bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Gains and Losses of Sugar Program Policy Options
Authors: Leu Gwo‐Jiun M. , Schmitz Andrew , Knutson Ronald D. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractHigh domestic sugar prices supported by U.S. sugar policy have induced a significant substitution of corn sweeteners for sugar. Recognizing the close relationship between sugar and corn sweeteners, this study applies a general equilibrium approach to evaluate the distributional effects of three different policy options (i.e., quota, tariff, and deficiency payment) on sugar related interest groups. The results show that the current quota policy, intended ostensibly to protect domestic sugar producers, have hurt foreign exporters. It will harm domestic sugar producers if the trend continues. Additionally, the quota program is the most expensive of the options considered.
Undocumented Mexico—U.S. Migration and the Returns to Households in Rural Mexico
Authors: Taylor J. Edward 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper presents estimates of net income gains to a sample of households in rural Mexico from sending migrants illegally to the United States, correcting for sample selectivity bias, and it examines the role of expected income gains in driving illegal Mexico—U.S. migration. There is no evidence that people who migrate illegally to the United States are above‐average contributors to household income, either as workers in Mexico or as Mexico—U.S. migrants. However, other things being equal, villagers who are in the best position to contribute to household income as workers in Mexico are positively selected not to migrate to the United States.
The Component Pricing of Milk Revisited
Authors: St‐Pierre Normand R. , Scobie Grant M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractVarious studies have addressed the impact of component pricing on milk marketing. All required an estimate of the implicit prices of components under an existing scheme. In this paper, we show why results differed between studies, and we present evidence that they drew inappropriate conclusions. A reformulation based on the relationship between fat and solids‐not‐fat percentages in milk leads to the conclusion that butterfat pricing schemes for milk may have underpriced fat relative to solids‐not‐fat rather than overpriced butterfat in U.S. produced milk.
Are Harvest Forecasts News? USDA Announcements and Futures Market Reactions
Authors: Summer Daniel A. , Mueller Rolf A. E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractFutures market price data for corn and soybeans are used to examine reactions to U.S. Department of Agriculture harvest forecasts. These forecasts are widely known and reasonably accurate, so failure to find significant reaction would indicate that the USDA did not contribute additional news relative to information already possessed by traders. Various t‐tests, F‐tests, and nonparametric chi‐square tests indicate rejection of the null hypothesis of no significant difference between means of absolute values or variances of changes in closing prices on days following a USDA announcement and other days. Thus, the data indicate that significant information is contained in the forecasts.
Welfare Implications of Price Stabilization with Monopolistic Trade
Authors: Wong Chung Ming 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe welfare effects of domestic and international price stabilization are examined and then compared, employing a two‐country model where one country exercises market power through continuous optimal trade restriction while the other behaves competitively. The two types of stabilization have quite different implications on the distribution of welfare between and within countries. The country exercising market power gains from domestic price stabilization regardless of the source of instability, but the government and private producers and consumers are affected differently. The country facing trade restriction can exercise some countervailing power by stabilizing international price fluctuations resulting from internal disturbances.
A Simultaneous Analysis of Food Industry Conduct
Authors: Zeller James A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractIntense advertising and new product introduction are substitute forms of entry‐deterring conduct practiced by producers of more differentiable food products. A simultaneous equation model is estimated to explain the relationship between these alternate forms of conduct and product class structure and performance. The results support the view that advertising is a barrier to entry rather than information that would facilitate entry. The extent of government‐imposed identity standards within a product class is inversely related to advertising intensity and the rate of new product introduction but may artificially fill the product space, making entry more difficult.
Intertemporal Allocation in the Corn and Soybean Markets with Rational Expectations
Authors: Giles David E. A. , Goss Barry A. , Chin Olive P. L. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper addresses the intertemporal allocation of supplies and the simultaneous determination of spot and futures prices in the U.S. corn and soybean markets. It presents simultaneous equations models in a comparative study of U.S. commodity markets, with separate functional relationships for long and short hedgers, long and short speculators in futures, consumers, and holders of unhedged inventories.
Is the United States Really Underinvesting in Agricultural Research?
Authors: Fox Glenn 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThat the level of public investment in U.S. agricultural research is too low is widely accepted. This paper argues that there are two important limitations to the evidence assembled in support of the underinvestment hypothesis: (a) many authors have compared the social rate of return to public investments with the private rate of return to private investments; (b) costs of public expenditures on agricultural research have been underestimated by a failure to account for the marginal excess burden of the tax collection system. Taking these two factors into account, evidence in support of the underinvestment hypothesis is weakened considerably.
Aggregation of Inputs Under Risk
Authors: Pope Rulon D. , Hallam Arne 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe implications of primal separability on choice are examined. Separability under risk imposes strong restrictions on input demands. These restrictions can be used to test for separability of production. Alternatively, one can test directly separability of production and infer what separability implies about behavior. This latter approach is taken since an application is analyzed.
Dynamic Adjustment in the U.S. Dairy Industry
Authors: Howard Wayne H. , Shumway C. Richard 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA dual model is used to examine the dynamic structure of the U.S. dairy industry. Properties implied by the theory of the competitive firm and independent adjustment of two quasi‐fixed inputs, labor and herd size, are tested and not rejected. Instantaneous adjustment, however, is soundly rejected for each quasi‐fixed input. Input adjustment to optimal levels is estimated to take about two years for labor and ten for cows. Quality adjustments of the labor and cow series do not fully embody the technological change that has occurred in this industry over the study period.
Applying Mixed Estimation in Econometric Research
Authors: Mittelhammer Ron C. , Conway Roger K. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe validity of the Theil‐Goldberger mixed estimation procedure for incorporating prior information into the estimation of econometric models has recently been questioned in the literature. In this article, a set of accepted statistical principles are used both to rationalize past and future applications of mixed estimation through the introduction of a modified mixed estimator and to provide an explicit rationale for the abandonment of the Theil‐Goldberger procedure. A previous application of mixed estimation in this Journal is reexamined to illustrate the issues involved.
The Effects of Job Site Sanitation and Living Conditions on the Health and Welfare of Agricultural Workers
Authors: Frisvold George B. , Mines Richard , Perloff Jeffrey M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe lack of field sanitation on agricultural job sites increases the probability of agricultural workers reporting gastrointestinal disorders by 60%. Adverse living conditions significantly increase the probability of gastrointestinal, respiratory, and muscular problems. These three health problems do not appear to increase the probability that a worker's family is on welfare or to lower workers' earnings. Respiratory problems, however, substantially increase the probability that the worker receives unemployment compensation.
Attitudes and Farmer Conservation Behavior
Authors: Lynne Gary D. , Shonkwiler J. S. , Rola Leandro R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractConservation behavior is influenced by the attitudes of farmers and by context variables, like income and farm terrain. Important attitudes were selected by using the theory that fundamental value ranks or weights affect attitudes and that only certain values are important to the conservation decision. An extension of the tobit estimation approach, handling both censored observations of the dependent variable and measurement error for the nonlimit observations, was used. Conservation behavior models can be improved with a merger of concepts and approaches from social psychology and economics.
Assessing Strategies for Control of Irrigation‐Induced Salinity in the Upper Colorado River Basin
Authors: Gardner Richard L. , Young Robert A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractDissolved mineral salts (salinity) adversely affects numerous urban and agricultural users of Colorado River water in southwestern United States and in Mexico. More than a third of the salt load is thought to be induced by drainage from irrigated lands onto highly saline groundwater deposits in the Upper Colorado Basin in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Various public policy initiatives are proposed to induce farmers to reduce discharges of this nonpoint pollutant. Taxes on water, water conservation subsidies, and land and water rights purchases are analyzed in a linear programming framework. The allocative efficiency and the distribution of control costs and damages among irrigators, water users, and taxpayers are assessed.
Pricing Efficiency in the Live Cattle Futures Market: Further Interpretation and Measurement
Authors: Garcia Philip , Leuthold Raymond M. , Fortenbery T. Randall , Sarassoro Gboroton F. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe pricing efficiency of the live cattle futures market is evaluated using out‐of‐sample forecasts from an econometric model, an ARIMA model, and composite forecasting procedures. In terms of the mean‐squared error criterion, a necessary condition for market efficiency, at least one of the models, and frequently more, forecasted more accurately than did the futures market. However, market simulation results based on the most accurate forecasts generated large risk‐return ratios. These results do not show strong evidence of inefficiency and call into question the use of only mean‐squared errors to examine a market's pricing efficiency.
Is Farming a Constant Cost Industry?
Authors: Castle Emery N. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMeasurement of cost‐size relationships for farming has long been an important area of research in agricultural economics. Much of this research has had a farm management and production economics orientation, and firm‐industry interdependencies have often been ignored. Research results stemming from such an orientation should be interpreted with care when used for policy purposes. Pecuniary externalities may be of greater importance than indicated by research to this time. A suggestion is made for treating induced technical change as comparable to a pecuniary externality. Questions are raised on both theoretical and empirical grounds whether farming in the United States should be considered a constant cost industry for policy purposes.
Generic Fluid Milk Advertising, Demand Expansion, and Supply Response: The Case of New York City
Authors: Liu Donald J. , Forker Olan D. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA transfer function was used to estimate the fluid milk demand equation of New York City. The consumption effect of a generic fluid milk advertising program in the city was found to be positive and statistically significant. The resulting higher blend price of milk was found to have a negligible effect on the subsequent supply of milk. Though being successful in generating positive returns on advertising it was found that a 35% reduction in the advertising expenditures would have been optimal in the marginal sense.
Input Substitution and the Distribution of Surplus Gains from Lower U.S. Beef‐Processing Costs
Authors: Mullen John D. , Wohlgenant Michael K. , Farris Donald E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAnalysis of a switch from boxed beef to tray‐ready beef processing demonstrates that limited substitution between farm and nonfarm inputs has a significant impact on the distribution of surplus gains. A two‐input, two‐output (beef and by‐products) industry model was specified. Technical change was modeled as a shift in marketing input supply. This approach yields equivalent results to a demand increase from biased technical change. Using an estimated elasticity of substitution of 0.1 and parameter values from previous studies, the results indicate cattle producers would receive either 57% or 72% of surplus gains depending upon whether input substitution occurs.
Market Distortions and Benefits from Research
Authors: Alston Julian M. , Edwards Geoff W. , Freebairn John W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe benefits from cost‐reducing research and their distribution under a range of price policies are compared with those that would arise in the absence of the policies. While any price policy affects the distribution of research benefits, the net national or world benefits may be reduced, lef unchanged, or increased, depending on the nature of the policy and the significance of the country in the world market for the commodity. Some implications for decisions on price policies and for distortions in incentives for the allocation of resources to research are raised.
Education, Experience, and Allocative Efficiency: A Dual Approach
Authors: Stefanou Spiro E. , Saxena Swati 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA generalization of the dual, non‐frontier profit function approach to evaluating allocative efficiency is developed that allows for training (human capital) variables to influence the efficiency level directly. An application to Pennsylvania dairy indicates that education and experience are substitutes and play a significant role in the level of efficiency. While these operators are not allocating their variable inputs in an absolutely efficient manner, relative efficiency can be achieved for four of six possible input combinations for prescribed levels of education and experience. Furthermore, the estimates of the efficiency measures suggest that these operators are maximizing production rather than short‐run profits.
Land Quality and Prices
Authors: Peterson Willis 
Published: July 2006

AbstractAlthough land values reflect land quality, the quality characteristics that determine values are only partly related to agricultural uses. The results of estimating a reduced‐form equation explaining differences in land prices among states suggest that nearly two‐thirds of this variation is attributed to nonagricultural uses. Therefore, a land quality index based on raw land prices will be biased, which in turn will result in biased coefficients in a production function or its dual. A cross‐section land quality index which excludes the influence of nonagricultural uses is constructed.
Domestic Farm Policy and the Gains from Trade
Authors: Schmitz Andrew , Sigurdson Dale , Doering Otto 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper assesses the extent to which the gains from agricultural trade are influenced by both U.S. domestic policy and tariff and nontariff trade barriers. It shows theoretically that the volume of trade can be substantial but the gains nonexistent. Empirical results, along with rent‐seeking arguments, support the no‐gains‐from‐trade hypothesis.
The Impact of Farmland Price Changes on Farm Size and Financial Structure
Authors: DeBoer‐Lowenberg J. , Boehlje Michael 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA modified Vickers model is used to show that farmland capital gains provide incentive to increase farm acreage and debt use. Farmland capital losses have the opposite effect. The model indicates that part of the current financial vulnerability of the U.S. farm sector can be traced to management decisions made in response to the farmland capital gains of the 1970s. The effects are not purely tax driven, though taxes can affect the magnitude of incentives. The Vickers model is modified to allow a finite horizon, taxes, and the recognition of unrealized capital gain or loss.
Multiproduct Cost Relationships for Retail Fertilizer Plants
Authors: Akridge Jay T. , Hertel Thomas W. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractRetail fertilizer plants produce a number of products and services. To analyze the relationship between cost and output for these multiproduct firms, a short‐run, translog cost function is estimated using pooled data. Measures of economies of scope and scale are calculated. Results indicate plants can lower average cost by increasing output and by diversifying into anhydrous ammonia. Furthermore, preliminary evidence indicates that firms in the sample are overinvested in plant and equipment.
Institutional Change in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Community
Authors: Runge Carlisle Ford , von Witzke Harald 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Community (EC) is a complex institutional structure with major effects on world agriculture. This study analyzes the CAP from a public choice perspective as a case of induced institutional innovation. The demand for change is analyzed as a function of a newly enlarged Community. Time‐consuming decisions, unequal distribution of net benefits, increasing budget expenditures, and rising pressures to “renationalize” farm subsidies drive the demand for change. Alternative institutional arrangements respond to these demands, which reflect preferences for fairness and equity as well as improved efficiency in the CAP.
The Political Economy of Western Water Finance: Cost Allocation and the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project
Authors: Miller Jon R. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractA common hypothesis is that federal water agencies pursue continued appropriations with little consideration of national economic efficiency. In the mid‐1980s, faced with a vote on a supplemental municipal and industrial water repayment contract on the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project, the Bureau of Reclamation confirmed this hypothesis. Through modifications in cost allocation procedures, the bureau shifted costs from municipal and industrial water to hydropower and irrigation. The result of this action was retention of the irrigation purpose in the Bonneville Unit, which would have been unjustified under previous cost allocation procedures.
Extension Program Evaluation Using Normative Decision Models
Authors: Knight Thomas O. , Johnson S. R. , Finley Robert M. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractExtension is under increasing pressure to conduct evaluations that provide substantive and reliable evidence of program results. However, current evaluation methods which can supply these results are too costly for general applications. This study proposes an alternative evaluation method which measures program participants' belief changes and uses normative decision models to estimate the effects of behavioral responses to those belief changes. A pilot application demonstrates that the proposed evaluation procedure is a viable alternative to current methods, with potential cost advantages that could permit more widespread application.
Tax Policies and the Financially Constrained Farm Household
Authors: Chambers Robert G. , Lopez Ramon E. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis article analyzes the implications of income, profit, and consumption taxes on the economic decisions of financially constrained farm households within a dynamic intertemporal framework. The most important results are that replacing a profits tax with a consumption tax would lead to increases in on‐farm work, farm income, and farm production in the short run. Capital accumulation would be enhanced leading to similar effects in the long run. If an income tax is replaced with a consumption tax, similar expansive effects would occur in the intermediate and long run, but in the short run there would be no effect on farm production.
European Community Enlargement: Impact on U.S. Corn and Soybean Exports
Authors: Haniotis Tassos 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThis paper utilizes the framework of an Armington model to analyze the impact of the European Community enlargement on U.S. corn and soybean exports. Results indicate that the enlargement has a significant and negative impact on U.S. corn exports to the new EC members. Increases in U.S. soybean exports are much smaller in volume terms. Declines in U.S. corn export prices outweigh the insignificant increases in U.S. soybean export prices and therefore accentuate U.S. losses. However, the U.S.‐EC agreement on their enlargement dispute cut net losses of U.S. corn and soybean exports to Spain and Portugal by about a third.
Farmers' Marginal Propensity to Consume: An Application to Illinois Grain Farms
Authors: Langemeier Michael R. , Patrick George F. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractThe marginal propensity to consume (MPC) for a sample of eighteen Illinois farms over the 1979–86 period is determined. Four consumption models were estimated using disposable household income plus depreciation as the measure of income. Estimated short‐run MPCs ranged from 0.007 to 0.020, while long‐run MPCs varied between 0.143 to 0.381. These results indicate farm family consumption responded little to changes in income and that the life cycle hypothesis model explains consumption significantly better than the other models. Robustness of the results is demonstrated using a larger sample of farms for 1986…87.
Simulation Modeling to Set Priorities for Research on Oyster Production
Authors: Bosch Darrell J. , Shabman Leonard A. 
Published: July 2006

AbstractPrivate oyster production in Virginia has declined significantly because of factors including losses from MSX (Haplosporidium nelsoni). Increased state and federal funding is being proposed to support research to stimulate oyster productivity. A model of oyster production under uncertainty, including growth, disease, and economic components, is used to aid in setting research priorities. The model shows effects of different types of research information on returns to a representative oyster planting enterprise. Seed harvest technology and accurate knowledge of the salinity threshold at which MSX mortalities occur are found to have greatest promise for increasing profitability of oyster production.
Information Preferences of Ohio Commercial Farmers: Implications for Extension
Authors: Schnitkey Gary , Batte Marvin , Jones Eugene , Botomogno Jean 
Published: July 2006

AbstractMultinomial logit models were used to examine farmers' information preferences for marketing, production, and financial decisions. Dependent variables represented the preferred information source category: Cooperative Extension Service, printed, broadcast, specialist, and other sources. Independent variables included farm and business characteristics. In general, farmers preferred information from printed sources, and the Cooperative Extension Service ranked highly as an information source. Results did not support the contention that farmers are substituting specialist services for information received from the Cooperative Extension Service.