How would a possible food safety scare influence food consumption? Using techniques from experimental psychology, a study of 103 lunchtime participants suggests that a food scare--avian influenza--would decrease consumption of the affected food by 17% if the subjects believed it was naturally...

The economic stability and viability of farmers are issues of great concern to rural communities. Employing data from the Kansas Farm Management Association data bank, farm household income and price elasticities are estimated in this study. Results indicate that as consumption expenditures...

The objective of this paper is to develop a portfolio optimization technique that is simple enough for an individual with little knowledge of economic theory to systematically determine his own optimized portfolio. A compromise programming approach and a fuzzy logic approach are developed as...

This study examines the performance of logistic regression, artificial neural networks and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system in predicting credit default using data from Farm Credit System. Empirical findings show that credit default predictions vary with empirical model used.

This paper employs mean-variance and mean-skewness optimization to investigate farmers’ crop choices under Gross Revenue Insurance (GRIP), Whole Farm Income Insurance, the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program, and its modified 2008 program AgrInvest. To our knowledge this paper...

Chinese rural household has been always facing credit constraints. Few institutions lend loans to farmers because of financial risks. Farmers have to use usury or other informal sources to meet the financial needs for production. This credit constraint has been forcing farmers to deviate from...

This study investigates nonparametrically the optimizing behavior of a sample of 289 Kansas farms under profit-maximizing and cost-minimizing hypotheses. The results do not support strict adherence to either optimization hypothesis. However, evidence against cost-minimizing behavior seems to be...