In designing a production model for firms that generate multiple outputs, we take as a starting point that such multi-output production refers to economies of scope, which in turn originate from joint input use and input externalities. We provide a nonparametric characterization of cost...

We propose a novel nonparametric method for the structural identification of unobserved technological heterogeneity in production. We assume cost minimization as the firms' behavioral objective, and we model unobserved heterogeneity as an unobserved productivity factor on which firms condition...

Nonparametric unit-root tests are a useful addendum to the tool-box of time-series analysis. They tend to trade off power for enhanced robustness features. We consider combinations of the RURS (seasonal range unit roots) test statistic and a variant of the level-crossings count. This combination...

Differences in farm structures between Russia and western market economies can hardly be made consistent with the neoclassical textbook idea of a technologically determined farm size operating in a perfect market environment. The main aim of the paper is to identify embedded institutions that...

Food security is a global concern. Iranian farmers have the obligation to provide food but they don't have the right to food. International restrictions combined with incorrect national schematization put them in a situation that they can't afford to buy their own products just to endure to the...

About forty lakh hectare of land is under cotton cultivation in Maharashtra. Once known as the prosperous cotton-belt; today the irony is that the state tops the list when it comes to suicides by farmers. Further, almost all of them are cotton farmers mostly from Vidarbha. At present, Vidarbha...

This paper incorporates achievements of a new inter-disciplinary methodology of the New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics (integrating Economics, Organization, Law, Sociology, Behavioral and Political Sciences) into analysis of Bulgarian agriculture, and assess impact of...

The construction of a New Socialist Countryside (NSC) is among the highlights in the People's Republic of China's (PRC) 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). The NSC aims to accelerate the development and modernization of the agricultural and rural economy in order to close the widening rural-urban...