Soybean producers participate in a checkoff program to support research and market development activities. Checkoff funds are used for both yield-enhancing and cost-reducing production research. Using USDA cost-of-production data and a regional modeling framework with greater model pretest...

Because so much agricultural policy analysis utilizes estimates of supply and demand elasticities, it is crucial to obtain the most reliable estimates possible. Where reliability cannot be adequately assessed, the sensitivity of elasticities to equally plausible a priori specifications should at...

Results of time series tests (including unit root and deterministic and stochastic cointegration tests) imply that a mixture of differenced and cointegrated model specifications are warranted for econometric models of Mexican agricultural supplies and input demands. Test results are sensitive to...

A nonparametric analysis of agricultural production behavior was conducted for each of the contiguous forty-eight states for the period 1956-82 under the joint hypothesis of profit maximization, convex technology, and nonregressive technical change. Tests were conducted in each state for profit...

Expected effects from partially lifting tariff barriers on the Mexican agricultural sector are investigated using a restricted profit function (RPF) approach. Short-run and intermediate-run effects of the implementation of GATT minimum tariff provisions on Mexican agricultural trade are...

Opportunistic behavior in crop insurance can arise due to asymmetric information between producers and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. Producers who insure fields using transitional yields based on county average yields or who select options such as buy-up coverage or revenue insurance...

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...

The impact of an ad valorem pesticide tax on cropping patterns and pesticide use was examined in the South Central Texas Crop Reporting District. Output supply equations were econometrically estimated and used in the simulation. A 25 percent tax on pesticide was estimated to have major impacts...