Limited data on the allocation of inputs to different activities has limited agricultural economists' attempts to measure sub-sector productivity growth in agriculture. However, recent developments have enabled us to estimate total factor productivity (TFP) growth for crops and livestock...

Will a more tightly aligned system become the exclusive coordination or governance system in the pork industry? The analysis shows that the packer prefers to source hogs from both an aligned market and an independent market. This result is because the packer, facing variability in the demand for...

The importance of heterogeneity of animal attributes in livestock production is assessed. Preliminary results indicate that variance and skew measures of attributes may be becoming more important over time.

Despite record global economic growth in past decade malnutrition remains a serious problem in many parts of the world. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 800 million people (17% of the worlds population) remain malnourished. For these households at a...

Mathematical programming analysis has been quite effective for commercial farm planning in developed countries, but less so for subsistence farms in developing countries. In particular, it is difficult to reproduce the level of diversification observed on subsistence farms using a simple profit...

This paper examines the performance of a risk-adjusted non-parametric approach to measuring efficiency and risk aversion. Prior work is extended to the case where agent behavior is motivated by expected utility maximization. Results indicate the approach significantly outperforms traditional...

Planting Bt corn on large areas may lead to European corn borer (ECB) resistance to Bt. Scientists recommend planting a non-Bt corn refuge as part of a resistance management strategy. Different refuge configurations may impact farm profits differently. This paper analyzes the economics of...

We utilize a global trade model to generate distributions of commodity and factor prices based on observed uncertainty in rice production. This is done for three trade policy regimes. We then assess their impact on domestic price variability and the likelihood of marginal households falling into...