Most of the empirical literature in this area tends to analyze labor allocation decisions of economic agents using cross-sectional data. But such methods implicitly assume that model parameters are stable (constant) across firms and over time. The use of cross-sectional methods is therefore...

Payment-for-environmental-services (PES) programs are the focus of increasing attention globally. While existing PES programs can observe who participates and who does not, the reasons for nonparticipation can be opaque. Taking advantage of a unique stated preference data set that includes a...

This paper examines the spatial externalities of conventional and organic pest control methods to determine if, and how, the two types affect each other. These interactions make the problem more complicated than the usual analysis of a single externality. The numerical simulation model includes...

The MILC program, a counter-cyclical income support program, was designed to provide price support to dairy farmers. Since the inception of the MILC program it has been argued that the program is inefficient and rewards inefficiency by keeping high cost, small dairy farms in business. Large...

This article assesses the political economy of the 2014 farm bill, which eliminated annual fixed direct payments but offers enhanced downside risk protection against low prices or declining revenue. The farm bill secured substantial bipartisan majorities in a politically contentious Congress....

It seems paradoxical that until recently, developed countries have continued subsidizing agriculture even though their agricultural sectors had been declining in relative importance since the middle of the 20th century. What drives support for agricultural protection—the broad array of...

The U.S. crop insurance has two distinct features that set itself apart from insurance in other areas: (i) it is explicitly subsidized with an average premium subsidy rate of about 60 percent in recent years; and (ii) the law requires the premium rate be set at actuarially fair level with the...

Since 2003 crop insurance programs became the focus of agricultural policy in Brazil. Given the increasing interest in insurance, accurate calculation of premium values is of great importance. We address the issue of the revenue distribution at the farm-level and its implication to the Brazilian...

This work outlines the quantitative procedures and results of the policy effects for alternative designs of federal revenue-based farm income safety net programs on eight individual representative farms across the state of Nebraska. Measures include financial impacts of the farm crop...

In the past three decades, farm families have relied on government payments and off-farm income to reduce income risk and increase total household income. Studies have shown that, as income effect dominates, government payments tend to reduce off-farm labor of farm operators and spouses. But...