On average, U.S. farmers choose to apply nitrogen fertilizer at a rate that exceeds the ex post agronomically optimal rate. The technology underlying the yield response to nitrogen rewards producers who over apply in years when rainfall is excessive. The overapplication of nutrients has negative...

Increased biofuel production has been associated with direct and indirect land-use change, changes in land management practices, and increased application of fertilizers and pesticides. This has resulted in negative environmental consequences in terms of increased carbon emissions, water...

This study examines aggregate county income growth across the 48 contiguous states from 1990 to 2005. To control for endogeneity, we estimate a two-stage spatial error model and implement a number of spatial bootstrap routines to infer parameter significance. Among the results, we find that...

Welfare tradeoffs between intellectual property (IP) protections provided by patents and by plant variety protection (PVP) are explored. PVP breeders' exemption weakens IP protection, but may speed the transfer of research gains across firms. A model is developed assuming firms optimize research...

This paper examines the role of uncertaincrude oil prices, uncertain crop yields, andcompetition for acreage on corn, soybean, andswitchgrass prices under biofuel production mandates.We find enforcement of the cellulosic mandateis costly in that it raises equilibrium prices of all threecrops...

Futures markets on agricultural commodities typically trade with maximum maturity dates of less than four years. If these markets did trade with maturities eight or ten years distant, futures prices would have value as price forecasts and as a way to structure long-term swaps and insurance...

 We examined four evolution paths of the biofuel sector using a partial equilibrium world agricultural sector model in CARD that includes the new RFS in the 2007 EISA, a two-way relationship between fossil energy and biofuel markets, and a new trend toward corn oil extraction in ethanol plants....

Beef is a heterogenous commodity, which makes it difficult to compare beef prices on an international level. This article evaluates several methods of comparing beef prices for use in measuring both comparative advantage and the rate of protection. The most suitable method is one that compares...