity in the strategies to self‐insure even within zones. Third, the expectation of public food aid decreases demand for drought insurance, which suggests that food aid is causing moral hazard. Fourth, households with large livestock holdings can reduce the size of herd by substituting drought insurance for livestock holdings.
Priorities and Preferences in the Allocation of MPP Branded Funds to Agribusiness Firms
Authors: Adams Barry H. , Davis George C. , Jensen Kim L. , Jakus Paul M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn 1993, legislation was passed that required the USDA to give priority in the allocation of its Market Promotion Program (MPP) branded funds to small firms, new‐to‐export firms, and firms facing exporting problems in foreign markets. However, the MPP is still criticized in the popular press and by the General Accounting Office as favoring large and existing exporting firms that do not face exporting problems. Using a unique firm‐level data set, the effectiveness of the 1993 legislation is evaluated by analyzing the allocation of MPP funds according to firm characteristics and the priorities set in the 1993 legislation.
Asymmetric Adjustment of Dynamic Factors at the Firm Level
Authors: Lansink Alfons Oude , Stefanou Spiro E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis study provides a framework for consistent estimation of a dynamic dual model of investment for the case where data reveal zero and nonzero investments. The threshold model that is developed maintains that investments are zero if the shadow value of machinery is between a lower and an upper threshold. Separate equations are estimated for the investment and the disinvestment regime. A significant difference between the parameters of the investment and disinvestment equations is found. The stock of machinery adjusts slower toward the long‐run equilibrium target during an investment regime than during a contracting regime.
A Soil‐Quality Index and Its Relationship to Efficiency and Productivity Growth Measures: Two Decompositions
Authors: Jaenicke Edward C. , Lengnick Laura L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article reconciles two notions of soil‐quality indexes with the economic concepts of technical efficiency and productivity growth. An example uses data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's experimental fields in Maryland and data envelopment analysis techniques to estimate a soil‐quality index consistent with the notion of technical efficiency. Common regression techniques shed additional light on the role of individual soil‐quality properties in a very restricted linear approximation of the estimated soil‐quality index.
Using Cross‐Section Data to Adjust Technical Efficiency Indexes Estimated With Panel Data
Authors: Álvarez Antonio M. , González Eduardo 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article proposes a procedure to incorporate cross‐sectional information in the estimation of technical efficiency indexes obtained from panel data. A conventional index of technical efficiency is estimated in a first stage using panel data on inputs and outputs. The individual effects from the first stage are then adjusted using cross‐sectional information, obtaining a corrected technical efficiency index. The model is applied to a panel of eighty‐two Spanish dairy farms, where only cross‐sectional information about input quality is available. An analysis of variance is performed between some variables and both the corrected and the uncorrected indexes, finding that the conclusions derived from the two analyses are different.
Price Information and Bidding Behavior in Repeated Second‐Price Auctions
Authors: List John A. , Shogren Jason F. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractExamining panel data on bidding behavior in over forty second‐price auction markets with repeated trials, we observe that (i) posted prices influence the behavior of the median naive bidder; (ii) posted prices do not affect the behavior of the median experienced bidder or the bidder for familiar goods; and (iii) anticipated strategic behavior wanes after two trials. The results suggest that while affiliation might exist in auctions for new goods, the repeated trial design with nonprice information removes the correlation of values and provides the experience that bidders need to understand the market mechanism.
Education in Production: Measuring Labor Quality and Management
Authors: Yang Dennis Tao 
Published: July 2006

AbstractProduction function studies have used the education of the head of the household or the average education of farm workers to assess the contribution of schooling to farm efficiency. In this paper I critically examine the information content of these measures by developing a team production model which suggests separate education measures to approximate labor quality and managerial skills. Empirical analyses based on Chinese farm household data show that the new measures are statistically superior to the existing alternatives. There is evidence of centralized decision making on the farms where the highest schooling contributes the most to production efficiency.
New Evidence on Agricultural Commodity Return Performance under Time‐Varying Risk
Authors: Bjornson Bruce , Carter Colin A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractHolding commodity stocks is a major investment that commodity producers, merchants, and processors must continually manage. In this paper we study the conditional risk and return characteristics of commodities. We use a generalized method of moments estimator in a model of conditional expected returns under a single‐beta asset pricing theory framework, allowing both the risk premium and the beta to vary with time. We find that expected returns to commodities are lower during times of high interest rates, expected inflation, and economic growth. This suggests that commodities provide a natural hedge against business cycles.
Agricultural Policies in the Presence of Distorting Taxes
Authors: Parry Ian W.H. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article analyzes how distortionary factor taxes affect the welfare impacts of production subsidies, production quotas, acreage controls, subsidies for acreage reductions, and cash transfers to farmers. Pre‐existing taxes substantially raise the costs of all these policies. These additional costs reflect the welfare losses from financing certain policies by distortionary taxes. They also reflect interactions with factor markets caused by changes in the costs of producing agricultural output. Previous studies ignore the latter types of effect. Consequently they significantly overstate the costs of production subsidies and understate the costs of production quotas, acreage controls, and subsidies for acreage reductions.
Modeling Recreation Demand in a Poisson System of Equations: An Analysis of the Impact of International Exchange Rates
Authors: Englin Jeffrey , Boxall Peter , Watson David 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe extend count data travel cost modeling by developing a utility theoretic system of semilogarithmic recreation demand equations. The restrictions required to make the system utility theoretic are applied during estimation. The model is applied to individual wilderness recreation trips in a system of four Canadian wilderness parks. The resulting demand system is used to examine the impacts of changing U.S.‐Canadian currency exchange rates on participation and welfare of U.S. recreationists.
Option Values to Conservation and Agricultural Price Policy: Application to Terrace Construction in Kenya
Authors: Winter‐Nelson Alex , Amegbeto Koffi 
Published: July 2006

AbstractPolicy reforms to liberalize agricultural markets in developing countries are likely to influence both the level and the variability of prices. While considerable attention has been given to the impact of changes in price level on soil and water conservation, there has been relatively little analysis of the role of price variability in conservation decisions. We present a model of investment under uncertainty to analyze the effect of both level and variability of prices on the decision to invest in conservation. The model is applied to adoption of fanya juu terraces in eastern Kenya.
Are Crop Yields Normally Distributed?
Authors: Just Richard E. , Weninger Quinn 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe evidence for nonnormality of crop yields is reassessed. Three methodological problems are identified in typical yield distribution analyses: (i) misspecification of the nonrandom components of yield distributions, (ii) missreporting of statistical significance, and (iii) use of aggregate timeseries (ATS) data to represent farm‐level yield distributions. One or more of these problems infect virtually all evidence against normality to date. The positive contribution of the article is a set of principles that must be followed in any valid investigation of yield normality.
Captive Supplies, Market Conduct, and the Open‐Market Price
Authors: Azzam Azzeddine 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper I examine the anatomy of the price captive‐supplies relationship to ascertain if some of the interpretations offered in the empirical literature are defensible. Gardner's one‐product, two‐input model is extended to consider a partially integrated oligopsonistic industry. The main result is that, although the empirical relationship between captive supplies and the price received by independent producers is negative, it may or may not be attributed to noncompetitive conduct. Hence, for an econometric model to detect what type of conduct the relationship reflects, more structural detail is needed than what so far has been provided in the literature.
Coronary artery rupture during balloon angioplasty, rescued with localized thrombin injection and coil embolization
Authors: Fischell Tim A. , Carter Andrew J. , Ashraf Kamal , Birdsall Joseph , Smoker Sandy 
Published: July 2006

AbstractDistal intracoronary thrombin injection has been used successfully to seal very small, guidewire related, coronary artery perforations during percutaneous coronary intervention. This case report expands upon this therapeutic approach, by describing the use of high dose distal thrombin injection for the successful (non‐surgical) management of balloon‐induced coronary artery rupture, with an intrapericardial leak. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Design and Synthesis of Human Branched‐Chain Amino Acid Aminotransferase Inhibitors for Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Authors: Hu Lain‐Yen , et al. et al. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 200 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract, please click on HTML or PDF.
Microscopic theory of quantum dot luminescence spectra
Authors: Gies Christopher , Baer Norman , Wiersig Jan , Jahnke Frank 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe employ a microscopic semiconductor theory to study the frequency‐resolved stationary photoluminescence spectrum of an initially excited quantum dot system. Carrier‐carrier correlations are included beyond the Hartree‐Fock level, and the influence of these correlations on the spectrum is investigated. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Equilibration of two‐dimensional excitons in an in‐plane harmonic potential
Authors: Vörös Z. , Snoke D. W. , Pfeiffer L. , West K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we report on the equilibration dynamics of spatially indirect 2D excitons in a coupled quantum well structure, trapped by an in‐plane harmonic potential. We use the size of the exciton cloud as a measure of the temperature of particles. We show that the repulsive exciton‐exciton interaction plays a major role in the time‐evolution of the cloud size, and that at low lattice temperatures the exciton temperature is higher than that of the lattice, even long after equilibrium has obviously been reached. In the final part of the paper we demonstrate how our results can also be used for determining the absolute exciton density. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Terahertz photoconductivity in GaAs/AlGaAs and HgTe/HgCdTe quantum Hall devices
Authors: Stellmach C. , Bonk R. , Vasilyev Y.B. , Hirsch A. , Hein G. , Becker C.R. , Nachtwei G. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe present measurements of the THz photoconductivity on different quantum Hall systems. GaAs/AlGaAs and HgTe/HgCdTe (MCT) heterostructures with Hall‐bar and Corbino geometry are investigated. A recipe for the preparation of metallic Corbino contacts on MCT is shown. The system is excited by the radiation of a p ‐Ge laser (tunable from 1.7 to 2.5 THz) and the photoresponse (PR) is measured versus the magnetic field B . We observe enhanced PR around integer filling factors (bolometric PR) and cyclotron resonance (CR) effects. Because of the lower effective mass in MCT, the CR in this system appears at a relatively low magnetic field (≈2 T). This is appropriate for possible applications. Finally we present time resolved measurements of the PR on the GaAs system. We find relaxation times from about 10 to over 200 ns, which depend on the geometry, the applied source‐drain voltage and the on mobility of the sample. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
The post‐thrombotic syndrome: progress and pitfalls
Authors: Kahn Susan R. 
Published: July 2006

SummaryThe post‐thrombotic syndrome (PTS) develops in up to one half of patients after symptomatic deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and is the most common complication of DVT. Typical features of PTS include chronic pain, swelling, heaviness, oedema and skin changes in the affected limb. In severe cases, venous ulcers may develop. The frequency of PTS is likely to be reduced by preventing DVT with the use of effective thromboprophylaxis in high‐risk patients and settings and by minimising the risk of ipsilateral DVT recurrence. Use of compression stockings for 2 years after DVT appears to reduce the incidence and severity of PTS but issues remain regarding their use and effectiveness. Future research should focus on elucidating the pathophysiology and risk factors for PTS, assessing the safety and effectiveness of catheter‐directed thrombolysis to prevent PTS and evaluating the optimal use of compression stockings to prevent and treat PTS. In addition, new therapies to treat PTS should be sought and evaluated.
Yersinia pestis YrbH is a multifunctional protein required for both 3‐deoxy‐d‐manno‐oct‐2‐ulosonic acid biosynthesis and biofilm formation
Authors: Tan Li , Darby Creg 
Published: July 2006

SummaryBubonic plague is transmitted by fleas whose feeding is blocked by a Yersinia pestis biofilm in the digestive tract. Y. pestis also block feeding of Caenorhabditis elegans by forming a biofilm on the nematode head, making the nematode an experimentally tractable surrogate for fleas to study plague transmission. Arabinose 5‐phosphate isomerase (API), encoded by Y. pestis yrbH, catalyses the conversion of ribulose 5‐phosphate into arabinose 5‐phosphate (A5P), the first committed step in the 3‐deoxy‐d‐manno‐oct‐2‐ulosonic acid (Kdo) biosynthesis pathway. Here we show that Y. pestis YrbH is a multifunctional protein required for both Kdo biosynthesis and biofilm formation on C. elegans. The YrbH protein contains four functional components: biofilm‐related region 1 (B1), a sugar isomerase domain (SIS), biofilm‐related region 2 (B2) and a cystathionine β‐synthase domain pair (CBS). B1, SIS and B2 are all required for API function, but any of the three is sufficient for a biofilm‐related function. The CBS domain appears to negatively regulate the biofilm‐related function.
Towards a Personal Knowledge of Economic History
Authors: Hill Lewis E. , von Ende Eleanor T. 
Published: July 2006

Abstract. Our intellectual heritage from the Polanyi Brother: Michael, the scientist‐philosopher, and karl, the economic historian, is explicated. Michael Polanyi's Post‐critical philosophy of personal Knowledge is explained and analyzed. Michael Polanyi applied his philosophy to develop a powerful historical epistemology and methodology. The classic economic history. The Great Transformation, by Karl Polanyi is analyzed and interpreted as a prototypical example of a historical work which utilized and applied Michael Polanyi's historical epistemology and methodology. It is concluded that the Polanyi Brothers have developed a powerful historical epistemology and have applied their methodology to expand historical knowledge beyond the limits of the “new”economic history.
Adolph Löwe's Political Economics: Instrumentalism as Enlightened Intervention
Authors: Rima Ingrid H 
Published: July 2006

Abstract Adolph Lowe's work was dedicated chiefly to developing “political economics” as a foundation for economic theory and instrumental analysis to direct a politically free economy along the path of economic growthThis paper argues that the public management inherent in instrumentalism is not likely to be acceptable in the U S or the U K, except in national economic emergency Yet, the formerly planned economies of central and eastern Europe, whose history is one of stringent control, may have a political preference for a Lowe type of instrumentalism to avoid the results of uncontrolled market processesThe reception accorded Lowe's political economics by economists, as members of a professional community, reflects their methodological preferences and policy views Those who are skeptical of the market clearing capability of the price mechanism, and explain capitalist development as an ongoing historical process, are more likely to be appreciative of instrumental analysis as a policy tool
The American Pot and the Chinese Kettle: Joining Forces for Human Rights
Authors: Montgomery John D. 
Published: July 2006

Abstract NO nation is a virtuoso when it comes to human rights performance In its representations to China, the United States takes stronger action against violations of “intellectual property” rights (in the form of CDs and trade marks) than against violations of freedom of speech and person For its part, China complains about economic inequality in the U.S., but justifies Tiananmen Square with the elusive claim that social harmony is a greater good than free speech.Both sides believe they have a commitment to human rights Each has something to say to the other, but neither is listening very hard. This article suggests what they might listen for first, the legitimacy of claims of both sides in light of the emerging international consensus on human rights; second, the complaints that each side registers against the other on the basis of those claims, and finally, the likely influence each side can exercise on the other through international actions
On the Analytics of Wicksell: A Comment on Abiakpor
Authors: Aschheim Joseph , Tavlas George S. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThree essential concepts of Wicksell's contributions are probed. (1) Wicksell's commingling of a barter economy with a money economy led to a logical pitfall in his cumulative‐process paradigm. (2) Wicksell sought to deduce a cumulative process involving price‐level movements from an economy without money and, therefore, without a general price level. (3) Wicksell's idealized pure credit system can be logically reconciled with his law of the demand for money creating its own supply.