Recent consolidation in agriculture has shifted production toward fewer but larger farms, reshaping business relationships between farmers, processors, input suppliers, and local communities. We analyze growth and diversification of U.S. corn, wheat, apple, and beef farms by examining...

We analyze growth and diversification of U.S. dairy farms by examining changes in ten size cohorts and new entrants through three successive censuses. We reject Gibrat's law and the mean reversion hypothesis of growth. Growth rates appear bimodal where the smallest and largest farm cohorts grow...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/29/07.

We analyze growth and diversification of U.S. dairy farms by examining changes in ten size cohorts and new entrants through three successive censuses. We reject Gibrat's law and the mean reversion hypothesis of growth. Growth rates appear bimodal where the smallest and largest farm cohorts grow...

Measurement of economies of scale and scope is particularly important for predicting growth and product diversification. However, estimates are useful only to the extent the underlying production technology is modelled accurately. This study measures economies of scale and scope in the rapidly...

We examine the impact of marketing contracts on farm cost structure and implied scale and scope economies for large samples of dairy, corn and wheat farms. We consider a multi-product, multi-market technology to examine returns from diversifying marketing schemes. Allowing for risk preferences...

Enterprise diversification has recently become a prominent feature of US dairy farms. Scope economies and risk aversion are two forces that simultaneously determine diversification. We jointly estimate scope economies and determine risk preferences under price uncertainty. We reject risk...