This paper examines the motivations underlying the government's choice of particular policy mechanisms for subsidizing agriculture. The analysis suggests that policies involving overproduction by relatively high-cost producers might arise from the perceived connection between the existence of...

We hypothesize that imperfect quality measurement in contracts for fresh fruits and vegetables results in a moral-hazard problem, and that the final price of the produce provides additional information regarding quality. As a consequence, growers are not shielded from all price risk. This...

This paper uses extensive data on production outcomes for processing tomato growers in California to examine the efficacy of explicit incentives observed in grower-processor contracts. Our data include all deliveries of tomatoes to some 51 processors over a period of 7 years in which at least 65...

Participants in U.S. markets for live cattle increasingly rely on federal grading standards to price slaughtered animals. This change is due to the growing prominence of "grid" pricing mechanisms that specify explicit premiums and discounts contingent on an animal's graded quality class....

The material herein contained is supplementary to the article name in the title and published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 89, Number 5, December 2007.

We study incentives for information sharing (about uncertain future demand for final output) among agricultural intermediaries in imperfectly competitive markets for farm output. Information sharing always increases expected grower and consumer surplus, but may reduce expected intermediary...

We study business organization and coordination of specialty-market hog production using a comparative analysis of two Iowa pork niche-marketing firms.  We describe and analyze each firm's management of five key organizational challenges: planning and logistics, quality assurance, process...

Participants in U.S. markets for live cattle increasingly rely on federal grading standards to price slaughtered animals. This change is due to the growing prominence of ﾓgridﾔ pricing mechanisms that specify explicit premiums and discounts contingent on an animal's graded quality...

Many wildlife populations cause damage in agricultural systems but are also valued resources, either for their recreational value or for their existence and contribution to biological diversity. As a result, the nature of a given speciesﾗwhether it is considered a ﾓpestﾔ or a...