bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Information Effects in Contingent Markets
Authors: Bergstrom John C. , Stoll John R. , Randall Alan 
Published: July 2006

AbstractInformation “bias” in contingent markets is poorly understood. In this paper, testable hypotheses concerning beneficial contingent market information effects are developed conceptually. Perspective information and relative expenditure information were expected to increase comprehension and increase bids. Provision cost information was expected to counteract free‐riding behavior and also increase bids. Hypothesis tests using experimental markets suggested that each information type induced small, statistically insignificant bid increases. However, the combined effect of the three information types induced a desirable, statistically significant increase in bids. This result supports the contention that not all contingent market information effects are “biases.”
Nonstructural Risk Attitude Estimation
Authors: Antle John M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper presents an econometric approach to risk attitude estimation that does not require joint estimation of the structure of the firm's technology and input decision rules. The nonstructural approach replaces optimal input choice with the assumption that farmers optimally manage their portfolios of productive activities. By thus shifting the focus from the detailed production decisions of the farm manager to the net returns of the whole farm operation, the modeling problem is simplified. The nonstructural approach is used to estimate risk attitudes in three Indian villages. The results are compared to previous experimental and econometric estimates from the same villages.
Land Ownership Security and Farm Investment in Thailand
Authors: Feder Gershon , Onchan Tongroj 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe article discusses the impact of land ownership security on farm investment and land improvements. Ownership security enhances capital formation by providing better incentives and improved access to credit. Data from three provinces in Thailand are used to support theoretical propositions and estimate the impact of ownership security. Econometric analysis shows that in two provinces, ownership security induces significantly higher capital/land ratios. In a third province, with a well‐developed, informal credit market, ownership security is less important and the impact on capital formation is less significant. Land‐improving investments are shown to be significantly affected by ownership security.
Cost Effectiveness and Equity Aspects of Soil Conservation Programs in a Highly Erodible Region
Authors: Young Douglas L. , Kanjo Paul L. , Walker David J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Conservation Reserve (CRP) and Conservation Compliance Programs could divide the soil conservation burden between farmers and taxpayers. In a highly erodible southeastern Washington region, however, a uniform region‐wide CRP bid cap and relaxed compliance requirements resulted in little or no projected burden for farmers in arid, less productive subregions. In contrast, farmers in a more productive subregion were projected to bear 50% or more of the costs of soil conservation. The projected government cost per ton of soil conserved also increased threefold from the most to the least productive subregion.
Some Further Evidence on the Law of One Price: The Law of One Price Still Holds
Authors: Baffes John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractInternational trade models often postulate the existence of a representative price, i.e., the price which prevails at all markets. This is known as the “Law of One Price.” In this paper, the law of one price is tested for seven commodities among four countries by explicitly considering transaction costs. The empirical evidence suggests that, in most cases, the law of one price cannot be rejected asa maintained hypothesis. Furthermore, for the remaining cases transaction costs seem to cause the failure.
Innovations on Family Farms: The Nazareth Region in Israel
Authors: Yaron Dan , Voet Hillary , Dinar Ariel 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper analyzes factors that affect innovativeness on family farms under Arab social and institutional systems in the Nazareth region in the north of Israel. The adoption of five different innovations was studied and an “index of innovativeness” was constructed. Innovativeness was found to be affected positively by risk tolerance, extension, and water quota allotment and affected negatively by the farm's land area. The latter result supports the hypothesis that a small land area provides an incentive to adopt high‐payoff, input‐intensive innovations. Innovativeness is affected by extension but not necessarily by education. This result implies that farmers with elementary school education are capable of adopting complex technologies if proper extension services are provided.
Environment‐Specific Rates and Biases of Technical Change in Agriculture
Authors: Coxhead Ian A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn developing countries, growth rates of agricultural technology exhibit wide variation across environments because of heterogeneity of land quality. Technical change analyses employing aggregate data typically capture this information very imperfectly, because observation units rarely coincide with areas of environmental uniformity. The author presents a model permitting environment‐specific variation in the rate and factor bias of technical change when information on environmental qualities is limited. An application using Philippine data reveals substantial discrepancies between stylized irrigated and nonirrigated areas in the rate and biases of technical change. Implications of these differences for employment growth and income distribution are analyzed.
Risk Sharing versus Low‐Cost Credit Systems for International Development
Authors: Krause M. A. , Deuson R. R. , Baker T. G. , Preckel P. V. , Lowenberg‐DeBoer J. , Reddy K. C. , Maliki K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractLow‐cost credit programs in developing countries have failed to achieve agricultural technology adoption goals. This research attributes the failure to the inability of poor farmers to bear the combined business and financial risks posed by adopting new technologies and develops proposals for the design of credit programs that reduce these risks. Agronomic and socioeconomic data are combined through simulation and mathematical programming to analyze problems of decision making under risk for developing countries. The results will assist in the design of new rural financial institutions conducive to the adoption of new production technologies by subsistence farmers.
On Testing the Structure of Risk Preferences in Agricultural Supply Analysis
Authors: Pope Rulon D. , Just Richard E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractRisk preferences broadly affect many economic decisions when markets are incomplete. Common representations of risk preferences are constant absolute, relative, and partial relative risk aversion. Each of these preference classes has distinct impacts on choice. An econometric test for distinguishing the class of preferences is proposed and implemented for potato supply response in Idaho. The data reject constant absolute and partial relative risk aversion and are congruent with constant relative risk aversion.
Wife's Employment, Food Expenditures, and Apparent Nutrient Intake: Evidence from Canada
Authors: Horton Susan , Campbell Cathy 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWomen's employment has important effects on the share of food in total expenditure, the share of food‐away‐from‐home in the food budget, cost per calorie, and per capita availability of twelve nutrients. Empirical results are presented using Canadian household food expenditure survey data. As expected, wife's employment increases the share of food‐away‐from‐home in the food budget. Wife's full‐time employment has a negative effect on apparent nutrient intake, not offset by the higher per capita income of such households. There are policy implications for nutrition education and nutrient content of food‐away‐from‐home.
On Nonlinear Dynamics: The Case of the Pork Cycle
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Holt Matthew T. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractNew methods for analyzing nonlinear dynamic processes are used to evaluate the hogcorn price ratio. The results present evidence of nonlinear dynamics in the pork cycle. Moreover, while GARCH processes account for some of the nonlinearities, the pork cycle is apparently characterized by more complex dynamic forms. The empirical analysis provides some evidence of the presence of chaos in the pork cycle. The results also indicate that the dynamic process generating the pork cycle is nonlinear and cannot be adequately characterized by a small number of state variables.
Are More Exports Always Better? Comparing Cash and In‐Kind Export Subsidies
Authors: Chambers Robert G. , Paarlberg Philip L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractCash and in‐kind export subsidies are compared. It is found that the ability to enhance real farm income via export subsidies is sensitive both to the form (cash vs. in‐kind) and the point of policy intervention. In‐kind subsidies of the type granted under the Export Enhancement Program can in fact reduce real‐farm income. Export subsidies are examined under three separate scenarios: no target price or nonrecourse loan programs, a target price but no nonrecourse loan program; and a nonrecourse loan program but no target price program. The presence of a nonrecourse loan program dampens the impacts of both cash and in‐kind export subsidies.
Differential Technology Adoption and Income Distribution in Pakistan: Implications for Research Resource Allocation
Authors: Renkow Mitch 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA multi‐market model of technological change in food production is used to simulate the long‐run income distributional implications of differential diffusion of currently available wheat technologies in Pakistan. The results indicate that a research agenda emphasizing technologies suited to Pakistan's favored production environments would enhance overall production without compromising inter‐group equity. It is found that when commodity prices are market determined, net consuming households are the major beneficiaries of technological change. However, in the more common situation of government intervention in markets for staple foods, net producing households are the principal beneficiaries of technological change.
Live Cattle Futures Response to Cattle on Feed Reports
Authors: Grunewald Orlen , McNulty Mark S. , Biere Arlo W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractKnight‐Ridder surveys provide prerelease expectations of the information in the Cattle on Feed reports. The Knight‐Ridder information is employed here, in accordance with the efficient markets hypothesis, to identify the unanticipated information provided in Cattle on Feed reports. Rational expectations theory is used to test Knight‐Ridder forecasts for unbiasedness, efficiency, and forecast performance. The forecasts mostly satisfy rationality conditions. Live cattle futures prices respond to unanticipated information about placements and marketings contained in Cattle on Feed releases. However, report information is absorbed quickly.
The Welfare Effects of Deregulatin Producer Prices
Authors: Fraser Robert W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA method is presented for examining producer welfare impacts of a range of deregulation proposals, including a reduction in price support. Welfare impacts take account not just of expected transfer effects but of changes in the uncertain conditions facing producers. The method is applied to deregulation proposals for the Australian wheat industry. Results suggest producers would benefit under some proposals but be made worse off under others. Supply responses also are estimated and shown to be generally smaller in percentage terms than are short‐run welfare effects. It is argued that short‐run and long‐run welfare effects are similar.
Household Inventories and Marketed Surplus in Semisubsistence Agriculture
Authors: Renkow Mitch 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA model of semisubsistence agriculture explicitly accounting for the ability of farm households to hold inventories of staple foods is developed. Comparative statics analysis highlights the potential importance of wealth effects attributable to price‐induced changes in the value of household inventories. Empirical results for three groups of households in an Indian village confirm that failure to account for household inventories leads to an overstatement of the responsiveness of both consumption demand and marketed surplus.
Agricultural Production Technologies with Systematic and Stochastic Technical Change
Authors: Fawson Chris , Shumway C. Richard , Basmann Robert L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA production system modeling tool is developed that implements recent work on autoregressive and endogenous stochastic production technologies associated with generalized Fechner‐Thurstone (GFT) optimizing functions. A GFT‐class production system is used to evaluate the empirical support for technology specifications inherent in the neoclassical theoretic structure of an agricultural production region. Little likelihood support is found for zero serial correlation, elimination of systematic technology changers from the production system, strict neoclassical production technologies, Hicks‐neutral technical change, or zero homogenous factor demand functions.
Incentives for Protecting Farm Workers from Pesticides
Authors: Davis John U. , Caswell Julie A. , Harper Carolyn R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThree regulatory incentive systems that may induce farmers to protect farmworkers from pesticide‐related harm are modeled: ex post regulation via tort liability and workers' compensation systems, respectively. and ex ante regulation (fines) by administrative agencies. An empirical application examines the farmer's decision whether to comply with required precautions as well as penalties for noncompliance. Results indicate tort liability and administrative agency regulation, as practiced, provide relatively insignificant incentives, while a workers' compensation system, if fully experiencerated, may offer a more effective incentive. Nevertheless, penalties in all cases may be too small overall to have much influence on farmers' compliance decisions.
Imperfect Competition in Multiproduct Food Industries with Application to Pear Processing
Authors: Wann Joyce J. , Richard J. Sexton 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAgricultural product markets often involve relatively few firms processing a farm product into multiple processed products. This market structure prompts concern that processing firms may exercise both oligopsony and oligopoly power. The present paper develops and applies a methodology to test simultaneously for market power in both the raw input market and multiple processed output markets. Application of the methodology to California pear processing indicates the industry has exerted power in both its farm input market and the markets for canned pears and fruit cocktail.
Technology Adoption Decisions under Irreversibility and Uncertainty: An Ex Ante Appproach
Authors: Purvis Amy , Boggess William G. , Moss Charles B. , Holt John 
Published: July 2006

AbstractEmpirical results demonstrate that uncertainty about costs and requirements for environmental compliance is an important determinant of dairy producers… investment behavior. Ex ante forecasting of how uncertainty and irreversibility are likely to affect producers… responsiveness to agricultural technologies has implications for the design of environmental policies. Simulation modeling methods are described. The empirical analysis focuses on Texas producers… propensity to adopt free‐stall dairy housing. Free‐stall investments offer advantages for both productivity‐augmentation and pollution abatement, yet uncertainty and irreversibility are obstacles to adoption. Implications of this ex ante paradigm for policy design and implementation are discussed.
Endogenous Product Differentiation and Trade Policy: Implications for the U.S. Food Industry
Authors: Lanclos D. Kent , Hertel Thomas W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe effects of tariffs on intermediate inputs and final goods in monopolistically competitive industries are assessed. Output per firm and firm numbers decline due to input tariffs. When coupled with output tariffs, the change in firm numbers is ambiguous. Numerical illustrations for U.S. food processing industries indicate the decline in firm numbers is larger than the decrease in firm output for input tariffs. Monopolistic competition strengthens the response to input tariffs compared to perfect competition. Considering the joint effects of input and output tariffs, the direction of change in total output may differ between monopolistic and perfect competition.
Efficiency Measurement in Swedish Dairy Farms: An Application of Rotating Panel Data, 1976–88
Authors: Kumbhakar Subal C. , Heshmati Almas 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we introduce a new specification of technical inefficiency in panel data models. First, the overall technical inefficiency is decomposed into a persistent component and a residual component. Second, a multistep procedure is used to estimate the parameters of the production function as well as persistent and residual technical inefficiency. The advantage of this multistep procedure is that the parameter estimates are robust to distributional assumptions on the error components. Distributional assumptions are required in the final stage to estimate the residual component of technical inefficiency. The model is used to examine technical efficiency in Swedish dairy farms during the period 1976 to 1988.
Measuring the Comparative Advantage of Agricultural Activities: Domestic Resource Costs and the Social Cost‐Benefit Ratio
Authors: Masters William A. , Winter‐Nelson Alex 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) indicator is widely used in developing countries to measure comparative advantage and guide policy reforms. In this paper we demonstrate that the DRC formula is biased against activities that rely heavily on domestic factors (land and labor), and that a simple Social Cost‐Benefit (SCB) ratio is a generally superior measure of social profitability. The SCB uses the same data as the DRC in a formula which does not distort profitability rankings. The policy significance of improved measurement is shown using data from Kenya, where the DRC overstates the relative profitability of activities using large amounts of tradable inputs.
Meatpacker Conduct in Fed Cattle Pricing: An Investigation of Oligopsony Power
Authors: Koontz Stephen R. , Garcia Philip , Hudson Michael A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMarket power in regional fed cattle markets is measured with an econometric model which links behavior of the margin between boxed beef and fed cattle prices to an economic model of conduct. A noncooperative game theoretic model suggests that for tacitly collusive pricing behavior to persist in equilibrium, oligopsonists must follow a discontinuous pricing strategy. Meatpackers pay low prices for cattle during cooperative phases and purchase cattle aggressively during noncooperative phases. Tests for cooperative/noncooperative conduct and measures of market power are presented. Fed cattle prices in four direct trade regions in the central United States are examined. Evidence of cooperative/noncooperative conduct is present in all markets but has declined over time. Varying conduct across markets and over time suggests it is important to continue monitoring fed cattle markets to assure a competitive environment.
Land Price Volatility in a Geographically Dispersed Market
Authors: Benirschka Martin , Binkley James K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractHistorical evidence and theory lead to a hypothesis that land price variation increases with distance to market. This hypothesis is tested with county data from five Cornbelt states during the period 1969 to 1987, when price changes were unusually large. Our data support the hypothesis. In the 70s, prices increased more in the Western Cornbelt than in the Eastern Cornbelt; in the 80s, the Western Cornbelt experienced the more precipitous price declines. Our hypothesis explains why Great Plains farmers have experienced greater financial problems during times of stress than have many other farmers.
Model Selection and Forecasting Ability of Theory‐Constrained Food Demand Systems
Authors: Kastens Terry L. , Brester Gary W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractOut‐of‐sample forecasting of annual U.S. per capita food consumption, applying data from 1923 to 1992, is used as a basis for model selection among the absolute price Rotterdam model, a first‐differenced linear approximate almost ideal demand system (FDLA/ALIDS) model, and a first‐differenced double‐log demand system. Conditional‐on‐price consumption forecasts derived from elasticities are determined to be superior to direct statistical model forecasts. Models with consumer theory imposed through parametric restrictions provide better forecasts than models with little theory‐imposition. For these data, a double‐log demand system is a superior forecaster to the Rotterdam model, which is superior to the FDLA/ALIDS model.
Modeling Farm‐Level Crop Insurance Demand with Panel Data
Authors: Coble Keith H. , Knight Thomas O. , Pope Rulon D. , Williams Jeffery R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA random‐effects, binomial probit model is applied to data for a panel of Kansas wheat farms to examine Multiple Peril Crop Insurance demand. A theoretical model is developed which suggests inclusion of the moments of both market return and the return to insurance. Empirical results indicate that the first and second moments of both market return and the returns to insurance are significant. The price elasticity of demand is estimated to be −0.65. Preseason weather variables when included in the models were not found to be significant, failing to support the hypothesis of intertemporal adverse selection.
A Private Property Rights Regime for the Commons: The Case for Groundwater
Authors: Provencher Bill , Burt Oscar 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe compare the social welfare of pumping groundwater under central (optimal) control to that obtained under a private property rights regime in which firms are granted tradeable permits to the in situ groundwater stock. When firms are risk averse, both regimes are suboptimal, and the matter of which regime yields greater welfare is an empirical one. When firms are risk neutral, central control dominates the private property rights regime. Still, a stochastic dynamic programming model of Madera County, California, demonstrates that even in this case, the private property rights regime is a promising alternative to central control.
Measuring the Difference (X — Y) of Simulated Distributions: A Convolutions Approach
Authors: Poe Gregory L. , Severance‐Lossin Eric K. , Welsh Michael P. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractResampling or simulation techniques are now frequently used in applied economic analyses. However, significance tests for differences between empirical distributions have either invoked normality assumptions or have used nonoverlapping confidence interval criteria. We demonstrate that such methods generally will not be appropriate, and we present an empirical test, based on the method of convolutions, for assessing the statistical significance between approximate empirical distributions created by resampling techniques. The proposed convolutions approach is illustrated in a case study involving empirical distributions from dichotomous choice contingent valuation data.