bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Endangered Species and the Safe Minimum Standard
Authors: Ready Richard C. , Bishop Richard C. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe safe minimum standard of conservation is a decision rule for problems like endangered species preservation that involve irreversibility and uncertainty. It has been motivated as the minimax‐loss solution to a two‐person game against nature. However, two equally plausible games can be used to model decisions involving endangered species. For one game, the safe minimum standard, and therefore preservation, is preferred. For the other game, extinction is preferred. Although the safe minimum standard is intuitively appealing, it cannot be motivated by game theory.
The Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem
Authors: Jacques Stephanie 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Coase theorem prediction that the final allocation of resources will be independent of the liability rule relies on one important assumption: an individual will value a right or an asset the same whether considering its acquisition or its loss (MWP maximum willingness to pay should equal MCA minimum compensation to accept). However, the marginal rate of substitution between one good and another seems to be affected by a phenomenon described as the endowment effect. In such a case, the individual who is assigned the property right is more likely to retain it and the Coase theorem does not hold anymore.
Formally Testing the Present Value Model of Farmland Prices
Authors: Falk Barry 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper applies recent statistical developments in the study of stock market price movements to study the plausibility of the constant expected returns version of the present value model as an explanation of farmland prices. Using Iowa farmland price and rent data over the 1921–86 sample period, formal test results indicate that, although farmland price and rent movements are highly correlated, price movements are not consistent with the implications of this model. There appear to be persistent predictable excess positive and/or negative returns in the Iowa farmland market.
Efficient Spatial Allocation of Irrigation Water
Authors: Chakravorty Ujjayant , Roumasset James 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn the presence of conveyance losses, the efficient quantity of water applied falls with distance from the water source, but the amount of water “sent” (including conveyance losses) actually increases with distance from the source, except toward the tail end of the irrigation system. This implies that if marginal cost pricing were implemented, farmers at the middle and lower reaches of the system would have to pay more money for less water received. The model is illustrated and alternative financing schemes compared for an empirically derived demand function for irrigation water.
Farm Production Decisions Under Cross and Conservation Compliance
Authors: Hoag Dana L. , Holloway Herb A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe success of soil conservation compliance (CC) hinges on participation in commodity programs. Using mixed integer programming, the profitability of participation in commodity programs was examined on seventeen surveyed North Carolina farms. Without CC, cross compliance in commodity programs increased projected soil erosion by over 80% when participation increased from 30% to nearly 90%. With CC, erosion fell by two‐thirds at the high participation level but decreased by only 1% with low participation. Individual farm acreage base and crop yield strongly affected the profitability of CC. Compliance is increasingly profitable on farms with more base acreage and higher yields.
The Potential for Water Market Efficiency When Instream Flows Have Value
Authors: Griffin Ronald C. , Hsu Shih‐Hsun 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMost of the effort being expended to revise western water policy concerns the maintenance of instream waters to the exclusion of traditional diversionary interests. Absent from the economics literature is a theoretical treatment addressing the interface between diversionary and instream water uses. At issue is the potential for refining market operations to accomplish efficient allocation in the presence of both diversionary and instream uses. Optimization methods are employed to examine this issue in a highly generalized framework. If a specific structure is adopted, markets and other incentive‐based policies are demonstrated to be capable of efficient water allocation.
A Structural Investigation of Biotechnological Impacts on Cotton Quality and Returns
Authors: Chiou George T. , Chen Dean T. , Capps Oral 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA structural quality/quantity choice model is developed to evaluate the impact of improved fiber quality and the resulting economic surplus under biotechnological scenarios. Two major biotechnology scenarios are considered for a comparative analysis of fiber quality improvement. Results show impacts on fiber quality improvement and economic returns.
Seasonal Labor Utilization in Agriculture: Theory and Evidence from Agrarian Households in India
Authors: Skoufias Emmanuel 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper develops and tests a dynamic, stochastic model of seasonal labor demand of farm households in a developing country. Seasonality in agriculture is modeled as a dynamic two stage process (planting and harvesting) with sequential dependence of decisions. Yield risk is an important determinant of behavior in the planting stage only. The proposed model is estimated using plot‐specific cross‐section time‐series data from India. Consistent estimates of the male and female labor demand functions in the planting and harvesting stages are obtained by panel data econometric methods that control for the nonseparability of the model.
Market Instability and Nonlinear Dynamics
Authors: Chavas Jean‐Paul , Holt Matthew T. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe potential role of nonlinear dynamics in generating market instability is investigated using a simple market equilibrium model of the U.S. dairy industry. The supply function reflects the nonlinear dynamics of the dairy herd, as estimated by Chavas and Klemme. It is shown that, in the absence of any uncertainty, an inelastic demand contributes to market instability and chaos.
Pesticides and Worker Safety
Authors: Harper Carolyn R. , Zilberman David 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA key problem in pesticide regulation is uncertainty about health risks. Trade‐offs between economic benefits and worker health safety are examined using an empirical illustration. Alternative decision rules for regulation under uncertainty are considered: a safety fixed rule, which protects individuals from excessive health risks, and uncertainty‐adjusted cost‐benefit analysis, which evaluates aggregate trade‐offs between health and economic welfare. These criteria may lead to opposite policy conclusions, suggesting that the most appropriate public policy is a safe minimum standard (SMS), which allows weighing of costs and benefits only after some minimum acceptable level of health safety has been assured.
Farming the Tax Code: The Impact of High Marginal Tax Rates on Agricultural Tax Shelters
Authors: Long James E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractSurprisingly little scholarly work has examined the practice of “farming the tax code,” in which accounting losses on agricultural investments are used to shelter other income from taxation. Economic theory suggests that the amount of investment in agricultural tax shelters is positively related to the marginal tax rate. This hypothesis is empirically investigated using a sample of federal individual income tax returns filed for 1983. Both the probability of reporting a farm tax loss and the amount of farm losses are increased by a rise in the marginal tax rate, especially among upper income taxpayers.
Impact of the WIC Program on Food Expenditures
Authors: Arcia Gustavo J. , Crouch Luis A. , Kulka Richard A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractParticipation in the WIC program tends to shift grocery expenditures in favor of more nutritious food. Dairy data show that WIC women consumed more nutrient‐dense foods than non‐WIC women. WIC women and their families spent significantly less on meals away from home than control families, suggesting a more efficient use of the food budget. WIC's impact on unintended recipients is negligible, while its impact on foods for WIC children is positive and highly significant. Recall data on monthly food expenditures indicate that total food expenditures and grocery expenditures did not increase as a result of program participation.
Effect of U.S. Immigration Reform on Labor‐Intensive Agricultural Commodities
Authors: Gunter Lewell F. , Jarrett Joseph C. , Duffield James A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA major concern in development of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act was the potential for reductions in seasonal farm labor supply. Although the act appears to have increased farm labor supply, future immigration policy will likely be affected by similar concerns. Muth's model of industry supply and factor demand is adapted to analyze effects of labor supply reductions on selected U.S. crops. Labor factor share and output demand elasticity are the most important factors influencing the impact of labor supply on production, and effects of moderate supply decreases will be small if recent output demand conditions continue.
A Method for Calculating Profit‐Neutral Land Set Asides
Authors: Arnade Carlos 
Published: July 2006

AbstractChanges in land set asides and prices can be coordinated to ensure that the profits of agricultural producers do not change. This concept is made operational by estimating and inverting a profit function to obtain an indirect transformation function. Profit‐neutral combinations of land set asides and prices for a subsector of Brazilian agriculture are calculated.
Transaction Costs as Determinants of Vertical Coordination in the U.S. Food Industries
Authors: Frank Stuart D. , Henderson Dennis R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractVertical coordination is a more comprehensive concept than vertical integration, capturing market, contractual, and ownership coordination. Williamson suggests that transaction costs motivate the use of nonmarket arrangements to vertically coordinate production. This paper presents a vertical coordination index incorporating industry input‐output relationships and nonmarket arrangements. In an econometric analysis, the vertical coordination index is utilized to examine transaction cost effects on food industry vertical linkages. Empirical results support the hypothesis that transaction costs are a primary motivation to vertically coordinate via nonmarket arrangements. Results also suggest the vertical coordination index is more robust than traditional vertical integration measure.
Market Effects of Cotton Integrated Pest Management
Authors: White Fred C. , Wetzstein Michael E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWidely reported research results indicate that cotton integrated pest management (IPM) generally reduces chemical use and increases net returns. Despite these favorable research results, many farmers have not adopted IPM and others have adopted only some of the available technologies. Given rising marginal costs and diminishing marginal benefits from IPM technology transfer, an optimal control framework is developed to identify optimal rates of technology transfer through educational programs. Results from an analysis of this dynamic adoption process for cotton IPM are presented. Considering the complex and evolving nature of cotton IPM, continuing educational efforts to transfer IPM technologies are warranted.
Measuring Returns to an Innovation in an Imperfectly Competitive Market: Application to Mechanical Harvesting of Processing Tomatoes in Taiwan
Authors: Huang Shu‐Yu , Sexton Richard J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we develop and apply a general imperfect competition model to evaluate returns to a cost‐reducing innovation. Most related work has applied models of perfect competition. Results demonstrate that welfare estimates derived from a model of perfect competition may be seriously distorted when the relevant market is imperfectly competitive. Application to mechanical harvesting of processing tomatoes in Taiwan reveals the potential for significant benefits to adoption of mechanical harvesting in Taiwan. However, farmers' incentives to adopt the harvester are attenuated because total benefits are reduced by oligopsony power in tomato procurement, and imperfectly competitive processors will capture a large share of the benefits that remain.
Agricultural Insurance and Soil Depletion in a Simple Dynamic Model
Authors: Innes Robert , Ardila Sergio 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWe study the effects of agricultural insurance on farm production choices, soil depletion and the environment when there are two related risks, one in short‐to‐medium run production revenues and the other in land value. The analysis considers “pure” and “truncating” insurance programs that stabilize linear combinations of short‐run revenue risk and land price risk. Production‐revenue‐stabilizing insurance is often found to elicit increased farmer output, thus exacerbating environmental externalities and causing further soil depletion. Land‐value‐stabilizing insurance typically elicits lower output thus mitigating environmental externalities and pushing farmers closer to their complete‐insurance output levels.
The Role of Transportation Costs in the Economics of Commodity Markets
Authors: Roehner Bertrand M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractTransportation costs still play an important role in the economics of commodity markets. In this paper I present a theoretical framework aimed at describing spatial arbitrage under uncertainty; I analyze the effect of changing transport costs on different, yet related, variables: volume of trade, volatility of prices, and levels of spatial price differentials. As a tribute to Enke and Samuelson the model is referred to as the stochastic Enke‐Samuelson model. It provides predictions for variables (such as price volatilities or correlations) which cannot be defined in the deterministic framework of the standard spatial price equilibrium model. The statistical tests display a convergent array of evidence in favor of the model.
Extension Commercialization: How Much to Charge for Extension Services
Authors: Dinar Ariel 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAs public agricultural extension organizations around the world examine the possibility of privatizing or commercializing part or all their services, several issues arise. In this paper I address the question of how to price the services provided. Using available data from Israel, a supply (marginal cost) function is estimated for the Israel Extension Service, and a demand function for extension services is estimated. The derived number of visits and the per visit price are calculated. Several general extension‐related policy issues that may also be applicable to other countries are discussed.
Incentive Payments to Encourage Farmer Adoption of Water Quality Protection Practices
Authors: Cooper Joseph C. , Keim Russ W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractFarmers can be encouraged to voluntarily adopt environmentally sound management practices through the use of incentive payments. This paper uses both a bivariate probit with sample selection model and a double hurdle model on data from a survey of farmers to predict farmer adoption of the practices as a function of the payment offer. The five management practices addressed here are integrated pest management, legume crediting, manure testing, split applications of nitrogen, and soil moisture testing. Also estimated are models that predict the acreage on which these practices would be applied given the decision to accept the incentive payments estimated.
Contract Design for the Purchase of Environmental Goods from Agriculture
Authors: Wu JunJie , Babcock Bruce A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn environmental stewardship program, whereby farmers are paid directly for the environmental goods they provide, is developed by combining the microparameter distribution model with mechanism design principles. The program overcomes the information asymmetry between farmers and governments and accounts for the deadweight losses from distortionary taxes. The characteristics of optimal input and payment schedules of the program are derived. These optimal schedules are determined by the tradeoffs between farming profits, environmental benefits, and deadweight losses from taxes, and are second‐best except under restrictive conditions on deadweight losses from taxes and on the marginal product of inputs and marginal pollution costs.
Hotelling's Theory, Enhancement, and the Taking of the Redwood National Park
Authors: Berck Peter , Bentley William R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe United States has used its power of eminent domain to take a considerable fraction of all remaining old‐growth redwood for inclusion in the Redwood National Park. Hotelling's theory implies that the price of redwood remaining in private hands should have increased. In this paper we provide an estimate of how much the taking increased the price of redwood as well as a test of the underlying Hotelling theory.
The Seasonal and Spatial Dimensions of Sorghum Market Liberalization in Mexico
Authors: Bivings E. Leigh 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMexico's attempt to deregulate its sorghum market in 1990 was unsuccessful because policy analysts failed to consider the seasonal and spatial dimensions of trade. In this paper I present a detailed, seasonal, and spatially dissaggregated nonlinear programming model of the Mexican sorghum market calibrated with survey data of storage and transport costs in Mexico, and compare the results obtained with models that ignore these characteristics. The comparison demonstrates that the failure to incorporate these costs in trade models may lead to misleading conclusions and inappropriate policies.
A Spatial Analysis of Maize Marketing Policy Reforms in Zambia
Authors: Mwanaumo Anthony , Masters William A. , Preckel Paul V. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this study we analyze recent and proposed maize marketing reforms in Zambia. To capture the effects of changing transport systems, we use a continuous‐space model in place of the traditional point‐representation model of Takayama and Judge. This method permits us to use prereform data on supply, demand, and transport costs to infer both intra‐ and interregional effects of liberalization and shows that the welfare gains from liberalization are larger than commonly thought. These results provide policy makers with estimates of the magnitude of change associated with alternative reform programs, beyond what would be available from a conventional approach.
Returns, Interest Rates, and Inflation: How They Explain Changes in Farmland Values
Authors: Moss Charles B. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractWeather in the Corn Belt and northern plains and the elimination of traditional commodity programs have refocused attention on farmland valuation. This study uses a statistical formulation of information provided by individual regressors to examine the sensitivity of farmland values to changes in inflation, returns on agricultural assets, and the cost of capital. The results indicate that inflation provides the most information on changes in farmland values; however, the regional results indicate that regions that tend to be more sensitive to changes in the return on agricultural assets also rely more heavily on government payments.
The Performance of Nested Logit Models When Welfare Estimation Is the Goal
Authors: Herriges Joseph A. , Kling Catherine L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIn this paper we examine the performance of nested logit models in the face of two specification errors. The first specification error arises when a nested logit model is appropriate, but the wrong nesting structure is chosen. The second specification error occurs when the underlying stochastic process is not consistent with nested logit. Particular attention is placed upon the impact that these errors can have on welfare predictions. Monte Carlo experiments are used, together with analytical results, to examine the resulting bias to welfare estimates. In addition, we explore the value of alternative model selection criteria in choosing nesting structures.
Dynamic Optimization of Nitrogen Use When Groundwater Contamination Is Internalized at the Standard in the Long Run
Authors: Yadav Satya N. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAn economic relationship between agricultural production and groundwater pollution is established first by analyzing the problem in a dynamic setting. Using experimental data from 1987 to 1990 from three sites, optimal policy rules that would maintain the nitrate contamination level at the 10 mg/l standard over time are determined next. Nitrogen application rates are then determined based on the optimal policy rule and available residual nitrogen in the root‐zone layer. It is shown that in the first year one of the sites should be fertilized at a lower‐than‐profit‐maximizing rate while the other two sites should not be fertilized at all.
Trade‐off between Structural Diversity and Economic Objectives in Forest Management
Authors: Önal Hayri 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA measure of divergence (NAD) between the distribution of individuals in a community and a target distribution is presented. When the latter is uniform, NAD measures evenness and exhibits a strong correlation with the widely used Shannon index. However, NAD offers the capability to incorporate an arbitrary composition in an economic optimization model where the Shannon index is not applicable. An empirical application to optimum management of a multispecies forest is presented, and the trade‐off between ecological and economic objectives is investigated.
Budgetary and Producer Welfare Effects of Revenue Insurance
Authors: Hennessy David A. , Babcock Bruce A. , Hayes Dermot J. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe efficiency of redistribution of government‐provided revenue insurance programs is compared with the efficiency of the 1990 farm program. The results indicate that revenue insurance would be more efficient because it would provide subsidies when and only when revenue is low and marginal utility is high, and it works on the component of the objective function (revenue) that is of greatest relevance to producers. Simulation results indicate that a revenue insurance scheme that guarantees 75% of expected revenue to risk‐averse producers could provide approximately the same level of benefits as the 1990 program, at as little as one‐fourth the cost.
Policy Evaluation with Combined Actual and Contingent Response Data
Authors: Nestor Deborah Vaughn 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe City of Marietta, Georgia, experimentally switched from flat fee financing to volume‐based pricing for its trash services in January 1994. Both before and during the experiment, detailed data on individuals' observed responses to the actual introduction and contingent behavioral responses to a hypothetical introduction of volume‐based pricing were collected. This study applies these data, and investigates the methodology of collecting contingent behavior data and their use in policy analysis. In particular, this study empirically evaluates the effect of experience with the policy on responses to contingent behavior questions, and tests for potential bias in the contingent behavior data.