We extend data envelopment analysis (DEA) to decompose the economic efficiency of a sample of ethanol plants into internal (technical and allocative) and boundary (marketing) sources. This decomposition allows us to evaluate the channels through which different plant characteristics affect plant...

This study evaluates the environmental efficiency of seven recently constructed ethanol plants in the North Central region of the U.S., using nonparametric data envelopment analysis (DEA). Environmental efficiency is measured and decomposed into its technical and allocative sources. Results show...

Price volatility and policy changes may compromise the ability of corn ethanol plants to operate above average variable cost and avoid shutdown. This study derives a variable cost function capable of accommodating two features of ethanol plants; 1) some inputs are used in fixed proportions and...

Tobin and Houthakker's (1950-51) work on consumer behavior under quantity rationing has been extended by many authors, especially through the use of duality theory. This paper uses duality theory to extend the work on demand theory under rationing to the case of producer behavior under quotas....

This report presents aggregate data on agricultural inputs and outputs for 18 developing countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and Zambia for 1961-88.

This paper addresses the issue of measuring welfare losses due to imposition of a production quota. The topic of welfare measurement is important in agriculture because production quotas are a ubiquitous component of agricultural policy. While it is probably true that in the arena of policy...

Developing countries often tax agriculture heavily, a practice that might affect the productivity as well as the quantity of resources allocated to agriculture. A variable-coefficient cross-country agricultural production function is estimated, with past price expectations among the determinants...

This report presents aggregate data on agricultural inputs and outputs for 18 developing countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and Zambia for 1961-88.

This study has estimates a Fourier flexible production frontier to examine agricultural productivity in forty-one sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries during 1961-1999. The primary empirical result is that only nine of these countries experienced productivity improvements, while average...