Economic statistics can be used to inform policy as it is being designed, avoid policy design mistakes, or implement government programs once they are established into law. Oftentimes, statistics are used for all three purposes. This paper considers the relationships between statistics and...

This article focuses on the modeling of agricultural yield data using hierarchical Bayesian models. In recovering the generating process of these data, we consider the temporal, spatial and spatio-temporal relationships pertinent to the prediction and pricing of insurance contracts based on...

The oilseed products complex is an important component of the U.S. agricultural sector. In 2000, almost 75 million acres were planted to soybeans, representing over 29 percent of total planted acreage, making soybeans second only to corn in terms of acreage (ERS/USDA, 2000). Soybean acreage has...

The last three years have realized significant structural changes in the U.S. agricultural policy environment. These changes include nearly complete planting flexibility and the elimination of target-price-based income support for agricultural producers. Many have questioned the extent to which...

The extent to which crop insurance programs have resulted in additional land being brought into production has been a topic of considerable debate. We extend a multi-equation structural model of crop acreage response, insurance participation, CRP enrollment, and input usage developed in Goodwin...

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/24/07.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risks faced by fed cattle producers. With the development of livestock insurance programs as part of the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000, a thorough investigation into the probabilistic measures of individual risk factors is needed. This...

This study has used an empirical approach developed by Urga and Walters (2003) to examine the implications of the short-run specification of the standard translog cost specification along with the possible implications of non-stationarity. We have estimated a dynamic translog cost specification...

More than 50 percent of current farmers are over age 55, and the number of new farmers replacing them has fallen. This paper examines factors that contribute to the financial performance of new and beginning farmers in the U.S. A weighted regression analysis was used on data from the 2005...