Large-scale modeling systems have long been viewed as potentially valuable tools for evaluating farm policy. They have received increased attention in recent years, in part because of the added complexity of U.S. farm programs and the fuller integration of the U.S. farm sector with nonfarm...

The costs of shortages and rationing are not captured by standard consumer price indices. In this study, the authors use the virtual prices for the rationed goods to calculate a new cost-of-living index (CLI). The results for Poland show that from 1987 to 1992 the CLI that ignores the rationing...

The U.S. beef industry has experienced continuing structural change. The size of production enterprises within the industry has expanded while the total number of producers has decreased. The percentage of fed cattle from large commercial feedlots (capacity greater than 1,000 head) has increased...

The U.S. poultry industry is the fastest growing sector within the meat complex. Concentration and efficiency of U.S. poultry production have grown steadily since the mid-1930s. Poultry is the most vertically integrated of the meat industries and vertical coordination, the linking together of...

This study tests the theory of rationing, examining changes in household consumption behavior during the transition to a market economy in Poland, 1987-92. Using pre-reform data from the Polish Household Budget Survey, Huffman and Johnson develop a model of consumption under rationing and derive...

The costs of shortages and rationing are not captured by standard consumer price indices. Thus the change in real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is an overestimate of welfare losses in transition economies. In this study the authors use virtual prices to calculate new cost-of-living...

Two competing econometric models of the U.S. pork sector augment the initial U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates of the U.S. Hogs kept for breeding with market information. The first incorporates the rational expectation hypothesis and the second uses futures market prices as the...

We develop a real option model of the irreversible native grassland conversion decision. Upon plowing, native grassland can be followed by either a permanent cropping system or a system in which land is put under cropping (respectively, grazing) whenever crop prices are high (respectively, low)....

Strong demand for agricultural commodities, high crop prices and pressure to reduce government budget deficits heighten the need for land retirement programs to be designed to maximize environmental benefits for any given budget outlay. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is the largest land...