This paper addresses two questions: The first is "What are the benefits of social science research?"; the second is "How should they be measured?" The response to the first is that, as with research in the physical sciences, the benefits should be identified in terms of changes in economic...

Federal subsidized crop insurance has been a major fixture of US agricultural policies for the past several decades. In recent years, the program has expanded rapidly and now constitutes the largest and most expensive agricultural subsidy initiative in the United States. Similar programs have...

The new Supplemental Agricultural Disaster Assistance (SURE) program, established by the 2008 Farm Bill, mandates disaster payments for individual farms that experience crop losses in excess of 50% of their average production, whether or not those farms are located in regions affected by...