This paper investigates the factors responsible for a drastic decline in the growth rate of labor productivity of the agricultural sector for the 1956-90 period. This investigation is carried out by a newly devised procedure which decomposes the growth rate of labor productivity into (1) the...

Economists investigating consumer demand have accumulated considerable evidence showing that consumers generally have subjective preferences for characteristics of products and that their demand for products is significantly affected by their perceptions of the product's attributes. However, the...

A whole farm simulation model, Technology Impact Evaluation System (TIES), was used to assess ex-ante financial and economic impacts of immunization of dairy cattle against East Coast Fever (ECF) by the infection and treatment method (ITM) on smallholder farms from two sites in Kenya. Four...

A wide range of economic analysis of agricultural trade liberalization was performed prior to and during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Views differ as to the effectiveness of this research, although most would agree that it became less relevant as the negotiations progressed. This...

A fairly comprehensive range of planting choices made by maize farmers in Kenya (including discrete endogenous variables creating self-selectivity) is modelled and estimated as one system of interrelated decisions. Two-stage and three-stage probit procedures are used to handle the simultaneity...

Preferences for monetary and non-monetary plant traits influence modem crop variety adoption decisions of farmers. To enhance adoption probability of modem crop varieties, it is necessary to identify and focus research on traits that significantly contribute to utility while de-emphasizing...

This study investigates non-parametrically the optimizing behavior of a sample of 289 Kansas farms under profit-maximization and cost-minimization hypotheses. The study uses both deterministic and stochastic non-parametric tests. The deterministic results do not support strict adherence to...

This paper examines sources of agricultural growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Growth in the stock of traditional inputs (land, labor, livestock) remains the dominant source of output growth. Growth in modern input use was of secondary importance, but still accounted for a 0.2-0.4% annual growth rate...

The cultivation of wheat in Saudi Arabia has been claimed to be resource depletable. Huge amounts of high quality inputs, especially water, seeds, and nitrogen fertilizers, have been applied to the sandy Saudi soils to increase productivity. However, the economic feasibility of wheat production...

Farmer-to-farmer transfer or dissemination of technologies is a neglected area of research even though successful diffusion of many researcher and farmer-developed technologies is highly dependent upon farmers' private initiatives. This is particularly true in many developing countries where...