This paper examines the roles of specialized versus general skills in explaining variation in thereturns to an agriculture degree across majors inside and outside the agricultural industry. Thefocus on returns by sector of employment is motivated by the finding that most agriculturalmajors are...

In 2009 Iowa farmers had the opportunity to enroll in a new revenue support programcalled ACRE. A survey showed that those who did enroll desired more risk protection andbelieved that payments from ACRE would exceed the value of direct payments forfeited.Operators who did not enroll said the...

A framework is developed to examine the 2011 pilot program established by the RiskManagement Agency (RMA) to insure organic crops. Given that for insurance purposes RMAlinks organic crop prices to their conventional counterparts by a fixed percentage, we calibrateour model to reflect the organic...

This paper provides a systematic welfare-based approach to analyze the impact of non-tariffmeasures (NTMs) on trade and welfare in presence of market imperfections. We focus onstandard-like measures such as technical barriers and sanitary and phytosanitary regulations.The approach overcomes the...

The USDA is attempting to shift more research funds into competitive grants involving collaborationacross disciplines on large projects. This type of research structure raises a host of information andincentive issues. The objective of this paper is to shed new light on principal-agent problems...

The objective of this paper is to examine the status of labor-saving mechanization in U.S. fruitand vegetable harvesting. Fruit and vegetable harvest mechanization has several potentialadvantages: reduced harvest costs, eliminate problems associated with finding good qualityharvest labor, permit...

Exports of agricultural commodities to developed countries play a significant role inthe economies of many developing countries. The elimination of import tariffs has the potentialto benefit producers in the developing countries, but estimates of the effect of trade liberalizationtypically...

A methodology for measuring public agricultural research capital is developed anddescribed for the first time, new public agricultural research capital measures for each of the 48contiguous US states, 1970-1999, are presented, and a new econometric analysis of the contributionof public...

The objective of this paper is to assess prospects for increasing agricultural productivitythrough advances in technology and innovation in farming techniques for developed and selectivedeveloping and transition countries over 2010-2019. Over this period of time, the net impact ofclimate change...

A survey of 401 Iowa bank executives was conducted in October 2008. We received 106 valid responses. The survey requested information on expected loan growth and staffing levels for agricultural credit professionals over the next decade. In addition respondents reported the desired training and...