Economic analysis of chemical pesticide use has shown that the interactions between plants, pests, damage control technology and state of the ecosystem are important variables to be considered. Hence, a bio-economic model was developed for the assessment of Bt variety and pesticide-based control...

This paper analyzes changes in U.S. agricultural technology during 1960-1999, emphasizing the role of immigrant workers on farm mechanization. The rates and directions of biased technological change based on the induced innovation theory are compared before and after the passage of the...

The allocation of benefits from research and development of new herbicide uses is dependent on patent status. The agricultural chemical industry will preferentially invest in herbicide R&D that increases the use of on-patent herbicides from which a company can capture a price premium. The...

We analyze the non-pecuniary aspects of some crop biotechnologies taken from three farm-level surveys. We focus particularly on the phenomen on of part-whole bias, which is the empirical finding that the sum of the stated part-worths (the value of each nonpecuniary characteristic) is greater...

The debate about the "quasi" moratorium on the release of GMOs in the European Union is on going. One of the major arguments that were put forward to delay the release of new traits was the one for more information. In this contribution we compare the situation for Bt-maize from the 1995 and...

Prior research identifies a direct positive link between the stock of public scientific knowledge and agricultural productivity; however, an indirect contribution to agricultural productivity is also possible when this stock facilitates private sector invention. This study examines how...

We utilize an agricultural model that uses crop/weather relationships at the county resolution and fits robust distributions that take into account the impact that weather has on crop production. Once the crop insurance policy conditions and prices are applied to the modeled county yield...

Exogenous, unobserved factors often confound the effects of alliance networks. More capable farmers might be less likely to exit and more likely to have a large number of alliances. In this case the negative correlation between alliance network size and exit likelihood is due to the unobserved...

This study examines the impact of adopting Bt corn on farm profits, yields, and insecticide use. The study employs an econometric model that corrects for self-selection and simultaneity. The model is estimated using nationwide farm-level survey data for 2005. Regression analysis confirms that Bt...