First-degree and second-degree stochastic dominance were used to separate a panel of 112 dairy farms with ten annual observations per farm into successful and less successful groups using four different performance measures. Logit regression using 16 independent variables was then used to...

The empirical impact of rBST was measured for 211 dairy farms using 1993-95 data. Farms applying rBST on roughly half of their herds saw, on average, a net increase of about 1,300 pounds of milk per cow per year. The impact on profits, was, however, not statistically different from zero.

This paper empirically estimates cost functions for two milking technologies, stanchion and parlor, using farm level data from New York dairy farms for the years 1993 through 2002. A translog cost function was estimated along with input cost share equations for each milking technology by...

A production function highly concave in inputs will have a dual profit function less convex in prices. Even large variations in prices will cause little variation in input usage and output, resulting in poor profit function estimates. This is demonstrated using Monte Carlo simulation with...

Buy-sell arrangements for the death of a co-owner may be funded with life insurance. The mechanisms and details of buy-sell arrangements were discussed. The decision whether to use life insurance was modeled using the expected utility theorem. State dependent utility was used since a surviving...