Assuming a competitive market, conditions are determined for when a steady-state equilibrium does not exist in the optimal dynamic management of a biological population. Irregular and unpredictable behavior (called “"chaos"”) can arise from fully rational economic decision making. High...

It is shown that the first-order differential acreage allocation model developed by Bettendorf an Bloome and by Barten and Vanloot, and based on certainty equivalent profit maximization, may be extended to a levels version. The levels model, referred to as a linear approximate acreage allocation...

The role of price risk in sow farrowings is investigated by using bivariate ARCH-M and GARCH-M models and a nonparametric kernel estimator. To account for the relevant time horizon of irreversible supply decisions, predictions for mean price and conditional price variance are iterated forward....

The impacts of introducing a partial price stabilization scheme in the U.S. corn market are investigated by using a modified version of the bounded price variation model. Specifically, a model is developed and estimated that includes rational expectations of the first three central moments of...

This study investigates the recent evolution of corn yield, with a special focus on the tradeoff between corn profitability and risk. The analysis relies on time-series data from Wisconsin experimental farms at the edge of the Corn Belt. An econometric model of corn yield, corn grain moisture,...

This study presents an econometric analysis of the effects of a government price support program on price dynamics and price volatility. Price support programs, a common feature of agricultural policy, provide a lower-bound censoring of the distribution of market prices. An econometric model of...

This paper uses conditional quantile regression to analyze the effects of genetically modified (GM) seed technology and management on production risk in agriculture, with an application to the distribution of corn yield in Wisconsin. Using the certainty equivalent (CE) as a welfare measure, our...

A nonparametric analysis of technical, allocative, scale, and scope efficiency of agricultural production is presented based on a sample of Wisconsin farmers. The results indicate the existence of important economies of scale on very small farms, and of some diseconomies of scale for the larger...

This study investigates the nature of price expectations in a competitive market. The approach is illustrated in an application to the U.S. pork market, which exhibits cyclical patterns and biological production lags. Pork price equations are estimated under different expectation regimes. The...