Purpose: The authors determine the effectiveness of the Rainfall Index Annual Forage Program (RIAFP) in offsetting yield risk of winter annual forage growers. The authors also evaluate the effectiveness in reducing risk of potential alternative weather indices. Design/methodology/approach: The...

Over the past twenty years, the R&D-based agricultural biotechnology industry has exhibited cyclical behavior in consolidation. This paper provides a positive, theoretical model of endogenous R&D, in which the number of firms engaged in R&D exhibits cyclical behavior. Additional, empirically...

Recent discussions of a subtherapeutic antibiotic ban in U.S. livestock gives rise to much speculation regarding industry impacts. Swine producers are heterogeneous; thus, a ban on subtherapeutic antibiotics could affect producers of different sizes, cost structures, different production systems...

A review of recent literature reveals the development of several deterministic non-parametric (DNP) tests of market power. The performance of selected DNP market power tests is ascertained to determine their usefulness as an alternative to data-hungry parametric market power tests. This...

Food expenditures and subsistence quantities of poverty status and non-poverty status US households are analysed within a Linear Expenditure System that postulates subsistence quantities to be linear combinations of demographic variables. Using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' 1992 Consumer...

As the 1998 U.S. hog market collapse unfolded, Thorn Apple Valley ceased hog slaughter operations at its Detroit, Michigan plant. We examine the impacts on Michigan live hog prices relative to Eastern Corn Belt hog prices. Results indicate that Michigan producers' relative price advantage...

Structural models used to measure market power, though widely employed, continue to be criticized. We compare alternative market power tests, including nonparametric and Solow residual-based (SRB) tests. We develop SRB methods that permit nested testing for both monopolistic and monopsonistic...