A bioeconomic model of livestock production from wind-erosive rangelands is developed and optimized. Equations of motion capture the impact of topsoil stock on forage productivity and the protective effect of forage stock on soil loss from wind erosion. For overgrazed wind-erosive rangelands, a...

We identify the effects of alternative explanatory variables on the propensity of U.S. farmers to cease farming, with a particular emphasis on understanding the roles of off-farm employment and federal farm program payments. Conventional ordinary least squares analysis using all counties...

Federal farm program benefits accrue disproportionately to large-scale farm operators, and continue largely because of the political influence of their beneficiaries. Some writers argue that these payments stem the movement of labor out of agriculture, ultimately reducing the pace of rural...