Because requisite micro data frequently are unavailable, it is common practice to use aggregate data to estimate economic relationships representing the behavior of individual agents. A substantial body of literature has examined conditions under which inferences between micro and aggregate...

The relationship among cost functions, distance functions, and technical inefficiency are utilized to show how technical inefficiency scores can be incorporated into the specification of a profit function and a related system of output supply and input demands. A method also is introduced for...

The continued decline in both the number of and the acreage in small-scale farms and rural communities, as well as food safety and environmental concerns, has heightened interest in the community-supported agriculture (CSA) concept. Mean-variance, stochastic dominance, mean-Gini, and exponential...

Distinctive new provisions of tractor lemon laws which create obligations and provide penalties for defective self-propelled agricultural equipment are contrasted with provisions of automobile lemon laws. Lemon-law obligations involve both producers'Â’ guarantees to provide consumers with a...

The increasing globalization of agricultural markets in recent decades appears to be changing the economics of the American production agriculture sector, reducing its economic importance and raising questions about its life cycle. This study contributes to the product life cycle literature by...

A multi-part test is proposed for the hypothesis that American production agriculture is shrinking. The results of the three tests presented here are consistent with a shrinking American agricultural sector that is on the verge of, but not yet in, the final decline stage of its "life cycle." The...

To remain viable, agriculture in each location must offer returns that are competitive with those from alternative investments and sufficient to cover producers' financial obligations. Economic theory says that rates of return converge over time as resources flow into more-profitable industries...

Firms selling products overseas may do so in a wide variety of ways, such a s through trading companies, foreign distributors, brokers, direct sales, license arrangements, and foreign direct investment. Many firms employ a portfolio of arrangements for each of their products. Using a share...

Most previous research on post-harvest grain storage by farmers has assumed risk-neutral behavior and/or made restrictive assumptions about underlying price probability distributions. In this study, we solve the optimal on-farm storage problem for a risk-averse farmer under more general...

Large-scale brush-control programs are being proposed in Texas to increase off-site water yields. Biophysical and economic simulation models are combined to estimate the effects of brush control on representative ranches in four ecological regions of the Edwards Plateau area of Texas. Net...