Cotton is among the most internationally traded agricultural commodities. As a result, cotton prices are often described in terms of a world price. This world price, called the A Index, has been published by the trade group Cotlook since the mid-1960’s and is generally accepted as...

Productive utilization of resources has enabled American agriculture to supply the nation with vast quantities of food at a high level of efficiency. However, the USDA shows that 2011 pesticide expenses increased by about $100 million resulting from a slight increase of planted acres and a...

Price volatility and policy changes may compromise the ability of corn ethanol plants to operate above average variable cost and avoid shutdown. This study derives a variable cost function capable of accommodating two features of ethanol plants; 1) some inputs are used in fixed proportions and...

Mounting evidence indicates climate change will adversely influence agricultural crop yields and cause greater year-to-year variability. This paper considers how a rational, forward-looking and competitive commodity market would account for these anticipated changes and thereby influence time...

This empirical study investigates the effects of different agri-environmental schemes on individual producer behaviour. We consider the effects on production intensity, performance and structure for a sample of UK cereal farms for the period 2000 to 2009 and use the policy examples of the...

Copulas have become an important analytic tool for characterizing multivariate distributions and dependence. One is often interested in simulating data from copula estimates. The process can be analytically and computationally complex and usually involves steps that are unique to a given...