Off-farm work improves and reduces the riskiness of household income. Theoretical analyses reveal that the level and riskiness of off-farm income affect demand for farm/nonfarm investments. A two-limit Tobit model is estimated using ARMS data for 1996-2003. The impact on investment behaviour is...

This study uses a financial approach based on the DuPont expansion to examine the significance of specialization and vertical integration on domestic agriculture. The traditional DuPont Expansion decomposes the rate of return to equity into asset efficiency, gross margins, and solvency. We...

Following a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements, the past two decades have seen increased trade and investment liberalization between Canada and the United States in the agri-food sector. Changes in trade policy are one of several paths by which farm structure can change. This...

Following a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements, the past two decades have seen increased trade and investment liberalization between Canada and the United States in the agri-food sector. Changes in trade policy are one of several paths by which farm structure can change. This...

This study examines the relationship between agricultural profits and farm household wealth across locations and farm sizes in U.S. agriculture. A multiperiod household model is used to develop hypotheses for testing. Results indicate that farmland has out-performed nonfarm investments over the...

US swine production has undergone significant structural change in the last two decades, reflecting increasing size and specialization (Key and McBride; Key). In particular, the widespread use of contracting has enabled individual producers to grow by specializing in a single phase of production....

This paper examines how off-farm work affects the economic performance of crop and (selected) livestock farms. It estimates returns to scale and technical efficiency following an input distance function approach and compares the relative performance of dairy and corn farm operator households...

This paper is an assessment of patterns of investment by farm households via an econometric model adapted from a land allocation approach of Holt (1999). This analysis will shed light on the importance of different classes of assets to farm household well-being, and show the reaction of farm...

The marginal benefit and cost of diversification for Florida orange producers is studied using certainty equivalents. The primary contribution of this study is the application of the mean-variance model to farm management decisions. Results indicate that for moderate and high levels of risk...