A combination of experimental and simulation procedures identify important factors in an Illinois cash grain farmerÂ’s machinery investment decisions. In an experiment setting, a panel of farmers based investment decisions on their own expectations, farm situations, and varying policy...

Rather than relying on ex post market data, this study derives theoretically more appropriate measures of economic depreciation and capital gains based on the expectations of farmers. In this context, values of depreciable assets are highly sensitive to the pattern of expected future earnings...

An empirical approach combining elements of principal-agent theory and transaction cost economics is used to determine farmers'Â’ preferences for contract terms in crop production. The approach is tested by asking grain farmers to rank contract choices and specify price premiums in simulated...