Changes in state milk production per cow are analyzed as a time series to determine the form and size of increase. Future milk yields are projected using parameter estimates. States are also grouped according to the correlation matrix of residuals to determine which states react similarly to...

A model is developed that shows the usefulness of dynamic optimization in deriving optimal equity recovery strategies for a cooperative lending institution. The objective is to minimize the cost of a member borrowing over time. An interest rate surcharge, above the cost of funds and operating...

A production function highly concave in inputs will have a dual profit function less convex in prices. Even large variations in prices will cause little variation in input usage and output, resulting in poor profit function estimates. This is demonstrated using Monte Carlo simulation with...

Buy-sell arrangements for the death of a co-owner may be funded with life insurance. The mechanisms and details of buy-sell arrangements were discussed. The decision whether to use life insurance was modeled using the expected utility theorem. State dependent utility was used since a surviving...

A Box-Cox functional form was estimated from corn-nitrogen data previously used to report optimal nitrogen use from a quadratic production function. Results suggest that less nitrogen should be app1ie.d than recommended using the quadratic function, but with more nitrogen being applied if poor...

Changes in individual states' agricultural production diversity and variance of cash receipts were measured over the 30-year period 1960 through 1989. Diversity was measured using a general index, of which the inverse Herfindahl and the Entropy are special cases. Cash receipt variability was...

A real option analysis of dry-grind corn ethanol plants compared to a standard net present value analysis (NPV) shows that the option values increase entry prices and lower exit prices of investment and disinvestment considerably. For a large plant, the gross margin of ethanol price over the...

Agricultural studies have often differentiated and estimated different technologies within a sample of farms. The common approach is to use observable farm characteristics to split the sample into several groups and subsequently estimate different functions for each group. Alternatively, unique...

This paper empirically estimates cost functions for two milking technologies, stanchion and parlor, using farm level data from New York dairy farms for the years 1993 through 2002. A translog cost function was estimated along with input cost share equations for each milking technology by...