The primary objective of this study is to answer two key questions regarding the U.S. soybean checkoff program over time: (1) What have been the effects of the soybean checkoff program on U.S. and world soybean and soybean product markets? (2) Has the soybean checkoff program benefited soybean...

This study investigates the potential impacts of food safety outbreaks on domestic shipments, imports, and prices of the produce industry. Three case studies were analyzed to assess these potential impacts: the cantaloupe outbreak of March–April 2008, the spinach outbreak of September...

This study determines how production and trade policy distortions affected rice productivity in thirty-three rice-producing countries. A rice-productivity index for each country is constructed, and a model linking the productivity gap with policy distortions is presented. After controlling for...

We build upon international trade literature to analyze the direction of causality between market participation and productivity. Cross-country household data from Tanzania, Vietnam and Guatemala are used in a 2SLS approach with market participation and productivity as endogenous variables....

Sound environmental regulation must achieve environmental objectives while maximizing economic efficiency. This paper evaluates the impact of regulation on efficiency by measuring annual productivity across regulatory regimes in two similar fisheries with differing policy expectations....

This paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis to measure scale and technical efficiencies of 925 farms in rural Colombia and a Tobit model to identify the effects of land market characteristics on efficiency. Findings indicate that although larger farms are more scale efficient, they are not more...

This paper has a three fold contribution to the existing literature - 1) Indian state level sorghum input and output data for the period 1970-71 to 2000-01 is collected, 2) non-parametric linear programming productivity measures are estimated, and 3) examine the impact of policy variables like...

A nonparametric approach to short-run production analysis from a cost and profit perspectives is developed in the context of an adjustment-cost model. The adjustment-cost hypothesis is incorporated in the theoretical framework in the form of the properties of the firm's technology with respect...

This paper tests the hypotheses that grain self-sufficiency policies and fiscal decentralization result in inefficiency in grain production in China. Households supply grain in order to comply with self-sufficiency policies rather than to maximize profits. This raises the possibility that grain...

Drawing from the experience in Ethiopia, this paper examines the role that public policy must play in building public/private partnerships to develop the extension programs, input markets, and credit services necessary to turn a pilot Sasakawa-Global 2000 program into economically sustainable...