Markets for agricultural products may be inefficient when signals do not adequately reflect product characteristics important to market participants. Preferences can be explicitly reflected in price premiums for measurable characteristics using hedonic methods. However, when product quality...

Food prices surged in the United States and around the world between 2006 and 2008. Global increases have been attributed to income growth in the developing world, diversion of farm products from food to industrial usage, speculation in commodity markets, and energy price increases. Although...

Scientific inquiry is increasing our knowledge of plant and animal genomics. The ability to specify heterogeneous production processes, to sort agricultural inputs by genotype, or to guide breeding programs to satisfy specific markets based on genetic expression may increase producer and...

Many of the North American railroads have introduced differentiated services for grain shipments in the past decade. Most interesting have been innovations in guaranteed railcar service which have evolved since their inception. In most cases, pricing and allocation of these services have used...