Recent literature about gravity models points out the importance of institutional frictions in the international market of agricultural products beyond the traditional economics variables as transport costs reducing the mass of trade in bilateral relationships. In particular, previous...

Federal, state and local governments have funded various efforts to support value added agriculture, often implicitly assuming that the enterprises would be profitable and that the transition from commodity producer to producer-processor-marketer-distributor would be relatively easy. Some...

Using a balanced panel of 264 unique Illinois farmers from 2000 to 2004, this study identifies the most pertinent factors that explain the repayment capacity of farmers. After correcting for endogeneity bias caused by farmer-specific effects, one year lagged debt-to-asset ratio and soil...

Past research about the efficiency of nitrogen application in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) based on source and timing has produced inconsistent results. The majority of the literature used data from few locations over short time periods. This study used a unique data set of yields and...

Replaced with revised version of paper 05/26/11.