This analysis utilizes farm-level data to evaluate the extent to which U.S. farm program benefits, particularly direct payments, bring about distortions in production. The issue is important in WTO negotiations and in the debate over the distortionary effects of decoupled ("green-box") payments....

This study measures the variability in real net farm income in the U.S. agricultural sector and per farm and determines if variability has diminished over 1933 to 1999. Second, the role of nonfarm income in reducing the variability in total farm household income is examined. Results indicate...

The objective of this study was to identify factors which contribute to the earnings' success of cash grain farms in the United States. The study analyzes three measures of success including net farm income per dollar of asset, operators' returns to labor and management, and operators'...

This analysis utilizes farm-level data to evaluate the extent to which U.S. farm program benefits, particularly direct payments, bring about distortions in production. The issue is important in WTO negotiations and in the debate over the distortionary effects of decoupled ( green-box ) payments....

This paper demonstrates the sensitivity of the linear programming approach in the estimation of productivity measures in the primal framework. Specifically, the sensitivity to the number of constraints (level of dis-aggregation) and imposition of returns to scale constraints is evaluated....

Climate variability poses a severe threat to subsistence farmers in southern Africa. Two different approaches have emerged in recent years to address these threats: the use of seasonal precipitation forecasts for risk reduction (for example, choosing seed varieties that can perform well for...